Church Hopping

(Gospel) Can God do anything? Is he truly all-powerful?

Yes, he is. And today's Gospel presents us Jesus telling us:

For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink.

But reading those words is not enough. In fact, the difficulty goes deeper. It comes to the fore every time a protestant tries to begin an argument with me about what the Scriptures mean.

I grew up protestant, so I've seen if first hand. Two people would disagree about what a passage meant, and they were automatically stuck. There was no concrete way for them to resolve the difficulty besides the fact that both sides would claim that the other surely wasn't praying sincerely for the Holy Spirit's guidance. The result was Church hopping. Few churchgoers remained in one specific denomination for longer than a few years. Or if it wasn't hopping, it was splitting. A calm glance at history can show us that has always been true.

When I am confronted, I always ask the same question, and never, ever, get a solid answer:

"What are your critera for knowing how to interpret this specific passage?"

The confusion that blind belief in Sola Scriptura has sewn is hard to overlook. We Catholics would do well to know our criteria for belief, and to be ready to explain them.