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My Catholic Faith
THE CHURCH
 
nat
 
http://mycatholicfaith-n.blogspot.com
 
 
The Catholic Church Founded by Jesus Christ 03
The Church
C
HRIST’S public teaching and preaching was spread over rather less than threeyears. How was His work to continue after He had left the world? It continues bymeans of the Church which He founded.
 
I
am the way and the truth and the -life,
He said. (John xiv.)And now the Church teaches us the
truth
about God and man, shows us the
way
to go toGod, and brings us to
life
and keeps us alive spiritually so that we can go to God.
DID CHRIST FOUND A CHURCH?
THERE
are those who say that Christ did not found a Church. They say He launched ideas;He set on foot a religious movement in a vague and general way; he gave an example. Thatall this talk of teaching, of authority, of ceremonies is the creation of men. They say thatafter the death of Christ little bodies of men gathered together, set up some organisation of aloose sort if they felt like it and that was all. They will admit that these “Churches” areuseful for those who feel the need of them. But, they say, Christ never intended to set upany one particular organisation.The Catholic holds the exact opposite. We hold that Christ intended and Christ proclaimed that He was leaving behind Him a definite organisation with a head; with a body of teachers speaking with authority; with fixed method of entry and mode of procedure.….More than that He proclaimed that this body which He called “My Church” would be thevery means by which
 
we would come to life again, be re-born, re-made. It is in the CatholicChurch that we begin the life that we
 
will enjoy in its fullness in heaven with God.
HIS FIRST TEACHING
WHEN Christ first began His public life His preaching was simple, open and given to themasses of the people at large. He spoke in their homes, in the fields and streets, on thehillside. He spoke to all.….But already He was gathering together a small select body.
 He made that twelve should be with Him,
says the Gospel. These twelve were the Apostles. (The word “apostle”is from the Greek meaning an envoy “one who is sent”.) Some months after He hadstarted His preaching there came a sort of crisis. He had healed a sick man. And the crowdinstead of thanking God began to murmur that Christ was in league with the devil.
SPECIAL TRAINING FOR THE APOSTLES
F
ROM that time He spent more and more time with the twelve Apostles. He began to preach in parables. He would tell the people a parable, a story like the story of thesower who went out to sow his seed. (Matthew xiii.) But He left it at that. Hedid not explain it any further to the people. But He did explain it to the twelve Apostleswhen they asked Him. He said to them :
To you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God but to the rest in parables.
(Luke viii.)….So that if any man of good will listened to Christ He must be prepared to do somethinghimself. He must make an effort to find out more about Christ’s teaching. And how was heto find out? By going to the Apostles and asking them to explain. They had thePage 2 of 6
 
The Catholic Church Founded by Jesus Christ 03special guidance of Christ. They were the authorised representatives. In thesame way we have to go to the Church and to the successors of the Apostles to find outwhat is the true teaching of Christ. Right from the beginning we see that the Church of Christmust speak with authority.
CHRIST CREATES AN ORGANISED CHURCH
HE set up an organised body. He described it in different ways. He called it a
Kingdom.
 He called it a
net
cast into the sea in which there are good fish and bad. He called it a
field
inwhich there is good wheat and
 
weeds to be separated at the harvest. He called it a
sheep-fold
of which He is the Good Shepherd. He called it quite definitely
“My Church”
 when Simon acknowledged Him as God and Christ changed his name to Peter which means a rock and said:Upon
this rock I will build My Church.
(Matt. xvi.)This Church is so carefully organised by Christ that
there is a definite way of entering it
— byBaptism.
Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into theKingdom of God.
(John iii)Once a man is a member of this Church there are certain
definite things to do.
He must go,for instance, to the Apostles for 
forgiveness of sins
because it was to the Apostles that Christsaid:
Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven, whose
you
shall retain they are retained.
(John xx.)He must receive Christ in
Holy Communion:
 
 Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood you shall not have life in you.
(John vi.)And the Apostles are the ones who are commanded to give Christ to the others. At the LastSupper when He said over the bread and wine:
This is My Body. This is My Blood.
He
 
also said to the Apostles:
 Do this for a commemoration of Me.
(Luke xxii.)
THE CHURCH HAS AUTHORITY
BUT what makes an organisation, as opposed to a loose gathering of individuals, is authority. Now Christ gave authority to teach and rule His Church quite definitely to the body of men thatHe had picked and trained
 ─ 
the Apostles.
Whatsoever you shall bind on earth,
He said,
shall be bound also in heaven.
 
Whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.
(Matt. xviii.)The final commission He gave them can be read in St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 28. Itsums everything up. He reminded them first of all that He Himself had completeauthority divine and human:
 All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth.
(They will remember that He once said:
 As the Father hath sent Me I also send you.)
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