Friday 12/12/14

This week’s Question of the Week come to us from Joe Parry. Joe asks:
 
How do you defend your faith?
 

With a sword!  
Just kidding. I would never. Seriously though, if you want to defend the faith, the best way to do it is with an ax.
   
All joking aside, those are terrible methods. The best way to answer your question is with the words of Saint Peter, who wrote, “ Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame.”
 
Let’s unpack that a bit. The reason for our hope is Christ, more specifically, his resurrection. Because Christ died for our sins and rose again, the possibility of eternal life and full communion with God is available to us. It is for this reason that we have hope. The most important part of what Saint Peter is writing here, though, is the second part. We must always explain our faith with gentleness and reverence, keeping our conscience clean.
 
In order to see why this is so important, we need to examine the purpose of defending the faith in the first place. We do not defend the faith for the sake of the content of the faith. By that I mean that the truths of our religion are not diminished in any way by people attacking it. Reality is reality. God is not made any less real by people rejecting God’s existence. You can cover yourself with feathers and call yourself a chicken, but you will still be a human.
   
We also do not defend faith for the sake of our own personal faith. If we did, then we could just do it in our heads. There would be no reason to have a conversation.
 
The real reason that we defend the faith is to try to convince the attacker that our beliefs are legitimate. Today, that usually means evangelization. This brings us back to Saint Peter emphasizing the importance of gentleness and reverence. One of the surest ways to make people be unsympathetic to your cause is by being a jerk. Our faith is a message of hope and love. If we truly believe it ourselves, then it should show in the way that we act and in how we talk to others. If we are not speaking to others in a loving and kind manner, they are not going to believe our message of hope.
 
The branch of theology that deals with defending the faith is called “apologetics.” There are a bunch of great books about apologetics, and they would be able to help you with more specific questions. One of my favorites is called Truth Be Told: Basics in Catholic Apologetics by Mark Hart. He explains the theology, scriptural root, and Tradition behind all sorts of Catholic doctrine.
 
 
If you have a question you’d like Mike to answer, submit it under the “Ask Mike” section of our website. To guarantee that your question is chosen, get Mark Hart to write a book about it and mail it to: