Frankie —

The Catholic Church is the Church Jesus Christ founded, continues to live through, and guides by His Spirit. It is the one Church from which all other Christian denominations have broken with.

Adam and Eve is not "just a story". It is the story inspired by God to communicate:

• what human beings are in comparison to other creatures
• how they are made in God's image
• their special relationship with God
• the complementary relationship between man and woman and between man and creation
• the paradise that the all-Good God created for humanity
• the original sin of pride and disobedience that occurred by the wrong use of free will given mankind at the beginning of that man-God relationship, and
• the negative consequences this has had on human nature that is passed on, and
• man's relationship with God.

Death entered humanity through sin and human nature has been weakened. The world now is filled with good and evil, not just good, as it was in the beginning. Hence selfishness and injustice permeate God's good world. It also shows that God does not abandon man even after sin, but becomes man's helper and redeemer — pointing to the Savior that God was to send at the right time in Jesus.

So the Adam and Eve story is very, very rich with meaning, regardless of whether it is read as literal history or symbolic history. A Catholic may read it either way, because the truth communicated in it and through it, does not change at all. It is certainly history, for it explains many important mysteries of man and God, even though it may be read literally or non-literally. Non-literal history takes profound truths and communicates them in story-form that makes it easy to understand.

Paul

Frankie —

No, we do not believe the account of Adam and Eve is a "story".

We are really descended from two parents who sinned, although their names may not have literally been "Adam" and "Eve", since "Adam" simply means "Man", and "Eve" means "Mother of the living". We do believe the account is rich in symbolic language.

For example, it's probably not likely that there was a physical tree with a physical fruit. (There certainly wasn't an apple; the tree was not an apple tree but the tree of knowledge of good and evil.) Nevertheless, there was a test where Adam reached out to "forbidden fruit" and attempted to make himself God. The account is still true, it's just couched in symbolic language. Just as if I said "It's raining cats and dogs", when it's raining really hard.  What I've said is true but not if you understand it in a literalistic way, as if pets are falling from the sky.

Here is some background on the issue from what I think is the perspective of those who are asking. Liberal trends in Protestantism started in the 19th century. They started to doubt Scripture and the truth of elements hard to reconcile with science. They solved the problem by throwing the baby out with the bath water, i.e., they concluded that none of this was really true,
it was just a nice story. In the early part of the 20th century, a reaction formed against them called Fundamentalism. To solve this problem, they also threw the baby out with the bath water but in a different way: They concluded that everything (except John 6:53!) must be interpreted literalistically. This became their bulwark against error, their way of guarding against the liberalizing trends in Protestant biblical scholarship. But it ignores the fact that Scripture does use symbolism and that a literalistic interpretation is not always the right one.

Enter the Catholic Church. We have a Magisterium (teaching office, the Pope and the bishops in union with him) to serve as our bulwark and guide. This enables us to navigate between the twin shoals of dismissing the inerrancy of Scripture (which we believe) and interpreting everything in the same literalistic way. So we interpret some things as symbolic language, and some things literalistically, according to our tradition and according to the Holy Spirit guiding the Magisterium.

• The net result?

Your friends may get their nose out of joint because we aren't insistent that an earthly reptile talked like Mr. Ed, but the fact is, we're in good hands with the teaching office of the Church to guide us.

You said:
RE: the End Times — will it end like the Left Behind series?

No, it won't happen as in the Left Behind series. The short answer is that their proof text for the Rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, disproves them.

1. One, this is at the Second Coming ("For the Lord himself will descend from Heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call.")
2. Second, it's at the Resurrection ("the dead in Christ will rise first.")

This disproves that there will be seven or 3½ years between the Rapture and the Second Coming which is the essence of the Left Behind series. You can search our knowledge base for "rapture", or read the book "Will Catholics be Left Behind?" by Carl Olsen. It was specifically written to address your question on this book. Another book is The Rapture Trap by Paul Thigpen.

A good resource to start with is Karl Keating's "Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on 'Romanism' by 'Bible Christians' " available from Catholic Answers (http://www.catholic.com).

Anything Catholic Answers sells is excellent. They have some free tracts you might like to read on whatever your friends may bring up. They also have a radio program/pod cast you can listen to, Catholic Answers Live on EWTN from 3:00-5:00pm Pacific time. They answer questions live.

