"Don't It Make You Want to Go Home, Now..."

"Don't it make you want to go home, now;
Don't it make you want to go home?
All God's children get weary when they roam,
O, don't it make you want to go home?" (Words & Music by Joe South, 1969, Lowery Music)

I am writing today's post after reading an article by Randy Sly, former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, and now Roman Catholic. His article can be found at:
http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=33610

I found Randy's article interesting because it so mirrored my own reasons for coming home to the Catholic Church. Like Randy, I came to the Church from an independent Anglican jurisdiction. In fact, the "archbishop" of my jurisdiction had coauthored an article on "convergence" together with Randy. Unlike Randy, however, I had been raised in the Catholic Church, and had foolishly left her behind while I went roaming other pastures. That's a story for another day!

Through my involvement with the ministry of the Coming Home Network International, I have had the opportunity to meet and share with a good number of former protestant clergy. From this experience I have learned that there is a common thread, or two, in our reasons for "coming home."

Sly quotes St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's statement about coming into the Church that was founded by God Himself. She really "puts it in a nutshell."

As an Anglican "priest," I found myself increasingly in the situation of a "fish out of water." I believed Catholic, preached Catholic, taught Catholic, mimicked Catholic liturgy and sacraments, but had none of the spiritual support that is found in the Catholic Church; Absolute Truth - and - Authority.

These spiritual supports, as I call them, are common to many of us who "come home." We grow weary of roaming far from Rome. We tire of the "clear and present danger" looming in all denominations: Their truth is subject to a majority vote at their next conference, convention, or synod; nothing is absolute. The denominations also suffer from the lack of legitimate, Godly authority. The proof of this lack is the very fact that the denominations only exist because of rebellion against authority. Like nature abhorring a vacuum, the denominations search for something to fill the authority void. Some create sola scriptura, or other such non-biblical doctrines as their authorities. In reality, they end up with their authority being found tied to their truth; everything is invested in the whim of the majority of voting delegates.

No denomination is safe. No independant group or communion, or whatever else they may be called, is safe. Every Christian Community that is separated from the Catholic Church is sitting on this same time bomb.

Interestingly, it is a time bomb that was planted with the very seeds of the reformation. Protestantism and its denominations were born in rebellion; in the casting off of authority. Once separated from Peter, they were also cut adrift from their only assurance of Truth.

Authority and Truth; these are what many of us "come home" for. These are what we tend to rebell against in the flesh, while longing for in the spirit.

When we roam, we become weary. Thankfully, God's grace is there to bring us home.