Do I have to be an Apologist?

Statue of Saint Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, at the High Altar of Church of Our Lady of the Snows, Prague, Czech Republic (Photo by Totus Tuus Apostolate)

The time has passed for Catholics from all walks of life to hide our ignorance behind the intellectual competence of the clergy by claiming that it is only the clergy who have access to a fuller knowledge of the Church’s body of teachings.

Firstly, this is because unlike the laity of medieval Europe, most laity today are literate and many are in fact intellectually even more apt than the clergy, if not in Philosophy and Theology, then in some other field of specialty. The laity of today are intellectually never too frail to grasp the more intellectual components of the Catholic faith. Where resources used to be entirely scarce or even non-existent in the past, they are now abundantly available and quite affordable. Just having access to the internet (which does not even have to be high-speed!) already enables one to feast his eyes on a plethora of online materials dealing with apologetics.

Secondly, times have become more and more demanding, and those who live the Catholic life in the secular context are increasingly hard-pressed to rise to the occasion to provide reasons for their faith to a modern and post-modern world that demands a thousand and one explanations from the faithful. If belief used to be the norm and unbelief the anomaly, the situation has now been reversed. If in the past those who refused to believe were the ones who had to provide reasons for their unbelief, today, those who make faith claims are the ones who have to demonstrate credible grounds for their beliefs.

Photo taken in the Basilica of St. George, Prague, Czech Republic by Totus Tuus Apostolate

In this enquiring modern world, a faith that cannot be at least reasonably explained is deemed by onlookers to be impotent at best and ridiculously superstitious at worst. A faith that cannot interact with it interrogators at an intellectual level is difficult to take seriously, and it would inadvertently lead to either being mocked as incredulous or militantly enforced without the support of reason. If we are to take the obligations imposed upon us by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to make our faith known, then we do owe a debt of love to others by engaging ourselves in this science of apologetics in order that we may render this faith to others in a language that they understand and respect.

This does not mean that we are attempting to forcibly convert an audience by our logical persuasions. The act of proselytism – compelling others to embrace our beliefs against their conscience (or sometimes taking advantage of their misfortune as occasions for such compulsion) – is deemed by the Church as an immoral action. At the 9th Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) held in Manila from 10 to 16 August 2009, papal delegate Cardinal Francis Arinze explained the marked difference between evangelisation and proselytism as follows:

Evangelisation refers to sharing our faith, bringing the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ who freely and willingly welcome this proclamation. Proselytism, on the other hand, refers to seeking to influence people to embrace a certain religion by means that exploit their weak position or put some other pressure on them. Canon Law (Canon 748 §2) and respect for the dignity of the human person forbid proselytism.

What this does mean, however, is that in allowing our faith to stand up to tedious scrutiny, we are inviting others into a dialogue with us, proposing that they allow their conscience to be formed, so that they may hopefully come to recognise the fullness of Truth found in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. But all this is predicated upon the need for us to be well-informed about our own faith and our ability to reason it out gently and logically. Even St Paul, who spoke in 1 Corinthians 2:4 about how his preaching as an Apostle was based on the demonstration of the power of God rather than on convincing philosophical arguments wrote rather convincingly in reasoning out the reality of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection!

There are several things that an apologist attempts to achieve in his dialogue with people.

Firstly, he seeks to clarify false perceptions that people may hold about the Catholic faith.

Archbishop Sheen, shown here in 1979, was the host of the program “Life Is Worth Living,” watched by millions each week. (Robert Walker/The New York Times)

The late Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen is known to have said, “Not 100 people in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is”.

The Catholic Church is a very ancient entity, and the older an institution is the more the sense of mystery and intrigue surrounds it. This has caused many people to develop all sorts of perceptions of the Catholic faith, some true, but many also untrue (or at the very least inaccurate). An apologist seeks to assist in clarifying misgivings held by people about the Church and her faith.

A good example of such misgivings is how some people claim that the Church discriminates against women. This perception often stems from the fact that the Church does not ordain women into the priesthood when most other non-Catholic Christian groups are now seen to be ordaining women. Here, the apologist needs to assist people in understanding the nuances between the dignity of a woman and the role of a woman and not get the two mixed up. But if it is a fact that the Church, in not ordaining women into the priesthood, is discriminating against women, then holding the Blessed Virgin Mary in such high regard does not seem quite consistent with this perception!

Secondly, an apologist seeks to explain the Catholic faith reasonably and logically.

The Catholic faith, in many aspects of its teachings, is rather nuanced. People may not always be able to immediately see sense in what we believe. An apologist attempts to patiently, slowly and surely, help his hearers to unpack the faith and make sense of it. This has to be done with much gentleness and respect for others. Acts of coercion must be avoided at all times. At the same time, the apologist must be able to engage people using terms and expressions that are familiar in their cultures.

Magnificent High Altar of the Holy Trinity Basilica, Krakow, Poland (Photo by Totus Tuus Apostolate)

A case in point is our dogma of the Holy Trinity. There are people who hold that Christians believe in three gods because of this dogma. On the face of it, it seems strange to claim that there are three persons who are God, and yet, that this God is One. An apologist seeks to explain how God consists of three separate Persons, each different from the other Two, and yet, how all three are consubstantial, that is, part of the same Godhead. In other words, the apologist attempts to clarify how it is that “One are Three, and Three is God”.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, an apologist needs to cultivate the habit of storytelling.

Here, storytelling does not refer to the communication of fiction, but rather, the relating of compelling faith encounters to his hearers. There are many instances when attempts to engage people in purely intellectual discourse break down because such debates and arguments are emotionally “distant”. When one tells a story about his own encounter with Jesus Christ, it becomes heartfelt and emotionally compelling.

In an article entitled “The Rebirth of Apologetics” in the May 2004 issue of the First Things magazine, the late Cardinal Avery Dulles wrote,

The apologetics of personal testimony is particularly suited to the genius of Catholicism. In the act of Catholic faith, reliance on testimony goes out indivisibly to Christ and to the Church through which he continues his mission in the world. Such testimony invites us not only to individual conversion but to communion with the whole body of believers.

In other words, there is an inviting character to experiential stories where logical engagements can often tend to be coldly matter-of-fact and impersonal, and therefore not compelling.

Cardinal Dulles shakes the hand of Pope St. John Paul II during his General Audience (Photo by Associated Press)

At one level, it may be necessary to explain for our hearers how is it that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and what his saving mission was in the Incarnation. But what makes our case more remarkably compelling is when we are able to relate a personal story of how our encounter with this Jesus Christ has actually changed us. The former method would be an intellectual engagement, while the latter method would be a matter of personal witness. Having said that, these two need not be mutually exclusive (i.e. either one or the other), because the two methods can and should always go hand in hand.

If we truly believe that Jesus Christ truly is the Saviour of the world and that the Holy Catholic Church is truly the depository of the fullness of faith, then we owe it to the world – if not to ourselves – to cultivate a life that invites others to engage with our faith at both the intellectual and the affective levels.

But as we do so, it is also crucial to remember the all-important task of matching our words with our way of life. On the one hand, there is the activity of talking to people about our faith, and on the other hand, there is the compulsory obligation of living up to the demands of the Gospel so that the world can see the power of the Gospel in our lives. Only then can we be effective witnesses of the Resurrected Christ whose return is imminent.