Chapter 13: The Church Established by Christ and Turned Over to Peter by Christ, Also Our Mother & Teacher Church, -- (Mater et Magistra) --

Chapter 13: The Kingdom of God, a Kingdom under Peter, Under the Church's Magisterium

"Thou Art PETRUS, and Upon this Rock I Will Build My Church,

And the Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against It!"

Our Lord Jesus Christ made sure who is to be in-charge of His Church. In His mission to save mankind, Christ did not just reveal the divine truth of God's desire to save man, did not just become a man Himself to bring in his new humanity, and did not just incorporate within Himself each believing man to this new humanity. He made sure he founded both a kingdom and an institution by which the economy of Christian salvation is forever set up, equipped, and enabled to assure mankind's continuing embracing of their new covenant with God. Christ began and secured a new people's kingdom under God. In other words, Christ established a Church. And in establishing one Church He put in place definitive one authority over it to ascertain it will be identified as His Church, and to ascertain the people will not mistake false copycat leaderships & assemblies of followers in lieu of His real Church. Christ, and His Church is the only way to salvation, and only His Church definitively bears the marks of His founding.

By The Will of Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit's Anointment, the Church is necessarily Magisterial: The Necessary & Absolute Teacher of the Truth of God. In this Chapter 7 and Chapter 10 we make it clear how the Body of Christ or the Church is essentially and primordially characterized and defined as largely pertaining to the altogether visible and invisible but predominantly united memberships of the people of God with Christ, who is the Head of this Mystical Body, the Church, and with one another between and among members-people of God, who are in the state of grace. And this element of the living in grace by the members is supposedly vitalized per the graces that both spring and flow through the Divine Sacraments of God. However, among the primary sacraments of God establishes and insures succession of authority and power within the Church through the sacrament of the Holy Order or the sacrament of the laying of hands. And the number one and original or first "laying of hand"/anointing act of empowerment was the calling and choosing of Peter by our Lord Jesus Christ. It was only after this initial sacramental act of and by our Lord Jesus upon Peter, and upon his college of Apostles that this way, consequentially, later and historical vocation ordination and election have become validated and perpetuated under the "unction" working of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, right off the start of the Lord's ministry, he chose a bunch of followers, from among which Christ immediately made known whom He favors for the leadership of the Church He was establishing. And so he chose Peter upon whom His Church was to be founded. Hence, the following verses from Saint Matthew, 16:15-18. "Then Jesus asked them, 'but who do you say I am?' Simon Peter spoke up, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' Jesus told him: Simon, son of John, you are blessed! You didn't discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven. So I will call you Peter, which means 'a rock'. On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it.' " The statement of Christ above points to Peter as a rock, meaning a strong foundational stone to symbolize a steady man made steady by God, whose steadiness will steer the Church's steadfast going so much so that Christ predicted "...death itself will not have any power over it". Some will argue the above statements do not justify Christ's designating of Peter as the foundational rock of the Church. Rightfully they attribute to Christ Himself this quality of being the Church's foundational stone; and so they say Christ was not making reference to Peter when He pointed to the Church's stone foundation but to Himself. Indeed, there is no disputing the fact of our salvation. Christ alone has the power that saves mankind from its sinfulness, and Christ alone did liberate mankind from human sinfulness. Yet Christ can not violate the truthfulness of ordinary language syntax and signification. When He uses human language to mean what the human language expresses, He must mean what the language expresses. Divine wisdom is not contradictory with language truthfulness. And Christ's use of human language here cannot unmistakably be understood anything less than His categorical gifting of Simon with the quality of a steadfast character necessary in a leader, specifically in the leadership of His Church. So the phrase "You are Peter and on this rock" means exactly what the words mean. That is to say Jesus was saying as it were: " You, Simon, are a rock (a firm something), and upon this firm something - you, I will build My Church". Now let us further analyze the structure of the sentence: "And I also say to you that YOU ARE PETER, AND ON THIS ROCK I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." We thus break down the sentence, "You are Peter": "You" is the subject. "Peter" is the predicate. Then let us also break the other sub-sentence part of the whole sentence. ... And on this "(predicate: Peter) ROCK" I will build my church.... Since Peter is the predicate, the word rock or the phrase - “AND ON THIS ROCK" is an ablative or a prepositional complement of the predicate "Peter". It means the subordinate clause or the next dependent sentence "...and on this rock I will build my church!" necessarily refers to the predicate "Peter". Thus, the concept of "upon whom Jesus will build His Church" is dependent upon the meaning of the word Peter, which is another word for rock. What Jesus was saying was that as regards His building a church he was going to use a man, whom He has conferred to be a man of rock, or of steely character, which He thus named Peter. Besides, why did he introduce the sentence with I SAY TO YOU THAT YOU ARE PETER if that was not the point of reference of the beginning topic sentence? If all Jesus was saying was about him he could have pointed to Himself as though saying:"... I say to you that on this rock, which I am, I will build my church." Why introduce the sentence with "THAT YOU ARE PETER?" Didn't the Lord indeed intend his wanting to call Peter, Peter (a rock)? It is very illogical for the Lord to speak ungrammatically and without sense. But surely those three clauses making up the long sentence exactly meant as the Lord said them. To make them sound and mean any other way is not being faithful to the words used in these verses of the Scriptures.