• Another good author to search for is Patrick Madrid.
• There are also some excellent tapes at St. Joseph Communications
  (http://www.saintjoe.com) if you prefer listening to those.
• Dr. Scott Hahn has some excellent tapes there explaining the Scriptures from a Catholic perspective.
• Steve Ray also has a lot of resources (http://www.catholic-convert.com).

There is much, much more but that should get you started, and you can come back here for specific recommendations.

Eric

Hi, Frankie —

Sorry for taking a while to get back to you — it's been a bit busy.

Yes, I'd be delighted to answer other questions as I am able, but I encourage you to do a
"Wide Reply" or "Reply All" so everyone can participate.

You have to avoid letting feelings play a role in your decisions. When the truth comes into play, as in the spiritual life, truth should govern what you do. Sometimes the right thing will go against what you feel. Feelings change from moment to moment, but the truth stands forever.

I sympathize with your frustrations — Catholic homilies are almost always boring and banal and don't nearly go into the depth of Scripture that Protestant pastors go into, but think of it this way:

• If something poisonous or unhealthy is dressed up to look a lot better than healthy food, would you still prefer it?
• Even if 90% or 95% of it was good, if even 1% was poison, wouldn't it affect you negatively?

• How good someone's music is
• How powerful their preachers are
• How wonderful their fellowship is

has nothing to do with whether they teach the truth or not.

There are many cults that have used these things to seduce people to believe them. Don't let these churches seduce you away from the Catholic Church.

Your complaint is basically,

"I'm not being fed."

But it doesn't take a lot of effort to feed yourself. The job of the priest is not to spoon-feed you. You're an adult — get off your rear and learn to feed yourself! There are:

• Study Bibles
• Commentaries
• Writings of the saints, and
• all sorts of Catholic resources to help you.

It may take some digging, but you can find them. For example, one series, In Conversation with God by Francis Fernandez, is an excellent daily devotional. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible is a great study bible for the New Testament. The Scott Hahn bible study tapes (with some of the same material as the Study Bible, except for the Old Testament) on www.saintjoe.com are totally awesome. There are lots of books at www.ignatius.com and www.catholic.com that can feed you.

There are a lot of free pod casts, including better homilies, such as the ones at Catholic Answer's, Word on Fire, Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and many others. Also check out their iTunes. Here are some other suggestions:

• catholic-convert.com
• dritaly.com
• patrickmadrid.com
• biblechristiansociety.com, and
• Dave Armstrong's site.

I have a recommendation for you. It's a CD entitled, "I'm Not Being Fed" by Jeff Cavins.

I also recommend perusing the other audio CD's on that site for something that catches your fancy. He also has a book by the same title if you prefer. If you want a little more, there is a bundle with:

• "Understanding the Eucharist" by Dr. Scott Hahn,
• "Why A Protestant Minister Became Catholic" by Dr. Scott Hahn, and
• "I'm Not Being Fed" by Jeff Cavins.

There, that should feed you for a while. :-)

Eric

Hi, Frankie —

Thanks for the question.

In addition to the fine replies my colleagues have given, I'd like to offer some pastoral advice.

You said:
I have plenty of questions due to my cousins changing churches and calling Catholics a cult.

Anyone who would call the Church a cult, has not been proper taught or catechized in what the Church believes. It's important that you tell them, they are talking about a church that doesn't exist; they are attacking a straw horse.

In order to solidify and give a foundation to what you say, it's important that you study up on what the Church teaches.

Eric recommended some excellent resources. In addition, I'd recommend:

• the Catechism of the Catholic Church
• the Compendium to the Catechism (which is in a question and answer format), and
• YouCat — Youth Catechism (also in a question and answer format)

The Catechism can appear to be pretty big to some, but if you read a chapter a day, over time you will get through it.

Whether one is dealing with family members or cousins, at times family cohesion can be a challenge. The best advice I ever heard was from my temporal mother, Dorothy Humphrey, who passed away at 85 in January of this year. She always told me:

Michael, Kill'em with kindness.

When I ask her to explain this, she impressed upon me the importance of being more mature and thick skinned in certain situations than those you are talking to. When someone treats you in a harsh manner and in return you, Kill'em with kindness, it will make an impression, though you may not see it.

If you are dialoguing on certain teachings of the faith, and are unsure of something, don't be afraid to humble yourself and say:

• I don't know the answer; let me get back to you.
  

Just my personal advice.

If your in a tough family situation, ask the Holy Family in prayer to help you.

Mike