Our Mission Series, Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Into and Being With the Church: 

The Mystical Body of Christ, 

and the Beneficiary and the Source of Graces

What is the Church of Christ?  Why is it called his Body?  Why is it both the Means and the Beneficiary of Christ's Redemptive Graces?

  What does Jesus mean by saying he wanted to build his Church?

Part One 

The Church as, like A Big Edifice, One Big Aggregate of Living Stones/souls bonded together by the One Corner Prime Living Stone: the Lord Jesus Christ  

In Matthew 16:18 where Jesus placed Saint Peter in special prominence as His continuing bedrock of the Church upon whom He said He "will build" His "church" Jesus specifically mentioned our repeated word here' church', which He said He 

was to build and which He did indeed build. Was He just thinking of a literally stone church, or edifice? Or was He thinking of another metaphysical church structure far sturdier and a whole lot more extensive than any visible concrete church edifice? What was in Jesus' mind and heart about the time He indicated He was going away? What or who was Jesus asking the Father special care and protection for as His bid farewell to His disciples? In John 17:11 we have the 

following partial words of valedictory to the disciples. ".. 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..." Further down from the same bunch of verses John repeated Jesus' words: "... I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me... “John 17:21 evidently it was Jesus' expressed desire that His followers 

"... be one with each other, just as...” the Father and He "... are one." The Lord clearly stated that His followers are to be one with each other. His followers are to form a community. This must have been what He was referring to in Matthew 16:18 when He stated He wanted to build His Church. In 1 Peter 2:4-10 the analogical reference between the stone symbolism and Christ, the church's constituent head, (then later Peter as His Vicar Head), along with supposed stone body parts, Christ's followers, are illustrated. Peter wrote:"... Come to Jesus Christ. He is the living stone that people have rejected, but which God has chosen and highly honored. And now you are living stones that are being used TO BUILD A SPIRITUAL HOUSE......... It is just as God says in the Scriptures, 'Look! I am placing in Zion a choice and precious cornerstone. No one who has faith in that one will be disappointed.' You are followers of the Lord, and that stone is precious to you..." Peter makes reference to the parts that are to make up the Church Jesus is building namely "... living stones...” that are being used "... to build a spiritual house...” Peter first identified Jesus as the first living stone, the most "... precious cornerstone". Then Peter referred to 

the believers as the other "living stones" that will make up along with Jesus, the corner stone, the "...spiritual house". The plain idea here is that while scriptures pointed to Jesus as the main stone of the house he is building, Jesus wanted other "stones", not just a single or individual stone, but a collection 

of stones with which to erect and establish a spiritual edifice, His Church. Then, among these "other living stones" Jesus has chosen one special stone, Peter, upon whom He was establishing His Church. (This early we are not yet tackling the topic on Peter's authority over Jesus' Church, or the related issue of Papacy and the Church's Magisterium. We shall touch on this later when we develop the foundational character of Christ's Church.) For now we are showing out that the Lord is the very foundation of the Church in so far as He is the fundamental factor of man's salvation, as confirmed here by Peter's pointing to Him as the Church's cornerstone. {However, concerning Peter's supremacy over Christ's Church it is enough for the time being to explain here the unmistakable intention of the Lord to empower Peter, (and his successors - the Popes) with magisterial authority over His Church to make sure it will stand forever. No one can deny the Lord His wishing and capacitating Peter to be the Church's lasting "rock", and His giving him the direct authority that shall enable the Church to withstand enemies and "confirm"/make firm its members as the Church's elemental 

constitutive "other living stones". These supposed "other living stones"-parts or members of His edified Church entity under Christ, the corner foundational stone, are also to be under Peter, His specially chosen "firm stone/rock”, Christ’s Vicar on earth upon which His Church, while He has been ascended to Heaven, was being built, and will continue to be built through the end-times.} Right now, however, the idea we are treating here is that Christ's disciples or followers, under the Vicariate Leadership of Peter, make up the other living stones parts of His spiritual house, and constitute the Church or His Church's membership community.

The Church is the Body of Christ!

 This characteristic of Christ's followers as a body or an integrated community of members or parts is substantially illustrated by Saint Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. I Cor 12:12-30 "The body of Christ has many different parts, just as any other body does. Some of us are Jews, and others are Gentiles. Some of us are slaves, and others are free. But God's Spirit baptized each of us and made us part of the body of Christ... Our bodies don't have just one part." (We could begin to state here the non-individualistic nature of the Church. Church is not an entity of free-lancer thinkers or writers, or unconnected hermits.) Saint Paul continues, “They have many parts. Suppose a foot says, 'I am not a hand, and so I am not part of the body.' Wouldn't the foot still belong to the body? Or suppose an ear says, 'I am not an eye, and so I am not part of the body.' Wouldn't the ear still belong to the body? If our bodies were only an eye, we couldn't hear a thing. And if they were only an ear, we couldn't smell a thing. But God has put all parts of our body together in the way that he decided is best. A body is not really a body, unless there is more than one part. It takes many parts to make a single body. “(Again, interposing here the application of the analogy to the Church, a Church is not a Church unless there is more than one member-follower. It takes many member-followers to make a Church body.) Again, to continue what Saint Paul is saying, "... That's why the eyes cannot say they don't need the hands. That's also why the head cannot say it doesn't need the feet. In fact, we cannot get along without the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest. We take special care to dress up some parts of our bodies. We are modest about our personal parts, but we don't have to be modest about other parts. God put our bodies together in such a way that even the parts that seem the least important are valuable. He did this to make all parts of the body work together smoothly, with each part caring about the others. If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored, the whole body will be happy." And then he applies the above analogies of the body parts in relation to the whole body to the one body of believers/followers of Christ. "Together you are the body of Christ. Each one of you is part of his body. First, God chose some people to be apostles and prophets and teachers for the church. But he also chose some to work miracles or heal the sick or help others or be leaders or speak different kinds of languages. Not everyone is an apostle. Not everyone is a prophet. Not everyone is a teacher. Not everyone can work miracles. Not everyone can heal the sick. Not everyone can speak different kinds of languages. Not everyone can tell what these languages mean... “This long discourse by Saint Paul about the analogies of the body parts to the body members of the Church precisely illustrates for us the point that the Church is composed of related and interrelating body members. Bottom-line: the Church is an aggregate of people. Free-lancer professers of the faith, therefore, do not make the Church. Individual isolationist believers, who precisely do not acknowledge the main body of believers, do not have the Christian foundation and the apostolic connection, which we shall explain to be important in an authoritative church. If they are to become authentic believers and professers of the faith in Jesus Christ, they must seek and become associated members of the Church of Christ. In the first place, as followers of Christ they must be baptized in the Church; and if they are baptized they are to have witnesses to their baptism as well as a minister of the baptism upon them. 

They thus, as in the analogy of Saint Paul, will necessarily NEED fellow members in the Church to minister to their sacramental needs as much the Church needs them to minister to the Church.

Along with the command to baptize new members of his Church, Jesus urged the disciples to continue building the Church by the disciples complying with his command of the Great Commission!  That Jesus intended His disciples to come to Him, not directly one on one but through His commissioned apostles was clearly stated by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20 what is called as the "Great Commission Verses". Jesus' mandate to His followers is the following: "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them TO DO EVERYTHING I HAVE TOLD YOU...." This is the commission of Jesus to all who follow Him. The commission to reach out to all people of the world, to make of the people followers of Jesus, to baptize the people in the Trinity, and to teach them TO DO,( i.e. to put into practice) all of Jesus' precepts/commandments and exhortations. Some could gather the impression they can realize the "Great Commission" through their individual proclaiming and championing of their understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But we shall explain here that this "Great Commission" is a commission for THE CHURCH to embrace as her mission to wage, and accomplish for Christ. This can never be just an individual task for anybody; and is not addressed just for individual action. Rather it is addressed to His Church because only His Church is empowered by Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit to assume the task and fulfill Christ's mission on earth. Christ's and the entire Trinitarian indwelling upon faithful believers/followers cannot be confined to mere individualistic indwelling by Christ, and the Trinitarian God-head. Whereas there is a personal element in the Faithfull’s uniting with the Triune God, God's uniting with individual believer/follower is necessarily oriented towards a communal uniting with the member believers/followers. That is why we have what is called the Mystical Body of believers/followers, also referred to by Saint Paul as the Body of Christ. This is what we are explaining here as the entity called the Church of Christ, or the Church founded by Christ.