Moreover, by divine pedagogy, within the Father's plan of Incarnation, Redemption, and Eschatology, God's economy of salvation has been designed and ordained that between Christ's inauguration of the Church and Christ's awaiting of the Church or of the People of God is a foretelling of its final union with the Trinitarian God-head. Hence, the People of God is to be continuously renovated, changed, and transformed, initially per the Old Covenant and finally per the New Covenant. But under this New Covenant, the same divine pedagogy has placed upon Peter, and thus, upon Peter the leadership over the Church, and with the Church. Hence, believers, through the Church, are to abide by and comply with Christ's mandate upon His ascension & return to the Father to persevere and reach their final eschatological union with God in the New Heaven and the New Earth under the vicareal "Shepherd ship" by Peter.

Hence, Peter was given the authority over the Church, and over fundamental matters of the Church, let us go back to the 16th chapter of Matthew where Christ designated Peter, or rock of the Church, its foundation stone. Jesus continued to promise Peter that authority over the Church, which Jesus was building, with the following verses: "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything that you don't allow." Matthew 16:19 Whereas the Lord will later repeat this act of empowerment to all the apostles in a general way, namely His giving all the apostles the power to absolve or not to absolve men of their sins, nonetheless the above verses have particular import as regards Jesus' higher empowerment of Peter above the other apostles. For one thing, it was first to Peter and to Peter alone that Jesus addressed the above words. Then there's a big difference between the above verses and the later verses about Jesus' empowerment of the apostles in general. John 20:21-23 narrates, "... After Jesus had greeted them again, he said, 'I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me.' Then he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven. But if you don't forgive their sins, they will not be forgiven.' “From these verses in John's Jesus gave all the apostles the specific power to absolve sins of confessions. All the Priests, not just bishops are given this power upon ordination. But the above Matthew verses were much more specific. In the first place, Jesus introduced the words of pardon or reprieve with the emphatic preliminary exclusionary empowerment by Jesus of Peter with the words: "... I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven ...." Not only did Jesus empower Peter the same remmissionary power to absolve sins which Jesus shall give all of the apostles, Jesus for a fact gave Peter the key to resolve whatever needs to be resolved in human affairs. Earthly affairs, and even some heavenly affair, e.g. the canonization of saints per confirmed miracle taking place, and is therefore, a sign of God's absolute backing. The empowerment, thus, exclusively given to Peter was to cover all matters where the Church will be necessitated to render judgments that affect all heavenly validation. Peter's heavenly power to give authoritative go-signal or no go-signal was absolute. Jesus only knew full well that humans being humans as they are, except Himself, will be bound to be beset by human imperfections; and so there was need that He equip His chief steward of His Church with the special grace power of protection from making error in Peter's capacity of resolving fundamental matters of the Church. It is this capacity of Peter and of his successors to be able to define which the doctrines of the Church are, and to be able to teach with certainty that they are what Jesus Christ has taught to the apostles. This body of the sacred teachings of Christ is also called Church's deposit of faith, to which the Church is bound to adhere, and be faithful to as it continues to be passed on through generations until the second coming of Christ. Peter and his successors have been making sure the Church does adhere and stay faithful to every single kernel of truthfulness of this sacred deposit of the faith. Via the magisterial authority of the