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December 20, 2018YUKON – More than 750 people gathered in Saint John Nepomuk’s newly renovated sanctuary to hear nationally recognized author Scott Hahn on Dec. 1.
Hahn started the morning by telling the crowd about himself and how the study of the Old Testament and the connection between the Jewish Passover and Jesus’s Last Supper was the beginning of his path to Catholicism.
Hahn was ordained in 1982 at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Virginia. He converted and entered the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in 1986.
For Grace Fuqua, her husband Kody and daughter Jane, it was an opportunity to meet Hahn, whose books helped answer questions about the Catholic faith.
Grace said, “I have an older brother and he came into the Catholic Church two years ago. I am his little sister and care about him dearly, so I had to figure out what he has gotten himself into and started reading and started my own narrative. I was reading a lot of Scott Hahn’s books and he answered many of the common objections I had. Once those objections were answered in a rational way that made a lot more sense than my narrative as a Southern Baptist, and we converted.”
There was a short presentation on the non-profit Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology, which Hahn founded and serves as president. Its mission is to promote revitalization of the priesthood, educate the laity and inspire Catholics.
“I admire him. I have read some of his work and listened to him on EWTN. He was much better than I even had hoped,” Nancy Baroni said.
Phyllis Bennett agreed. “He’s a wonderful speaker, quite humorous, and I would come again.”
Hahn talked about his belief that the Lord binds himself to us by a covenant and invites us to bind ourselves to him and bind ourselves in families to each other.
“At times these are bonds of love and other times it’s bonds that bind like chains. But, they liberate us from giving into our instant gratification ourselves instead of our love ones,” Hahn said.
He spoke about God’s series of covenants in the Old Testament that man broke and then he established a new covenant through Jesus Christ. This became the establishment of a worldwide family. Hahn believes Jesus and the apostles used family-based language to describe his work of salvation: God is Father, Christ is Son and the firstborn among brethren, heaven as a marriage feast, the Church is the spouse of God, Christians as children of God.
“The Son became a servant, so the servants can become daughters and sons of our beloved Father. This is who we are – what it means to be Catholic,” Hahn said.
He also talked about the hardship his conversion brought to his marriage during a several-year stretch. Hahn's wife, Kimberly, converted at Easter 1990. Their book “Rome Sweet Home ” describes their conversions. But, even after she entered the Church, they were struggling.
“So many bad habits, so many lousy communication skills, so we finally went to a Catholic marriage counselor,” Hahn said.
They were told there were cycles of love and seasons of life and they needed to nurture.
“Now we have formed a team and we are on the same side. Through 40 years of marriage, we have learned the lessons of mercy, forgiveness, love and learning to say, ‘I’m sorry’ and mean it.”
Judy Hilovsky is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
