Why we listen II

In the post Why we listen I provided the scriptural foundation for why listening to the Church is something we should do. Here is a reading from today's Divine Office, which states the consequences a bit more elegantly, and directly.

From a sermon by Blessed Isaac of Stella, abbot

Just as the head and body of a man form one single man, so the Son of the Virgin and those he has chosen to be his members form a single man and the one Son of Man. Christ is whole and entire, head and body, say the Scriptures, since all the members form one body, which with its head is one Son of Man, and he with the Son of God is one Son of God, who himself with God is one God. Therefore the whole body with its head is Son of Man, Son of God, and God. This is the explanation of the Lord’s words: Father, I desire that as you and I are one, so they may be one with us.

And so, according to this well-known reading of Scripture, neither the body without the head, nor the head without the body, nor the head and body without God make the whole Christ. When all are united with God they become one God. The Son of God is one with God by nature; the Son of Man is one with him in his person; we, his body, are one with him sacramentally. Consequently those who by faith are spiritual members of Christ can truly say that they are what he is: the Son of God and God himself. But what Christ is by his nature we are as his partners; what he is of himself in all fullness, we are as participants. Finally, what the Son of God is by generation, his members are by adoption, according to the text: As sons you have received the Spirit of adoption, enabling you to cry, Abba, Father.

This body in which we participate is characterized by many things; one of which is that the ordinary members of the body do not speak for the head; that task is reserved for those parts of the body to whom the task has been entrusted. It was once common to refer to the "Church Teaching" and the "Church Taught." This distinction has been all but done away with in the common understanding, to eternal peril.

In "This Tremendous Lover" by M. Eugene Boylan, (perhaps one of the great spiritual classics of the 20th Century) the author points out that it is fascinating that the great scourge of our day is cancer; but what is cancer, except the condition where a cell lives for itself no longer under the direction of the body?

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Awesome post from Father Down Under: Room Temperature Catholics ...

Why we listen

Gospel for Sunday, April 27

Jn 14:15-21

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

How will we keep His commandments, if we do not know what they are that we must keep? Where will we turn? To Jesus, of course, because he teaches what the Father has told Him:

So Jesus said (to them), "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. Jn 8:28

from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. Mt 17:5

That worked then, when Jesus walked among men, but what of now? There are those who say that the only infallible source is the bible. Yet, to whom did the first Christians turn, when there was no bible? They turned to the ones whom Jesus gave the authority to speak in His name. How? He first sent them as He was sent.

(Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Jn 20:21

And most importantly, gave them the authority he possessed to speak in His name.

Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me." Lk 10:16

This authority was not given to all, only a restricted group. The Holy Spirit is sent to confirm it:

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. Jn 16:13

And Jesus guarantees it till the end of time.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." Mt 28:19-20

So the mission is documented as given to a select group, to be carried on to the end of time. This mission and authority is documented as being passed on to the successors of the original group of Apostles, but t is not documented as being transferred from the group it was given to, to anyone else, or simply to a book of collected writings. For the authority to so there reside, that clear transference would have to be documented.

Who be the "you" in the quotes above? The apostles, definitely, as they are clearly the subject. Their successors as well, as documented even in Scripture to the 4th generation, and thus to this day. The rest of us, not

When the Holy Father preaches to the world, he speaks not for himself, but for Him who Is, in the Father’s name, with the authority of God. Too big a pill to swallow? The Pharisees thought so too, and crucified Him for the blasphemy they perceived. Their children still reject the Church which is His body, for the same reason. The stumbling block of faith.

Signs (3rd Sunday of Easter)

So they said to him, "What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Jn 6:30.

It is interesting to note that Jesus goes on, not to answer this question, but to explain that he is the Bread of Life. The question He leaves unanswered, He had previously answered:

"Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." He said to them in reply, "An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Mt 38-40

It is a normal human foible to wish to have first hand evidence before we accept something. Thomas is our emblematic figure of this, when he said:

"Unless I see…, I will not believe." Jn 20:25

Thomas is granted to see, and he admits to more than he saw:

"My Lord and my God!" Jn 20:28

And Jesus responds with:

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." Jn 20:29

The burning question is, do you believe, or seek signs? Notice that Thomas believed not just what he saw, but affirmed what went beyond sight; that Jesus is God. Stand now before the risen Lord, and either affirm him God, or stand aside (like those in John 6:66). If he is God, then as the omnipotent God, His word is to be trusted; and He has chosen to bring the Logos, the Word, to you in human form. A scandal today as it was 2000 years ago, that God would use fallible human flesh to communicate Himself to us. Place you hands in the wounds, the wounds you have caused in the sacred humanity of Christ. He said to his Apostles

“Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me." Lk 10:16

This my friends is where faith enters, the test of faith in this age; for Christ has not left us orphans, but has made a promise:

And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. Mt 28:20.

