Posted on 01/30/2014 2:50:42 PM PST by Brian Kopp DPM
» 01/30/2014 11:57
VATICAN
Pope says its “absurd to love Christ without the Church, to listen to Christ but not the Church, to be with Christ at the margins of the Church"
Vatican City ( AsiaNews) - "It's absurd to love Christ without the Church, to listen to Christ but not the Church" , because the "first fruit of Baptism is to make you belong to the Church" and that "membership " has three pillars : humility , faithfulness and prayer for the Church. This is what Pope Francis said today during his homily at Mass celebrated at Casa Santa Marta.
The Pope, Vatican Radio reports, was speaking about King David, as presented by the readings of the day: a man who speaks with the Lord as a son speaks with his father and even if his requests meet with a "no", he accepts this with joy. David had "a strong feeling of belonging to the people of God." And this makes us wonder about our sense of belonging to the Church, our feeling with the Church and in the Church.
"The Christian is not a baptized who receives baptism and then goes on his way. The first fruit of Baptism is to make you belong to the Church, the People of God. You cannot understand a Christian without the Church. This is why the great Paul VI said that it is an absurd dichotomy to love Christ without the Church, to listen to Christ but not the Church, to be with Christ at the margins of the Church. It's not possible. It is an absurd dichotomy. We receive the Gospel message in the Church and we carry out our holiness in the Church, our path in the Church. The other is a fantasy, or, as he said, an absurd dichotomy".
The "sensus ecclesiae" is "precisely to feel, think, want, within the Church". There are " three pillars of this belonging, this feeling with the Church . The first is humility" in the awareness of the great grace of being "inserted in a community":
"A person who is not humble, can not hear the Church, they can only hear what they like. We see this humility in David, ' Who am I , O Lord God , and what is my home?'. That realization that the story of salvation did not begin with me and will not end with me when I die. No, it's a whole history of salvation : I come, the Lord will take you, will help go onwards and then calls you and the story continues. The history of the Church began before us and will continue after us. Humility: we are a small part of a great people, that walks the path of the Lord".
The second pillar is fidelity, "that is linked to obedience". "Fidelity to the Church, fidelity to its teaching; fidelity to the Creed; fidelity to the doctrine, safeguarding this doctrine. Humility and fidelity. Even Paul VI reminded us that we receive the message of the Gospel as a gift and we need to transmit it as a gift, but not as a something of ours: it is a gift that we received. And be faithful in this transmission . Because we have received and we have to gift a Gospel that is not ours, that is Jesus', and we must not - he would say - become masters of the Gospel, masters of the doctrine we have received, to use it as we please".
The third pillar is a special service "to pray for the Church." "How is our prayer for the Church? Do we pray for the Church? Every day at Mass, but at home? When do we say our prayers?". "Do we pray for the entire Church, all over the world?". May the Lord - the Pope concluded - help us to go down this path to deepen our belonging to the Church and our feeling with the Church".
“The Christian is not a baptized who receives baptism and then goes on his way.”
I think something was lost in translation.
Funny, I don’t remember needing “man” to ensure my salvation.
Sure seems there’s a good chunk of that erroneous assumption going on here.
The translation is in the next text. We don’t go off into the atmosphere with our baptism.
We begin the work of our baptism in the mystical body of Christ, His Church.
That is so understood that many protestants are baptized everytime someone finds a different church.
He doesn’t know a thing about Christ’s true church. For anyone to believe he actually speaks for Christ...well, THAT’s absurd. It’s also very sad.
You would have little use for Noah, for Joseph (Israel), probably the Apostles too. Instruments of salvation have been appointed/annointed, by God, throughout Bible history.
We could complain to Him, I suppose.
The RCC has totally corrupted what the Greek word ekklesia really means. The concept they promote didn’t even exist in the apostles lives.
Frankly, I could do with a little less ekklesia, if it means watering down the Catholic faith and Catholic faith practices, in the West, any more than they already have been. Nearly unrecognizable.
Absolutely dead on the mark. Great post. Tragic, but great post.
Ruh roh. Il Papa might lose a few of his Protestant and atheist groupies over this.
IB4TPWM
I believe we both need to learn to spell, “ecclesiae”, before we assert the Greek meaning of the word. :)
:)
Yes.. they had no idea of ‘Church.’
If it were today, Paul would be addressing his letters to the “Church on CynicalBear’s Neighborhood.”
And it would be delivered of course.
In my opinion, the [c]hurch hasn’t listened to God very much since Abraham’s covenant. Thank God he has given us the Word, the Word mad flesh and the Holy Spirit. Just add brokeness.
AMEN. God Bless Pope Francis!
Catholics have no need of Noah, just a 'nice story with a good message'. Like a lot of things in the Bible, not required for Catholics.
Catholics have no need of Noah, just a 'nice story with a good message'. Like a lot of things in the Bible, not required for Catholics.
“He doesn’t know a thing about Christ’s true church”
No, he’s only the leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination, which happens to be 2,000 years old. But what would he know. “Who am I to judge”. LOL.
Btw, Jacob was Israel, not Joseph. Striiiiike two.
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