Church, but formally under the authority of Christ's Supreme Vicar, Peter in unity with the apostles/bishops throughout the ages, the defining and teaching of the faith: of the Deposit of Faith, whether as written in the Scriptures or as passed on by Sacred Tradition of the Church is one chief concern of the Church. Believers do not just rely upon the Bible, or the Sacred Tradition for understanding the revealed Truth of Jesus Christ. They need both the revealed Word of God as found in the Bible, as well as divine revelations and practices of the faith as originally passed on by the apostles and the first communities of believers of the early Church. It cannot be just one or the other. Divine revelation cannot be merely identified with the Bible or the written revelation in so far as there was already the practice of the Christian faith as proclaimed and taught by Jesus Christ, and passed on through His disciple’s way before the inspired Scriptures were indeed put on record. On the other hand, tradition cannot ignore the substantial and the divinely inspired words of the Scriptures precisely for the reason that the words of Scriptures were product of the direct promptings of the Holy Spirit. In short, the Sacred Scriptures are irrefutable immediate revelations of God. We have stated the reason for having a successor to Peter, the Pope. On the one end we need the Pope to proclaim, and keep in absolute certainty, and through all generations the one and the same body of faith Jesus proclaimed, taught, and passed on by His Apostles under the leadership of Peter. On the other end, the negatives must be prevented by the Church, i.e. it will not allow, and therefore the "... heavens" too will not allow whatever manner of denial, or cutting down, or modifying of the "one message" of Christ. That is why there is only one Church against which "all gates of hell" and any "power of death" will not prevail. With respect to the truth, and with the Church as its stewardship, there will not be any denying, changing, reducing or essential increasing of the total teachings Jesus Christ has taught the Church that He has established. With the power of the Holy Spirit, all the time the Pope, as Peter's Successor, confronts any dangerous growing opposition to a doctrine of the Church, defends a standing Church teaching, and defines a less understood statement of the faith, the Pope does so ex-cathedra and with power of infallibility. Ex-cathedra means papal declarations are being pronounced from his seat of succession to Peter and leadership over the Church. Infallibility means that the Pope's declarations at that moment carry the magisterial authority of belief, obedience & compliance by the faithful, and the weight of being without error. This is the security of the Church. And by this is how the Church of Christ is identified, namely one that has withstood time and historical hurdles, attacks, or plots from people or from any supra human powers on earth, over the earth, and under the earth. And so it behooves and it belongs to the Church Magisterium as the principal teaching authority mandated by Christ to watch over and ascertain that both the Bible and Sacred Tradition be adhered to as the chief sources and bases of revelation and all other divine truths. But all explanation and interpretation of this Deposit of Faith, handed on from the Apostles to the present cannot carry independent total validity without the superseding magisterial declaration and dispensation, i.e., judgment, and approval, with the power of the Holy Spirit, by the Vicar of Christ, or each succeeding Head apostle and Pastor of the Church. Presently, this person is the Santo Papa, or the Pope, or the Bishop over all bishops. Pope John Paul II was this belated Vicar of Christ, who has recently been succeeded by Pope Benedict the XVI, who in turn has resigned lately, and has now ceded papacy presently to Pope Francis. The Pope is also the Bishop of Rome, which is where the Seat of the Holy Father of the Church is.

The Church, As Jesus Wants It, and By the Church's Fundamental Nature Nourishes & Nurtures Its Members While Most Zealously Watched Over By ‘Peter", Like A Mother to its Members.

