Is. 8:23-9:3; Ps. 27:1, 4, 13-14; 1 Cor. 1:10-13,17; Mt.4:12-23
“Light has arisen!” This is the light that consumes ordinary humanity and transforms it into something greater than ourselves. Light has arisen and this light is Jesus Christ. Jesus comes into the darkness of the world “curing every disease and illness”, the disease of sin, death, and the illness of body, mind and spirit. The light has arisen but only upon those who respond to the call “Come after me”. Apart from Jesus life is driven by emotions, reason, and our will not God’s will. God’s will that we receive the infused virtues of light to know truth, righteousness, and peace. The darkness of humanity is a vessel without the sail of faith in the one true God. Peter, Andrew, James and John saw in Jesus the risen light and believed.
Jesus saw in Peter, Andrew, James, John and the other apostles his church, his priestly descendancy with authority, his infallible teaching to be handed over to them to be taught before the whole world with the risen light of his gospel word made flesh as he institutes his church at the last supper, Holy Thursday. Thus, today is more of the apologetics of the Catholic church in the world called to be one, holy, universal, and apostolic church for the meaning of Catholic is “universal”. This is not to create separation from us and other believers who do not follow us but to remind us of the call to unity in the one body of Christ. Recall the “Jesus’ prayer” for unity, John 17:21 “I pray…so that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you…that the world may believe that you sent me.”
Jesus comes proclaiming “the Gospel of the kingdom”. It is one “Gospel” that holds the totality of his word and it begins with the word made flesh. Jesus is the “Gospel”, the good news and “Gospel” is the revelation of absolute truth. Jesus reveals to us the absolute truth of God the Father in his Son through the Spirit. The Spirit is within the Son and the Father and all give witness to being one. Without fulfilling the Jesus’ prayer for unity the world has not come to believe and a divided house cannot stand. What is the world to believe if even among believers there is such great disunity? It can only conclude what Pontius Pilates asked Jesus, “What is truth?”.
The call for unity is the preaching of St. Paul this day “that there be no divisions among you” Christians “but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.” Even in the early church history there are signs of division creating factions of different mindsets. History is the great “fact checker” that is given to us to discern the one true church. History has no partiality but records in itself and reveals to us Jesus’ kingdom coming through the call of his disciples. History tells us the will of Jesus was to ensure unity in his church by proclaiming Peter as the “rock” of authority, by recognizing in the early church priests, bishops, deacons, and respect for the chair of Peter in Rome.
Protestantism by its very name is a protest and rebellion against the chair of Peter and his appointed apostles. Protestantism follows the belief in “Sola scriptura” by scripture alone do we discover the truth and the Bible is the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. Thus, each person should be able to pick up a bible and receive the risen light of truth and understanding without error. Vanity of vanities to presume each person’s interpretation of the bible by reason is absolute truth and if not absolute truth at least to hold it as “my truth” from the light of reason. This is the false truth of moral relativism leading those who follow to be their own God.
Moral relativism proclaims that there is no one truth. It allows each to live their truth based on their own reason without God? Thus, where two or three come together with their agreed upon conclusion they now proclaim it to be gospel truth and they establish their own church. However, if two or three disagree they can each go their own way with their own theology and doctrine, divided not united. This is what St. Paul is warning his people about and what we see in our world today. This is how the world operates with the view of “to each his own” and we can easily fall into the same false belief unless we believe that Jesus established his church and gave it authority, the keys to the kingdom to “bind and to loosen” in earth and in heaven. (Mt. 16:19, Mt. 18:19)
I have my truth from scripture and you have yours. If there are multiple truths from God then why the incarnation of Jesus and his sacrifice if in the end who are we really following? “Is Christ divided?” asks St. Paul, then why are we divided? History proves by evidence of all the denominations that the same gospel can arrive in many minds at many different doctrines unless there is one authority coming to us from the beginning of Jesus’ proclamation of the gospel. A divided church St. Paul warns results in the cross of Christ being “emptied of its meaning[JG1] ”.
In Jesus the light is risen from the darkness but like a virus each time it is divided and mutates into another version of itself it becomes weaker and darker and dies. Denominations rise and denominations fall but the fullness of truth of the gospel remains in the hands of the Catholic church and history proves who came first and remains with us to this day.
In Jesus the light is risen to be a new covenant with his people. But wait, does not the Lord speak of this new covenant stating, “I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts, I will be their God, and they shall be my people”. Is it not the same law that comes to each of us as believers then why the division? Why appoint twelve apostles designated to go out and teach what they have received? Humanity needs the visible guiding light to understand the call to the divine life. Just as a child needs his parents to become a mature adult the faithful need their earthly shepherd to enter into the Father’s house.
Once baptized the spirit of the law is received in the gift of the Holy Spirit, planted in our hearts but it cannot mature without the body of the law to guide it in this pilgrimage. This body is the Church, these apostles are the new priestly order, and through this order Christ reveals himself in the sacramental life of the church.
To follow Jesus through the church is a great gift for humanity because the church bears the cross of shepherding the faithful in the truth. “The Lord is my light and my salvation” received in the sacraments of the church to be the risen light to the world. Jesus also left us the law of the gift. The law of the gift says that it is in giving of ourselves that we find our true self. Jesus gave himself up on the cross for us and in dying he rose to the visible fullness of himself and appeared to many. The law of the gift is our calling, so let us remember it’s not about self but about self-giving that sets us free to become our true self, a child of God, a visible image of the light now risen in us.
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