One In Persona Christi
I am so tired of all this Pope stuff. Not our Pope himself, that man has my total, unreserved, unequivocal support. Because he is good? Because he is wise? Because I think he is a great leader? Because I think that he will take this Church to were it is supposed to be? Because I am in denial and have blind faith and obedience to a man who some believe at the very least cannot keep his foot out of his mouth or at the worst speaks error and heresy? No. Because it is what Jesus prayed for, it is what Jesus wants. If Jesus wants it we can know the Father wants it. If the Father and Jesus want it than the Holy Spirit works for it and I will assent to it, I will say Amen.
What I am tired of is what we are doing to our Pope and to the Mystical Body of Christ by refusing to be united to him. Because it is only in unity that we ARE the Mystical Body of Christ. Our Pope, our Magisterium, our clergy are in persona christi capitis, (The person of Christ the Head). We are persona christi corporis (The person of Christ the Body). Together we are MYSTICI CORPORIS CHRISTI , the Mystical Body of Christ in the world, the mystical person of Christ in the world, the Church. Without the complete unity of one to the other, each does not function as it should. A house divided cannot stand,. A head without a body cannot function, nor can a body without a head. Our Pope cannot be all that he can be, all that he should be, cannot function in completeness unless we unite ourselves to him, strengthening and empowering him through the manifestation of the one, complete, whole Mystical Body of Christ working through us all. He needs us now and we need him. For without him we cannot be strengthened and empowered either. We cannot be the manifestation of the one, complete, whole Mystical Body of Christ. Without him we do not have the keys to the kingdom, the ability to open and shut, we have no authority. Those were given to Peter and through his office to our Pope. If we think that we can bypass this process that was put into place by Jesus himself, that we can cut off this head, separate ourselves from it, that Christ, as the true head of the Mystical Body of Christ, will work with the body without it, we did not understand his Gospel.
Jesus the Word of God was sent to speak to us. What we don’t realize as we search and parse the Bible, as we pass on the traditions, what we can’t see in all our detail to proper translation and in our exegesis, in adherence to form and rite is the simplicity of what he said. The single word he spoke to us was the word one. One as in singular, one as in only, one as in complete, one as in united. One, y’all. One God in three persons, one savior of us all, one sacrifice, one message, one way, one truth, one life, one body, one church all assenting to one Will. One with the Son who is One with the Father and the Holy Spirit. “one body and one spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” Ephesians 4-6
We have one proclamation “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”. We have one witness to that proclamation…unity.(Jn 17:23). One proclamation proclaimed in one voice. Without this unity we have not just lost a component of our witness we have lost the essence of it, we have lost THE witness. We have no witness because a divided witness negates itself. Jesus was the one sacrifice to unite us with the Father and bring completeness to the world. The Eucharist is the one participation in this one perpetual sacrifice that makes us one with Jesus, with his Church and with each other. The four marks of the Church all come back to the word one. We are one as in only, as in complete, as in united because of Jesus. We are holy because we are one united together with and through the holiness of Jesus. We are catholic in that we have one universal message for all and one body formed in diversity. We are apostolic in that we have one message passed down through one authority.
In the Gospel of John chapter 17, Jesus prays that his church be one in the same way he and the Father are one. He consecrates himself to the church so that it, through him, it will also be consecrated in truth. He says that the perfection of its unity will be the witness and sign to the world that Jesus was sent by the Father . Jesus is not only praying for us here, but giving a summation of the Gospel in a single word. One. Singular, only, complete, united. One.
At the beginning of the Church, Satan and the enemies of God sought to annihilate it, to wipe it out, to kill those who promulgated it. When that could not be done the next best thing was to negate it by dividing it and dispersing it. To make it ineffective through the contradiction of differing theologies. So that it would not be singular, would not be only, would not be complete, would not be united, would not be one. If it is not singular, only, complete, united, one then it cannot be true. Negating the one proclamation by dividing the one voice. Creating many voices so that the one voice is not silenced but drowned out by the cacophonous din. Dividing the Mystical Body of Christ in and through its members. Divide and conquer.