In continuation of the above point and argument, it is the fact that Jesus knew He needed one authority for His Church, which He placed on Peter. And nowhere else, and upon nobody else was there a mention of Jesus giving the Church authority over someone else! Despite the very special calling of Saint Paul by Jesus as a disciple and despite his pioneering great mileage of evangelizing during the very early age of the Church, he was not one of the first 12 personally recruited by Christ. And there are no words by Christ in Scripture that could be interpreted designating Saint Paul as the primary head of the Church. Meanwhile, we have plenty of verses and scriptural situations attributed to Saint Peter where the Lord clearly eyed him for the particular job of serving as the top shepherd of His Church. In Luke 22:31, we have the following revealing dialogue between Jesus and Peter. ".. Jesus said, 'Simon, listen to me! Satan has demanded the right to test each one of you, as a farmer does when he separates wheat from the husks. But Simon, I have prayed that your faith will be strong. And when you have come back to me, (implying and predicting here how Peter will fail Jesus, and then be sorry to continue to follow him,) help the others.' Peter said, 'Lord, I am ready to go with you to jail and even to die with you'. Jesus replied, 'Peter, I tell you that before a rooster crows tomorrow morning you will say three times that you don't know me." The salient points here are, one: that among the devoted apostles of Christ Peter was specially prayed for by Christ that he might be strong in his faith, and two: that Jesus singled him out to be the one to help out Christ's followers, including the other failing co- apostles. Christ expressly made it known that He wanted Peter to assuredly help Jesus' other disciples.

The Scripture account of John in 21:15-17, spelled this out. But more specifically, as well, the verses demonstrated one very clear other desire of the Lord: that, in all certainty, His followers must be cared for and nurtured in their living and growing as a Church, as Christ's followers, like the " children by their mother". Scripture, thus, states, "... When Jesus and his disciples had finished eating, he asked, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others do?' Simon Peter answered, 'Yes, Lord you know I do!' 'Then feed my lambs,' Jesus said. Jesus asked a second time, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' Peter answered, 'Yes, Lord, you know I love you! 'Then take care of my sheep', Jesus told him. Jesus asked a third time, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' Peter was hurt because Jesus had asked him three times if he loved him. So he told Jesus, 'Lord, you know everything. You know I love you.' Jesus replied, 'Feed my sheep....' " That the Lord explicitly assigned to Peter the duty of feeding and taking care of His Church flock even if each one of the apostles by virtue of apostleship is supposed to do the same thing as shepherds of the Church only indicates here Christ's singling out Peter for the overall pastoring over Christ's church. We could also add here the personal significance of the entire dialogue between the Lord and Peter. Certainly Jesus' telling Peter one time his assigning him the shepherding duties should be enough for Peter to understand. But the Lord, as intimated by Peter's feeling hurt, apparently dramatized here his communicating to Peter about what He wanted from Peter. Namely, Jesus wanted Peter to express his usual response of honest single- mindedness, which probably was one of the qualities of Peter that endeared him to the Lord. Moreover, the repetitiveness acted out here by Christ was to emphasize both the fundamental importance of the universal mission of Church pastoring, as well as precisely the unmistakable designating to Peter of this paramount pastoring duty of the Church.

Then at the foot of the Cross, symbolically per the concrete Mother figure of Mary, as testified by John the Disciple, when the Lord gave Mary to us, who were all represented by John -- as our Mother, Mary became the "type" for the Church. For as the Mother of God, Mary, was, thus, commanded by her Son to be and to serve as the "mother" of his followers; he was virtually also mandating His Church, whose type was Mary, to be and to serve as mother to all members of the Church. Mary, personally, and the Church, sacramentally, both perform the role and duty as mother of all the faithful in Christ's dispensation plan of his graces via the Holy Spirit. To reiterate, as Mary does this personally, the Church sacramentally equally performs the role per her functional nurturing, nourishing, and caring of the members of the Church. (To be continued)

Chapter Recapping On Peter's Pre-eminent Role in the Church of Christ

Now, let us try to understand why Peter was appropriately chosen by the Lord as its number one Pastor, and therefore the Vicar of Christ.

