Who Has The Words of Eternal Life?

The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain; lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where. Pr 5:3-6

When most people hear the word adultery they think of the sex thing. That a married person went out and had sex with someone other than their spouse. It does happen that way. In the bible adultery is used to describe the unfaithfulness of the people of God. It’s synonyms are unfaithfulness, disloyalty, infidelity, falseness, treachery, betrayal, deceitfulness, faithlessness, breaking faith. When you have experienced the impact of adultery you come to the realization that the sex thing was the end result but the real thing was something else and that it doesn’t occur just within marriage. It doesn’t come about through sex, it comes about through words. Unfaithfulness is when someone you love allows someone else to talk them out of you. Weakness, lack, insecurity, need or fear in the one who has been unfaithful is usually what makes them susceptible. Then along comes someone they barely know with words like honey and smooth as oil and they no longer see the truth of who you have always been for them. Because of weakness, lack, insecurity, need or fear they trust the words of one who has done little to earn such trust save the uttering of well used words. They let themselves be talked out of you. This can happen in any relationship. In the extreme this same behavior is what draws people into cults. They are talked out of trusting the people they love and into trusting only the cult. Next thing you know they are drinking the Kool-Aid. In the end the words become bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword, leading to death. They take you from the road to life along rambling paths leading you know not where.

In the Church we are watchful against the words of those from outside the Church, though some are susceptible to them and do leave the Church. We are less watchful of those within the Church, that say they are part of the Church or give a Catholic appearance. Martin Luther was a Catholic who intended to change the Church not separate from it. All he had were words from the intellect of men. There were no miracles or supernatural manifestations to uphold him. Just his words that he, himself, said were from God. He and many others were talked out of the Church by believing that they were part of a more true church. An invisible Church lead by Jesus and the Holy Spirit and not the visible Church that Christ had established. Today, there are some who say their intention is to change the Church not to separate from it. They run the gambit from the most ultra-conservative and traditional to modernist liberal. Some of them telling you to go to Mass and the sacraments, pray the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, attend Eucharistic adoration and kneel and receive Communion on the tongue. They seem to have the right words even quoting the words of past Popes, saints and doctors of the Church. Yet they and you are slowly being talked out of the Church itself by believing that you are part of a more true Church.

We also have the internet full of website after website with a Catholic appearance of icons and images and prayers and devotions. They say that they follow Church doctrine concerning “faith and morals” but speak of a hierarchy that has abdicated it’s authority or had it taken away from them and of a remnant of true believers. Words that sow mistrust in the leadership of the Church. Words that begin to talk you out of the visible Church and into an invisible Church of true believers. There are also the visionaries that have not been approved by the Church with words of warning for a nearness of chastisement and tribulation and an urgency that they say the leadership of the Church refuses to recognized. So they have been called by God to give this message to the world. They speak of cataclysmic events, anti-popes, false prophets and the antichrist and, again, the remnant of true believers. For the sake of your very soul you are talked out of the visible Church and into a Church invisibly lead by Jesus Christ himself through the messages of the seer. We know nothing of them, not even their names. They have done nothing to earn our trust save uttering well formed words of unproven supernatural origin, yet we believe that they have the very word of God.

Master , to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” Jn 6:68-69

Jesus has the words of eternal life. He established a visible Church so that his word could continue to be spoken reliably throughout history until his return. “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” Lk 10:16 We cannot delude ourselves into thinking that we can stop listening to the Church yet still be listening to Christ. He speaks through his Church. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. Jn 10:27. Before his ascension he left his sheep in the care of a visible shepherd, Peter and those who followed in Peter’s office. So where should we go for the words of eternal life that Jesus speaks to us. To the Church that Jesus established, that has established its trustworthiness through 2000 years, that has been granted signs, miracles and supernatural manifestations? Why are we so easily talked out of this and talked into turning to other sources? Do we through weakness, lack, insecurity, need or fear listen to other people, or groups or messages or words that could very well lead us from the road of life along paths that ramble we know not where? Do we listen to words that at first may seem like honey and smooth as oil but in the end are bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two edged sword, leading to death?

Who has the words of eternal life if not the Church who was entrusted with them? His true sheep will know his voice through the shepherd he himself has sent.

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