THE ENERGY FROM GOD: THE AUTHENTIC CHURCH IS CATHOLIC.

THE MEANINGS OF CATHOLIC AS A MARK OF THE CHURCH

One thing to remember about quantum energy is that it comes from God through Christ. It is empowered trough the Holy Spirit, passed on in each generation of the Baptized to the various communities of Faith (ibi episcopus, ibi ecclesia), served by a blshop to keep the traditions and dogmas from corruption, then still an unbroken chain of life, eventually trickling down to the parish level anrd ultimately to me, who, as an individual Catholic of the Roman Rite, who trys to makes sense of it in my behaviors and the boundaries of truth that I accept with that energy source, God.

Each of the four marks (one, holy, catholic, and apostolic) fulfills and complements the other. All is energy from God (grace), but each one contains the others, although separate. This is not just a direct line from the Catholic Universal Church to me when I attend Eucharist or pray my Cistercian prayers and practice its charisms, but also an unbroken connection, first of all, with all creation. Alpha to Omega (see Teilhard map, unattributed). The authentic Church is one whose message comes from Christ, unbroken, but interpreted by that Body of Christ in each age. The four marks of the Church are the conduits of power for both the Church ONE to sustain itself as the way, the truth from Christ, and a life to prepare to live forever in Heaven. The Church CATHOLIC delineates the scope of salvation, not limited to all humans but rather by confession of Faith and daily conversion (conversio morae). Remember, these marks helped the Church in each generation with the source of energy that allows me (and you) to say, “Jesus is Lord.”

A CATHOLIC Catholic realizes with humility that the heritage passed down through the Apostles to me is not limited just to the Catholic Universal Church, and that others have chosen to alter this CATHOLIC pathway with their own interpretation of what Christ wanted. The Church Universal is the repository of what is true in a contiguous, unbroken succession of people and dogmas (Creed). It is ours to guard and protect by living it out in our lives.

A CATHOLIC realizes that there are many religions or interpretations of what Christ says, and they do so unaware of the grand scheme of salvation evolving around them. The Church Universal is the repository and depository of what was handed down to us throughout the ages, our heritage from previous believers. We must not be seduced by rationalism (just because each person has the right to choose right from wrong, what they choose is not right because they choose it).

A CATHOLIC Catholic will adhere to what is the way, the truth Christ left us, and the life of praise and glory to the Father, while praying for those who do not believe as we do. We ask God’s mercy on ALL humans, beginning with me, personally, that God not judge our sinful ways harshly, but rather for reparation and penance for the whole world (CATHOLIC). I recommend the papal encyclical, Gaudium et Spes, to get a more grounded overview of what it means to be Catholic in the midst of those who believe slightly differently, or those who do not believe at all. https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html

At this point, I need to address the notion of being Christian, or, as I prefer to be called, Catholic of the Roman Rite. Even though catholic is a mark of the Church, the Church is called Catholic for a good reason. It dates back to the origins of the Faith and has a specificity about it that the word “Christian” does not. When someone says they are “Christian,” I don’t think specific denomination or set of creedal oaths that are peculiar to it.

I prefer to be called Catholic rather than Christian, although both are true. Catholic is one of the four marks of the authentic Church to hand down to us the way, the truth, and the life, within the lifetime of each of the Popes. If you have wondered, as I have, where the word ‘Catholic’ comes from, I have a source for you to investigate if this interests you.

The first usage of the word, CATHOLIC is from the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 100 AD) to the Smyrnaeans, in Chapter 8. Look it up and appreciate the whole letter. I encourage you to look up the ancient writers to see how Jesus impacted their lives in the blossoming Church.

https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm

Being called “Catholic carries, for me, the weight of twenty centuries of bumps and bruises, where the Faith is challenged and protected by its faithful believers down through time itself, whereas the word “Christian” simply means, right now at least, I call myself that name, which can mean believing in anything I want Christ to be. That is a bastardization of the whole concept of the CATHOLIC mark that means not only ALL people are welcomed but that, on their part, they must die to self and accept that God sets boundaries and we try as best we can to follow what he says. To ensure we get it right, Christ gave us two gifts that the Church always allows us to help us be present to the REAL Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity. Catholics are marked with the sign of the cross for a reason, because, like it always has been since the time of Christ, we deal with individuals who are sometimes less than what I want in a leader. Yet. Peter, the first Pope, was a scallywag and betrayed Jesus, and it seemed that the Holy Spirit had to come down on the Apostles to free them from being hostage to thinking of exclusion and privilege. CATHOLIC means all genders, all races, all humans, poor as well as rich, are all potentially adopted sons and daughters and heirs to the kingdom of heaven on earth, now, and in the life to come. All I have to do is say, “Yes, Lord, I come to do your will on earth as it is in heaven,” and the struggle begins until I die. Church is that mother who comforts me when we wander off the true path of righteousness and, like the prodigal son or daughter, sells their birthright to squander it among wine, men, women, and song. But, also like the story of the prodigal son or daughter, the Father (God) each day gets up and scans the horizon, searching for the return of his wayward child. Jesus told us there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who has repented than over ninety-nine who have not repented. Again, the Church as mother allows us, with a lower gaze to the floor, to have the Sacrament of Reconciliation, making all things new.