Part Two

Jesus' Command of Love of One Another -- the Necessary Sequel Command to the Great Commission Command: "The" BONDING POWER given by Christ to the Communion of Loving Saints United to and by Christ  

The essence of Triune Unity is Divine Love. And so the essence of the Triune uniting with believers/followers has to be a union with and among all members’ believers/followers integrally as a community. Hence the relevance of Christ's words, "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there I am in the midst of them." In other words, Christ's presence, and the Divine Triune Presence is primarily where individuals are virtually manifesting the act of uniting or loving, i.e. the act of an intra-loving community. Again, we remember here Jesus' manner of identifying who His believers/followers are, namely they "... who love one another", i.e. a community where everybody mutually cares for each other. Forming part of the community in the name of neighborly love is chief among the commands the Lord requires of each baptized Christian according as the Great Commission obliges believers/followers. Thus, an individual believer realizes unless his faith expresses active uniting or loving for others, he cannot be a true believer of Christ, he cannot be known as His/Christ's "disciple".  Now contemplative hermits or monks, even if alone or physically apart from a community, for as long as he identifies himself/herself not apart from the Church where his individual life of prayer is united with the Church through sacramental bond like baptism into the Church, they are, thereby not to be considered as a hermit outside the Church. Moreover, by the power of the divine indwelling upon faithful believers, like Jesus says, the Spirit is able to sustain Christians. In view of this, Saint Paul writes, according as they "... drink from that same Spirit...” (1Cor 12:13) the Spirit enables members "... special ways of serving others" and "...decides which gifts to give...” to each member. (1Cor 12:11)  And so as long as believers listen to the Spirit, they should find their particular spiritual charisms by which to be of service to others in the Church. Sans the above mentioned divine indwelling, whether through association with charitable works or sacramental participation, the above referred to loud individualist proclaimed of a supposed Gospel of Christ is nothing more but some free lancer preacher of some sort. The Integral sympathetic/emphatic communion mutual laboring, albeit suffering of the members of the Church for the growth and well-being of the Church, of the Body of Christ.  Going back to Saint Paul's anatomical treatment of the Body of Christ, the Church Saint Paul emphasizes the relatedness of the Church members or community. He pointed out the fact that "... If one part of our body hurts, we hurt all over. If one part of our body is honored the whole body will be happy. Together you are THE BODY OF CHRIST. EACH OF YOU IS PART OF HIS BODY." 

1Cor 12:26-27 this is the organic character of the Church. The Church is indeed 

a living body of interrelated believers-followers. Exactly like Saint Paul's analysis of what happens within the physical human body if and when any part or parts is/are well or not well. If well, the whole body is well; if not well the whole body is not well. And so with Christ's Church. All of the Church felt the hurting and pain during the dark eras up to the reformation times, and even during these present-day times of moments of crisis in the Church. On the other hand, the Church is in jubilation each time one of its members has been pronounced a "Saint of God", i.e. where God and the Heavens assuredly declare this or that earthly pilgrim has become another of God's precious citizen of Heaven, and a proven "Soldier" of the Heavenly army. Though they count as individuals nevertheless their pronounced "total piety and blessedness" count supreme for the glorification of God in behalf of members of Christ's body, the Church. And so praise be to God, and let us look up to some of these acknowledged members of the Body of Christ, of the Church: Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Padre Pio, Saint Jose Maria Escriva, Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas, Saint Patrick, Saint Anthony, Saint Maria Goretti, Saint Dominic, Saint Rita, Saint Monica, Saint Teresas, Saint John Vianney, Saint John Bosco, Saint Junipero Serra, our very own Saint Lorenzo, plus our pioneering saints, Saint Irineus, Saint Polycarp, Saint Stephens, and on top of the list, namely the Apostles, and Saint Joseph, and Saint Mother Mary, and many more, who are all the crowning glory of the Church. Because we know very well what a tall order they have manifested: their complete living of the life of grace of Christ, i.e. their complete disavowal and rejecting of the life of the flesh, about which we all are very familiar to be very tough to profess to live by. As citizens of the world we know how much the flesh could pull us down into sinfulness. Yet as believers in God we know how precisely because of the power of grace we are enabled to live the life of grace, and therefore of virtues/of holiness. We are further to be edified by the admission to Heaven, though of lesser stature, of the many also blessed obscure or lesser known "saints" of the Church. These are namely the majority of our kinfolks and ancestors gone ahead of us, who spent some purification terms in Purgatory but who have finally been cleansed and purified and are now also in Heaven. And for a greater many who are yet serving their time in Purgatory we are not to be disheartened but rather be happy for them in so far as they have the opportunity of Purgatory cleansing or waiting moments in Purgatory, the significance of which is that one day they shall ultimately garner Heavenly and Divine union with God and the Saints. The same thing goes for us here yet on our earthly pilgrimage if we are staunch faithful followers and lovers of Christ.  Indeed, if we offer up our own kind of suffering on earth as well as our modest acts of charity we very probably are already doing penance for our sins, and our time or years of waiting through our type of earthly cleansing as Church militants or as pilgrims aiming for heaven; and so are possibly very close to being received to our real home in heaven upon our death.  Actually our foretaste of Heaven is already given us as we get to receive different forms of grace blessings now for being devoutly Spirit filled and faithful members of the Church.

In varying degrees all three memberships of the Church: the Church Triumphant (the Saints in Heaven), the Church Suffering (the souls in Purgatory), and the Church Militant (all of us yet pilgrims on earth) give glory to God, and contribute to the general well-being of the entire Church. But in particular the latter two are great beneficiaries of the entire Church. The Church Suffering benefit from the intercessionary grace-merits of the Saints in Heaven, and also from the meritorious acts of love by the Church Militants on earth. But like the Church Suffering (the souls in Purgatory), the Church Militants also benefit of the same intercessionary graces merited by the Saints in Heaven.  In so far as the Church Suffering, i.e. the souls in Purgatory, are, indeed, duly doing Purgatory cleansing and purification, or God's penance for justice their suffering are glorifying to God, and beneficial to the Church. Likewise, because of the faithfulness of the Church Militants, who are, thus, ardently resisting sins, and more importantly try their best in following Christ's command of love for neighbors, especially the needy, also are already glorifying God, and are being beneficial to the entire Church. It is with respect to the latter, the Church Militant that the whole Church is in greater or lesser state of pain. Each time a member or members in the Church Militant is or are restored from infidelity to fidelity, and therefore to real conversion to the faith Jesus says, "... There is great rejoicing in Heaven over one sheep that was lost and is found (a soul that repents), than over the rest of the sheep that stay in the flock". But imagine the greater sadness and pain the Church suffers because of unsolicited sudden painful tragedies and calamities which the innocent and helpless victims are made to bear due to inexplicable circumstances, and particularly by the acts of atrocities of the those enemies of Christ's followers.  But even more grieving to the Church are the members of the Church Militant who stubbornly test God's patience and justice because of their their dangerous activities bordering mortal offending of God, or of them sorry but knowingly wandering away from the faith. It is this mystery of the Communion of Saints whereby those rich in the graces of our Lord are made to sacrifice and atone for their needy brothers and sisters members in the Body of Christ, the Church. And as we have discussed a great deal in another section of this Our Mission Series, suffering is integral to the life of grace because of the believing sufferer's expression of total surrendering to the will of God. Hence, we could very well call also the Church Militant as, to some high degree also like the Church Suffering. As matter of fact, like we already pointed out earlier, they who faithfully persevere through their sufferings while on pilgrimage to Heaven will most likely because of the awesome mercy of God, no longer undergo that purgative suffering, for which purpose precisely God created the Purgatory. They may not be fruitfully edifying par excellence, and also may not be as marvelously drawing God approved manifestations of heavenly-like miracles while yet on earth; but because of their type of reclusive inner martyrdom God's infinite love and mercy grants them their direct tickets to heaven. ?The difference, however, between the two kinds of suffering by the Church Suffering and the Church Militant is that the suffering of the Church Suffering (those in Purgatory) is a non-stop paying of their dues. In Purgatory, the purifying souls are permanently wailing for their eventual union with God; i.e. no relief in their longing for the Heaven until their time is up. On the contrary, Church Militant members, though they might cry of real severe moments or incidents of painful oppression or persecution, both physical and mental, they, nevertheless, experience God given reprieve from the suffering or intervals of great spiritual consolations. Weak as we are for being human we have the tendency during moments of extreme desolation to call on God to terminate our earthly suffering and remove us from this world. Then we realize it’s not our time yet; and opportunely so. God's divine understanding and mercy act deaf to our momentary pleading in despair. For He certainly knew better; and we don't, that it is for our good to be spared as much as possible the tougher suffering of Purgatory if it is the case our penance due God is not done full justice yet. This is probably the main reason why the Church forbids assisted suicide for the very sick who may be in real great pain. For we are not to meddle with these retribution moments for supposed soul purification that could spare them even a worse suffering if eventually held up yet in Purgatory. After all, it is while on earth that we are availed by God of Jesus' offer of His yoke to buffer the seemingly unendurable earthly suffering. It’s there for our taking. But we need to take advantage of the maximum accessing of Christ's graces.

