My Reason for Hope: Why I Became Catholic and the Answers I Needed

By Jim Beadles

My Reason for Hope is the book Jim wishes he had read during his own journey. It is for those who may be at the first steps of their journey to learn more about the Catholic Faith, and who want easy to understand answers. It explains Catholic doctrine, the scriptural basis for each, and what the Church teaches using the Catechism as a reference. The purpose of My Reason for Hope is to provide enough introductory information that will lead the reader to begin asking more in-depth questions about the Catholic Faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664229297

Jim Beadles

Jim Beadles is a former Protestant who spent more than 30 years resisting God’s call for him to become Catholic. Eventually, he talked with enough people (including virtually every priest in his diocese), asked enough questions, did enough studying, and received the answers he needed in order to fully embrace the Catholic Faith. Jim became Catholic in 2008 and considers this the single most important decision he has ever made. From this one decision, he has experienced a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God, which has made all aspects of his life better. Jim currently serves as RCIA Director at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shreveport, Louisiana where he is privileged to work with a dedicated Team to teach and assist others on their personal journey to the Catholic Church. Jim also loves being a husband, dad, and grandfather.

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Copyright © 2021 Jim Beadles.

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Scripture excerpts in this work are taken from the New American Bible,

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-2928-0 (sc)

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021906624

WestBow Press rev. date: 6/24/2021

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Answers I Needed in Order to Become Catholic

Conflicting Truths

Faith of Your Father and Mother

Truth

It Might Not Be Easy

Who Founded the Church?

Maturity of Faith

The Deposit of Faith

God and the Existence of God

The Catholic Bible

The Pope

Papal Authority

Apostolic Succession

Sola Scriptura

Sola Fide

Sacraments

Infant Baptism

Eucharist

The Nature of Sin

Confession (Sacrament of Reconciliation)

Purgatory

Mass

Mary

Saints

Devotions and Sacramentals

Sign of the Cross

Discipleship

Catholic Social Teaching

Spiritual but Not Religious

RCIA

Final Thoughts

Suggested Readings and Resources

Bibliography

This book is

dedicated to the single greatest example

of God’s love in this world that I have ever seen. She is

the person who inspires me every day to serve and to

try and see others through the eyes of Christ: the love

of my life, my best friend, and my wife, Suzanne.

But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone

who asks you for a reason for your hope.

—1 Peter 3:15

PREFACE

I am not a cradle Catholic. What that means, simply, is that I was not born Catholic but chose, after an incredible journey, to become Catholic a little later in life.

You will figure out that I am not a professional author, but as we all know, God truly works in mysterious ways. I knew I wanted to write about my experience of choosing to become Catholic and do it in a way that others who have questions about the Catholic faith might find interesting and hopefully helpful. I have had multiple concepts pop into my head along the way, but none of them felt like I was being led in any of those directions. I knew I was drawn to write something, and I prayed often that the Holy Spirit would guide me down the right path. I wanted to write the book that I wish I had found during my own journey. Recently, on a boring, mundane, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary walk, the concept that ultimately became this book hit me all at once. Was it the Holy Spirit? I don’t know, but what I do know is that when I have those occasional moments of clarity such as that, things generally work out. Does that mean it is always easy? Of course not. I simply believe that if you look for the lighted path that God wants you to walk, then occasionally you find it. I guess time will tell.

About forty-five years ago, I began a journey on which I had no idea I was about to embark. It did not take me long to realize that what I was experiencing was different. I was not sure what it was, but I was acutely aware that it was something much bigger than me. One thing that I have learned, and had no idea of at the time, is this journey has no destination other than a deeper relationship with God. I learned that years later.

It began when I was a junior in high school and transferred from a Baptist private school to Jesuit high school. From the first day I was introduced to the Mass, I had a need to know more about the Mass and the Catholic Church. But for some reason, I resisted learning more. I fought it for over thirty years.

I grew up in middle-class America. Certainly not perfect, but neither was it anything that no one else had been through on some level. It is simply the experiential basis on which my thoughts and faith were formed. I was raised in the United Methodist Church. We were members of a small neighborhood church. We were what some might refer to as Chreasters. We would go to church at least at Christmas and Easter. I loved the Methodist Church, but over time, I simply could not shake that feeling of being drawn to the Catholic faith. As I fought the good fight, I remember telling people that I could not become Catholic for that very deep theological reason that Beadles men are Methodist!