For would you not listen to Jesus if He were standing next to you, telling you to “sin no more” or that you are an unprofitable servant, or any of the things He told His own when He walked in the flesh? Now, His promise is fulfilled in our sight, but why do we refuse to see? We refuse for the same reason that so many refused 2000 years ago. We wanted the signs, we wanted what we wanted and not what was offered; so when we close off the Church from our lives, we tie Christ to the pillar; when we wag our tongues, offering our own opinions over the timeless wisdom of Christ through His Church, we lash his sacred flesh; and finally, our in our flip rejection of the Church’s Wisdom, we wash our hands with Pilate saying with our deeds (for actions speak louder than words),

“what is truth?” Jn 18:38

Ah, there is more, so much more, why settle for so little?

We do not know to believe, but we believe so we can know

What is the source of unhappiness? What will give us happiness? In our own experience, does attaining these things which hold the promise out to us, actually give us happiness? Once we have these things, why are we not happy, why does the initial happiness wear off and disappear? So, once one thing attained doesn’t do it for us, we set our sights on attaining the next goal, the next thing, expecting what? Perhaps we no longer even expect to attain to happiness, rather we cannot live without a goal so we set one and settle for the journey instead of the end? Yet, our heart is made for happiness, else, why would we be unhappy, why would we struggle within ourselves, aware that there is something more and better that we lack? Perhaps we sink into blaming ourselves, or blaming others, or blaming “forces operating against us,” but in any case, the key to unlock this is missing, and we are depressed, or angry, or confused, unhappy in our desire to be happy.

Certain philosophers have said that we have this desire because it can be attained; now most of us have little use for the philosophers of this or any other stripe, but we live what they believe, because the quest for happiness is a road that every man travels (while the philosophers study the pebbles and try and figure out the missing map). The destination of this travel journey (towards happiness), which every man makes by uncertain road, increasingly becomes clear to him that as each apparent destination is reached, he discovers that it is not the end he seeks at all, and another road is enjoined. This confusion of endless roads to dead end destinations eventually may lead to only two conclusions: that the end sought doesn’t exist, or that the end sought doesn’t exist in the finite, but still does exist, it exists in the infinite. The first conclusion is partly true, but partial truth can lead to disastrous results, it is the fullness of Truth which is the Way to that Life which we all seek. There in our heart will rest, satisfied, secure, fulfilled, happy.

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From yesterday's Office of Readings, a bit of wisdom from St. Leo the Great:

My dear brethren, there is no doubt that the Son of God took our human nature into so close a union with himself that one and the same Christ is present, not only in the firstborn of all creation, but in all his saints as well. The head cannot be separated from the members, nor the members separated from the head. Not in this life, it is true, but only in eternity will God be all in all, yet even now he dwells, whole and undivided, in his temple the Church. Such was his promise to us when he said; See, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

And so all that the Son of God did and taught for the world’s reconciliation is not for us simply a matter of past history. Here and now we experience his power at work among us. Born of a virgin mother by the action of the Holy Spirit, Christ keeps his Church spotless and makes her fruitful by the inspiration of the same Spirit. In baptismal regeneration she brings forth children for God beyond all numbering. These are the sons of whom is its written: They are born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

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As we struggle in this darkness, squinting in the glare of His Light, may He ever show us the Way of Truth that leads to Life.

'they will know us by our love'

Search as I may, that quote doesn't actually seem to be in the bible...
it seems to be based on John 13:35: "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another(DR)"

I will assume that "they will know us by our love" is a paraphrase that may occur in some versions of scripture that are paraphrases rather than translations. A Google search reveals something interesting: this phrase seems to regularly be thrown as a weapon at Christians, especially for stating anything that goes against the secularist world view; the "flinger" invariably seems to believe that if we had "love one for another" we would say nothing against sin.

Is this in fact a position that has any bearing in scripture? Keeping in mind the fact that "all men" in the biblical context does not mean "every single person" but rather representatives of every group, I think John gives us the key, for he also wrote:

1 John 3:1. Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth not us, because it knew not him.

So this love by which we are to be known, is unknown, because the "manner of charity (love)" is different than the manner of the world's love. The world did not recognize Him when He walked among us, and to this day, still does not (because He still does in His body, the Church).

in trying to find that verse which apparently isn't in the bible, it occured to me that perhaps there is a bit of grace in it anyway. For, God made us in His image to know and to love Him, which seems to me to mean that if we do not love Him we will of necessity love something less; hence, "by our love" we will be known; whatever that love is. St. Augustine pointed out that man names himself by what he loves; the sinner by his love (hence the appelation "gay" etc; I once thought of myself as a 'biker' because of my love of motorcycles), but the Christian is know by what he loves; Christ.

The world will not know us because it did not know Him. This is so profound, that people rejected Him when He walked among them, with the same "it couldn't be" that is today thrown at His body, the Church.

In "A New Song for the Lord" Cdl Ratzinger says that at the root of the problems with the faith today is the answer to the question "Who do you say that I am?" - the answer that can hold "Jesus yes, church no" is a separation of Jesus from Christ, or, Jesus from Son of God; the separation which John calls "antichrist." The fantasy Jesus constructed apart from lived history and the reality of His mystical body, the Church, is popular today while the Church is considered only useful in the degree that it supports the world's view (but really is superfluous).

In "Battle for the American Church," Msgr Kelley enumerated the symptoms of self-destruction, in "A New Song for the Lord," Cdl Ratzinger has examined the disease that is the root cause.