Thursday, December 30, 2010

Part 1: For those struggling to recognize that the Catholic Church fulfills Sacred Scripture entirey, and both teaches & assists us in following Him free from error

For those interested in following Christ, please consider the following two observations from Sacred Scripture with respect to your own lives:

(1) "Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from Heaven (note: ONLY Christ has come down from Heaven, thus, the Eucharist is Him). Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread, will live forever.' "- John 6;

coupled with the following verse:

(2) "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." - John 14

I humbly suggest that if we are involved in a church that prevents us from keeping Christ's commandments, based on His words alone, we are not showing Him that we love Him, and that we hope to spend eternity with Him.

The issue of Peter being the rock upon which Christ built His Church (Matthew 16)

The successors of St. Peter are given authority by Christ in Hs Name to govern the Church on earth. Peter comes from the Greek word "Petros" meaning "Rock"; and Matthew 16:17-19 uses the term "Rock." Petros is the masculine version of the word "Petra," meaning "rock." It would, however, be incorrect to give a man a feminine name, thus the name Petros was given to him. In Hebrew/Aramaic it is the same, but with Kepha. Kepha means "rock." Christ would have originally called Simon "Kepha," since they spoke Aramaic as their first language. In the Gospel of St. John (specifically, ch. 21), Christ asked St. Peter 3 times "Do you love me," and Peter answered "yes" all 3 times, to which Christ responded: "Feed my sheep."

The scribe -- the sort of prime minister of old Israel -- was the one given the keys of the house of David in the Old Testament (Isaiah 22:22). The parallel to this in the New Testament is Christ giving the keys of heaven to St. Peter, the rock upon which Christ built His Church. (Matthew 16)