What faces us today is that Satan is trying to separate the Church visible head from visible body so that not only will it not function properly but it will die. Many believe that this threat to our Church comes in the form of modernism, secularism, an acceptance of what is sinful. These things have always been a part of our world and at times a part of those who comprise the Church. These things are nothing new. Many think that it was Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Mass. I would say that the enemy timed this attack as such so that we would perceive Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Mass as some kind of problem. So that we would perceive a justifiable reason for what we were doing. What better way to divide the head from the body then to make some think that we were preserving the Church by doing so? How Satan must enjoy wounding the Mystical Body of Christ by separating it visible head from visible body. Using the Mass and the very traditions of the Church to divide it. What comes against us is not merely the opposite of one, as in division, it is the antithesis of one…autonomy. Autonomy is what will separate the visible head of the Church from it’s visible body. We are not divided from you, we are independent of you. We believe and proclaim the teachings of Jesus Christ but we can do that independent of hierarchy or authority. Maybe we are preserving the teachings of Jesus Christ until you can do it more properly until then we have no choice but to be independent of you to avoid error. Or we want the right to live our lives the way we see fit and in order to do that we must be independent of you. Through autonomy we can delude ourselves into thinking that we are still believers in Jesus Christ. In some way we are teaching what Jesus taught. We can use words from the teachings of Jesus to justify ourselves in our autonomy. Love, justice, truth, tradition. We will still be a body of believers with Jesus as our true head we need no other or can do without it until such a time as the head gets its head on straight. Maybe we listen to the magisterium and the Pope but we do not respect them, we criticize them, we are not loyal to them with our words.
If we want to change things, even things within the Church; if we want true leadership in our hierarchy and in our Pope; if we are truly interested in being in persona Christi to the world then we must unite with our Pope, our bishops, our priests and each other so that the power, the authority, the strength of Jesus Christ himself can be made manifest in his Church through his Mystical Body. Colossians 3:14 tells us that love is the bond of perfection, what unites us. 1 John 3:18 tells us to love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. If we cannot love our Pope, our Bishops, our priest and each other we then must love Jesus, not only in word and speech but in deed and truth, enough to protect his person. As we Catholics would not profane his person in the Eucharist, let us also not profane his person in the Mystical Body of Christ. That through Jesus and in him we may be a Mystical Body, the visible head with the visible body, that is singular, only, complete and united. We will be the truth and will be telling the truth. If we refuse we will be fragmented, divided, incomplete. It will not be the truth of the person of Christ. The only way we can do that is to be united to our Pope, united to our Bishops, united to our Priests, united to each other in all and through all united to Jesus Christ. ONE in persona Christi.
What I am tired of is what we are doing to our Pope and to the Mystical Body of Christ by refusing to be united to him. Because it is only in unity that we ARE the Mystical Body of Christ. Our Pope, our Magisterium, our clergy are in persona christi capitis, (The person of Christ the Head). We are persona christi corporis (The person of Christ the Body). Together we are MYSTICI CORPORIS CHRISTI , the Mystical Body of Christ in the world, the mystical person of Christ in the world, the Church. Without the complete unity of one to the other, each does not function as it should. A house divided cannot stand,. A head without a body cannot function, nor can a body without a head. Our Pope cannot be all that he can be, all that he should be, cannot function in completeness unless we unite ourselves to him, strengthening and empowering him through the manifestation of the one, complete, whole Mystical Body of Christ working through us all. He needs us now and we need him. For without him we cannot be strengthened and empowered either. We cannot be the manifestation of the one, complete, whole Mystical Body of Christ. Without him we do not have the keys to the kingdom, the ability to open and shut, we have no authority. Those were given to Peter and through his office to our Pope. If we think that we can bypass this process that was put into place by Jesus himself, that we can cut off this head, separate ourselves from it, that Christ, as the true head of the Mystical Body of Christ, will work with the body without it, we did not understand his Gospel.
