That body is the body of believers Mad Dawg...not a building or group of selected men who officiate over it, though I understand that is otherwise your belief.
I will rest on the scriptures who tell me Christ is sufficient for all our needs and the church body of believers reflecting Him and bringing the Gospel message of salvation to an unsaved world. With Christ Jesus as the head and to whom all authority is given both in heaven and on earth.
Are you saying that I think the Church is a building or group of selected men who officiate over it? If so, you much mistake me.
I just recently riffed on I Cor 12, referring to the diversity of gifts and offices. But the whole argument, as I at least hinted, is that all are partakers of the one spirit, and that the “greatest of these”, charity, is available to all, as the last line of chapter 12 implies when it urges to Corinthians to seek after the higher gifts.
Again and again on these threads I have referred to “Dominus Iesus” and pointed out that the phrase “separated brethren”, which so many of you find offensive, is an assertion that “brethren”, members of the body, are found among “ecclesial assemblies” not in communion with the Holy See.
If we did not think that at least some “non-Catholics” are really members of the Catholic Church in a certain way we would insist on baptizing all who sought to come into full communion.
So, once again it seems, someone is so sure of what we believe that there is no room to find out what the teaching of the Church actually is.
By the way, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote or presided over the production of “Dominus Iesus” before he was elected Pope. It is, you can conclude, representative of what we teach.
Is it resting on Scripture that leads to this misrepresentation of what we teach? I cannot think so.
I’m sorry if I sound tart or offended. I ask you to consider how frustrating it is to be told repeatedly that you believe something stupid which you do not in fact believe.