Jesus Speaks through His Church

In the fourth century, a priest named Nestorius was wrestling with a thorny question: can we really call Mary the “Mother of God”? How can God have a mother? Doesn’t that seem to imply that Mary is higher than God? He concluded that Mary did not give birth to the divinity of Christ, but only to His humanity.

This launched a huge debate in the Church. They began to ask: can we separate Jesus’ divinity and humanity? Back-and-forth this debate raged, until a council was called in a town called Chalcedon, in modern-day Turkey. The aged Pope Leo was too sick to go, so he sent a famous letter – called the Tome of Leo – to speak in his stead.

After some rousing debate at the council, the bishops quieted down as someone read the Tome of Leo, which declared that Mary did not give birth to only part of a person, but to the whole person of Jesus, who is both human and divine – meaning that we can truly call Mary “Theotokos”, meaning “God-bearer.” The bishops were so thrilled at the wisdom and authority of that letter that they began crying out, “St. Peter has spoken through Leo! St. Peter has spoken through Leo!”

When Jesus was on this earth, how awesome it would be to hear Him! We could bring Him any question we had, and immediately have an answer from God Himself. But now that He has returned to His Father, He has not just left us to “figure it out on our own.” In today’s Gospel, He promises to send us the Holy Spirit to lead us into “all truth”…and He has established the Catholic Church as the guarantee of His truth. As Peter spoke through Leo, Christ continues to speak through the official teachings of the Catholic Church.

We can see this in the debate taking place in the first reading. During the first few decades after Christ’s Resurrection, Christians weren’t sure if their faith in Jesus was a branch of Judaism, or if it was a whole new religion entirely. There was considerable debate about whether or not you had to become Jewish first, and obey the entire Jewish law – special diet, special clothing, circumcision – in order to come to faith in Christ. Especially as the Name of Jesus started to be preached in Rome and northern Africa and across the Mediterranean lands, many regular folks weren’t thrilled with the idea of following the Jewish laws along with their new faith in Christ.

So the Church met in Jerusalem to debate this – and they trusted that the Holy Spirit would guide them into the truth. We see that Peter (the first Pope) and the Apostles (the first Bishops) decided – not on their own wisdom, but by the power and authority of the Holy Spirit – that the Jewish law was not necessary for salvation. So ever since the first century we can see that the Holy Spirit has protected the Church from errors and led believers into the truth.

And this is such a gift – because without the Church, we would be floundering on our own! Some of our Protestant brothers and sisters, such as the Methodists, meet every four years to vote on what they believe for the next four years – and it has frequently changed! Imagine something being wrong in 2021 but being acceptable in 2022…that doesn’t make sense! Other Protestants simply follow the teachings of their own pastor – Pastor Jones may say one thing, but Pastor Brooks down the street might say another – who is to know what is truth?

Christ wanted to spare us that confusion, so He gave us a visible Church and endowed it with the authority to teach in His Name. Now, there are certainly individual priests and bishops who teach strange things…and certainly many priests and bishops who are not holy as individuals. But when we read the Catechism or other Church documents, we can be confident that we are able to know the mind of Jesus Christ on any topic. We believe that the Church has a special gift of the Holy Spirit called infallibility which protects it from making errors when teaching about faith or morals. As Peter spoke through Leo, so Christ speaks through His Church.

This past week, Deacon John was telling me of a discussion he had recently with a man who said, “We should update and re-write the Bible, because it doesn’t say anything about racism!” True – the Bible doesn’t directly say anything about many contemporary topics. But that doesn’t mean we need to re-write the Bible – rather, it means we need an institution that can authentically interpret the Bible – hence, the Church.

Consider this analogy. Our country has a document which tells us who we are as a nation: the Constitution. But over the course of 250 years, questions may come up which make it hard to apply the Constitution to modern life – so we have the Supreme Court, which is (supposed to) teach us how to apply the Constitution to our modern challenges. In the same way, our Faith is based upon a text: the Bible. But how do we apply and interpret the Bible in an authoritative way with our modern challenges and questions? Through the Church.

That’s why it’s not a burden but a blessing to have a Church that, despite the flaws of its members, still teaches the same truth that Christ left us in the Gospels. This truth has unfolded over the years like a flower that unveils its beauty slowly, but the teachings are unchanged and unchangeable.

I regularly get asked, “What if I disagree with what the Church teaches on X?” (Usually some “woke” issue). We disagree with the Church to our own peril! If I disagree with a sign that says, “Caution: Wet Paint” and I say, “Oh, that’s foolishness. I can sit on this park bench!”, then disaster usually ensues. Or if we were to read the instructions on a bottle of medicine that says, “Do not take if you have such-and-such a condition” and we say, “Oh, it’s my life, I can do what I want!”, wouldn’t that be foolish! We obey medical authority and civil authority even when we don’t understand it – should we not do the same with authority that Christ Himself founded?

The Catechism actually states, “Each and everything set forth definitively by the Magisterium of the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals must be firmly accepted and held; therefore, anyone who rejects propositions which are to be held definitively sets himself against the teaching of the Catholic Church.”

I don’t know about you, but I want the surest and most secure way to eternal life – and I know I ain’t wise enough to know the mind of Christ in today’s crazy and mixed-up world! But fortunately for us, the Lord has not left us abandoned – He has sent us His Spirit to lead us into all truth, the Spirit that dwells in the Church. Peter has spoken through Leo…Christ continues to speak through His Church.

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Originally published at The Cross Stands While the World Turns

Photo: Brandon Morgan, Unsplash / PD-US