Patrick Madrid - Surprised By Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic

T he practice of telling the story of ones conversion has been around as long as Christianity has. Since Pauls testimony in Galatians 2 (cf. Acts 9:19) of his experience with Christ on the Road to Damascus, to Augustines Confessions, to our own day, thousands have recounted their journey to Christ and his Church. Yet, we seem always to be asking for more. So, what made you decide to become Catholic? is a question I never tire of asking. And from every convert I hear a different story.

None of the conversion testimonies youre about to read is like another. These people come from different backgrounds. Theyre scholars, pastors, teachers, preachers, and writers. They have different personalities. They followed different roads to Rome. Yet, the title of this book, Surprised by Truth, sums up every one of these stories, because each relates the earnest quests of persons seeking the whole truth about Christ, and each describes the surprise discovery that the truth of Christin scripture, history, and logiclies in the Catholic Church.

When C. S. Lewis wrote of his personal passage from atheism to Christianity, the title, Surprised by Joy, reflected his emotion at finding himself a Christian. As he mentions in the preface to that book, he wrote his conversion testimony partly in response to the frequent experience of people asking him his reasons for converting. Theyd listen and then say, What! Have you felt that too? I always thought I was the only one! As I read this book you now hold, I kept having the same sense of What! You too?

Ive often thought of my own journey to Rome as a mystery story, a horror story, and a love story. Sometimes being surprised by truth is initially being horrified by truth. The Catholic Church has the truth? The fullness of the truth? Confronting this fact is a gut-wrenching agony for staunch, Bible-based Evangelical Protestants whove thought and taught, largely because of misunderstandings and prejudice, that Catholics are not even Christians. And beyond the interior struggles are the external obstacles: career derailment; loss of salary, benefits, pension, and financial security; alienation from family, friends, and colleagues. Conversion to Catholicism means hardship, sacrifice, and often loneliness. It means following Jesus all the way to the Cross.

And for what? Once someone snidely remarked to Steve Wood that he became Catholic for the money.

No, not for the money, Steve replied. But I did do it for the riches.

We converts have been made so rich. We have been given wealth beyond our wildest dreams! What words can express the sense of the child who, after passing through a series of orphanages and foster homes, finds himself standing in the doorway of an unfamiliar mansion staring into the loving faces of long-forgotten family members? He is reintroduced to his Father, Almighty God, and to Mary, his mother and queen, who is standing, arms outstretched in welcome, next to his elder brother, King Jesusin the midst of that glorious company of angelic and saintly siblings who stretch forth from heaven to earth and under the earth. Can you imagine a holier homecoming or a more royal reunion? Few joys surpass the ones related here by these former theological stepchildren who have finally come home.

The anguish endured is not worth comparing to the riches gained: the Holy Eucharist, the pope, the magisterium, the sacraments, Mary, the saintsthe splendor of Christ mirrored in his Church. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Phil. 3:8).

Then the horror turns to surprise, and surprise turns to delight, and bliss, and fire, and a desire to share all this with others. Loneliness fades away as one discovers more and more people who have also been surprised by truth.

While reading each of these incredible journeys, I laughed, cried, grunted affirmations, and basically relived my own journey into the Catholic Church. I heard echoes of my own struggles in their words. I relived the anguish I experienced on that lonely and sometimes frightening path of conversion, and I relived the deep, abiding joy of coming home.

But enough. Read these stories. Theyre prayerful, heavy-on-doctrine, evangelical, scriptural witnesses of people who discovered that what they had once thought was the most unbiblical church is really the Church of the Bible.

Scott Hahn