{We shall tackle more about the three categories of the Church Memberships of believers later when we expound in depth about the doctrine and mystery of the Communion of Saints of God, along with the topic on Indulgences on behalf of the Church Suffering Members (Purgatory souls).

Part Three: 

The Church/Body of Christ confined by and within Christ; and outside of Christ, outside of His Body the Church, there is no Salvation.

What consists being within the Church of Christ?  Who are the actual and eligibly virtual members of the One Body of Christ?  Now we are to continue discussing what belong to the Church Militants to obey and to do, according as commanded by Christ in the Great Commission, by which to realize the Lord's promise of an abundant life even on earth for true believers and followers of Jesus Christ as experienced only within and through the Church.

"Nulla salus extra ecclesiam!" Outside the Church there is no salvation! When we equate salvation to being gifted with the life of grace, then to be able to experience the explosion of graces which are for the taking by the believers they necessarily have to go to the Church if they want to be availed of the abundance of graces from Christ. In the first place, because the Church is the body of Christ where else will Christ's graces flow directly into but to His body? And as the body of Christ, the Church therefore is the direct reservoir of overflowing graces merited infinitely by the Lord Jesus Christ. We, therefore, have to be within the Church in order to partake of graces, and therefore of salvation. In contrast, those who are in the outside of the Church are logically without access to the graces. Hence, as they persist in not availing of the graces of Christ they are outside of salvation. Being an outsider means not believing in Christ. It is stated those that do not believe are already judged to condemnation. Individuals are outsiders who show unbelief by refusing to know and recognize Jesus Christ as our Savior. Individuals are outsiders who worship worldly goods and values instead of our transcendent most powerful Creator-Master- Being. Individuals are outsiders who refuse to acknowledge human sinfulness and who stubbornly and idolatrously are deluded by human grandeur and power, like their overestimating of externalized human benevolence or their teaching that man not God saves itself. E.g. Liberation Theology, Gender Homogeneity, Population Explosion & Population Control, Abortion, etc... And individuals are outsiders who do not abide by the Christ-given pastoring authority, revelation based truth teachings, and Christ centered sacrificial atonement to the Father. Early on Saint Peter already makes reference to this group of people who from the very beginning were blind to see the "corner-stone"- Savior, Jesus Christ. They were those who have believed in changes, reforms, and betterment of man without Jesus Christ. Saint Peter wrote,"... but it isn't precious to those who refuse to follow him. They are the builders who tossed aside the stone that turned out to be the most important one of all. They disobeyed the message and stumbled and fell over that stone because they were doomed..." 1Peter 2:7-8

On the other hand, when we analyze when and where alone we can and do experience how to be true insiders in the Christian faith we will realize we can find it only when by faith we act and profess genuine expressions of membership in the Church founded by Jesus Christ. Initially only if we receive baptism in the Christian faith can we begin to access salvation. Then after baptism the complete absorbing in the Divine Revelation and the most authentic and efficacious co-offering of our total surrender of self with Christ's sacrifice in the Liturgy of the Mass. Together with the Priest, we unite with Christ in the proclamation of God's truth of salvation, and in the perpetual celebration of the new covenant of love between God and mankind through Christ's eternal Calvary sacrifice as actualized in the Mass. Then with the outpouring of graces from the Mass specifically after the Eucharistic communion with Christ, the faithful community is enabled to sanctify community living through grace as channeled in the liturgy of the Mass. And so are sanctified the believers' work, family living, individual and communal prayers, and their genuine inner commitment to holiness or fidelity to God. Thus, their sanctified lifestyles get translated into day-to-day manifestation of faith, hope, and love in concrete and varied ways. Manifested, therefore, are acts of faith through hardships, toils, struggles, and temptations as believers steadfastly obey and comply with their job callings, or family duties. Manifested, too, are moments of hopelessness and despair, misunderstanding and conflicts, even near physical or emotional mishaps where the Christians show inner peace and greater resolve in trusting God ever more. Manifested, further, are situations of needs, physical or spiritual poverty, individual & social deprivations and state of shortcomings of deprived or impoverished people finding help and relief from their brothers and sisters of faith coming to the succor of their needs.  Christian witnesses, like these, show how they make a difference in coming to their aid.  In all of the above  real-life scenarios of human needs and wants alongside people's all around dealing with life conflicts & disagreements, and socially embroiling political obligations free from corruption, or stopped life dreams, or unfulfilled obsessions, and failed human enterprises Christians the  tackle and overcome obstacles and show they make a difference. They touch individual lives with lasting marks, whether through material assistance or through emotional and moral uplift. Examples are Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief & Services, and the Saint Vincent the Paul Society efficaciously aiding those in need non-stop. Notice, here too all other Christian and civic network charities also serving the needy. Further miracles of grace are the continuing works of the Legion of Mary members visiting the sick, the prisoners, the catechumens, the dysfunctional families with neglected children, or some parish families long away from the Church. Also edifying are the marvelous laboring by other Church ministries like The Knights of Columbus, The laymen's Opus Dei Movement, the Christian organizations Couples For Christ, and Singles For Christ, and all parish clubs all contributing to overall parish ministries. And segments throughout of succeeding generational epochal ecclesiastical fruitfulness have been the proliferation and abundant harvesting in the Lord's vineyards on the work for salvation by the "jewels" of the Church: namely the enumerable religious congregations of clergy, brothers, nuns, and lay ministers of the Franciscans, the Carmelites, including Mother Teresa's Sisters of Mercy, the Jesuits, the Augustinians, the Benedictines, the Passionists, the Dominicans, The Oblates of St Joseph, etc. Then not to be overlooked is the popularly edifying evangelizing by fundamental evangelists diligently spreading the word of the Bible, whether through networks of TV ministries or through widely scattered street evangelizing in many cities of the world.

