Rome Sweet Home

by Kimberly Hahn

  How is our life different? My heart is so full of the goodness of the Lord and so full of that joy of my salvation which for five years I really wanted to sense but could not. I guess I could summarize it in three phrases: unity restored, ministry renewed and family refreshed.

  Our unity has been restored. We hold deep convictions in common once again—even deeper now after all we have been through. I love to sit under Scott’s teaching once again. Instead of chafing during his Bible studies, I really enjoy them.

  We come to the Lord’s table together often at Franciscan University with a committed group of believers who love the Lord and want to share their love for God faithfully. The children had sensed our disunity, though we did not talk a great deal about our disagreements in front of them. Yet more than a mere sense of relief, the children have really shared our joy in being so deeply reunited.

  We have had ministries renewed. Certain dreams died, but God has restored them superabundantly. In our home, we have had tremendous opportunities for hospitality, with over three hundred people for meals at our home yearly. In addition, having had a succession of college students move in with as has been a new adventure for us in extended household living. And our large living room accommodates crowds of between twenty and fifty for both Scott’s and my weekly Bible studies.

  Scott and I have begun speaking together on trips. We have had the privilege of meeting and sharing the Catholic Faith with so many wonderful, committed and growing Catholics all over our country. The tape ministry through Saint Joseph Communications has enabled our messages to go much farther than we could ever have traveled. And the ongoing ministry by phone and mail has challenged us to the limits of our time and energies! And to think these are all ministries that I thought were gone permanently, only to be restored in the Lord’s time.

  Our family has been so refreshed because there are new channels of grace open to us: regular confession and almost daily Eucharist. We have enjoyed learning about the liturgical calendar, observing the fasting (Advent, Lent, Fridays) and enjoying the feasting. (Besides birthdays and Christmas, we celebrate our saint days and our baptism anniversaries.)

  I have had our first baby as a Catholic, knowing that every day as I received the Eucharist my baby was being fed and nurtured by the Lord himself. After our miscarriages, I really did not have a certainty that I could bring this baby to term, but I did know each day that I had the opportunity to bring this little baby before the Lord and receive the blessing of the priest. I also harnessed the saints in heaven for the first time, asking for their intercession on my child’s behalf. What joy it was to deliver Jeremiah Thomas Walker on July 3, 1991, and have him baptized in early September. And it was a tremendous joy to us and a bridge to my family to have my father participate in Jeremiah’s baptism.

  We had not gone to daily Mass as a family until the day I was received into the Church; now it’s the goal of our day. We have been blessed by many priests who stop in Steubenville and assist at Mass. Amazed at the number of priests, Hannah’s regular question has become, “Is he my father, too?”

  We appreciated our evangelical tradition, where people sing and pray wholeheartedly. So, one of the elements of worship our family has most appreciated at Franciscan University is the way people participate. As Scott says, “If the Eucharist doesn’t make you want to sing, what would?”

  Though it is not always easy, it is always good to be together at Mass. It is a good time for physical closeness and for teaching the children about the Lord. Even though there are times when it seems the grace received has already been spent on the children before the end of the closing hymn (due to discipline and distraction), it has been better to have brought them into the presence of Jesus than to have left them out. At the end of the Mass, we have what we call our “holy huddle”. We get real, real close and offer a prayer of thanksgiving as a family.

  I’m thankful for the unity of our family under Scott’s spiritual leadership.

  How sweet it is to be home in the Roman Catholic Church! And what a privilege it has been to reflect upon our lives and to share how our Lord has guided our steps to him and his Church. Surely, as the psalmist says, “He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered, the Lord is gracious and merciful” (Ps 111:4). May our Lord through his abundant mercy enable us all daily to give ourselves more fully to him.

  The Hahn family. July, 1993.

  Conclusion

  Calling Catholics to Be Bible Christians (and Vice Versa)

  We have now told our story. In closing, we want to give thanks to God for his grace and mercy. We also want briefly to share the challenge that God has put before us in his Word.

  For our Catholic brothers and sisters, we want to encourage and challenge you to learn the Catholic Faith, which has been entrusted to you as a sacred heritage. For your own sake—and for others—study it so that you come to know what you believe and why you believe it. Pick up the Scriptures daily and read them. They are the inspired and inerrant Word of God written for you, as the Catholic Church has consistendy taught throughout this century, especially in Vatican II. Believe what you read. Share it. Pray it. Memorize it. Soak in it, as in a warm tub! Learn it well so that you can live it more fully—and share it more joyfully. That is the way to make your faith infectious. We need more contagious Catholics!

  Along with the Bible, pick up a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and read through it—from cover to cover—at least once. It is indispensable for implementing the teachings of Vatican II. In fact, it is the “key to the Council”. While you’re at it, why not blow the dust off your copy of The Documents of Vatican II (you do have one, don’t you?) and then spend a few weeks refreshing yourself with the real “spirit of the Council” drawn straight from the texts. Vatican II called for renewal, but the response to that call has been postponed. It will begin just as soon as average Catholics—like you and me—take these basic steps. It’s really not that hard; any “Joe Six-pack-in-the-Pew” can do it!

  The most important message of Vatican II—by far—is the “universal call to holiness”. Basically it means that all Catholics—not just priests and religious—are called to be saints. That requires each of us to place the highest priority on prayer, daily prayer. As Americans, we often find ourselves “too busy” for developing and maintaining an interior life; but as Catholics, we know that it is absolutely essential—before all else. Make a “plan of life” for yourself so that prayer is on the schedule. That may sound easy, but it’s really hard at times—though not nearly as hard as life apart from daily prayer.

