Surprised by Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic

Author:Patrick Madrid (editor) & Scott Hahn
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: http://www.archive.org/details/surprisedbytruth00madr
ISBN: 9780964261082
Publisher: Basilica Press
Published: 1994-09-02T06:00:00+00:00

My ascent through purgatory

It was during this convalescence that I had my first glimpse into the doctrine of purgatory. In fact, I began to believe in it intuitively, though I would not gain a solid scriptural and theological understanding of the doctrine until months later. A turning point in my desert experience came when I began to contemplate the nature and purpose of suffering and pain instead of simply trying to endure or ignore it.

Paul's admonition took on a whole new meaning: "You have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6:20). This instruction isn't restricted just to those times when one's body is healthy and feels great; I realized that the duty to glorify God in our bodies is perpetual, regardless of the condition of the body. In fact, the more I read Paul's letters, gleaning from them anything I could find on the theme of suffering, the more I realized that Christians are called to glorify God especially when enduring physical suffering. This scriptural truth struck me with a force I can't adequately convey in words. I saw that suffering is a gift, not a curse, if only it is accepted as a gift and used to glorify the Lord. The emotional ratification of this truth soon followed the intellectual.

One day while I was praying, I became aware that the offering of my pain to the Lord actually caused me to feel joyful. I didn't just know, I felt the truth that my act of offering my suffering to the Lord was a precious gift that made him happy. Only the fire of God's love can truly purge away sin with its crippling effects and also heal the soul. This process of purification involves suffering, but I understood that suffering was not to be feared as long as it was lovingly returned to the Lord as a gift. And as a loving Father who delights in giving gifts to his children, the Lord isn't satisfied with merely purifying us — he is eager to imbue that purification process with joy, if only we'll let him. Once I was willing to let him, God used my sufferings to bum away the years of spiritual pride and smugness and the stunting effects of a poor self-image that was rooted in the arid soil of Calvin's total depravity doctrine.

The Lord's refining fire began to consume my selfishness and replaced it with humility and gratitude for his love, mercy and compassion. The Lord wanted me to offer him even my desolation, so he could purify it as well. In the months that followed that summer of 1990, the Lord used my emotional and physical purgatory to prepare me for the theological purging he had planned for me. I know I wouldn't have been disposed to consider the case for Catholicism if I hadn't first been chastened through suffering.

John Michael Talbot's Catholicism had become an issue of concern for me. I had to find out if he knew something I didn't.

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