Part Four

The Eucharist, the Great Church Gift & Opportunity 

As most beneficent for gathering strength when feeling weak and for our obtaining instant inner peace when troubled, thus, is this kind of gift which provides the fullest avail of the graces within the Church of Jesus Christ!  As the Church makes its community of believer’s beneficiaries of its wondrous fruits of graces, vice-versa the Church turns to itself for replenishment and inexhaustible supply of graces of Christ. For as the Church endures and blossoms from graces it received, it is from, through, and by the Church that its members seek the graces for their nourishing and growth in sanctification. For the Church is the main channel of graces. The Christian who submits himself/herself to the total mantle of care of the church will discover it is the secret way to experience on this journey to Heaven the fullest fulfillment of living. It is in and by the Church that the Christian will enjoy the abundant life that Christ promised to His true believers/followers. We, thus,at all times are to focus on what or who is the main fountain of graces within the Church, which is or who is Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.  After all the Church is the Body of Christ; so how else is the Church nourished, nurtured, and magnified but by the very body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Eucharist received and shared by all other parts/members of this Body of Christ, the Church?  That is why perfect devotion to the Eucharist cannot but yield to the devotee immeasurable abundance of graces. During the Eucharistic communion experience of the Christian devotee of Christ, the devotee testifies to the experience of peace and calm that could never be had from any mere human experience, including from even the sweetest love affair between couples. The every post Eucharistic communion experience renders all varieties of specific kind of inner joy. Like all of a sudden that impossible truce between couples springs up! Like sudden brainstorming occupational or career plans are breaking through! Like a stubborn boss, or work peer is all of a sudden out and away of our harm's way for good! Like some pestering colds or headaches magically disappear with a little help from a new found suggested pill! Like for once the sky looks so brightly cloudy, and the air soothingly relaxing! Like this time you get that greater clarity and resolve about how you could work your finances, with a little help from unsolicited offer of relief from well-off relations or some governmental agencies, etc....! As many devout receptions of the Eucharist there are there as many varying testimonies of great work of grace upon the individual or individual's circle of relations.  Hence, how essential it is for members of the Church to treasure as the most elevated the devotion to the Eucharist, and to mark with very special presence of mind the adoring availing of ourselves through the Church precisely this 'communion between and among the members of Christ per the Eucharist Sacrament, which Christ himself left of himself for his Body the Church until his Second and Final Coming.  So joy to the world again and again because even after Jesus went up to heaven, his natural repose and throne, he makes himself present again and again to every man and woman who unites with him by way of the loving embrace of or in the communion with the Eucharist.  But theologically, in other words per the doctrine of the Church based largely upon the very words of our Lord, His Eucharist is central to salvation.  We are ever to remember the imperative verses of John 6:53-54, which “states  ...unless you eat the flesh & drink the blood of the Son  ...you won’t live." In the Eucharist, i.e. communion with the body and blood of Christ, Jesus was again being very unequivocal and real. He said unless we really and actually eat of his flesh and drink of his blood we shall not have his life everlasting. Jesus as a man understands the physicality of love consummation. Union between two lovers involves personal physical union. Similarly most knowing of the act of human union, the God-man, Jesus desires and demands that we actually unite with him completely personally in a physical and divine manner. And by the mysterious power of his words transforming the bread and the wine into his very body and blood he made it possible for him to become part of us when we receive the Eucharist, i.e. by Holy Communion. John 6:56 "If you eat my flesh and drink my blood you are ONE WITH ME, and I am ONE WITH YOU."

Part Five

Fundamental fidelity with the conviction of faith, necessary in the expression of persevering commitment to the Church of Christ

In continuation, however, like we have professed in earlier Chapters and other Chapters treating of Mystical Body of Christ from its varied perspectives; we recall what we state that, as full pledged and genuine members of the Body of Christ, individual followers of Christ, for instance, would have had already their full journey of Christian conversion with all the requisite life faith experiencing, understanding, learning, and accepting via self denial & cross bearing, and the dying into the birth of the new life in Christ’s grace. More and more of each one of them would have had by then a living understanding of grace as signifying abundant life with the consequential actual abundant living in spirituality by the power of grace. These would have realized what manner of life verifies or conforms to the truth of Jesus' words about living his life of grace and, therefore, of virtue. These individuals would have understood somehow what is meant when Jesus says: "He who .... Loses his life will save it." They would have accepted the significance of the Cross when speaking of this life of spirituality. They would have embraced the exemplifying lifestyle that spells out true commitment and dedication to the faith whereby as individual believers/followers they manifest themselves delivered or freed by the power of grace from any semblance of attachment to the goods of this world. In other words, they would have attained the level of worldly detachment such that it horrifies them the notion of ever betraying their love for God over momentary turncoat affection and desiring for worldly pleasure, honor, power, or wealth in any manner contradictory to their fidelity to God. By the grace of their new-found mental lucidity they would have become convinced of the inadequacy of the worldly goods which try to compete against the laws of God. By the grace of faith they would have become infused with the spiritual vision and ardor at lovingly cherishing and safeguarding the privileged and gratuitous experience through grace of the divine indwelling within them. And finally, they never ever would want relinquishing such heavenly-like Divine habitation within them in favor of the seductiveness of the worldly goods. We, thus, mark the above extraordinary beneficence and favor directly from God to the believers-members of the Body of Christ, namely the genuinely supernatural dimension of their uplifted vertical horizon of the life in grace, which "magnifies" their being and existence as man, in the manner that the Virgin Mary herself declares how she magnifies the Lord in her being, by the actual fuller habitation within them by the Holy Spirit, and therefore by the Triune Divinity Itself. As Saint John wrote the very words of Jesus, "If anyone loves me (Jesus) he will obey me. Then my Father will love him, and we shall come to him, and live in him." John 14:23-24 how unimaginable the total scope of meaning of actually having God, the Divine Trinity within us! The plentiful days of the rest of our individual lives are not enough to unravel the divine unfolding of the Godhead within and around our lives. This is, within but beyond time, the incessant contemplation of the Infinite Being dwelling in us. This is, within but beyond time, the hosting accessibility of divine inspirations within our puny minds. In effect, this is, within but beyond time, some personal revelation from God how praying to the Almighty without ceasing, as prescribed to the believers by Saint Paul, become supernaturally do-able by humans notwithstanding their weak ‘flesh’. In the words of our brother fundamentalist evangelists, when the believers/followers of Christ have arrived at that moment when they have become born again; that is also the moment which they define to be the "security of salvation". Once saved, really saved from day to day! For indeed, Saint John writes, "God's children cannot keep on being sinful. His (Christ's) life-giving power lives in them and makes them his children; so that they cannot keep on sinning." 1John 3:9 this brings us to the conditionality whereby somebody has become a member of the Church of Christ. It is that conditionality of being committed in fidelity to Christ or to Christ's teachings and commandments.  It is this conditionality, the marvelous gift of faith endowed upon believing 'members of the Body of Christ", and safeguarded dearly and protectively by grace, by which is miraculously 'epiphany'/given witness the precious 'heaven on earth' pre-eschatological Christian abundant living only known and enjoyed by the children of God on this earth.  And so, like already stated, the following of Christ's teachings and commandments produce within the people of faith what is called the life of holiness or the reality of the sanctified people of God, i.e. the multitudinal elects of God securely anointed by the Spirit who totally accept the will of God as they bear fruits of graces in their individual lives in the community. And per the graces from the reception of the sacraments, their spirituality grows and develops enabling their progressing and maturation in holiness: the metanoia conversion of their hearts & minds absolutely turned on only for God. Hence, they are, in each era, the believing faithful who have become the children of God, or the special elects of God, as confirmed for us by Saint Peter. From the verses in 1Peter 2:4-5, and 2:9 Saint Peter right away moved from the imagery of a mere structure of stone or edificial church into the notion and defining of what is the chosen people of God. 1Peter 2:9-10 continues with the following verses: "But you are God's chosen and special PEOPLE. You are a group of royal priests and A HOLY NATION. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say, 'Once you were nobody. Now you are God's PEOPLE. At one time no one had pity on you. Now you get treated you with kindness by God Himself." From the perspective of a Church building Saint Peter immediately moved to the perspective of the people of God, a community of God. For this is what, within but beyond time, has become transformed as the Church of Christ which He founded, the united people of God which have completely identified with Christ on account of the Christ-like lives and personalities of these newborn children of God via the grace from the Holy Spirit. In Chapter 4: The Kingdom of God, we make reference to the Kingdom of God founded by Christ, which he initiated from among his first true converts andbelievers/followers. These individuals, each bunch within its own era in time, which we called the first saints of God, have become the first bunch of the faithful who have professed total faith and discipleship in Christ via both their testimony of absolute embracing of His teachings and commandments, and their remarkable offering up of their lives in complete obedience to the will of God. These, within but beyond time, are God’s new chosen people, who professedly love the One and Only God, and who unashamedly reach out in love for others. They are the true people of God on account that they reflect the loving image of God, which is the true essence of God. This thus is the Kingdom of God, namely the united people of God, united with God and with one another. In other words, as a people called by Christ to follow him they are the Church of Christ. This Church is the same one Jesus called to belong to the Kingdom of God. Hence, this Kingdom of God is the Church of Christ, and vice-versa, the Church is the Kingdom of God.

