Your Profession of Faith Is Not the Catholic Church’s TOS

Last updated on: February 1, 2014 at 12:45 am by Eve Tushnet

Your Profession of Faith Is Not the Catholic Church’s TOS 2014-02-01T00:45:13-04:00 Eve Tushnet

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Walk with me through some possibly ill-formed and definitely ill-informed thoughts about what it means to profess one’s faith. I had to do this when I was becoming Catholic–I think this took place during Confirmation? probably that’s wrong–and there was a set formula which I always misremember but which was probably actually, “I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.”

What (on earth) did I mean? What should I have meant?

My impression is that a lot of non-Catholics are really turned off by this whole idea of the profession of faith, because it comes across to them as box-ticking. “I have read and agreed to the Terms of Service, can I please have the Body and Blood of Christ now?” Moreover, I think they often envision a suppression of conscience, a blank refusal to ask any more questions. I’m sure that the specific metaphors I use for my own conversion, e.g. surrender or “suspension of disbelief,” contribute to this negative impression. Or else they may imagine a kind of Jesuitical gamesmanship, “You must be this surrendered to ride this ride”; how much dissent can I get away with?

None of this is really how I was thinking–to the extent that I was thinking–I’m pretty sure. For me the profession of faith was about trust and about my desire to enter into an ongoing relationship with God in the Catholic Church, a relationship which I hoped and feared would change me. I was indicating a willingness: an attitude, a stance. I was affirming that I did trust the Church to teach even when I didn’t understand those teachings, and promising to be passionate in my submission and humble in my disagreement.

(I mean, I couldn’t’ve meant that I really had read and agreed to the TOS because, like, I never did the reading for RCIA. I’ve still only read about 10% of the catechism. But I’ve read that 10% a whole bunch of times!)

It’s possible to (think that you) have complete, heartfelt intellectual agreement with every inch of the Church’s teaching, and make your profession of faith with gusto, and still lack this essential attitude or stance of trust and surrender. I know, because I’m so awesome that I was simultaneously a querulous Poster Child for the Unconvinced and also an obnoxious, God-bothering convert. (Let’s never be undergraduates again.) I came across as owning my beliefs and my faith rather than always receiving them from Christ’s hands; I treated them as my possessions, which I really wanted to press upon you, out of the goodness of my shiny little heart. The person in this state of mind can “tick the box” of the profession of faith just fine, without ever genuinely submitting or accepting the Church as a mother.

As I said above, I think I was able to muster enough genuine surrender that my profession of faith wasn’t begrudging, hedging, spiritually or intellectually prideful, or rulebound. I think I did what I should have done, for freaking once: I entered into a relationship which I knew I was much too immature to understand, and I let that relationship change me. I let my doubts and disagreements be things I wrestled with and worked out within the Church.

What that attitude looks like will differ from person to person. Priests and sponsors may have to make tough judgment calls about whether they see obedience and humility in attitude (or desire for obedience and humility, which is probably more common), even when the content of a person’s beliefs is still being worked out. I at least would strongly suggest that if you’re not another person’s priest or sponsor, you don’t know if they’re ready to profess the faith. You don’t know where they’re coming from, how far they have come, or how much they’re trying to say a full-throated “yes” to Christ and the Church. We are all in an ongoing process of being conformed to Christ; baptism and confirmation come at some point in that process but figuring out when someone else is “close enough” is not, I think, my job.

Practicing Christianity–even when you’re real bad at it, and need lots of practice–changes you. Getting into the trench changes the direction of your life. This is a pretty intense story of how 12-Step spirituality gradually changed a woman’s life, even in areas where she initially didn’t want it to–but she wanted to be fully within the program, to submit herself to its guidance, and that attitude of openness and willingness took her a lot further than she’d wanted. I recognize both her willingness, and her kind of catawampus and slow-release attempts to live according to the authority she trusted, from my own confirmation.

Mackerel-Snapping

self-obsessed

chuuuuuuuurch

His banner over me was love

I'm on a submarine mission for you baby

it is very dark. you are likely to be wrestled by an angel.

mackerel-snapping

moral memories of the past

reading and repentance

this is the only story I will ever be able to tell

Previous Post

January 31, 2014

From "The Orthodox Way"

Next Post

February 1, 2014 From "The Orthodox Way"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art Best-Of Gay Catholic Whatnot Mackerel-Snapping self-obsessed Too much is never enough Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What tax collector wrote a Gospel and was called by Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Matthew Luke Mark Barnabas