Based on [y]our limited knowledge, whom would you be most pleased?
A true representative of God doesn’t require the votes of lesser men who do not have the authority of God to appoint God’s representative. Jesus receives his appointment from God Himself. With that appointment comes empowerment to save us. A preacher or teacher appointed by men of this world is not empowered to save us. I have looked on line for understanding the role of the pope. It says that the pope’s “job” is to set the standards, rules, etc. of the church. Jesus has already answered that question. The Jews have hundreds of rules. They asked Jesus, what is the most important rule. Jesus said the most important rule is to love God the Father with all of our heart.
We are not forgiven of our sins by going through a ceremonial baptism and declaring that “I accept Jesus as my savior.” Either we love God , or we love Mammon. Therefore, only love of God can save us. But where can we obtain this love of God? This is what Jesus came to share with us. By cultivating a personal relationship with God’s son, one becomes infected with his devotional quality…just as one catches covid by associating with some one who has covid. To become “infected”. with the devotional quality of Jesus means to imbibe the taste of his love for the Father, in our hearts. In this way alone we are saved by Jesus. Jesus told the Jews that their rules were good, and he did not come to erase or change them, but that the rule of all rules is to love God with all of our heart. Because in that way alone will there be no room in our heart for love of Mammon. Only from one who has this love can we obtain this love. Therefore Jesus says, “Only through me can you come closer to God.”
This Sunday’s Scripture Readings talk about the authority given to the Apostles. In the Gospel of John (chapter 20) “[Jesus] breathed on [the apostles] and said to them,
‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.’”
And in the first Reading (Acts Chapter 5), we see “Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them. Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them. A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.”
Christ gave the apostles and their successors a certain authority and responsibility.
The rules of the Church are not what saves us. The merits of Jesus on the Cross is what saves us. And Jesus gifted us with tangible ways in which his grace is poured out (Baptism, Confirmation, The Eucharist, Reconciliation, etc.)
When Jesus healed a blind man, he used mud. He didn’t have to use mud, but he did. Jesus did not have to use water to Baptize, but He did/does. He did not need to use bread and wine, but He did/does. You can say these things do not matter, but Jesus does. He taught the Apostles to Baptize. He taught them to remember/recognize Him in the Holy Eucharist.
We agree that if you do not have love, then none of these things matter. God gave us free-will to receive His grace and what we do with His gift of grace matters even more than the matter that is used to share God’s grace with the faithful.
When we receive(d) Baptism, we are buried with Christ and raise up a new. When we receive Holy Communion, we are to become Eucharist, a living sacrifice to others. And we do this in cooperation with God’s grace.
You are spiritual and not religious, a common phrase uttered uttered these days. But, both the spiritual and religious aspects of our Faith are important. For one without the other is unBiblical. If you have religion, but not a relationship with Christ and with others, then what do you have, but a bunch of rules. And if you have spiritual, but you do not have orthodoxy, then you will fall for worldly ideas.
Jesus founded a Church in the Apostles and their successors. And He gave you free will to accept this or to reject this. He did not come to pass out Bibles nor plant 50 million churches, all teaching different things contrary to one another. Jesus Prayed that Christians might have unity. Jesus is the Word made Flesh, and it is in Him that we belong.
The function of the Pope is to walk in the shoes of Jesus, so that he can lead us to our eternal home. Such a position cannot be acquired by obtaining the votes of lesser men. The whole panetary population can vote for the same man to become Pope, but this does not place the man closer to God, or give the man the authority of Jesus. The only function of an officially-voted Pope is to advise all of us to surrender our hearts to Jesus, and to try with all his strength to do this himself. His blessings upon us are as the blessings we wish upon each other. Just like the cardinals of the church. Some years ago, one of them was found in a house of prostitution, in France, having died there in the act of … . These are men, like all of us. They are to be respected; but they do not have the power and authority of Jesus. They do not hold the keys to heaven. If they did, they wouldn’t be living like kings; they would be walking among us, preaching the word, and living it: “Consider the lillies of the field…”