Examples or great witnesses of faith fidelity among certain members of the Church of Christ

Thus, within history, we see this continuous realizing of the Church when, for example, a Saint Francis of Assisi has duplicated his individual loving and serving of God in terms of the thousand true Franciscans who have followed him for Christ, and have imitated their founding Master in the manner of following Christ. Then, we have come to witness this happening repeated over again in the persons of other "men of God" as we see the same thing happening to for instance, Ignatius of Loyola, who like St. Francis totally dedicated his life the service of God; but which total personal life dedication, likewise, has been copied continually, or has multiplied in terms of the many similarly service dedicated-to-God Jesuits of different eras that have piously lived their lives like their leader predecessor, St. Ignatius. Thus, we see this same duplication of a life lived for God in the witnesses of many other Religious Founders-Saints, who converted from their previous worldly living into sanctified living for God. Like in the above, we have seen this in a former great sinner turned great saint, St Augustine and his many true missionary Friars of the Augustinian Order. We say, thus, this way the above have made the people of God multiply; and consequently, have made the Church grow. We see this continuing process of the re-‘creation’ of the Church, or the re-‘creation’ of the people of God in the same duplicated missionary life & work of St. Francis de Sales, e.g. per the many true Salesian Brothers in different places of the world propagating St. Francis de Sales’ spirit of Christian education. Moving on, moreover we are to recall and realize them other Saints of the Church that have done the very same thing: the living of individual and community and missionary Gospel lives, i.e. actual deeds of Christian love zealously observed and given testimony for in the name of Jesus. In the process, therefore, they have continually been promoting, edifying, and prospering the One People of God founded by our Lord Jesus Christ. Recall, again, thus the same proliferation of the Church/People of God under the names of the St. Theresa’s, or of Mother Theresa into subsequent ‘Theresian’ communities of followers for Christ, of St. Claire into similar communities of women/nuns living their lives after the Francis-like example and Congregational leadership of St. Claire , of a St. Dominic into a community of Dominican followers for Christ, of St. Don Bosco into a community of Don Bosco followers for Christ, of St. Fr. Jose Maria Escriva into the community of Opus Dei workers for Christ, etc.. .

Primarily the main ground and chief fellowship by which believers are bonded truly together as a powerful, universal multitude people of God is, and we are being repetitive here but justifiably in so far as who we are repeating importance here is our Lord Jesus Christ  via the repeated Christ commended Eucharistic Calvary Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated daily by each Catholic Priest throughout the world during this time and throughout the entire Christian era up to the end of time. For this is not only a fellowship and unity in the Lord of local communities of each faith congregation from whichever place and at whichever time of the day or night gathered together. More magnificently and grandiosely in this celebrating is present the Triune God and is directly participated and joined in also by the entire inhabitant Saints of heavens, including the Angels.  Thus, during every Mass, especially right at the Consecration part of the Mass when the Eucharist Jesus is adored as the Lord of All, along with local worshipers are adoring much more reverently all the Angels and Saints of Heaven. This is the Church, the People of God, and the Holies/Saints of God in-unity before the Most Majestic Triune God. This is, Par Excellence, the assembly of the faithful of God. This is the Mystical Body of Christ.  And as regards those not physically present or disposed church member believers that cannot participate in the Calvary Sacrifice/Mass there is one Devotion very close to the supreme devotional characteristic of the Mass, where Christ Himself is the object of devotion, of worship. This is the recently instituted and propagated worshiping of God the Father via the Devotional communal praying of the Divine Mercy Devotion, which the former Pope John Paul II instituted the Divine Mercy Devotion.  Accordingly as commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ himself upon Sr. Faustina, on account of the great sins committed by the people of the present day, the Lord Jesus pitied the fate of the people – who are so ever in need of the forgiveness of God lest they go into perdition of hell. And so Jesus revealed to Sr. Faustina how infinitely vast the mercy of the Father is upon all sinners; if only they could be brought by grace and opportunities through an open heart into the overflowing mercy graces of God which is as vast as the ocean in un-limitedness for accessing and use by willing needy souls. And so as instituted and propagated by the late John Paul II, and as followed through by millions of volunteering praying devotees, the people of God is welcoming the return of many lukewarm souls or lost souls per the obediential praying of these millions of Divine Mercy Devotees. We could only surmise how this Divine mercy generosity of the Heavenly Father is replenishing the people of God with restored lost souls of the world.

Part Six

Particular Value of the 'Christ-like fruitful sacrificial suffering merits of certain members of the Church', who are called to martyr-like suffering at certain moments in time, including the suffering by Church Suffering Members in Purgatory 

Most pro-actively, however, there is one invariable means which the Heavenly Father uses time and again throughout time up to before eternity per the merit of Christ’s redemptive sacrificial work. This is the willing and cooperative individual acts, or group ACTS of personal suffering by way of  sickness, poverty, or hardships of whatever form by souls chosen by God, and agreeing with God in their offering up their sacrificial suffering united with Christ’s total human suffering. These are, for example, the simple souls throughout the world and throughout generations, who willingly accept of their many trials and 

tribulations, whether physiological or mental, individually or as a group. Christ’s obedient sacrificing was most pleasing to the Heavenly Father for which the Scriptures stated Christ was most gloriously rewarded. Similarly, the people’s obedient sacrificing, individually or as a group, is most pleasing to Almighty God; and thus should be most effective at bringing back to God many, many souls all needing the merciful graces of the Lord Jesus Christ. And whereas it is easy to imagine bunches of individuals or people saddled by even unwanted hardships and sufferings, including poverty, sicknesses, and painful dying/deaths; hence, this implies the equally numerous chances of individuals accepting God’s will for each one of them to be offering up their individual crosses or personal suffering.  These souls' greatest acts of faith with their Christ united acts of suffering with Christ as the one altogether united lamb of God offered up to the Father in the name of love and sacrificing in behalf of the sins of mankind.  This reality marks the ultimate union with Christ of His Body, the participating salvation collaborators with Christ of the people of God.  By their union with Christ, the Son of the Father, they in effect have become supremely elevated into the God ordained union of God's people with God. And so realize how divinely glorified each one and all souls who shall have been received into this most lofty status of union with God!  Realize now, then, the truth behind the Beatitude: blessed are, they, indeed, who are poor and persecuted in the name of God, in love for God as to this estate they shall finally belong and be fulfilled, be happy: becoming the blessed of and with God.  In so far as to this is promised and is granted such most opportune estate for souls called by God to be poor, and to live poorly by all facets of ways.  And in particular, realize how many people of poor countries get invited by the Lord for this type of sacrificial calling. Realize as well how many people all over are suffering from one sickness or another: i.e. another target group God invites to suffer up for Christ. Then, circumstantially, imagine all the more the endless situations when every individual human being is putting up with some ordeal or negative predicament of one type or another: i.e. some type of no-fault personal hardship and another. Again, a most well spread target area of endlessly enumerable individuals, who have become invited by Christ to offer up their individual suffering sacrificing united with Christ for Christ’s salvation intentions of needy souls or sinful souls. This satisfaction of the universal needs of souls, everywhere and always wherever especially souls are in need, is essentially accounted for by the divine events and realities of God’s Incarnation and Salvation of the world through Jesus Christ. Specifically this is understood and realized via the Mystery of the Communion of Saints within Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church or the People of God/the Holy of God. It is in this context how the Church applies and makes it understood the teaching of the use and beneficence of Church promulgated system of "indulgences". I.e., according to the intent, conditions, and formats that the Church has formulated, sacra mentally certain acts of prayers have been and are taught and ordained by the full authority of the Church as tools or aids upon the believers’ use and convenience for purposes of some degree of Divine cancellation of souls’ requisite ‘punishments’ in Purgatory because other pious souls prayed for them. One constant Church condition, among others, is that the person seeking for the "indulgence" to be granted is that he or she has to be in the state of grace during the time he/she petitions for the specific indulgence. There are even some "indulgences", called Plenary Indulgence, by which the prayed for souls, by the divine mercy of God, gain complete or total dispensation of their supposed purification/sanctification Purgatory suffering. 

