There is such a sharp CONTRAST between the religion of Islam and the Catholic faith! I say this because for several months now I have been researching and studying Islam.
A few days ago I was writing an article titled “Why I Wear My Cross AND The Miraculous Medal To Evangelize.” ( striveforheavennow.ca/why-i-wear-my-cross-and-the-miraculous-medal-to-evangelize-by-donald-andre-bruneau ) In it I show the great contrast between the religion of Islam and the Catholic faith.
Then the next day I went to a Catholic Men’s breakfast to hear the testimony of a Muslim convert to the Catholic faith. The title of his talk was “From Islam To Jesus.” I was much interested and excited to hear his personal testimony.
I was very eager to listen to the testimony of a Muslim and discover WHAT IT WAS that attracted him to the Catholic faith?
So here I was at this breakfast meeting and had the honour and privilege of personally meeting the speaker, “Tarik”.
Islam is a religion that is IMPOSED on its people. This is in stark contrast to other religions such as Catholicism where it’s faith is PROPOSED.
As a young man Tarik came to Canada from an Arab country where he was raised as a ‘moderate’ Muslin’ not a ‘radical’ Muslim. In his young adult life he realized that as he said “there is something more” and “there is something missing in my life”.
He did not know it at the time but it was a ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus Christ’ that he was looking for. He noticed that in ‘multicultural Canada’ the other cultures were different than Muslims. There was an evident ‘respect’ for others.
He began to have an interest in other religions and furthered his knowledge of Islam at the same time. Thus he listened to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons as they shared their belief system with him. Tarik was ‘searching’.
He married a Catholic lady who took her faith seriously. At some point they had to get the children ‘baptized’. Tarik was against this as it did not agree with his religion of Islam.
Another contradiction, among many others, was that his wife had a firm belief that Jesus Christ was “the Son of God” and not just some great prophet. Islam teaches in their Koran, that Jesus was ‘only’ a prophet. Thus these many ‘contradictions’ left Tarik depressed and confused.
He had posted images of the crucified Christ and the Virgin Mary on his Facebook page. For this he was persecuted by his Muslim siblings and parents. Nevertheless, now he was interested in learning more about the Catholic faith to learn why they believed the way they did.
He was given this teaching personally by the parish priest. He was given a version of the Catholic cathechism called ‘Youcat’ to read and study.
This showed him that the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic faith were such a contrast to what he had learn as a Muslim. For instance, he learned in his R.C.I.A ( Rite Of Christian Initiation of Adults) studies that…God ‘loves’ us….we have ‘free will’ to choose to do good or evil……that God desires to ‘bless us’ in this life and that God offers us a Father and son personal relationship through His son, Jesus Christ.
This is in stark CONTRAST to Islam where God is seen in the Koran as a “stern Master” towards his “servants”.
Tarik finished his testimony by saying how the Apostle Paul spoke so much about LOVE.
When we endure our sufferings for the sake of spreading the Gospel as Tarik is doing through his testimony now and in the days ahead, we can rest assured that God is POURING HIS LOVE into our hearts and that God will continue to pour His Love into Tarik’s heart.
These words bring to my mind the precious chapter on God’s LOVE. It is found in “1 John 4” . In 1 John 4:16 : “So we have known and believe the LOVE that God has for us. God is LOVE, and those who abide in LOVE abide in God, and God abides in them.” And verse 11 states: “Beloved, since God LOVED us so much, we also ought to LOVE one another.” I pray that every Muslim could know the loving and life giving message that is found in the Holy Bible, especially “1 John chapter 4”.
Tarik’s search for ‘something more’, for ‘something missing’ was over. He encountered Mary, the Mother of God and her son, Jesus Christ, in a “personal way” in the Catholic Church where God’s Love, Mercy and Justice is THE message.
God the ‘Father’ invites all people, he PROPOSES his LOVE to everyone through his only Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. (Cf: John 3:16 ) God the Father does not IMPOSE himself to anyone. We are FREE to accept or reject His LOVE.
I pray that you may reach out to Him now, through his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
You will never be the same after, just as Tarik was CHANGED. He discovered the God of LOVE!