When I started the process of becoming Catholic in earnest, I spent a lot of time trying to find some level of understanding of the basics of Catholicism. There are numerous books written by knowledgeable people that answer a lot of questions and explain a lot of things about the Catholic Church. Again, for me, they contained a level of detail that I was not looking for or ready for in the very beginning of my journey. As I said, they are wonderful books, but honestly many of them made my head hurt. Most of the ones I picked up seemed to be a master’s- or PhD-level book when all I really wanted or needed at the time was more of a remedial-level explanation so that I could determine whether the next step was right for me. I had a lot of questions, and I knew that if I could find the answers to my first questions then it would lead me to ask the next question, and the next question, and so on until I felt like I had enough information to make a decision.

If you’re looking for what might be considered remedial- level information and answers, this might be the book. I do not presume to have all the answers, and I never will. Through much time, effort, and study, I have some understanding of some answers. What I want to do is to provide just enough information to help you get started and then encourage you to dig deeper. I guess the reason I am writing this is that I hope by sharing my experience, I might be able to help someone else who may be facing or struggling with some of the same questions, issues, and hurdles that I faced on the road to becoming a Catholic. My hope is that this book feels like a conversation.

I literally learn something new about the Catholic faith every day. Maybe it is because I spend an inordinate amount of time studying and with each new learning, the picture of God’s love becomes just a little clearer. With each new learning, I desire to know more.

Mine is a daily quest to be the best Christian I can be, while at the same time using the truths and experiences available to me as a Catholic to accomplish that. I fall short often. But through the teachings of the Church, and my experience of being Catholic, I constantly strive to love God every day in a way that honors the love, sacrifice, and blessings that He has made available to me.

I often describe that, for me, the experience of being Catholic is like taking a list of things I believe and weaving them into a tapestry of love, of beauty, of goodness, and of God. It’s like what Dorothy must have felt when in The Wizard of Oz she stepped out of the house and her black-and-white world was suddenly in color.

A friend who is not Catholic made the comment one time that it seems like one would have to be really smart to be Catholic because there are so many things to know, so many rituals, and so many facets that it seems almost impossible to learn. I have thought about that a lot, and from the outside, I totally get it. At the same time, the Church is truly universal and thrives in countries where education is low and poverty is high. So intellect and wealth are not prerequisites; a desire to have a deeper relationship with God is. It is a call to discipleship. Being Christian and certainly being Catholic is a participation sport.

What I would say is that the Catholic Church is beautifully complex and, at the same time, beautifully simple. But isn’t that also a true description of God? God’s truth is also beautifully complex and beautifully simple.

I will admit that understanding the teachings of the Catholic Church takes energy and commitment. However, if you are willing to ask questions, learn about the faith, challenge the teachings of the Church for yourself and then find the answers, I believe with all my heart that the Catholic Church can provide a depth of relationship with God that you might not otherwise be able to find. It certainly has for me.

Here is how I describe it, and you will face this analogy more than once: We are all, on some innate level, in search of the truth—of God’s truth. I view the total truth like a completed puzzle. I am certain that, until I am in God’s presence, I will never know God’s total truth. But what the Catholic Church offers me personally are more pieces to the puzzle—or maybe more appropriately pieces of the puzzle that truly fit together in a divine masterpiece. It gives me more pieces, which allows me to see a picture that is complete. It isn’t missing anything. The absolute beauty of being Catholic is that I am always finding new pieces, but I am confident that they are the correct pieces. Some of the most important—the edge pieces—are found when I least expect to find them. But when I do find them, they become a significant addition to the puzzle.

Relative to that, it would be almost impossible to write a book of this type without, at times, comparing Protestant theology and doctrine to Catholic theology and doctrine. Please know that my references to Protestants is in no way intended to create a sense of them versus us. I believe that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ through our valid baptism. However, from a Catholic perspective, I do believe that my Protestant brothers and sisters are missing some things, pieces of that puzzle of truth, that God Himself revealed to us that only lead to a deeper relationship with Him.

Here is what I am trying to accomplish with this book. I’ll admit I have an analytical mind so I need to have some logical order as to how I understand things. One question usually leads me to the next. If I can help you find which questions to ask first, I will consider this book a success. It’s not about being right but getting it right. My plan is to touch on certain doctrine and issues, provide you with the questions I had, the scriptural basis for my understanding, and then provide exactly what the Church teaches on each. None of these will be fully complete. Remember this is not one of those books. My hope is to whet your appetite enough that you want to go to those other books for a deeper understanding.

