Living Journey

Ok, I was reading something today and I was instantly reminded of this verse in the bible…

Dan 2:41-43 And as to that you saw, the feet and the toes were partly of potters’ clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. But there shall be in it the strength of iron, because you saw the iron mixed with clay of the potter. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

What I read about was a division in Europe between different denominations, and how this has brought about the fragmentation of Europe which has in turn brought about its secularization. I laugh at the irony when I think that globalisation and creating a one world global village of unity actually brings about fragmentation on a massive scale … it kind of reminds me of the tower of babel. Anyway, to bring about a unified Europe however, an amalgamation of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants must happen according to Cardinal Walter Kasper.

The divisions between Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants are partly responsible for the divisions in Europe and the secularization of the continent, said Cardinal Walter Kasper.

Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said this Wednesday at the opening discourse of the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly, under way in Sibiu.

In order to overcome obstacles to understanding the Church and the Eucharist, a “purification of the memory” is needed, he said quoting the famous expression used by Pope John Paul II, according Cardinal Kasper.

“No ecumenical progress will be possible without conversion and penance. From that will come openness to renewal and reform, which is necessary in every Church and requires that each Church start with itself,” he said.

For now I am going to concentrate on the term ‘purification of the memory’. (Although, I am inclined to ask what he means by saying that there needs to be a conversion and penance so that the ecumenical progress can continue. A conversion that is one-sided me thinks … one that calls them ‘Home to Rome’ perhaps, to good Ol’ Mother Church)

Mother Church

I wanted to look up the term ‘Purification of the Memory’ and in doing so, I came across a paper drawn up by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (The current pope) called “MEMORY AND RECONCILIATION: THE CHURCH AND THE FAULTS OF THE PAST” from the Vatican archives. It is very lengthy but I was struck by the following…

3.4. The Motherhood of the Church

The conviction that the Church can make herself responsible for the sin of her children by virtue of the solidarity that exists among them through time and space because of their incorporation into Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, is expressed in a particularly effective way in the idea of “Mother Church” (“Mater Ecclesia”), which “in the conception of the early Fathers of the Church sums up the entire Christian aspiration.”(56) The Church, Vatican II affirms, “by means of the Word of God faithfully received, becomes a mother, since through preaching and baptism she brings forth children to a new and immortal life, who have been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God.”

Have you ever wondered why the Catholic Church is called Mother? And have you ever really thought about how the Church who is supposed to be the bride of Christ and the body of Christ and be spotless like a virgin can be called a Mother who has children but then continues to be a virgin? Sounds a little Marian doesn’t it! Have you ever wondered why a nun is called a mother, but takes an oath to live perpetual virginity? Doesn’t this all sound a little bit like the Catholic Mary to you? Could the Catholic Mother Church who is the so called Mother of all that she has given birth to yet she remains a virgin be a symbol of the Catholic Mary herself? I believe that this is what Catholicism teaches.

Read the above quote from the Vatican very carefully, it states that it is the Mother Church who brings forth the immortal children and it is she who is responsible for her childrens sin. Mary comes to the rescue - thus begins the co-redemptrix role in humanity. The Catholic Church is the full embodiement of the Catholic Mary! Those who commune with her have become one with the Catholic Mary, not one with the body of Christ which is the true Church. They have embarked on a journey that leads them away from sola-scriptura and towards centuries of built up tradition. Mar 7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

We are reminded by Paul that the Church is the body of Christ and not the body of Mary!

1Co 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Speaking of the ‘Mother Church’ the Vatican says this about her…

“This holy and honored mother is like Mary. She gives birth and she is a virgin, from her you were born - she generates Christ so that you will be members of Christ.”(5 Cyprian of Carthage states succinctly: “One cannot have God as a father who doesn’t have the Church as a mother.”(59) And Paulinus of Nola sings of the motherhood of the Church like this: “As a mother she receives the seed of the eternal Word, carries the peoples in her womb and gives birth to them.”(60)

She generates Christ … really! I was under the impression that Christ gave birth to the Church and it was the Lord Himself that added to it.

Act 2:47 praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.

For the entire Church, one in time and space, the person capable of speaking is he who exercises the universal ministry of unity, the Bishop of the Church “which presides in love,”(62) the Pope.

And who is the one person who unifies this ‘Mother Church’, non-other than the pope himself. He is the head of this ‘Mother Church’. But this is wrong teaching too.

Christ is the head of the body of the Church. Not the pope!

Eph 4:15 but speaking the truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, the Christ,

Centuries of tradition that has built up over time does not necissitate toward the truth.

Gal 2:16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 26, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Heaven is an equal-opportunity destination, but to gain entry one needs a “passport” stamped with virtues such as humility, mercy and truth, says Benedict XVI.

Christ invites all to heaven, he said, “but with one and the same condition: that of making the effort to follow him and imitate him, taking up one’s cross, as he did, and dedicating one’s life to the service of our brothers.”

Benedict XVI makes the point that “we will not be judged on the basis of presumed privileges, but by our works.”

The Pope adds, “This, we might say, is the ‘I.D. card’ that qualifies us as authentic ‘friends’; this is the ‘passport’ that permits us to enter into eternal life.”

What is the passport that allows us to enter into eternal life? Works! Yes that’s right, works is the passport according to the Pope! And if the Pope says it, then of course it must be true.

Yet the bible says this about works…

Jas 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Faith is important so important that if you have no faith then your works are dead. But FAITH in who and in what?

Gal 2:16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

1Co 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

Question is … Does Roman Catholicism teach another Jesus? Is the Catholic Jesus biblical?

Roman Catholicism teaches that Jesus was unable to completely pay for the penalty of sin. It teaches that a perpetual sacrifice be made upon a man made alter and this ongoing sacrifice is made available to participants through the mass and sacraments.

Mar 7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’