Day 267: The Church as Mother and Teacher (2030-2036)

• It’s Day 267!!

• ARTICLE 3: THE CHURCH, MOTHER AND TEACHER

• MORAL LIFE AND THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE CHURCH

• The Church is our MOTHER

• She loves us

• If the Church is our TEACHER, then we need to listen to her

• That can be challenging for many of us 

• People can read the Bible and think it is far enough ago in the past that they are not threatened by it

• Maybe they don’t want to apply it to their lives right now

• Back then, it was not like the people read the Bible in isolation

• They read the Bible with and through the community

• We as Catholic Christians read the Bible with and through the lens of the interpretation of the Magisterium, the teaching office of the Church

• It makes us have to pay attention 

• We are challenged if the Church’s teaching is something that we do not like

• We have to allow ourselves to be challenged and taught

• We need to pray for DOCILITY, the openness to being taught

• If the Church is our mother and teacher, then we have to allow her to care for us and teach us

• We ask for docile, teachable, leadable, guidable hearts that can listen and act on what we hear

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we know that through your Son, Jesus Christ, you established a Church on Earth. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, you have guided and continue to guide the teaching office of the Church. We ask that you please help us to have hearts that are teachable, help us to have hearts that are guidable, that are leadable, that are docile to your Word, hearts that are open to being taught so that our lives can be transformed, so that our lives truly can be offered in spiritual worship. Help so that we can present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, because our wills are conformed to your will. And we know that will through your Word, given to us through Sacred Scripture, and through your teaching, given to us through Sacred Tradition. Lord God, help us to be docile, help us to be open, help us to be led straight to your heart. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Jesus said, “He who hears you hears me.”

• Paragraph 2030 says, “It is in the Church, in communion with all the baptized, that the Christian fulfills his vocation. From the Church he receives the Word of God containing the teachings of ‘the law of Christ.’ From the Church he receives the grace of the sacraments that sustains him on the ‘way.’ From the Church he learns the example of holiness and recognizes its model and source in the all-holy Virgin Mary; he discerns it in the authentic witness of those who live it; he discovers it in the spiritual tradition and long history of the saints who have gone before him and whom the liturgy celebrates in the rhythms of the sanctoral cycle.”

• We are made to have a personal relationship with Jesus, but not a private one

• The Body of Christ has many parts, but it is still ONE

• Jesus is the HEAD

• We are the BODY

• So often we go our own way

• We can even think that we are on our own

• In the case of the Bible, we read it ourselves and try to figure it out ourselves

• And here is the favorite question some people love to ask…

• “Where is that in the Bible?”

• So the question WE get to ask is, “Where did your Bible come from?”

• The Church PRECEDES the Scriptures, the New Testament at least

• The Church PRECEDES the Bible

• The Church GAVE US the Bible

• Paragraph 2032 says, “The Church, the ‘pillar and bulwark of the truth,’ ‘has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth.’ ‘To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls.’”

• If Scripture is the SOLE rule of faith, where is THAT in the Bible????????

• Where is the idea that you DO NOT NEED TRADITION?????????

• The answer is NOWHERE

• The closest one can come is the Letter of St. Paul to Timothy, “All of Scripture is necessary for refutation and correction, instruction and edification.”

• BUT…

• That does not say that ONLY Scripture is the source of these things

• WE GOT THE BIBLE FROM THE CHURCH!!

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US TO UNDERSTAND!!

• ESPECIALLY WITH THE BIG CLAIM PEOPLE TRY TO MAKE!!

• “If that teaching is not in the Bible explicitly, then I do not need to accept it.”

• NO!!!

• NO!!!

• NO!!!