Matthew, in his tenth chapter, verse 2 writes, "... The first of the 12 apostles was Simon, better known as Peter..." When the Holy Spirit came down on earth and confirmed the faith of the apostles, along with Mary and others present during the Pentecost Sunday, it was Saint Peter who was recorded explaining the miraculous behavior of the apostles upon being confirmed by the Holy Spirit through tongues of fire. Critics dismissed the miraculous manner of speaking by the Spirit filled apostles preaching the Gospel in the different languages spoken by the different foreigners at Jerusalem then witnessing the apostles' speaking in tongue as nothing more than drunken behaving by the apostles. So, Peter was the first to come to their defense. He said, "... You are wrong to think that these people are drunk. After all it is only nine o'clock in the morning." Acts 2:15 Then he proceeded to a long discourse as to say that what happened and what these Jews and foreigners in Jerusalem witnessed was a corroboration of the prediction of the prophet Joel who spoke of Jewish sons and daughters, men and women, young and old who will prophesy, see visions, and have dreams because they shall have been given the Spirit. Acts 2:17-18 Then Saint Peter, after summarily making references to promises made by God to Jewish ancestors, particularly to David, climactically declared those promises were at that moment fulfilled. He said David was aware of someone from his family someday becoming a King and of a Christ that would be raised to life; and that at that moment of time God "did not leave the Christ in the grave", nor "let his body decay" for "... All of us can tell you that God has raised Jesus to life. Jesus was taken up to sit at the right side of God, and... That Jesus is the one who has given the Spirit to us and that is what you are now seeing and hearing." Act 2:30-33 and so here was the very first defense of the faith, and it was Peter who did it. Then asked by the moved crowd how they were supposed to respond to this marvelous proof about Jesus Christ and His teachings particularly on human sinfulness, Saint Peter taught them the necessary first act of conversion, saying: "Turn back to God! Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven. Then you will be given the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you and your children. It is for everyone our Lord God will choose, no matter where they live." This was the first mission work of the apostles to fulfill Jesus' Great Commission; and it was started here by Saint Peter.

Then as was promised by Christ that His disciples were to work miracles as signs of their discipleship for Him, Saint Peter together with the company of Saint John performed the first miracle as a disciple of Christ. Thus in Acts 3:2-13 we have the account about "... a man who had been born lame, being carried to the temple door. Each day he was placed beside this door, known as the Beautiful Gate. He sat there and begged from the people who were going in. The man saw Peter and John entering the temple, and he asked them for money. But they looked straight at him and said, 'Look up at us!' The man stared at them and thought he was going to get something. But Peter said, 'I don't have any silver or gold! But I will give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ from Nazareth, get up and start walking.' Peter then took him by the right hand and helped him up. At once the man's feet and ankles became strong, and he jumped up and started walking. He went with Peter and John into the temple, walking and jumping and praising God. Everyone saw him walking around and praising God. They knew that he was the beggar who had been lying beside the Beautiful Gate, and they were completely surprised. They could not imagine what had happened to the man. While the man kept holding on to Peter and John, the whole crowd ran to them in amazement at the place known as Solomon's Porch. Peter saw that a crowd had gathered, and he said. 'Friends, why are you surprised at what has happened? Why are you staring at us? Do you think we have some power of our own? Do you think we were able to make this man walk because we are so religious?' “Peter then preached to them how these people had rejected Jesus, whom they killed, and betrayed in favor of a murderer Barabbas. He repeated what he had told the people during Pentecost that Jesus, who was honored by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was raised by God from death, and has done things that the apostles could testify to. Then he pointed to the man healed of lameness. He said because the previously lame man "... put his faith in the name of Jesus he was made strong...", and was made "... completely well while everyone was watching." Later in the accounts from The Acts of the Apostles, we see at least two more occasions of miraculous healing by Saint Peter. From Acts 9:32-34 we learn of Peter healing Aeneas "... who for eight years had been sick in bed and could not move". Peter told him, "... Jesus Christ has healed you! Get up and make up your bed." And right away he stood up. Then in Acts 9:36-41 we also learn about Dorcas, a good woman who actually already died but whom Peter asked to "... get up!" And Peter "... took her by the hand and helped her to her feet." After each of these miracles by Saint Peter it was said "...many of them" that had seen what had happened "...put their faith in the Lord."

Peter was empowered not only to show testimony through miracles of healing, among other things, he was evidently empowered to also teach the fear of the Lord to people who would dare test the Spirit of the Lord by lying to Peter. The couple Ananias and Sapphira, who supposedly were to turn in their pledged donations from sold properties but "... agreed to cheat and keep some of the money for themselves" met their instant fate of death upon being confronted by Peter for their cheating.

