Pope Francis speaks to pilgrims during his Wednesday General Audience on April 23, 2014 Credit: Kyle Burkhart/CNA
Posted on 05/15/2014 2:15:20 PM PDT by NYer
.- Pope Francis reflected in his daily Mass on how the apostles evangelized by first telling the history of God’s people, explaining that it’s impossible to understand a Christian without this association.
“You cannot understand a Christian outside of the people of God. The Christian is not a monad,” but “belongs to a people: the Church,” the Pope observed in his May 15 homily.
“A Christian without a church is something purely idealistic, it is not real.”
Beginning by looking to the first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, the Roman Pontiff addressed those gathered in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse by recalling how when Paul preached in Antioch, he did so by first recounting the whole of Israel’s salvation history.
“Jesus does not make sense without this history” because he “is the end of this story, (the end) toward which this story goes, toward which it walks,” he noted, so “you cannot understand a Christian outside of the people of God.”
“You cannot understand a Christian alone, just like you cannot understand Jesus Christ alone” the Pope went on to say, explaining that “Jesus Christ did not fall from the sky like a superhero who comes to save us.”
“No. Jesus Christ has a history. And we can say, and it is true, that God has a history because He wanted to walk with us. And you cannot understand Jesus Christ without His history.”
Pope Francis then described how a Christian without a history, a nation or the Church “is incomprehensible,” saying that it’s “a thing of the laboratory, an artificial thing, a thing that cannot give life.”
Drawing attention to the importance of remembering this “dimension of history,” the Bishop of Rome observed that a Christian is “a living memory of his people’s journey, he is the living memory of his Church.”
“Then, where is this people going? Toward the ultimate promise. It is a people walking toward fullness; a chosen people which has a promise for the future and walks toward this promise, toward the fulfillment of this promise.”
In order to do this Christians within the Church must be men and women “with hope: hope in the promise,” the Pope went on, noting that “It is not expectation: no, no! That’s something else: It is hope.”
“Right, on we go! (Toward) that which does not disappoint.”
Explaining how a Christian is also someone who remembers, the pontiff encouraged all present to “seek the grace of memory, always” so that by doing so and also looking forward with hope they might be a Christian who “follows the path of God and renews the covenant with God.”
This type of Christian constantly tells the Lord “Yes, I want the commandments, I want your will, I will follow you” he continued, adding that “He is a man of the covenant, and we celebrate the covenant, every day” in the Mass, therefore a Christian is “a woman, a man of the Eucharist.”
Concluding his reflections, Pope Francis encouraged all present to “think about our Christian identity,” stating that “Our Christian identity is belonging to a people: the Church.”
“Without this, we are not Christians” he observed, noting how “we entered the Church through baptism: there we are Christians.”
“For this reason, we should be in the habit of asking for the grace of memory, the memory of the journey that the people of God has made,” the pontiff said, and “also of personal memory: What God did for me, in my life, how has he made me walk…”
Praying, the Roman Pontiff asked “for the grace of hope, which is not optimism: no, no! It's something else,” and asked “for the grace to renew the covenant with the Lord who has called us every day.”
“May the Lord give us these three graces, which are necessary for the Christian identity.”
A 'believer' in what?
From WIkipedia:
Before forming a church, Jim Jones had become enamoured by communism and frustrated by the harassment communists received in the U.S.[2] This, among other things, provided a seminal inspiration for Jones; as he himself described in a biographical recording,[2][3]
“I decided, how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church. So I consciously made a decision to look into that prospect.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Temple
Thanks; as I had not known of this.
There is a lady in our church who went to Jones’ church in the early days and said his preaching and teaching didn’t seem unorthodox, early on.
That was the way Jones worked.....he sounded like a typical Baptist preacher, but he never mentioned God or Jesus, he just worked Marxist theory into his “sermons.”
Never mind. You wouldn't believe me if I told you.
No it doesn’t, a church is definitely not a building, actually my favourite church is with some fellow believers up on top of a mountain with a spectacular view of God’s handiwork a day a blue sky.
One pope vs another.
;^)
HMMMmmm...
The post who suggested that they are lost souls even further suggested that they are going to end up in the furnace.
Quite frankly, if that is how his god is, then I do not ever want to know his god or anyone who worships such a god.
Definitely not going to scare me or her into going to his church ;/
God Bless you and your sisters and you mom, Bigg Red <3
Define “Devine.”
Well, real miracles are, almost by definition, rare. “Normally, God acts normally.” A rejection of the possibility of a miracle cannot be reconciled with Christianity -— but a “testing” of alleged miracles is needed to. A reasonable investigation.
For instance, certain flashy-apparition entities are seemingly able to quote Scripture, but won’t bow the knee to Jesus. That could be a clue.
Many "churchs" are in fact "Cargo Cults"....
where the witch doctor drives the issue(s)...
All issues stemming from the "vehicle".. i.e. church.
Whether it's so-called (1)protestant or (2)orthodox(catholic)..
Rarely does the cargo come into dispute.. but it does between "1" and "2"...
then you got yer (3)fringe cults.. with more bazaar cargoes..
Who ex-communicates?.... the witch doctors.. i.e. 1,2,3..
Christianity seems to have become a Donkey Rodeo..
with clowns and everything.. very Entertaining..
GOD is a doofus called in to aid the witch doctor
you know......... with the vehicle.. as Sky Mechanic..
Tribal members are passengers in the vehicle.. most in coach.. with a few first class riders..
Are there Stewards and Stewardesses... absolutely..
Catholics call then Nuns and Priests... others use other terms..
After all they all have a right to be primitives...
with bazaar approaches to godliness.. God bless them..
I don't see it as cute.... but some do..
**Note: must be being human is about proving what bull sperm you'll fall for.. a divine comedy.. a Test!.. It's rare to find a cult tribal member courageous enough to Admit it.. They mostly laugh at overt cargo cultists and refuse to see their own covert attempts at vehicle maintenance..
CAUTION: I have an imagination and am NOT afraid to use it..
Agreed, tpanther. Thank you so much for your observation!
Kindly permit me a slight correction to your observation: Liberals are trying to inflict their culture, which includes a monstrous perversion of Christianity, on Western Civilization Culture. And I must say they have been largely successful at the enterprise.
Kindly show me the exact statement where I have even suggested what you allege.
What you are describing, I think, is the Liberal’s vision of how to get things done.
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