Year of Faith
Article 1
Why Believe What
the Catholic Church Teaches on
Faith and Morals
As
we begin this Year of Faith that Pope Benedict has called for it is important
for us to go back to the beginning and start again, keeping foremost in our minds
the "Source and Summit" of our faith. The poor evangelization efforts
over the last fifty years of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ and poor
catechesis, which is the process of teaching the faith, demands that we
re-present the faith to those who were the recipients of that failed effort to faithfully
pass it on. One of the first questions that needs to be addressed is: Why
should we listen to the Church at all on matters of faith and morals? What is
different about the Catholic Church that should cause me to listen to her? While not immediately apparent the answer is
Jesus.
We
first must establish what we believe about Jesus. Jesus Himself explicitly claimed
to be God. They Pharisees tried to kill Him in John 8:58-59 when Jesus said to
them "'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am*' So they took up stones to throw
at him…" This I am that Jesus
uses here to describe Himself is the same I
am that God uses in Exodus 3:14 when God gives Moses His name from the
burning bush on Mount
Horeb. This is again seen
in John 10:30-33 when Jesus said to them, "'I and the Father are one.' The
Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, 'I have shown you
many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?' The Jews
answered him, 'It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy;
because you, being a man, make yourself
God.'" Jesus again is explicitly saying that He is God and the Pharisees
knew exactly what He was saying. There are a tremendous amount of other examples
in the Gospels of Jesus' claim to divinity, such as His claim to be the One who
will judge all mankind, presenting Himself as the Giver of a New Law that is
superior to the Mosaic Law, and His insistence that the Jews believe in Him.
All of these are proper to God alone and only God can make these assertions, so
how can Jesus make these claims?
Jesus’
claim to Divinity is also unique in history. He is not just another founder of
a great natural religion like Confucius, Mohammad, or Buddha as not one of
those men dared to make claims for their divinity. So how does Jesus prove that
His claim to Divinity is authentic? In the Gospels there are thirty seven miracles
recorded that Jesus performed and many more are alluded to; so much so that
John, in his Gospel, speculated that "…there are also many other things
which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world
itself could not contain the books that would be written."
In
addition, unlike the Old Testament where the prophets would invoke God to
perform miracles, Jesus would perform miracles in His own name. Such as when He
cures the leper in Matthew 8:2-3 "and behold, a leper came to him and
knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean."
And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' And
immediately his leprosy was cleansed." Jesus does not invoke God, but
heals the leper by His own power. Likewise, in the healing of the paralyzed man
in Luke 5:18-24 not only does Jesus heal the man, but also in doing so provides
another proof of His Divinity by forgiving the man's sins as well. In this case
it is the Pharisees and the teachers of the law opposing Jesus who unknowingly
testify to His Divinity. It is written "And behold, men were bringing on a
bed a man who was paralyzed,…and let him down with his bed through the tiles
[in the roof] into the midst before Jesus. And when He saw their faith He said,
'Man, your sins are forgiven you.' And the scribes and the Pharisees began to
question, saying, 'Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins
but God only?' When Jesus perceived their questionings, He answered them, 'Why
do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, `Your sins are
forgiven you,' or to say, `Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son
of man has authority on earth to forgive sins' -- He said to the man who was
paralyzed -- 'I say to you, rise, take up your bed and go home.'" In all
of the recorded miracles Jesus never once invoked God; instead performing the
miracles on His own authority and power, because He was God. Unlike the
Pharisees, however, the Apostles gave direct and deliberate testimony to the
Divinity of Christ.
A
powerful witness to the Divinity of Jesus was the behavior of the Apostles
after the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. In Acts 3 and 5 Scripture records
that the Apostles were performing miracles healing the sick in Jesus' name such
as in Acts 3:6 where Peter heals a crippled man. “But Peter said, ‘I have no
silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and
immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Eventually Peter and the
Apostles were arrested by the Jewish authorities. In response to the desire of
some of the authorities to kill the Apostles one of the prominent Pharisees, a Jewish
Rabbi named Gama'li-el, had this to say in Acts 5:35-39 "…'Men of Israel,
take care what you do with these men. For before these days Theu'das arose,
giving himself out to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred,
joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came
to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and
drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed
him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men
and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will
fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might
even be found opposing God!'" Then they brought back in the Apostles and
instead had them beaten and let them go. Now you would think that after being
beaten the Apostles would be disheartened, but the opposite was true: Acts 5:41
"Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were
counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name [of Jesus]." Every Apostle
except one was martyred for their belief in Jesus' Divinity.