Then for Peter's own benefit or safety, God allowed further miracles to take place in his behalf. We have the accounts of Peter's escape from prison, and from physical harm in Acts 12:6-17 "The night before Peter was to be put on trial, he was asleep and bound by two chains. A soldier was guarding him on each side, and two other soldiers were guarding the entrance to the jail. Suddenly an angel from the Lord appeared, and light flashed around in the cell. The angel poked Peter in the side and woke him up. The he said, 'Quick! Get up!' The chains fell off his hand and the angel said, 'Get dressed and put on your sandals.' Peter did what he was told. Then the angel said, 'Now put on your coat and follow me.' Peter left with the angel, but he thought everything was only a dream. They went past the two groups of soldiers, and when they came to the Iron Gate to the city, it opened by itself. They went out and were going along the street, when all at once the angel disappeared. Peter now realized what had happened, and he said, 'I am certain that the Lord sent his angel to rescue me from Herod and from everything the Jewish leaders planned to do to me.' Then Peter went to the house of Mary the mother of John who’s other name was Mark. Many of the Lord's followers had come together there and were praying. Peter knocked on the gate, and a servant named Rhoda came to the door. When she heard Peter's voice, she was too excited to open the gate. She ran back into the house and said that Peter was standing there. Everyone told her, 'You are crazy!' But she kept saying it was Peter. They said, 'It must be his angel.' But Peter kept on knocking, until finally they opened the gate. They saw him and were completely amazed. Peter motioned for them to keep quiet. Then he told how the Lord had led him out of jail..."

In the end, however, the Lord did not spare Peter his life, or His other apostles'. Like the rest of the apostles, except Saint John, everyone was martyred to death. And as with Peter, early on Jesus already predicted to him the manner of his martyrdom: that he like the Lord was to be crucified. We are told that he was even crucified upside down according to his wishes. He wanted a more abject manner of crucifixion as he did not want equality with Jesus who was crucified upside up. In John 21:18-19 Jesus told Peter "... how Peter would die and bring honor to God."

Like a true Pastor of the universal church, Saint Peter's recorded admonitions, fore warning, and irrevocably strong detesting of sinfulness are most appropriately reflective of his obvious pastoral concerns over the Church flock as Christ-appointed number one Shepherd of souls.

Let us begin to listen to his hatred of sins. In 2 Peter 2:10-14, and 2:17-19 Saint Peter said: "The Lord is especially hard on people who disobey him and don't think of anything except their own filthy desires. They are reckless and proud and are not afraid of cursing the glorious beings in heaven. Although angels are more powerful than these evil beings, even the angels don't dare to accuse them to the Lord. These people are no better than senseless animals that live by their feelings and are born to be caught and killed. They speak evil of things they don't know anything about. But their own corrupt deeds will destroy them. They have done evil, and they will be rewarded with evil. They think it is fun to have wild parties during the day. They are immoral, and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful and selfish way they carry on. All they think about is having sex with someone else's husband or wife. There is no end to their wicked deeds, and their minds are filled with greedy thoughts. But they are headed for trouble!" Then the next verses: "... These people are like dried up water holes and clouds blown by a windstorm. The darkest part of hell is waiting for them. They brag out loud about their stupid nonsense. And by being vulgar and crude, they trap people who have barely escaped from living the wrong kind of life. They promise freedom to everyone. But they are merely slaves of filthy living because people are slaves of whatever controls them ..."

Now Peter's many warnings.

1.) Peter's warnings about false prophets. 2 Peter 2:1

".. False teachers will also sneak in and speak harmful lies to you. But these teachers don't really belong to the Master, who paid a great price (even) for them, and THEY WILL QUICKLY DESTROY THEMSELVES. Many people will follow their evil ways and cause others to tell lies about the true way. They will be greedy and cheat you with a smooth talk. But long ago God decided to punish them; and God does not sleep."

2.) Peter's further warning words. 2 Peter 3:17

".. My dear friends, you have been warned ahead of time! So don't let the errors of evil people lead you down the wrong path and make you lose your balance....... Let the kindness and the understanding that come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help you to keep on growing...”

3.) Saint Peter's warning about suffering.

A. 1 Peter 5:11 "...You will suffer for a while but God will make you complete, steady, strong, and firm. God will be in control forever...”

