St. Peter and Paul
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Today, June 29 the Church celebrates the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the two pillars upon which Jesus built the Church. Now there is a lot of division and confusion these days in the Church, so let’s take this feast day to re-establish some fundamental truths.
All other religions and churches were founded by mere men. The Catholic Church was founded by the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Jesus founded the Catholic Church when he instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday evening. Jesus continues to govern, teach and make His people holy through the Catholic Church; and no matter what, Jesus will keep it in being until the end of time.
Most importantly, Jesus is the Head, and the Catholic Church is His Mystical Body. Some people think they can have a relationship with Jesus but not the Church.
Imagine saying to someone
· I want a friendship with you
· But if you’re going to RELATE to me through your body
· Well then I want nothing to do with you
The normal way to have a relationship with Christ, is through His Body the Church
Christ identifies Himself with His body
· What you do to the Church
o love it,
o leave it,
o persecute it
o you do to Christ
· Same as with us and our bodies
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Jesus entrusted a specific authority to Peter. In Matthew 16 Jesus said to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The "power of the keys" designates authority to govern the Church…The power to "bind and loose" connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgments, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles and in particular through the ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of the kingdom. CCC 553
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Jesus made Peter the first Pope, the head of the Catholic Church. This means that Jesus Himself continues to teach, to Shepherd and to unite us through the Pope. But what are the benefits of a Pope? Well, first of all the Pope enables us to know God’s truth. Jesus gives the Pope the gift of infallibility. That means when the Pope is teaching in an official capacity, Jesus will not let him teach what is wrong.
Two things come into play here: the first are doctrines which are times truths of faith and morals, what to believe and what to do; the second are the prudential application of those truths to concrete situations.
Doctrine or timeless truths cannot change. The prudential application of those truths can change because circumstances change. Lets take the death penalty for example. Legitimate self defense – that is the right to render an unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm is a timeless truth. The constant teaching of the Church has held that the death penalty can be a legitimate way to protect a community against criminal aggressors if there are no alternatives.
Nothing, not even a Popes can change the timeless truth of legitimate self-defense – rather, the popes have applied that truth to new circumstances and prudentially decided it would be wrong to use the death penalty in our situation when have other options.
The Pope cannot change any doctrines, any timeless truths because of the gift of infallibility, Jesus will not allow that to happen and it never has in 2000 years. The prudential application of those truths can change when circumstances change.
The best synthesis of the doctrines, the timeless truths of Jesus Christ are found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
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The second reason we have a Pope is to preserve the unity of the Catholic Church. As long as everyone in the organization accepts that there is one person in charge, that organization remains just one organization. As long as Christians recognize the pope’s authority, they remain just one faith community – the Bible by itself just does not have this ability. Historically, whenever a group of Christians reject the pope’s authority, it causes a split in Christianity. Sometimes it even causes a chain reaction of splits in Christianity, as in the case of the Reformation where four men broke off from the Pope and their communities have shattered into more than 40,000 competing churches. Meanwhile the Catholic Church remains the largest united group of Christians on earth. The reason is simple: we have one head, and so we are one body.
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From the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus St. Paul never shrank back from taking risks to help others to Jesus through friendship.
2 Corinthians 11 “Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak?... For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
A handful of couples in Atchison, the Curtises, Albers, Trompeters, and Schletzbaums who meet every Tuesday night, invited a bunch of people to come out Sunday night. About 60 people showed up for a pot-luck. Imagine families, kids – they got out bad-mitten, frisbees, wiffel ball, we ate, talked, and then prayed the Rosary together. It was the most awesome night. And it was so simple.
Who are my Donkeys for Mary out there? You could do this. You host, and invite and Troy and I will come – it could be Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Charlotte – notice I only said places with direct flights from KC…But let’s do this. This is the most effective and most enjoyable way to build the Kingdom.