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Dear James,
Perhaps we could look at your question
in a different light.
You say the Pope is "allegedly" Christ's
presence on Earth, as if to say,
there is no precedence for the manifestation
of Christ on Earth by a human being.
Well, as a former Baptist, Evangelical,
Charismatic Minister, I must tell
you that I often preached that, as
a collective Body, that is the "Body
of Christ", we are, in fact,
a manifestation of Christ on Earth.
That, not of ourselves, but as the
Scripture says "greater is
He who is in me, than he who is in
the world". (1 John 4:4)
When a Christian walks into a room
the Holy Spirit walks in with him.
- Aren't we, indeed, ambassadors
for Christ?
So we all share in Christ's authority
by virtue of being "in
Christ".
- Are we not a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood? (1 Peter 2:9)
Peter also wrote in his second epistle:
1 2 Grace
and peace be multiplied to you
in the knowledge of God and of
Jesus our Lord, 3 as
His divine power has given to
us all things that pertain to
life and godliness, through the
knowledge of Him who called us
by glory and virtue, 4 by
which have been given to us exceedingly
great and precious promises, that
through these you may be partakers
of the divine nature, . . .
2 Peter 1:2-4 |
Paul tells us we have the mind of
Christ, and Jesus sent forth His
Apostles saying, "all power and authority
has been given to me, now I am sending
you." (Matthew 28:18-20)
Jesus also said whatever you ask
in my name shall be done. (John 14:14)
- Does this mean I can just ask
for any old thing, like for the
Red Sox to win the World Series
in back to back years, and tack
on "in
Jesus' name I pray" and
expect it to happen?
No, Jesus was using legal terminology.
He was saying I give you power of
attorney to exercise My (Jesus') Will.
That said, it is not unheard of that
any man can walk in the authority
of Christ. In fact, I'm sure every
time you tell someone that Jesus
Christ can deliver them from sin
and save them from Hell, you are
speaking God's truth. You are manifesting
the presence of God in you, my friend,
and are the mouth peace of the Holy Spirit
who is at work on the listener's
heart, even as you speak.
As Catholics, we believe that Christ
established a Church, the Kingdom
of God on Earth. This Kingdom has an order. It
is not some marginally connected,
invisible body of believers who rely
on their own interpretation of the
Scriptures. God is a God of order
and not a God of confusion.
4 11 And
He Himself gave some to be apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists,
and some pastors and teachers, 12 for
the equipping of the saints for
the work of ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till
we all come to the unity of the
faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, to a perfect man,
to the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ; 14 that
we should no longer be children,
tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine,
by the trickery of men, in the
cunning craftiness of deceitful
plotting, 15 but,
speaking the truth in love, may
grow up in all things into Him
who is the head — Christ — 16 from
whom the whole body, joined and
knit together by what every joint
supplies, according to the effective
working by which every part does
its share, causes growth of the
body for the edifying of itself
in love.
Ephesians 4:11-16 |
In the case of the Pope, we see him
as the Universal Pastor of the Church.
We call him Holy Father, because
he is both a father to us, as Paul
was a father to Timothy in the faith, and because he occupies a Holy Office.
The word Holy in the original Greek
is the word "hagia".
It means:
"to be set apart or separate
from".
So just as we are a holy and chosen
generation, the Popes serve us as
"holy" fathers.
This may not answer the details of
your questions, so much, as to shed
some light on where we are coming
from.
We look at the same prism you do,
but from a different perspective
then Evangelicals do. To understand what we believe requires
more then polemic questioning. It
requires a willingness to dig into
what is behind the belief.
If you are truly interested in a
real dialogue, not a debate about
what each other believes, I would be more than happy to hear
from you.
Under His Mercy,
John DiMascio
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