  The foundation for the Catholic’s life must be the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. We can’t make it on our own. Christ knew that; that’s why he instituted the sacraments—to give us his own divine life and power. We must be careful not to receive the sacraments in a mindless manner. They are not magical or mechanical means to make us holy without personal faith and effort. The Catholic can’t go through the eucharistic liturgy as a car goes through a carwash. It just doesn’t work that way. Grace is not something that is done to us; rather, grace is the supernatural life of the Trinity planted deep within our souls so that God can make his home within us. This is the covenant that we are called to live as brothers and sisters in God’s Catholic family. Christ is the food for our souls; let’s stay off a starvation diet.

  Catholics who cultivate prayer, study and a sacramental lifestyle must also become active apostles wherever they find themselves: at home, on the job, in the marketplace, but especially with family and friends. In recent years, the Catholic Church has lost literally minions of her members to fundamentalist and evangelical denominations and fellowships. This creates new and exciting opportunities, not only to win ex-Catholics back to the Church, but also to show non-Catholics the Catholic Faith for what it truly is: Bible-based and Christ-centered.

  Let’s face it, many of these non-Catholics put us to shame. With Bible in hand, plus lots of zeal, they do far more with less than
many Catholics who have the fullness of Faith in the Church but who are famished and fast asleep. We share with them so much of the truth about Christ in Scripture; but what they lack is nothing less than the real and substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist. To state it simply, they study the menu while we enjoy the Meal! And too often, we don’t even know the ingredients, so we can’t share the recipe. Is our Lord asking too much from Catholics to do more—much more—to help our separated brethren discover the Lord they love in the Blessed Sacrament? If we don’t, who will?

  We also want to share this challenge with our non-Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ. With love and respect, we testify to the covenant faithfulness of our God, who, down through the ages, has fathered one holy, catholic and apostolic Church family. Paul refers to this Church as “the household of God”, which is “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15). This is another way of saying the family of God is divinely established and empowered to uphold revealed truth.

  God fathers his family in one Church. After all, what do you call someone who fathers more than one family? He would have been called a scoundrel (or worse) where I came from; what a shame if you had to call him “Dad”. A father is glorified by the oneness of his family; a man is disgraced when his children are separated. Real unity means a oneness of life that is experienced through oneness in belief and practice. All of this applies to the Church of God: one holy Father is able to preserve his one holy family—and this he has done in the Catholic Church.

  It is this Church about which Christ spoke: “I will build my Church.” She is not your Church, nor is she mine; she is Christ’s. He is the builder; we are only the tools. Making much of the Church, then, is not to belittle our Lord. The Church is his handiwork. To acknowledge the greatness of the Church—her divine authority and infallible witness—is nothing less than magnifying the redemptive work of Christ. Conversely, to reject the authority and to spurn the witness of the Church—even when done with a misguided zeal for Christ’s exclusive honor—is to defy him and the fullness of his grace and truth. Saul learned this lesson the hard way.

  The Church is also called the Mystical Body of Christ; the Holy Spirit is her Soul. A body without a soul is a corpse; a soul without a body is a ghost. The Church of Christ is neither. But she can hardly be called a body if she lacks visible unity. In that case, Paul would not have called her Christ’s Body but simply his Soul. But the soul is meant to animate the body, not to float around without it. When the soul does its job, all of the parts and members of the body are alive and healthy. Within the Church, these parts and members are called “saints”.

  Saints radiate the life of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ. This is the purpose of the Holy Spirit, then, to keep the visible Body of Christ alive in truth and holiness. He’s been doing that for nearly two thousand years; it’s called the Catholic Church. That these elements are so closely connected by the Apostles’ Creed—“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints”—is no accident.

  At the heart of this Catholic vision lies the Trinity. God is an eternal Family of three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The covenant is what enables us to participate in his own divine life. For us that life means nothing less than our family share—as children of God—in the interpersonal communion of the Trinity. This is what Catholics mean by grace, sanctifying grace. This lofty understanding of grace is the basis for each and every distinctive Catholic belief. Whether it’s Mary, the Pope, the bishops, the saints or the sacraments—it is all made possible by God’s living and active grace. Divine grace is how God takes our fallen nature far beyond itself. (The key word here is “beyond”—not “against”—since grace does not destroy nature; rather, grace builds upon nature: to heal it, to perfect it and to elevate it so as to share God’s life.) To call the Catholic Church the “family of God”, then, is not a metaphorical statement; it is a metaphysical assertion. Indeed, it is the mystery of our Faith.

  It is true, Jesus Christ wants to have a personal relationship with each of us as our Savior and Lord. But Jesus wants much more than that; he wants us in covenant with himself. I can have a personal relationship with the neighbor down the street; but that doesn’t mean he wants me to move in and share his home. Likewise, Augustus Caesar proclaimed himself to be Lord and Savior over all his subjects; but he didn’t die on a cross so that they could become his brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ wants us in the New Covenant that he established through his own flesh and blood, the same covenant he renews through the Holy Eucharist. When his sacrifice for us is renewed at the altar, we gather at the family table for the sacred meal that makes us one. Jesus wants us to know not only the Father and the Holy Spirit but his Blessed Mother and all his sainted brothers and sisters as well. He also wants us to live according to the family structure he established for his Church on earth: the Pope and all the bishops and priests united to him. Come home to the Church established by Christ. Supper’s waiting and the Savior’s calling: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me” (Rev 3:20).

  Scott meeting the Holy Father, Pope John Paul 11, for the first time. He is introduced by Kimberly’s father, Dr. Jerry Kirk. January, 1992 at the Vatican.

  To obtain audio and video cassette tapes

  by Scott and Kimberly Hahn

  covering a wide range of Scripture and Catholic doctrine,

  as well as tapes by other inspired Catholic speakers,

  contact:

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