Posted on 09/07/2013 5:48:38 AM PDT by markomalley
Christians must never forget that the centre of their life is Jesus Christ. That was the message of Pope Francis at Mass this morning at the Casa Santa Marta. The Pope emphasised that we must overcome the temptation to be “Christians without Jesus” or Christians that seek only devotions, without Jesus.
Pope Francis dedicated his whole homily to the centrality of Jesus in the life of the Christian. “Jesus,” he said, “is the centre. Jesus is the Lord. And yet, he maintained, this is not always understood well, “it is not easily understood.” Jesus is not a lord of this or that, but is “the Lord, the only Lord.” He is the centre that “regenerates us, grounds us”: this is the Lord, “the centre.” The Pharisees of today’s Gospel, Pope Francis noted, “make so many commandments the centre of their religiosity.” Even today, “if Jesus is not at the centre, there will be many other things,” so that “we meet many Christians without Christ, without Jesus:
“For example, those who have the sickness of the Pharisees and are Christians that put their faith, their religiosity in so many commandments, so many. ‘Ah, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this. Christians of this attitude . . . ‘But why do you do this?’ – ‘No, it must be done!’ – ‘But why?’ – ‘Ah, I don’t know, but it must be done.’ And Jesus – where is He? A commandment is valid if it comes from Jesus: I do this because the Lord wants me to do this. But if I am a Christian without Christ, I do this and I don’t know why I have to do it.”
There are, he added, “other Christians without Christ: those who only seek devotions . . . But Jesus is not there. If your devotions bring you to Christ, that works. But if you remain there, something’s wrong.” There’s another kind of Christian without Christ, he continued, “those who seek things that are a little uncommon, a little special, that go back to private revelations,” while the Revelation concluded with the New Testament. Pope Francis warned about the desire of these Christians to go to “a spectacle of revelation, to hear new things.” But, the Pope exhorted them, “take the Gospel!”:
“‘But Father, what is the rule for being a Christian with Christ, and not becoming a Christian without Christ. What is the sign of a person that is a Christian with Christ?’ The rule is simple: only that which brings you to Jesus is valid, and only that is valid that comes from Jesus. Jesus is the centre, the Lord, as He Himself says. Does this bring you to Jesus? Go ahead. Does this commandment, this attitude, come from Jesus? Go ahead. But if it doesn’t bring you to Jesus, and if it doesn’t come from Jesus, but . . . if you don’t know, it’s a bit dangerous.”
And again the Pope asks, “What is the sign that I am a Christian with Jesus?” The sign, he said, is simple. It is the sign of the one born blind that prostrated himself before Jesus to adore Him:
“But if you aren’t able to adore Jesus, you’re missing something. A rule, a sign. The sign is: I am a good Christian, I am on the path of a good Christian if I do that which comes from Jesus and if I do that which leads me to Jesus, because he is the centre. The sign is: I am capable of adoring, the adoration. This prayer of adoration of Jesus. The Lord makes us understand that He alone is the Lord, the unique Lord. And He gives us, too, the grace of loving Him so much, of following Him, of going along the path that He has shown us.”
Could you clarify this statement?
1) 1 Corinthians 11:2: “. . . keep the ordinances, as I delivered {them} to you.”
Paul in writing, orders the Corinthians to observes teachings transmitted orally.
2) 2 Thessalonians 2:15: “. . . hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”
Same here. The Bible directs us to oral teachings
3) 2 Thessalonians 3:6: “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”
Oral teachings are the norm.
4) 1 Corinthians 15:1-3: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received.”
Again — Paul in writing refers to an oral teaching as authoritative and calls the people to follow it.
5) 1 Thessalonians 2:13: “. . . when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received {it} not {as} the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.”
Oral teaching from the apostles is the equivalent of the word of God.
6) Jude 3: “. . . ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Oral teaching is the path to salvation. The Bible says so.
7) Lk 1:1-5 “it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.”
Luke endorses the oral teaching in writing, and assures us that the original oral teaching is reliable.
8) Rom 6:17 “But God be thanked that [though] you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.”
Paul gives thanks to God that his readers follow an oral teaching.
9) 1 Cor 11:23 “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you”
Paul verifies that his oral teaching is from the Lord.
10) Gal 1:9ff “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”
Anyone who preaches a gospel differing from Paul’s ORAL PREACHING is “accursed”.