B. 1 Peter 3:14 "... Even if you have to suffer for doing good things, God will bless you. Stop being afraid; and don't worry about what people might do...”

C. 1 Peter 3:17 "... You are better off to obey God and suffer for doing right than to suffer for doing wrong."

D. 1 Peter 4:14 "... Count it a blessing when you suffer being a Christian. This shows that God's glorious Spirit is with you."

E. 1 Peter 5:8 regarding awareness of Satan "... Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy the devil is like a roaring lion sneaking around to find someone to devour."

4.) Saint Peter's warning and encouragement concerning the last days.

2 Peter 3:10-15 "... The day of the Lord's return will surprise us like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a loud noise, and the heat will melt the whole universe. Then the earth and everything on it will be seen for what they are. Everything will be destroyed. So you should serve and honor God by the way you live. You should look forward to the day when God judges everyone, and you should try to make it to come soon. On that day the heavens will be destroyed by fire, and everything else will melt in the heat. But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that! My friends while you are waiting you should make certain that the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at peace. Don't forget that the Lord is patient because he wants people to be saved."

And now, Saint Peter's words of admonitions and assurances of God's help and provision of strength towards the living of a holy life.

1.) 1 Peter 1:5 "... Have faith in God whose power will protect you until the last day."

2.) 2 Peter 1:3-4 "... We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God's own power when we learned he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness. God made great and wonderful promises so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world."

3.) Regarding improving on faith: 2 Peter 1:5-9 "... You can do this by adding goodness, understanding, self control, patience, devotion to God, concern for others and love. If you keep growing in this way it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful. But if you don't grow you're like someone who is nearsighted (only seeing what is closeby, and not seeing the big picture), or blind and you have forgotten that your first sins are (have been) forgiven. (I.e. God let you go the first time He might not let you go the next time?)

Here are Saint Peter's words regarding our dutiful concern for people under our charge. 1 Peter 5:2 "... Just as shepherds watch over their sheep you must watch over everyone God has placed in your care."

Again, here’s Saint Peter's admonition for love of neighbors even for our own sake. 1 Peter 4:8 "... Most important of all you must sincerely love each other BECAUSE LOVE WIPES AWAY MANY SINS.

Finally, here also is Saint Peter's advice about personal defense of our faith. 1 Peter 3:15 "... Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope." It is Saint Peter's teaching that a believer's witness to the faith belongs not exclusively to theologians or some with advanced knowledge of the faith but to every Christian professing the faith. This is the only way evangelization reaches out to as many, and the only way it is passed successfully, namely by each individual Christian’s lived and therefore understood faith.

We began this discussion about the Church of Christ with a big statement in Latin, namely NULLA SALUS EXTRA ECCLESIAM, translated "Outside the Church no salvation". Now the big question, what about our Protestant brothers and sisters? How about all of them called "the Evangelicals", or the Religious Fundamentalist, or the Baptists, and the Methodists, the Assembly of God, the Calvinists, the Lutherans, as well as the Presbyterians and the Episcopalians? Are they considered outside the Church?

Before we answer all these questions above, let us look at the verse 16 of chapter 10 in Luke. It says "... He, who hears you, hears me. He, who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." Furthermore let us analyze a similar statement, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brother you do it to me!"Matthew 26:40 this also has its reverse form, namely: "Whatever you did not do to the least of my brother, you did not do it to me." Matthew 26:45 From the first set of quotations, with the conditional nature of meaning that if someone hears a Christian evangelist, this someone consequently hears Jesus too, and then ultimately God the Father, who sent Jesus to mankind. In reverse form, it is repeated that if some rejects a Christian evangelist, this someone consequently rejects Jesus too, and ultimately God the Father. The second type of verses In Matthew is kind of like the first two verses in Luke.