• The Church that Jesus gave us gave us the written Holy Scriptures

• The Church that Jesus gave us ALSO gave us Holy Tradition

• The Church is not our teacher and mother to lord it over us

• The Church is our teacher and mother to feed us and lead us, to guide us, and to help us become holy

• We receive the Sacraments from the Church

• Fr. Mike is re-reading Paragraph 2030 so follow along up there ⬆️

• We measure the truth of the Church not based off of those who fail to live up to it, but based off of those who DO live up to it

• We do not look to the sinners in the Church to say that it is right or true

• We look to THE SAINTS

• We look to those who actually lived out the teachings of the Church

• It is easy to point to all the people who fail to live up to the call of Jesus Christ and think that Christianity can’t be that great

• BUT…

• What about those people who have actually professed and lived the Faith in the way that it is meant to be lived?

• The SAINT is the model of the Church

• Not the sinner

• Paragraph 2031 says, “The moral life is spiritual worship. We ‘present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,’ within the Body of Christ that we form and in communion with the offering of his Eucharist. In the liturgy and the celebration of the sacraments, prayer and teaching are conjoined with the grace of Christ to enlighten and nourish Christian activity. As does the whole of the Christian life, the moral life finds its source and summit in the Eucharistic sacrifice.”

• When we do God’s will, are obedient to Him, live mercy, and live love, that is an act of worship to the Father

• THAT IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US!!

• Whenever we obey His spokespeople on Earth, the Church, that is an act of spiritual worship

• It is not simply following the rules

• As we do what the Father wants, through this moral life as He has revealed to us through His Word and the Church, this is an act of spiritual worship

• Paragraph 2032 says, “The Church, the ‘pillar and bulwark of the truth,’ ‘has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth.’ ‘To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls.’”

• The Church has the right and duty to weigh in on human affairs

• The Church has the right and duty to teach

• We live in a post-Christian world that wants to silence the Church and say, “You do not have the right to speak in the public square.”

• BUT…

• So many Catholics say, “Church, you do not have the right to weigh in on how I live my life. You do not have the right to weigh in on how I view politics or how I view the sexual act or how I view how I raise my family or how I view how I run my business.”

• AND YET…

• The Church does have the right and authority to teach us

• This is a better way to live

• We are obliged to attend to the teachings of the Church

• Paragraph 2033 says, “The Magisterium of the Pastors of the Church in moral matters is ordinarily exercised in catechesis and preaching, with the help of the works of theologians and spiritual authors…”

• Paragraph 2034 says, “The Roman Pontiff and the bishops are ‘authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach the faith to the people entrusted to them, the faith to be believed and put into practice.’ The ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Pope and the bishops in communion with him teach the faithful the truth to believe, the charity to practice, the beatitude to hope for.”

• We must attend to what they are saying

• THAT IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US!!

• Paragraph 2035 says, “The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to all those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed.”

• It is not unlimited infallibility

• It is limited to teachings of faith and morals

• Paragraph 2036 says, “The authority of the Magisterium extends also to the specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance, demanded by the Creator, is necessary for salvation. In realling the prescriptions of the natural law, the Magisterium of the Church exercises an essential part of its prophetic office of proclaiming to men what they truly are and reminding them of what they should be before God.”

• This is not meant to be a straitjacket binding people up to make them slaves to a law

• It is more about binding people up in their brokenness

• When you have a broken leg, you need a cast not because you are meant to be limited but because you need to be healed

• We have forgotten who we are

• The world around us has forgotten who individuals are and that every one of them is made in God’s image and that every one of them is infinitely loved by this infinite God

• The world around us has forgotten who we should be before God

• Therefore, the Church has to exercise its prophetic voice

• Sometimes that prophetic voice is a consolation

• Sometimes that prophetic voice is a word of soothing, healing, and goodness

• Sometimes that prophetic voice is a convicting voice

• Sometimes that prophetic voice challenges us

• BUT…

• IT IS STILL GOOD!!

• We need this because that is what a prophet speaks

• A prophet offers words of consolation and words of conviction

• Therefore, the Church must both console and convict

• If we are challenged over the next few days, good for us

• If we are consoled over the next few days, good for us

• Because we need both

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• May the Force be with you!!