Kitchen Catechism: Featured Articles
by Lois Donahue
The word ‘change’ certainly seems to be invading my world these days. After many, many, many words talking about ‘changes’ in the Mass it seems a good time to offer you, in far fewer words, some thoughts which contribute greatly to the firmness of my Catholic faith and are based on at least three things which I truly believe to be...
UNCHANGEABLE
THE PAST is unchangeable
I chose to put ‘the past’ as my first ‘unchangeable’ based on the simply-put definition of the past as "happenings having occurred in a time previous to the present" and, I might add, regardless of whether that time is measured in years, days, hours or seconds. I thought to myself—once something happens – it has happened – it can’t be, so to speak, unhappened or undone. PERIOD! I admit that how things from the past are reported in the news, recorded in books, passed along by word of mouth or interpreted by any individual or group of individuals might raise questions as to how, where, when, why or even "if" something happened, However, that doesn’t ‘change’ anything. Everything that has already happened, in whatever way and under whatever circumstances, is now part of the reality of the past and nothing can be done to make it otherwise. The best we can do is learn from the PAST – WHICH IS UNCHANGEABLE.
THE TRUTH is unchangeable
In hopes that this whole thing about ‘truth’ won’t get complicated
or wordy let me explain my beliefs about ‘truth’ as it relates to the spiritual dimension of my life. One simple statement I once read made perfect sense to me and, after a great deal of thought, it became the reasoning behind what I came to believe and continue to believe when I am faced with speculation or differing opinions regarding truth and my Catholic faith.
This is the statement: TRUTH IS TRUTH
Even if everyone says it isn’t.
Even if no one says it is.
Now the thinking that followed:
First I was forced to ask myself -- "OK truth is truth but in this world of ‘pick and chose truths’ how do I decide what the truth is?" I had to begin with some personal soul searching to answer that.
I had no trouble admitting that very rarely do I KNOW something is true because I have actually, in any way, experienced it. In reality, more often than not, I have to depend on information given me in writing, in conversation or in any other way it might be conveyed to me by somebody who, after much thought and inquiry, I consider to be proven reliable. Only then do I decide what I believe to be true. In other words, whether I am faced with questions of my own or questions put to me by others more often than not, it is my FAITH in someone else which guides my decision thinking.
So came the realization that, considering the above, I would have to do some serious searching for a ‘someone’ in whom I could truly have faith. Someone I could depend on. Someone who was both knowledgeable and reliable…who knows that TRUTH IS TRUTH and is ready and willing to keep me informed. That way I could always be certain the ‘truth’, in whatever way that someone would make it known to me, would actually be -- the truth.
Thanks to persistence and prayer I found that perfect ‘someone’ and, believe it or not, it was someone I already knew – it was GOD – and I have no doubt whatsoever that...
GOD is unchangeable
How do I know? The Bible tells me -- in The Book of Malachi (3:6) is this statement by God - "Surely I, the Lord, do not change". In all honesty, beyond that I have never come to know of any other, even ‘supposedly’ reliable, reason to believe otherwise.