So now we return to the original
questions… why should we listen to the Church at all on matters of faith and
morals? What is different about the Catholic Church that should cause me to
listen to her? The factor that makes the Catholic Church different from all
other Christian Church's or church communities (denominations) is that Christ came
to build One Church
upon the earth. In Matt. 16:18 Jesus
says "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it."
So Jesus' intention is to build His Church here on earth on the rock of Peter.
Jesus was speaking to Peter in a way that was unique among the Apostles as
Peter was the only one who was given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven as we read
in the following verse "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven." With the giving of the keys Jesus was
making Peter His "Prime Minister" or the man in charge of the kingdom
behind Jesus Himself. We see this elsewhere in Scripture in Isaiah 22:20-22
where the king of the Jews in the Davidic line, King Hezeki'ah, makes Eli'akim
his "Prime Minister" replacing Shebna. King Hezeki'ah says "In
that day I will call my servant Eli'akim…and I will clothe him with your robe,
and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand;
and he shall be a father to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I
will place on his shoulder the key of the
house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and
none shall open. We can see that the language used in Isaiah is almost exactly
the same as in Matthew. The significance of the house of David is that the
promised Messiah was to be a descendant of King David and only a descendant of
David could be the true king of the Jews. Jesus is both descended from David
and is God so He is the ultimate Davidic King, not only for the Jews, but for
the entire world. This passage also uses the word father to show what kind of man Eli'akim will be to the nation of Israel. He will
be a father. The word pope means father
in Latin. So Jesus is installing Peter as the first Pope to rule over His
Kingdom, the Church, here on earth.
We also see that Peter received the
authority to bind and loose, which Jesus also gave to the other Apostles as
well. Speaking to the Apostles in Matt. 18:15-18 Jesus says "If your
brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen,
take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the
evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to
the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you
as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed
in heaven." As the first bishops of the Church, Peter and the Apostles
have this authority of binding and loosing. So we see Jesus puts the bishops of
His Church into place and after teaching them for three years what they must do
to bring about the Kingdom here on earth gives them the mission to bring the
Church to all nations.
So how does this translate to the
Catholic Church of today? We once again look to Christ's words in Scripture. In
John 14:25-26 and 16 Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to the Apostles
saying: "These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But
the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will
teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you"
and "be with you for ever."
Jesus also reminds the Apostles of their authority and gives them His final
instructions before He leaves the earth. Matthew 28:18-20 states "And
Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you.'" Then in John 20:21-22 Jesus reveals a key aspect of
the authority that has been given to Him, appearing to the Apostles He says:
"'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.' And
when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy
Spirit.'" Jesus received "all authority on heaven and earth"
from the Father and passes it on to the Apostles. This authority given to the
Apostles includes the authority to pass it on just as Jesus has passed it on to
them when He said “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” This passing
on of the authority given to the Apostles is called Apostolic Succession. Along
with the passing on of authority, Jesus commands the Apostles to teach “them [the nations] to observe all that I
have commanded you." This is
the guarantee that the teachings we have today have been handed down to us from
Christ through the Holy Spirit and we must understand that the bishops have
been commanded by Christ to teach us all that has been given to them.
The first instance in Scripture we
have where Peter exercises his authority as pope is when he stood up and gave
us the first example of Apostolic Succession. Peter determined that someone needed
to take the place of Judas. In Acts 1:20-22 Peter states "For it is
written in the book of Psalms…`His office let another take.' So one of the men
who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out
among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up
from us -- one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection."
We see a further example of this in 2 Tim 2:2 when Paul writing to Timothy
states: "and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to
faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Paul is instructing
Timothy, whom he had appointed the bishop of Ephesus, to find others that the faith can be
passed on to. This shows the first four generations of succession: Paul,
Timothy, those appointed by Timothy, those appointed by those appointed by
Timothy. This line of succession continues down through time to the bishops of
today, most especially the bishop of Rome
(The Pope). They have received their authority from Christ.
So the reason we should listen to
the Church on what she has to say on the matters of faith and morals is because
God (Christ) came down to earth, set up His Church, imbued it with His
authority, taught and installed the first pope and bishops, and guaranteed that
His teachings would be faithfully passed on down through time through the
action of the Holy Spirit. Only the Catholic Church has this guarantee as only
the Catholic Church has maintained the Apostolic Succession of all the bishops,
most especially from Peter the first Pope down to the present day Pope.
*[all italics in this document are mine]
© Copyright Chip Awalt 2012
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