(For the understanding of and about the Church’s teachings on Purgatory, we hope to provide in the future a special full discussion on this matter. e.g. Sub-Chapter on Divine Mercy, the Purgatory).

Part Seven

The Communion Aspect of being Members of the Church of Christ as particularly effective and interceding per the Church Triumphant' continuous praying on behalf of their yet needy fellow members of the Church awaiting final reward as well of Christ's heavenly destiny for all his faithful members of the Church  

Specially so do the members of the Body of Christ, by the wonder of grace, give a most apt and relevant testimony on behalf of this teaching and reality of the communion of all saints with God with respect to the following evangelicals' questioning of the Catholics’ practice of praying to the saints, including to the Virgin Mother, Mary. The question, namely: how exactly do we, and can we ask prayer favors from this Saint or that Saint, or for that matter, from Mother Mary? They say they only pray to Jesus Christ because rightly so, Christ is God, who not only has the power to grant whatever needs or wishes addressed to him; but also that he indeed as God is omnipresent and can see everything and everyone in the whole universe and the heavens. Whereas the saints, including Mary are human beings; and so can they literally "see" any particular person here or there, now or yesterday, or in the future, who would be addressing them in particular prayers for particular souls in need? (We certainly readily accept with ease the phenomenon and the magic of the world’s satellites enabling of peoples all over the world to directly relate and interact between one another both by sight and by sound! How can we prevent God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and infinite love and mercifulness to grant similar ability for God’s "saints" to relate to God’s human creatures in the fashion of direct spiritual communing between them?)

Once again we want to recap our exuberant beholding of the existing Kingdom of God established by Christ right amidst this sinful world.  When Christ redeemed the world He created the beginning of the new earth. From sinful men and women, the Saints have been made holy, i.e., sanctified and purified by Christ's sacrificial life, death and resurrection. With Christ as the Head the pioneer holy ones, the Saints, together with the Angels of Heaven became the milestone beginning of the Church, the body of Christ, the start of the Kingdom of God on earth. Exactly, therefore, those previously men and women of sins were changed into men and women of virtues through Christ's graces, and made possible Christ's founding of the Kingdom of God on earth. And this Kingdom flourishes, or the Church continues to grow as more and more generations of mankind within time and history until judgment day get to turn to Christ, get to believe and follow Christ. And this as more of the believing mankind, by the abundant graces accrued to the Church, become members by conversion and grace precisely through Jesus Christ and his same Body, the Church.

 The summary of the Gospel of Salvation that we are critically but gladly urged upon is the fact that Jesus Christ has come down to humanity. He has died and paid with his blood for our sins. And he has risen from the death as a testament that now the power of sin is overcome. Now a new life of man is begun. And He came that we may have that life, and has it abundantly. He said as we eat of his flesh, and drink of his blood and thus unite ourselves very intimately with Jesus we are receiving that new life, which is also everlasting. But that life 

is to satisfy us was implied by the Lord when He said when you drink of the water I give you will never thirst. I.e. when we receive this new life we shall not grow weary of it. It will permanently nourish, 'reinvigorate', and 'dynamite' itself. By way of example, our Popes of these late decades are living testaments to such happiness on account of the Gospel. They radiate this happiness in them through to all segments of the people the world over, particularly the youths (e.g. per the continuing World Youth Day events every so often, etc...).

Aside from Jesus' REAL PRESENCE IN THE EUCHARIST, indeed, we are always gifted plenty of manifestations, or testimony of God's presence on earth with us, which Jesus most formally initiated during the Wedding Feast at Cana with the presence of his Mary, his mother and the Apostles --- and thus per this type of and referring to/and living by the Church founded by Christ. This fact affords all men great opportunities of really being united with Christ right here on earth before the eternal heaven bliss with God! This is Heaven on earth! Through the most elevated manner of interpersonal love union, in the Eucharist every communicant becomes one with the Divine Reality. And as each one become one with Christ, each together with Christ become one with all others as one body with Christ. This characterizes the unitive aspect of the faithful through the Eucharist. With the act of receiving communion every human being is in a state of heaven. This is the form par excellence of God's Kingdom amidst this sinful and imperfect world. The communities of earthly believers of each generation are embodied precisely as communities by the devotion to and reception of the body and blood of Christ. They comprise God's Kingdom in time and space. These Eucharistic ally devoted believing churches are the Kingdom of God within the world. It is the Kingdom opposed and super interposed against the Kingdom of this world. . Such communities of every generation and of every nation front themselves as the New Cities of God in the world. Saint Augustine introduced the concept of the divided city, or the concept of two cities, The City of this World versus The City of God, or The Kingdom of the World against The Kingdom of God on earth.

Part Eight 

The Unity between and among Church Members, Christ's Prime Concern for the Church, "That they (... other members of his Body may be united), be one with his Church, his One Body even as they already are virtually in union with his Church by their fellowship per the Words of God, per Christ as the Truth 

Some members-citizens of the City of God are those, who although sharing the Christian mark of baptism into the fold of God's faithful on earth yet have not begun to enjoy the unitive experience of relationship with the God-Emmanuel. There are our brothers and sisters in the Christian faith who have not received the gift of the Eucharist. They have, however, been incorporated into membership in the City of God community via their illuminative "union" or contemplation of the truthfulness of God. They fully appreciate the "knowledge" aspect of the God made man. They manifest their discipleship to Christ by their proclamation of the Lord as the Word come down from the Father. They, indeed, recognize in Jesus the image and the nature of the God-head come down to earth. They accept Jesus as the revelation of the Transcendent God of Heaven. Somehow they acknowledge in his person the love of the Father for mankind. But their expression of a welcome and acceptance of the faith consist more in terms of the fullest rationalistic 

understanding and testimony to the Divine truths of the faith. Their witness to God consists in proclaiming God's teachings. Their particularly absolute belief in the Bible is the fundamental basis of their faith. God's revelation is the spoken words of God as they believe to be found only in the Bible. Their zeal for God, however, is demonstrated by their zeal for the words of God.

From both the unitive and illuminative characteristics of this City of God 

radiate and emanate explosions of God's graces amidst these holy men and women of the world. They are indeed an unmistakable presence of God in the world. They are the light of the world; they are the salt of the earth. They conquer the world's darkness of ignorance and misunderstanding. They preserve the world's vestiges of sanity, and unity, and progress.

