Catholic Thought discussion

Chapter V

Connecting to the last chapter, Benson had been reading all sorts of books to probe and clarify as to the true nature of the Church. In his meanderings he finally rejects the idea of the “Church Diffusive.” Most importantly, he concentrated on the Bible and “that satisfied me as to the claims of Rome,” despite, as some claimed, he only found what he set out to find. “But the Petrine claim needs no digging: it lies like a jewel, blazing on the surface, when once one has rubbed one’s eyes clear of anti-Catholic predisposition.”
Now doesn’t this sound familiar? Anti-Catholic predisposition is a stumbling block we all know too well!

“Difficulty after difficulty melted as I looked on her face.” They didn’t disappear instantly, but over time he sees the Church clearer and he brilliantly states, “ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.” This is an important distinction. When coming across stumbling blocks, do we discern first if they are difficulties or doubts? Isn’t is easier to simply dismiss them altogether and go on as before?

Having come this far, he takes a look back and sees the Anglican Church in a different light. He lovingly and gently gives her all the credit due to her, yet what she had to give was by her own nature limited.

“It is true that she had fed me with the best food she had, and the Our Lord had accompanied those gifts with better gifts of His own; she had, indeed, pointed me to Him rather than to herself. But all this did not make her my queen or even my mother; and in fact, even in other matters she had failed me, though no fault of her own, but rather because of the misfortune of her own birth and nature. …
“I needed rather a truth that itself should make me free. I did not want broad pleasantness, but the narrow Way that is Truth and Life. And for all these things she was helpless.

“And there, on the other side, in a blaze of fierce light, stood the Bride of Christ, dominant and imperious, but with a look in her eyes and a smile on her lips that could rise only from a heavenly vision, claiming me, not because she had a yet done anything for me,…, but simply and solely because I was a child of God and because to her He had said, “Take this child away and nurse it for Me and I will give thee thy wages “; because, first and last, she was His Bride and I was His son.”

Last sentence in chapter:
I went to my Superior, therefore, in the early summer, told him once more of my state of mind, and obtained leave from him to go home to my mother’s house for a few months’ rest and reflection.

I have finished Benson's book, and posted a review on Amazon and here on Goodreads.

My final takeaway on the book is that Fr. Benson has given us an honest and insightful anatomy of a soul seeking what is true and inviting God's grace, and of the progress of the human intellect infused with grace and the Holy Spirit.

Nice review Madeleine.

Thank you, Manny.

I think this section should be quoted:

But the Petrine claim needs no digging: it lies like a great jewel, blazing on the surface, when once one has rubbed one's eyes clear of anti-Catholic predisposition. The "One Foundation" declares that on "Cephas" He will build His Church: the Good Shepherd bids the same Cephas, even after he has forfeited, it might seem, all claims on his Lord, to "feed his sheep"; the "Door" gives to Peter the "Keys." In all I found twenty-nine passages of Scripture—since then I have found a few more—in which the Petrine prerogative is at any rate implied, and I found not one contrary to or incompatible with its commission. I published these in a small pamphlet soon after my submission.

Yes, that is the justification for Rome as being the central authority of Christianity.

Yes, "rubbed one's eyes clear of anti-Catholic predisposition" - you can't be any more direct than this.

Parallel to this there is the realization many converts have, of "discovering" Bible verses suddenly infused with Catholic meaning.