In our previous OUR MISSION chapter we have touched on these verses of Matthew 26. We have explained them in relation to individual judging by Jesus after each human death. We pointed out that the involved verses here state the criterion by which every human being accounts to God for his/her life after death. The measure of our love or lack of love for our neighbors, especially those that have needed us during our journeying on the earthly life will be the measuring stick by which the Lord Jesus Christ will judge each individual after death. In simplest terms, if we love or did not love the least of our neighbors determine if the Lord will reward us with eternal rest, or condemn us to eternal damnation. The heart of the matter of the verses is if we did or did not love our neighbor, i.e. if we loved or if we remained selfish. This is related to those other verses from Matthew and Luke pertaining to among others, alms giving and love for enemies. There Jesus warned us to examine and make sure what our motive for doing any good at all. The verse warned us that if it were all ulterior motives why we did some apparent good for our neighbor; then that's nothing doing. According to the Lord we already received our reward. Our seeming act of generosity cannot merit any heavenly reward. In Matthew 5:44-48 it is written, "My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. This will prove that you are sons of your heavenly Father, for his sun rises on the bad and the good, he rains on the just and the unjust. If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that? Do not tax collectors do as much? And if you greet only your brothers, what is so praiseworthy about that? Do not pagans do as much? In a word, you must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."

To begin with therefore, some generic application of the above verses tells us to be very careful about excluding who do not belong to the Church. Matthew 5:44-48 reminds us that charity commands we give our brothers and sisters whom we do not call Catholics the benefit of the doubt whether or not they are outside or inside the Church. In the first place, it is our duty to pray for them. After all we began the discussion about the meaning of the Church from Jesus' concern that His followers be one or united. We have to begin from this orientation to be on the look-out to reach out to our non-Catholic brothers and sisters if we are to be true to Christ's community concept of a Church. Even just for our own sakes we must be open about not excluding non-Catholics! The bottom-line question is: what is in our heart about non-Catholics? Is it charity or is it being judgmental? We better make sure we shall not be guilty of commission versus the non-Catholics. Let us remember Matthew 26:45 lest this verse get us in trouble come judgment time.

Besides, some people might seem to be outside the Church but who are not really against the Church. In Luke 9:49-50 Saint John said to Jesus, “‘... Master, we saw a man using your name to force demons out of people. But we told him to stop because he is not one of us.' 'Don't stop him!' Jesus said. 'Anyone who is not against you is for you.' "

The next step however is the command of fraternal correction. Within our deliberate capability to share and defend our faith we must reach out to our non-Catholic brethren. Saint James said, "... My friends, if any followers have wandered away from the truth, you should try to lead them back." James 5:19 Saint Peter said, which we have quoted above, 1 Peter 3:15 "... Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope."

Having done all the above care and prudence on behalf of charity for neighbors, then now we're ready to honestly and zealously explain to them about the Catholic faith. And if they respond with equal honesty, diligence, and humility about the truth of the faith then it is up to the Holy Spirit to complete the job of evangelization. Between the two parties engaged in a "good faith" study and praying about the truth of the gospel we can rest assured the Holy Spirit will appropriately do its job of enlightenment and conversion to the true faith. And if met with persistent unbelief and stubbornness against the truth, we pray for real attention to these words of admonition: "If today you hear His words, harden not your heart!" Ultimately, we could cite back our initial quotation from Luke 10:16 "... He, who hears you, hears me. He, who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." For let us bear in mind evangelization is not pushing our selves, or our agenda; and not by our human efforts. Evangelization is the work of the Holy Spirit to finish the salvation mission of Christ through the Church. Yet we must not relent at preaching about a true and only one Church because Christ did not found many churches but only one true church. Christ is aware though how His followers would have a hard time becoming one or united as one Church. That is why He prayed to the Father that His followers be one. John 17:11 reminds us of this concern of Jesus about potential disunity in the Church. And so Jesus prayed, "... Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then THEY WILL BE ONE WITH EACH OTHER, just as you and I are one..." Together with Christ, the same prayer should be our prayer so the Church could reach unity among all Christian believers. But we must never be complacent about this work for unity within a one true church. We will not allow the temptation of "INDIFFERENTISM" with respect to all other disuniting Christian churches. All Christian churches are not all the same. They can be said to be all the same only when churches professing to be in unity are preaching and practicing one and the same faith. And so our last words of counsel to our brothers and sisters who seem to be yet outside the Church. John 12:35-36 "... The light will be with you for only a little longer. Walk in the light while you can. Then you won't be caught walking blindly in the dark. Have faith in the light while it is with you, and you will be children of the light."