The Body of Christ per the Belonging Base Units of the human race, the Domestic Families throughout the world, and of all generations. 

  But nowhere are the explosions of these Eucharistic graces manifested as in the devoted loving family sub-communities of such City of God. The reality of the existence of God's love is exactly demonstrated proof positive by every faithful, fervent, and productive union between a husband and a wife blessed in sacred matrimony by God, by the Church. Intrinsically between the loving couple is the Spirit power of oneness and self-giving that bears all kinds of fruit, both physical offspring and spiritual offspring, within and around the couple's immediate family, clan, and relations, whether by blood or by friendship or by political affinities, e.g. their immediate village or town, nationally or even globally. Hence, these are examples, thus, of real explosions of graces from God.

Through the illuminative gifts of the members of the City of God, these 

Christian communities of God enjoy the vital help and support of guidance and intellectual strength derived from the devotedness and fidelity to the words of God. But with the unitive characteristic of the City of God, this Kingdom of God on earth, or its communities of believers are anchored in the very foundation of the total Person of Christ: the Word himself in his very body and blood, and Divinity.

 Unitively and illuminatively, all members of the City of God, also called 

pilgrims on the way to Heaven, mark themselves out as the holy people of God distinct and separate from the people of the world or the City of the World.  (And of course, this is the same Mystical Body of Christ that we are referring to throughout this chapter discussion.) 

Now one further basic element of the Body of Christ cherished by our late John Paul II is the Christian family.   Whether blessed unitively or illuminatively, by the metaphysical context through which we perceive the widest incorporating of the members within the Body of Christ, the Christian families are the marginal units of the City of God. Pope John Paul II writes: "In our times, it is essential to deepen everyone's personal commitment to helping enrich this primary and vital cell of society. It should not be forgotten, in the general planning of ecclesial activities, that the family is the first and principal path of the Church. Awareness of its central value for evangelization must imbue the whole structure of diocesan pastoral care_... Familiaris consortio (the Pope's encyclical on the family) insists most particularly on the rights of the family for which it is as it were a Magna Charta."

The Christian families please God for heeding His admonition to use the family as the initial springboard to glorify God. Christian families become the building blocks of the greater communities of believers and children of God. As families they insure the beginning of the faith in their children. As families together forming larger communities with other families they insure to safeguard the faith passed on from ancestors through generations; and thus insures the continuity and unity among the people of God in pilgrimage. Pope John Paul II stated: "As everyone knows, wherever the Church has been unable to carry out her usual work of evangelization, it has frequently been families that have preserved and maintained the faith, passing it on to the new 

generations. This function proper to the family as the first teacher of its new members expresses the true vocation and mission of Christian parents, whose primary responsibility involves their children's human and religious formation." But precisely because of the unitive or illuminative gifts of these communities of believing Christian families, namely its gifts of love and understanding, pardon and personal repentance for sins, unity and community building, selflessness and mutual generosities through the graces of the Holy Spirit the survival and prevalence of the City of God among men is ascertained. And through each and all member families of the communities under the City of God the reign of God's peace is made real.

Part Nine

(A brief reiteration of Chapter 1 About the Kingdom of Christ), Re: The Kingdom of God on Earth 

 Now, the Supplementary Sub-Topic Discussion Important and instrumental towards the Building up of the Body of Christ, Brief Introducing of the Sacraments:

Here's some detailing of the manifold working of graces as channeled through us by each one of the other six sacraments. Here's, moreover, a general tackling, with a bit of wonder, how these other sacraments do with the pious receptions of them. First, let us try to understand better the sacrament of the holy orders, the sacrament of ordination to the Priesthood. In the first place by virtue of their vocation to leave the lifestyle of the world Priests already enjoy the grace-effected choice of not being buckled and stressed by the demands of worldly living. Jesus said the "workers are worthy of their calling", referring 

to the right of Priests to receive of worldly bounties from the people they minister to. So Priests don't have the hassles and pressures of regular occupational or career challenges and setbacks. Then also by vocational choice having without spouses and children to attend to, Priests are further freed from the consuming obligations and personal services or caring for a spouse and children. For one thing his spiritual focus and attention does not have to be divided between the spiritual & the lofty thoughts in one level and the mundane and carnal on another, albeit, lower human level. With respect to the Priests that belong to the congregational religious orders of the Priesthood, they even have a greater advantage of belonging to a religious community, whose schedule and order of each day help facilitate the precisely spiritual and lofty dimensions of their Priestly lifestyle. For these Priests not only eat, study, and play together, they also precisely say frequent prayers together, and even attend to their religious ministries if not in two's (as actually recommended by the Lord) even in groups or committees. By far the greatest advantage of the Priests and Religious is their opportunity to dedicate all of their heart, mind and body to the service and ministry of the Lord and of the Church. With their relatively ample degree of seclusion away from worldly distractions, and specially with their intensive schedule of devotional exercises of saying Mass, communal prayers, individual recitation of the "office"(breviary set of prayers each day), constant exposure to the Scriptures and holy spiritual readings, as well as by self-enriching ministering activities to others through Gospel teaching and evangelization the Priests are by all means saturated with different and plentiful moments of graces. Priests cannot but be a specially predilection species of men. Whereas indeed they have denied themselves of the world, on the other hand they are assuredly returned more blessings by God even right now. One very special grace they receive upon ordination is an indelible sign of Priesthood which forever marks them as Priests forever, distinguishing them from other believers/followers. But their more blessed gifts of graces to themselves are the very blessings which they endow upon the faithful each time they exercise their Priestly faculties. Together, they and the faithful are blessed each time with their hands they instrumentally transform the bread and wine substances into the 

blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ by which believers united with Christ sacrificially atone to the Father for human sinfulness, and through which same sacrificial banquet the believers unite with the Divine via the mystical dietary consummation of the Lord Jesus into their individual selves. Together, they and the faithful are blessed each time they absolve "in persona Christi" the Faithfull’s confessed sins. Together, they and the faithful are blessed each time they "lay their hands" sacramentally upon the sick faithful where he/she is healed of his/her physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual illness. 

Together, they and the faithful are blessed each time they preach the Word of God, where the faithful get spiritual faith enlightenment and the Priests get to become conduits of the Divine Spirit. Together, they and the faithful are blessed each time the faithful are led by the Priests in communal prayers that reach up to the high heavens by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by virtue of the reality of the "communion of saints" with all the Saints in Heaven, who are forever interceding for all the faithful both on earth and in Purgatory. Together, they and the faithful are blessed with abounding graces each time the faithful are administered again and again all the other sacraments, e.g. the 

sacrament of baptism, sacrament of confirmation, and the sacrament of matrimony.

Now the Church's Sacrament of Penance channels similarly abundant overflowing of graces to repentant sinners. We have touched on this under the chapter on The Kingdom, the Life of Holiness. And we shall discuss this again when we treat on the topic of the Church's Authority and Magisterium, and the Apostolic character of the Church. At this point, however, it is important to point out the fact that from the practical dimension we cannot overemphasize the great beneficence and utility of the Sacrament of Penance. First, as regards beneficence the Church avails the penitent immediate rescue from his sinful state and makes him/her ready for any imminent moment of death after every confession. Then as regards utility, the Church on a regular basis provides the Christians relief from their fear, guilt, and remorse as well as delivers to them the best restorer of genuine inner peace after a lapse in fidelity to God.

