Being Catholic

John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus Christ was not a fallible man. Jesus Christ was the perfect man and divine man, true man and true God, human in all ways and yet without sin. Peter was a fallible man. Peter faltered on the water. Peter first drew the sword. Peter denied Christ three times. Of the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus, only John remained at the foot of the cross. Others ran away. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss and losing faith in God's mercy, hung himself. Human men are fallible. The Bible was canonized by a group of such frail human men who were Bishops more than 400 years after Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead. The New Testament was not written by a handpicked group of authors. Quite conversely, it is not recorded that Jesus directed anyone to compile a written record of the events of his ministry. The New Testament was written by various disciples of Christ who were working to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and whose words were only later canonized by the Catholic Church. Men over time may make errors. The Holy Spirit however does not make errors.

The Bible is not an entity separate and apart from faith, somehow predating man's faith in God, but instead the Bible is the culmination of man's search for the face of God since Abrahamic Israel in the coming and ressurrection of the Messiah in Christ Jesus. For the most part, the work of those disciples involved the spoken word for which they bore much persecution and very often payed for their faith with their very lives. Their travels were many and far and the bore more hardships I am sure that even Scripture contains.

Perhaps we see the greatest evidence of personal witness in the last verses of the Gospel according to John 21:21-25, where we read, When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" The saying spread abroad among the brethren that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

The Bible tells us what the Holy Spirit intended for it to tell us. No more, no less. But the Bible alone is not the beginning and end of faith in Christ.

As the earliest Jewish "Christians" were celebrating the presense of the Lord in the Eucharist as passover barely 300 years after the ressurection, there was as yet no canonized Bible. There was the Gospel, the word of God passed from disciple to disciple. They lived the Gospel and were willing to die for their belief in the real presense of the Lord in the Eucharist. It was a time when such gatherings to celebrate the Eucharist were forbidden. No true Christian of the faith at that time doubted or disputed the real presense of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The Eucharist IS Christ. The Eucharist IS Life. Christians have known this since the first breaking of the bread at Christ's celebration of the passover with his disciples on Holy Thursday to every time and place that the Eucharist has been celebrated since that day around the world in every culture and language.

In 405 AD the Bible (all 73 books) was canonized by the Catholic Church under Pope St. Innoncent I, in Rome. Pope Innocent I was the 40th Pope before the Official Canon was closed on Sacred Scripture. There had been 39 popes prior to the Bible being finalized in Canonization in 405 AD.

What did Jesus do? Jesus as we know through the witness of those who wrote the Bible, instructed the creation of a Church, His Church to be led by by His apostles. He, Jesus in the Bible, selected Peter to be the head of that Church. The Catholic Church is that Church. The office that Peter held is the same that is held by Pope Benedict XVI today, John Paul II before him and by every Pope since Peter for more than 2000 years. Peter was the head of the Bishops, the Bishop of Rome, the very same office of the Pope. Matthew 16:18-19 And so I say to you, you are Peter (Kepha, meaning rock in Aramaic), and upon this rock (Kepha) I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Mere days after the ressurection Jesus made himself present in the breaking of the bread amidst two disciples on the road to Emmaus as recalled in Luke 24:30-31 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight. And again in Luke 24:34-36 "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them.

The Eucharist is the Body of Christ because Jesus Christ says that it is. John 6:54-58 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."

John 6:60-69 then tells us, Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."

I have always thought that before one should discount the Eucharist one should carefully read these lines of Sacred Scripture. John the disciple was there and knows that these things are true. A number who had been with Jesus and who took his words literally walked out of the room and left him because he spoke those words. Those who remained with Christ in the room took Jesus no less seriously or literally and Jesus corrected no one and nor did he call back those who walked away.

I am Catholic and as such, I follow a line of disciples back to the breaking of the Bread at the last supper, the passover of Christ, the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb who IS Christ, the Son of God. Discipleship; in Baptism, as all Christians are Baptised, the confession of sins (reconciliation) and the imposition of hands (confirmation) the imparting of the Holy Spirit, as at Pentacost. I believe that the Creed speaks the truth of who we are as Christians and Catholics. To be Catholic is to be a part of the universal church, to be of Christ who was from the beginning, through whom all things were made. All the beauty of the heavens and all that is contained in them is so because of our loving God's good pleasure. And we are the thing that God loves most.

Catholicism is the very history of Christs disciples; Sacred Word in Scripture, and equally valid and important, Sacred Tradition in the very Church of Christ. Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ and it is she from whom the Word took human flesh; she who was without sin, herself conceived without sin. Mary was the first disciple, the first to say Yes to Christ and is the first work of God's redemption and salvation in Christ. The words of Christ to his youngest Apostle that day on Calvary can only mean to me that Jesus gave all of mankind his mother and we in turn became her children. For as we are brothers and sisters in Christ, so we too have the same mother and the same Father in heaven.

Luke 1:38 "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."

Luke 1:39-43 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechari'ah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"

John 19:26-27 When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

John 16:31-33 Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

John 15:15-17 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another."

I remember the first time that I read these words. They were perhaps the most powerful words that I had read in the Bible. I am thankful that John was able to write those words. Jesus says to his disciples, "I have called you friends". Jesus is sharing the will of his father with his friends and disciples and aclls those who he is sharing that with his friends. He prepares a place for us in his Father's kingdom. He promises us this and tells us he would not have said so were it otherwise. In the hours before he is to die on the Cross, Jesus is telling us to be of good cheer. God who is to bear all the sin the world in ransome for us, is comforting his disciples and friends, more concerned for us in that moment, than for his own suffering, just as hours later he will make excuses for those who nail his body to the Cross.

I should make no apologies or excuses for being a Christian. I am Catholic. I am a Christian. I should only be a better friend and disciple of Christ.

1 John 4:14-17 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world.