11) 2 Pet 2:21 “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known [it,] to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.” People who have turned away from Peter’s oral teachings are better off with NO GOSPEL AT ALL.
12) Romans 10:15 “And how shall they preach unless they are sent?”
Preachers not sent by the apostles have no authority and are not to be heard. They are not sent by God.
13) John 20:30 “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.”
The apostles know more than you do.
14) John 21:25 “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
The apostles know more than you do.
15) 2 John 1:12 “Having many things to write to you, I did not wish [to do so] with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.” John saves his best stuff for the oral teaching. The Bible says so, so it must be true.
16) Luke 10:16 “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
If you do not “hear” the apostles and those sent by them, you do not hear the Lord.
17) Matthew 16:19 “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Peter received in the keys a mandate given to no other disciple.
18) Matthew 18:18 “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
The power of binding and loosing belongs to the apostles, not to all followers of Jesus.
19) Luke 24:45 “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”
The apostles know more than you do.
20) Matthew 13:11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
The apostles know more than you do.
21) Luke 8:10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. The apostles know more than you do.
22) 1 Timothy 3: 14-15 “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”
The pillar and bulwark of the truth is not the Bible. It is the Church. THE Church.
23) 2 Peter 1:20 “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.”
Scriptural interpretation contrary to the authentic apostolic teaching is invalid. You cannot be assured of your salvation simply by reading the Bible in private.
24) 2 Peter 3:16 “There are some things in [Paul’s epistles] hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.”
Scriptural interpretation contrary to the Church descended from the Apostles is invalid.
OK, maybe YOU can answer these questions I have asked so many other Catholics before and have never gotten a reply to.
Just what are those traditions Paul was referring to that he handed down that we are to keep that were not included in Scripture.?
How do you know?
How do you know they have been passed down faithfully?
What is your source for verifying all of the above?
I can almost visualize a puzzled and panicked Romulus to metmoms questions.
Usually they just bolt without even trying....
Nobody ever said anything about oral teaching contradicting the Bible. You're pulling that out of your...hat.
I really don't see anything here that says don't trust the Bible or Gods Word is not the final word.
Then you need reading lessons. It's right there in front of you.
I know for the same reason I know the Bible is the word of God and nor just something written down by a bunch of guys a long time ago.
What I can’t figure out is why you believe the Bible is the word of God. And why you’re not muslim or Morman.
There is nothing in Sacred Tradition that contradicts the Bible. Written and unwritten revelation together constitute a single deposit of the Faith given to the apostles. As the written part testifies.
It was a question because of the inference that Gods Word is not the final word. Which I find laughable.
It's right there in front of you.
You've got a better imagination and indoctrination I do, that's all.
I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of faith. And the Bible being the Word of God is the final Word.
And why you’re not muslim or Morman.
I guess life is just full of mysteries to you that you can't explain.
I notice you didn’t answer any of the questions metmom posed. Not a single one.
Faith in what?
Faith that God is God. Just what are driving at? You can’t accept that someone believes the Gospel that aren’t Catholic? I heard the Gospel preached. It took ahold. I read the Bible and was enlightened. The Bible has power. Gods Word has power. Gods Holy Spirit has power. These may be hard for you to accept because your church is your god but it is not hard for those who have freedom from the yoke of slavery of sin.
Any Jew or muslim could say that. Where does your Christian faith come from?
I read the Bible and was enlightened.
So you believe in the Bible because of what you read in the Bible. In other words, the Bible authenticates itself. With circular "reasoning" like this, why aren't you muslim? Seriously -- why not?
BTW, I doubt any observant Jew would tell you he practices his faith because he gets it from a book. I am pretty sure that would strike him as weird, if not idolatrous.
The Bible doesn't know knowing the weather is critical to our salvation. It does say know Christians must keep a faith that was orally delivered. How do you even know what that faith is? Don't you want to be saved?
To which you say: "I read it in a book."
Wow.
Wow.
God’s Word is a person — his Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, who is head of a mystical body that he animates with his Spirit. I am a single small member of this Body. My faith is communicated to me from other members of this body (whose head is Christ). Christ is spouse of his Church, to whom he is joined in one mystical Body, in a sacramental union. So — I get my faith as a living member of a Body whose head is Christ.
Here’s how I do NOT get my faith: as an atomized individual with intellect and will darkened and corrupted by sin, struggling on my own to understand and make decisions by arbitrarily examining a unique text directing me to embrace teachings I am unwilling to embrace.
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