Jesus the Word of God was sent to speak to us. What we don’t realize as we search and parse the Bible, as we pass on the traditions, what we can’t see in all our detail to proper translation and in our exegesis, in adherence to form and rite is the simplicity of what he said. The single word he spoke to us was the word one. One as in singular, one as in only, one as in complete, one as in united. One, y’all. One God in three persons, one savior of us all, one sacrifice, one message, one way, one truth, one life, one body, one church all assenting to one Will. One with the Son who is One with the Father and the Holy Spirit. “one body and one spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” Ephesians 4-6
We have one proclamation “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”. We have one witness to that proclamation…unity.(Jn 17:23). One proclamation proclaimed in one voice. Without this unity we have not just lost a component of our witness we have lost the essence of it, we have lost THE witness. We have no witness because a divided witness negates itself. Jesus was the one sacrifice to unite us with the Father and bring completeness to the world. The Eucharist is the one participation in this one perpetual sacrifice that makes us one with Jesus, with his Church and with each other. The four marks of the Church all come back to the word one. We are one as in only, as in complete, as in united because of Jesus. We are holy because we are one united together with and through the holiness of Jesus. We are catholic in that we have one universal message for all and one body formed in diversity. We are apostolic in that we have one message passed down through one authority.
In the Gospel of John chapter 17, Jesus prays that his church be one in the same way he and the Father are one. He consecrates himself to the church so that it, through him, it will also be consecrated in truth. He says that the perfection of its unity will be the witness and sign to the world that Jesus was sent by the Father . Jesus is not only praying for us here, but giving a summation of the Gospel in a single word. One. Singular, only, complete, united. One.
At the beginning of the Church, Satan and the enemies of God sought to annihilate it, to wipe it out, to kill those who promulgated it. When that could not be done the next best thing was to negate it by dividing it and dispersing it. To make it ineffective through the contradiction of differing theologies. So that it would not be singular, would not be only, would not be complete, would not be united, would not be one. If it is not singular, only, complete, united, one then it cannot be true. Negating the one proclamation by dividing the one voice. Creating many voices so that the one voice is not silenced but drowned out by the cacophonous din. Dividing the Mystical Body of Christ in and through its members. Divide and conquer.
What faces us today is that Satan is trying to separate the Church visible head from visible body so that not only will it not function properly but it will die. Many believe that this threat to our Church comes in the form of modernism, secularism, an acceptance of what is sinful. These things have always been a part of our world and at times a part of those who comprise the Church. These things are nothing new. Many think that it was Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Mass. I would say that the enemy timed this attack as such so that we would perceive Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Mass as some kind of problem. So that we would perceive a justifiable reason for what we were doing. What better way to divide the head from the body then to make some think that we were preserving the Church by doing so? How Satan must enjoy wounding the Mystical Body of Christ by separating it visible head from visible body. Using the Mass and the very traditions of the Church to divide it. What comes against us is not merely the opposite of one, as in division, it is the antithesis of one…autonomy. Autonomy is what will separate the visible head of the Church from it’s visible body. We are not divided from you, we are independent of you. We believe and proclaim the teachings of Jesus Christ but we can do that independent of hierarchy or authority. Maybe we are preserving the teachings of Jesus Christ until you can do it more properly until then we have no choice but to be independent of you to avoid error. Or we want the right to live our lives the way we see fit and in order to do that we must be independent of you. Through autonomy we can delude ourselves into thinking that we are still believers in Jesus Christ. In some way we are teaching what Jesus taught. We can use words from the teachings of Jesus to justify ourselves in our autonomy. Love, justice, truth, tradition. We will still be a body of believers with Jesus as our true head we need no other or can do without it until such a time as the head gets its head on straight. Maybe we listen to the magisterium and the Pope but we do not respect them, we criticize them, we are not loyal to them with our words.
If we want to change things, even things within the Church; if we want true leadership in our hierarchy and in our Pope; if we are truly interested in being in persona Christi to the world then we must unite with our Pope, our bishops, our priests and each other so that the power, the authority, the strength of Jesus Christ himself can be made manifest in his Church through his Mystical Body. Colossians 3:14 tells us that love is the bond of perfection, what unites us. 1 John 3:18 tells us to love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. If we cannot love our Pope, our Bishops, our priest and each other we then must love Jesus, not only in word and speech but in deed and truth, enough to protect his person. As we Catholics would not profane his person in the Eucharist, let us also not profane his person in the Mystical Body of Christ. That through Jesus and in him we may be a Mystical Body, the visible head with the visible body, that is singular, only, complete and united. We will be the truth and will be telling the truth. If we refuse we will be fragmented, divided, incomplete. It will not be the truth of the person of Christ. The only way we can do that is to be united to our Pope, united to our Bishops, united to our Priests, united to each other in all and through all united to Jesus Christ. ONE in persona Christi.
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