Is your church of human… or divine origin?

Today's Gospel reading is not that long, but this is one Bible passage that has caused a great divide within Christianity as it is the story of Peter's confession about Jesus, which you'll find in your Bibles on Matt.16: 13-20. 13* When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is? 14* They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15* He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16* Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God."

17* Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 18* And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. 19* I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 20* Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah."

The first paragraph of this Gospel gives us an idea of what the people in Palestine think about who our Lord Jesus was… and you know the answer to that. They thought he was one of the prophets or even John the Baptist resurrected. But when Jesus turned the table on to his own disciples as to who they thought he was, St. Peter took on the role of the elder leader and professed to Jesus that indeed, he was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

If you read closely and reread that passage carefully, you will note that our Lord Jesus clearly points out that Peter did not come into this conclusion about Jesus on his own or whether he got it from the market place or from someone making "tsimis" about Jesus. Peter's knowledge was a gift by no less than God the Father. Because of his belief in Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus gave him a new name, instead of being called Simon, he was now named Peter (Petros in Greek, meaning rock) and in Peter, will be the foundation of the church that Jesus Christ founded… which today is the Catholic Church.

Now didn't we say at the beginning that this Bible passage has caused a great rift between Catholics and the rest of Christianity? Many Bible-reading Christians who memorize almost every page, chapter or verse in the Bible have difficulty interpreting this passage. Some even boldly claim that Jesus was referring to their church when he said this to Peter. A great debate even ensued whether Jesus meant, Peter was the rock, the foundation of his church or that Jesus was actually referring to a particular rock when he was pointing to Peter.

In short, various Christian sects would make wild claims just to show to their followers that it was their church that Jesus founded when the reality is, they were really creating their own church; after all, it is a big business! Hence many Catholic apologists would ask, "Is your church of human origin or divine origin?" I even have a T-shirt with that statement, which uses the Book of Almanac that lists down the founders of the various Christian sects. This shows and proves that these churches were of human origin.

When our Lord Jesus said to Peter, "Upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it," our Lord was saying that in the singular, not plural terms… that he would build his church and whether you like it or not, he meant only one true church, Catholic (meaning universal) and Apostolic Church that the devil cannot destroy and many have tried to destroy it. I'm proud to be a Catholic despite the imperfections of our Catholic church. It is the only organization on this earth that is still with us 2000 years after our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven.

The final paragraph is controversial to those who oppose the Catholic Church as it is a divine order-call it the source of Holy Orders of the priesthood-that our Lord Jesus Christ gives to Peter and his Apostles, that what sins they forgive here on the confessional are forgiven also in heaven and what they do not forgive here on earth would not be forgiven in heaven. Thanks to this passage, it gives the lowly priests, bishops and cardinals the divine power of forgiveness for as long as the penitent is sincere in his act of reconciliation with God. That is a power no one, king or president can ever bestow!

Mind you, Holy Orders doesn't make priest instant saints; on the contrary, like the rest of us, they are susceptible to all forms of temptations and like most of us, they too fail and fall. But they will always be priests in the order of Melchizedek and you can read about him on Gen.14: 18-20. God loves you!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila's columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com