As regards the Church's Sacrament of the Laying of Hands or Ordination, although we have dealt on this in some particular light above, the other point of importance to highlight here is the fact of the continuity of the succession of evangelistic mission and ministering beginning from the Lord Jesus through the Apostles, then to all their successors up to the present day of the Christian era, i.e.  the Church tradition through the ages of the anointing with hand by the power of the Holy Spirit as ordered by Jesus Himself to His apostles, and as 

performed by the apostles and all Christian disciples on successor-ministers of the faith with the laying of their hands on the heads of the candidates. Who were those empowered by Peter, Paul, and the rest of the 12? They were and are no other than all the succeeding ministers or Priests and Deacons ordained by the above and their successors testifying to the apostolic and universal character of the Church. That is to say this unbroken chain of "laying of hands" between generations of apostles and disciples of Christ manifests to the traceability of the Church to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the extensive universality of reach and membership circa all history and around the world. We shall touch this again more extensively when we take up the topic of the Church 

Authority and the Magisterium. But considering the history of turmoil and controversy within and around the Church, it is only by the wonder of grace that the Church as predicted by Christ has survived all the destabilizing and undermining forces and movements that tried and still continue to upend, even destroy the Church. But the sacramental "unction"/anointment handed over by the Lord Jesus upon the Apostles, and re- confirmed by the Holy Spirit, and then successively transferred through generations of clerical ordinations has remained unbroken and alive.

As regards the Sacrament of Confirmation, to it are equally relevant the above explanations about the Sacrament of Ordination as we recall here the scene of the first Pentecost Sunday; and as we remember the multitude of conversions to the faith because of that massive confirming act by the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and others, including on the Blessed Mother Mary, who were with the apostles during the coming down of the Holy Spirit. And call to mind the statement above about the repeated anointing with hand through the power of the Holy Spirit as predicted by Jesus Himself, and as acted on by the apostles and all Christian disciples through the ages during their moments of laying of hands upon succeeding ministers of the faith. Who were those empowered by Peter, Paul, and the rest of the 12? They were and are no other than all the succeeding ministers or Priests and Deacons ordained by the above and their successors testifying to the apostolic and universal character of the Church. That is to say this unbroken chain of "laying of hands" between generations of apostles and disciples of Christ manifests to the traceability of the Church to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the extensive universality of reach and membership circa all history and around the world. Even in our present generations, by way of the indefatigable shepherding and pastoring of our venerable Pope John Paul II, we are witnesses to the international travelling and reaching out by this Vicar of Christ as it invokes the "unction" of the Holy Spirit, and the immeasurable working of grace in extending the mission and reach of Christ's Church? Greater than has ever been done in the past, Pope John Paul II has covered most countries of the world in obedience to the Lord's mandate of the Great Commission to baptize and Christianize the people of the world. The wondrous thing is that the Pope has been at it almost non-stop despite his mature years, and his very ill body.

Then the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. Now one most unused sacramental channels of grace is the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Except for the sending of the "viaticum", which is the personal hand-delivering of the Eucharist by a lay Eucharistic Minister to bedridden Catholics, this sacrament is often least appreciated by the Christians, and least exercised by the Priests. For some reasons modern and contemporary culture has created the orientation that when you are sick your first and usual recourse is to go to the doctor or to the hospital. And when financially prevented to go to neither a doctor nor the hospital services, the mindset of the sick is to somehow go the way of self-medication, or some physical way of offsetting the sickness. And even when the illness has gone serious or terminal still the mindset of the sick as well as of his care providers is that of yet chasing that famous doctor specialist to somehow get the cure. The sciences of medicine have their own value and effectiveness. As a matter of fact sciences ultimately are the end-results of divine truths and wisdom. All discoveries in sciences are unfolding of the awesome body of divine truths little by little grasped by generations of thinking minds. Yet still, people all over the world get sick, and need to get well whether they are availed or not of medical assistance. And whereas medical assistance is tied to some financial constraints accessibility of the power of healing through grace is always handy and "gratis"/free for the asking by the Christians! There is no contradiction between the physical and spiritual healing of the sick. And we are not to substitute one for the other. Because, as already has been said, the two ultimately are all traceable to God's omnipotence and providence. But our stance here is only to make sure we do not denigrate spiritual healing in lieu of physical or medical cure. The Lord Jesus demonstrated multiple times His curing of many sick or ill people without evident use of scientific physical medicines. The same applies to the examples of healing performed by His Apostles. In the present times we must seek more often the recourse to the healing powers of the anointed hands of the Church ordained, specifically widely renowned pious Church clerics or holy Christian believers. Aside from this sacrament, greater recourse and appreciation of actual healing activities by the Church is taking place on almost a daily basis via its especially sacred shrines. Many miracles have been attributed to the sacramental holy water of the Lourdes Shrine in France. The same is true with Our Lady's shrine at Fatima in Portugal, and in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia as they report of multitudinous occurrences of miracles credited to the visits at these shrines. Another sacred religious shrine responsible for accounts of similarly countless miracles, including healing miracles is the Shrine of Saint Joseph in Canada. Then, it is to the credit of the Church that each time one of its pious believers has been confirmed a "Saint" of the Church, certain individuals who asked for the saint's intercession received a grace of healing. Throughout the history of the Church many events of miraculous healings have been on record by virtue of the canonization of the many "Saints" of the Church.

Marked iterating of "the value significance of the suffering sacrifices" offered-up by them: suffering members of the Church in each moment of time, and throughout the life of the Church   

There are a million dimensions by which to view the Church administering of the wonders of grace to the faithful. With the divine character of grace its application and reach is unlimited! God's ways are manifold and unfathomable and so God's graces are abundant and timeless in effectiveness! Hence, there are many more areas we could endlessly incorporate by which both the Church and the Christians can witness the grace of Christ is at work. And this site will try to expound on most of them, God willing, in future eventualities. Let us just for this moment pay our attention to these other realms necessarily affected by the mysterious Spirit-working of grace! So what are these other venues over which the Church funnels us graces? How about the million channels of individual prayers, at million individual times? How about the graces from dedicated reading and studying of the Scriptures? How about the different works of mercy? How about many a real act of charities? After all aren't these the situations where the Lord unmistakably points out His divine presence as actualized by His followers? How about the apostolate of evangelizing, or gospel preaching not necessarily by His ordained ministers but by the million Christians through generations? Notice, too, the different spiritual ministries, or auxiliary services by the Priests, Deacons, or Evangelical Preachers? Then we already talked about the invisible and mystical effects of embraced holy and Christian sufferings?  This is the most pervading manner how grace makes all of the above fit, and serves on behalf of the Church?

As we repeat referencing to the Church as the One/United Body of Christ  we have designated in Chapter Four the essential referencing to The Kingdom of God.  We identified this Kingdom of God which was founded by Christ and which he initiated per his first true converts and believers/followers, to have started what we called the first saints of God.  They were the first bunch of individuals who professed their total faith and discipleship to Christ via their testimony of absolute embrace of His teachings and commandments, and their remarkable offering up of their lives in complete obedience to the will of God. As the 'new people of God', as the People of God in God's New Covenant in Christ, they constitute the beginning of the Kingdom of God. This is why up top we have been identifying the Church as the chosen people of God. In other words, the Kingdom of God is the Church, and vice-versa, the Church is the Kingdom of God.

There is one very distinct dimension about the Catholic Church of Christ through Christ's tabernacle presence even after He has left for heaven.   Having said all of the above discourse about the Church not being a mere edifice or social entity but Christ's Mystical Body in its total magnitude unconfined to earth and unbound by time and space; nonetheless this Church owns up and cherishes its most distinguishing blessing distinct specifically to Catholics, namely all the identifiable Catholic faith sanctuaries tabernacles all over the world, i.e. the ubiquitous standing edificial or building Catholic "churches" , from where the Divinely present Christ, the Eucharist, most generously, gratuitously, and patiently calls and awaits individual souls seeking badly needed comfort, solace, and relief over their burdens of the day. The faithful do not have to await the End-Times, nor do they have to already pass on to the next life to be able to meet God. Right on this pilgrim life the Church is blessed with the grace of affording the faithful actual daily, even in some places 24-hour encounter with Jesus Christ, divinely and mystically present in each holy tabernacle of all Catholic churches around the world.

Chapter 4 - B: 

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

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 remission 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."