Posted on 04/20/2016 7:27:09 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
We should only look to Jesus for Heaven, Pope Francis said during a recent mass.
The pontiff made his comments Monday while speaking from Casa Santa Marta at the Vatican, saying that only through Jesus can people go to heaven
"The Lord thus clearly says: you cannot enter eternal life by any entryway that is not the door – that is not Jesus," the pontiff said. "He is the door of our life – and not only of eternal life, but also of our daily lives."
The pope added that he who attempts to reach heaven by an alternative way to Jesus "is a thief and a robber."
"He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door," but rather goes a different way, "is a thief and a robber," the pope said, noting that "there is no other" route.
"Jesus shows the way forward: there is no other who can show the way," Francis said.
"Any decision I take, I take either in the name of Jesus, passing by way of the door of Jesus, or I take it a little – shall we say in simple language – through the smuggler's hatch [It. contrabbando]? We enter the enclosure through the door, which is Jesus," the pope stated.
The pope also stressed the importance of Jesus and eternity in a February 2015 homily, saying that all humans have a hunger that can only be satisfied through a relationship with Jesus Christ, who he described as the "bread of life."
"We all have this hunger […] It is the hunger for life - the hunger for eternity - that only He can satisfy because He is the bread of life" he said.
Along with looking to Jesus for eternal salvation, the Pope also spoke on the importance of the church in one's faith.
Francis said during a mass in May 2014 that God meant for us to live in a Christian community, rather than be isolated.
"Our Christian identity is belonging to a people: the Church. Without this, we are not Christians. We entered the Church through baptism: there we are Christians," the pope said. "A Christian without a church is something purely idealistic, it is not real."
"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. So a Christian without history, without a Christian nation, a Christian without the Church is incomprehensible. It is a thing of the laboratory, an artificial thing, a thing that cannot give life," Francis added.
The pontiff added at the time that just as it is difficult for Jesus Christ to be understood alone without the Christian religion, so it is equally difficult to understand a Christian alone without also taking into account the Church and their Christian brothers and sisters.
Moses. "Punto!"
But he could not-— it would be renouncing the whole doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, and the role that He wills each one of us to play, in his great work of Salvation.
He wouldn't be renouncing the whole doctrine of the "Mystical Body of Christ". He might be proclaiming the clear message of the Gospel that it is only through faith in Christ one is saved.
Mary plays no more of a role in our salvation than Paul or Peter...which is to say: NONE.
If he did renounce mary in this capacity I predict you would see roman catholicism collapse. Too much money in "mary" and too much catholic worship of her.
You have not taken into consideration the full implications of our membership in the mystical Body of Christ interns of our cooperation in the plan of Salvation. All of our cooperation: Paul’s and Peter’s and *yours*, as well as Mary’s.
Even Mary’s cooperation, unique though it is, is just part of a much larger picture. I don’t think you or I have yet grasped how big this is.
I would expect you to respond that way.
Any reliance upon Mary negates Jesus's exclusive claim He makes in John 14:6.
"I am the way, the truth, the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
The Greek emphasizes that there is no other way to Heaven but through Christ. It does not give an allowance for any other way.
You may recognize the following promise from Our Lady's 15 Promises for Praying the Rosary
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
This is totally incompatible with Jesus' statement in John 14:6...and the rest of the NT for that matter.
There is no way the catholic can spin this to be compatible with John 14:6.
I would expect a follower of Christ to understand this.
A true follower of Christ is a member of His Catholic Church.
FINALLY I hear the guy talking about Jesus.
As I said, you don’t even deal with the salvific significance of the Body of Christ. You don’t even engage.
It’s good, isn’t it!!
He’s been, shall we say, not a very coherent or effective communicator. He seems at times quote out of control of his message.
Plus he talks too much.
The body of Christ cannot save you. If an individual does not have Christ they are lost. We cannot rely upon anyone other than Christ for our salvation. The individual has to follow or reject Christ.
The Body of Christ IS Christ. This is one of the very rich implications of the Incarnation. Is not Christ the Son of God come in the flesh? Which is to say, in His human nature, in His Body? As St.John says, “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist.” 2 John 1:7
Where do you see anyone claiming that anyone can "come to the Father" through Mary, apart from Jesus?
The Catholic formula is "through Mary to Jesus," NOT "through Mary to the Father, and just leave Jesus out of it". What you're doing amounts to a strawman argument.
He's merely speaking his mind, which is sick.
Yes, but it is the catholic who supplants the exclusive claim of salvation in only Christ as I noted in the Greek with the false promises of the apparitions claiming that the one that recommends themselves to it shall not perish.
The biblical formula as spoken by Christ in John 14:6 leaves no room for mary or anyone else regarding salvation. The NT is crystal clear on this. We have no NT examples of Jesus, or any of the writers, saying we must first come to mary and then we can come to Jesus.
If you mean the ekklesia as the body of believers....I agree.
John 2:5
And this relates to having to go through Mary to get to Christ just how? It also does not negate the statement of the apparitions Catholics claim is Mary.
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