11/06/2024

The "Church" in the Acts is never an "it", it is always a "they". What is it today, an organisation or the millions of believers who are each one in their real person known only to God? Does God know the structure or the people? It has been argued over centuries that the organisation is the source of the sanctity of its adherents and office holders. It is the "Mystical Body of Christ on Earth". There is no salvation outside the "Church".

The Church founded on St Peter soon became an "it". In fact, "it" became the first non-government organisation ever to exist on earth. It was the very first Corporate Body long before Capitalism was born. It was incorporated not in this world but in the "Kingdom of God". Jesus, the founder, when on trial before the only Earthly Power told us that "My Kingdom is not of this world".

We have to believe Jesus. He is present in his Church for ever. But is it in the worldly structure that we find him? The Incarnation (life, death and resurrection) is a historical event and by it we have been taught how to use the joy of living to arrive at the New Life prepared for us by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Can anyone still believe that the evil deeds done in the name of God by the burning of heretics, the Crusades against Cathars, Muslims, Waldensians, or Hussites, or the European wars of the 16th and 17th centuries were indeed sanctioned by God working through the Institutional Church? 

There are no Bishops praising or blessing the perpetrators of the slaughter in Gaza, Yemen, Burma, Sudan where our brothers and sisters are slaughtering each other at the very moment I am sitting in front of this screen.

The source of all holiness on Earth was known personally by the Apostles whose eye-witness accounts of the facts of revelation were recorded  and verified by the Holy Spirit at the time the worldliness of the Church first began to become more important than the personal holiness of its hierarchy. 

Scripture is our protector from the deviances of men in ecclesiastical power but it is not our sole protector on earth for even during the most disgraceful years of the Papacy there were holy men and women whom by the grace of God were able to be the Church of Love also founded by Jesus who included his mother in his New Holy Family of she and John.

Dear Lord help me be true to your grace. Let me find my place in heaven. Let me know that your grace is for all even those to whom you have not revealed yourself. May the prayers of Mary and all the saints overcome the backsliding by which both Jews and Gentiles lose touch with their faith which you have granted to us. Let us know what we can do to overcome the pain and suffering of so many innocent on Earth. Let my sins be forgiven and may my soul be ready to accept whatever death comes to me. Amen