I became Catholic in 2008. Since that time, my relationship with God has developed in ways that I did not even know exist. Sharing this with my wife, who is a cradle Catholic, has been one of the greatest joys of my life. She inspires me every day by her love of God.

Finally, RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) is the process by which non-Catholics learn about the Church in order to become a member of the Body of Christ in full communion with the Church. As icing on the cake, I am blessed to lead the RCIA ministry at my home parish. It is the absolute honor of my life to be able to, in some small way, assist others in walking the same path I walked.

Maybe you are considering becoming Catholic, you are Catholic and looking for a resource to give to someone considering becoming Catholic, or you just want to see what those crazy Catholics are thinking now. Regardless of the reason, I hope it helps anyone wanting to explore and pursue a deeper relationship with God.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, I want to thank God for the gift of life and the gifts of His love and grace.

I also want to thank my wife, Suzanne, not only for her support of this project but also for her patience and kindness, which Paul tells us is the very definition of love.

A special thank-you to Fr. James McLelland. Fr. James is a former Methodist Minister, and because of our shared Methodist experience, he was the first priest with whom I spoke as I began my journey. Thank you for your kindness, wisdom, and sharp eye in guiding me through my discussion related to doctrine.

Thank you to my brother-in-law, Paul, for taking the time to proofread the manuscript and offer his comments.

Thank you, Fr. Matthew Long, for allowing me to be a part of the St. Joseph RCIA, to Deacon Bill Roche for being a mentor, and especially to the exceptional men and women of the St. Joseph RCIA Team who are so committed to helping grow Christ’s Church.

And finally, thank you to my big sister, Linda, for simply being my big sis, for sharing an interesting childhood that few would believe, for sharing all the losses we have experienced together, and for propping me up across my lifetime when I needed it.

INTRODUCTION

Remember that I am writing this book to share how I came to learn about, love, and attempt to live the Catholic faith. This is meant to provide enough insight as to how I came to the conclusions I did as it relates to God’s truth revealed to us out of His sheer love for us.

Looking back, I wish I could have found a book that told me, in easy-to-understand language, these things about the Catholic Church: What do you believe? Why do you believe it? Where is that in the Bible? What is the official teaching of the Church in the Catechism? That is exactly how this book is structured. (Sidenote: in this book, anytime you see the word Church capitalized, it means the Roman Catholic Church.)

This book is in no way intended to address all doctrine and teachings of the Church. I am going to focus on those things—hurdles, as I once referred to them—that kept me from cooperating with what I know now was God’s grace and attempt to direct me to the Church and show me His will for my life. In addition to the hurdles, I am also going to share some aha moments I had while pursuing the truth.

It is important to me that I be as concise and efficient as I can while at the same time providing enough information and teaching that, as I said earlier, might inspire you to ask the next question—and the next question after that. Regardless of whether you become Catholic, if I do nothing more than dispel common myths about the Church and at least remove those hurdles for you, then this effort will have been worthwhile.

Because the content is introductory in nature, I attempted to keep the discussion and information on each topic to no more than a few pages. There are some topics, however, that require more depth of discussion.

I had a lot of hard questions as I began to learn about the Church. The questions dealt with topics and doctrine that were foreign to me as a Protestant. In pursuing the answers, I depended a lot on scripture, the Catechism, mentors, and some of the very books I mentioned above. I am going to list some, certainly not all, scripture that led me to the answers I needed. Finally, I am going to provide what the Catholic Church teaches from the Catechism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a beautifully written book that clearly and distinctly explains what the Catholic Church teaches.

At the end of each chapter of this book, where applicable, you will see paragraphs taken from the Catechism. At the end of each paragraph, you will see the following: CCC (followed by the paragraph number). CCC stands for Catechism of the Catholic Church. For example, the paragraph I chose for the discussion of God is the first paragraph of the Catechism, so you will see it cited as CCC 1. Again, the scripture and paragraphs from the Catechism are the ones that I found useful in my own journey and the ones that ultimately provided the answers and got me over those hurdles. They are personal to me and in no way all inclusive.

One of the things I love about the Church is that it is consistent, clear, and unwavering in its teachings about the truth and in protecting it. Why is that? Because God is also consistent, clear, and unwavering in His revelation of the truth and