The mark of the authentic Church which Christ founded to give grace to all of us sinful and wayward humans, gives to ALL its members and even non-members who have a good heart, a way to interact with Christ and know that He is present to us both in the Eucharist but also in being a penitential Catholic aways asking for mercy. Jesus told us that he would not leave us orphans. I am with you until the end of time. He said to Israel, “I am your God and you are my people,” and it is still true as fulfilled by Jesus the Messiah, except expanded to ALL nations.

The authentic Church founded by Christ on Peter, the rock, and that rock rooted on the Rock of Ages, is the mindset that Jesus told us what to do if we wish to be his disciples. Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments provide examples of how to discern good from evil (Genesis 1-2) and what happens to those who choose their own wills instead of Christ’s teachings. This applies to ALL its members equally.

Two types of contexts that are connected to the ongoing continuity of the word, CATHOLIC, as a mark of the Church. By continuity, I mean the realization that, just as all reality moves forward in complexity and consciousness, so too do various groups of believers. I offer three such examples of how doctrine evolved as the Church Universal had to grasp what it meant. Also, it may have evolved over centuries and not overnight.

1. THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND ISRAEL — The Jewish people inherited the covenant from God and are the chosen people. They still are. The natural paradigm of moving forward in complexity and consciousness applies to the Old Testament and the prescriptions of the Law. In the case of the Jewish tradition, they continued and still continue to hold that this covenant is inviolable and without change. It still is and does not change. What changed and what its teachers did not anticipate was what that covenant would look like when facing Christ, which was that He represented an evolution of that unrevokable bond to include ALL humans. The truth is ONE, HOLY and CATHOLIC, it is true, but God’s truth, that he is God and we are humans, never changes. What does change is the human interpretation of what that means. Christ came to show us that, although God is ONE, God is also more than that. The failure of the Jewish teachers at the time and even now is that they do not see that the natural progression of their Faith (Old Testament) would evolve, and they would need to evolve with it. When they did not see this evolution of their covenant. When they did not recognize the signs of change that were part of the evolution of Israel, God had to send his only begotten Son to expand that vision, to keep the link to God intact, yet to expand God’s love to ALL nations. It is no coincidence that both Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:36 (ShemaYisrael) are the same. Jesus tells us He has come to make all things new, to be that next step in the evolution between God and humans, one that includes a real person who tells His disciples how to be happy in this life and continue that in the next life with ALL the Church in heaven. Jesus is the next step in the evolution of the Faith from The Genesis Principle through to the Christ Principle, and, to make it real for each individual Catholic, so that ALL people have the opportunity to hear and respond to the good news that “God so loved the world, that he gave His only-begotten Son to be a ransom for many and SHOW us HOW TO use Eucharist and Penance as two of seven ways we have to receive God’s grace. It is up to me, the individual, to make that choice to die to self so that I can rise with Christ to a new life, fulfilling nature’s call to move to that deeper level of my humanity and receive the energy from God I need to be an adopted son (daughter) of the Father. Just as the Jews needed to be aware that evolution impacts their relationship with God, so too, the Catholic Church Universal must also evolve from just adherence to the law (prevalent in the Old Testament) to having the Christ Principle be the catalyst to make new wine skins to hold the new wine Christ gives us each day. CAHOLIC means I realize who my neighbor is and love them as myself. CATHOLIC means I serve others (being careful for them not to exploit my efforts) and give them, Catholic or not, a cup of water in the name of Christ. St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta took this to heart. She shared her Faith in Christ Jesus with ALL people, regardless of their beliefs. It was enough that they existed in front of her.
2. THE CONTEXT OF THE WORD CATHOLIC AS A MARK OF THE CHURCH-– I had the good fortune to have as my teacher, the late Aidan Kavanaugh, O.S.B., a monk of St. Meinrad Archabbey in Southern Indiana. This was back in 1963 or 1964. I wrote a few blogs about Father Aidan and his influence on my thinking, although I did not realize it until 2020. Suffice it to say that he gave the context of the concept of catholic and the milieux in which that word expanded. The mark of the Church called CATHOLIC has its origins from almost the beginning of the early and unsure Church, having grown now to include Gentiles and Jews without distinction.
3. The following is excerpted from a blog I wrote about CATHOLIC as a word. I prefer to be called Catholic rather than Christian, although both are true. Catholic is one of the four marks of the authentic Church to handed down for us to do the way, the truth, and the life, within the lifetime of each of the Popes. If you have wondered, as I have, where the word ‘Catholic’ comes from, I have a source for you to investigate if this interests you. The first usage of the word, CATHOLIC is from the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 100 AD) to the Smyrnaeans, in Chapter 8. Look it up and appreciate the whole letter. I encourage you to look up the ancient writers to see how Jesus impacted their lives in the blossoming Church. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm Read the whole letter, if you can, to get the flavor of how the early Catholic Church is growing and in what direction. Now, relate that to the body of believers with whom you believe and see how close they are. I make no suggestions. You have reason, use it.
4. THE CHURCH STRUGGLES WITH MEANING — Father Aidan pointed out to our class in Sacramental Theology that these words, not even the Gospels or Letters of St. Paul, just popped out of the sky. They evolved in complexity and consciousness in tune with all reality. Some ideas took hold and became what we know today as marks. Here is what I can remember from the class Father Aidan taught on the context of the word CATHOLIC in the world of early Rome. The Roman Religion had developed its pantheon of gods and goddesses to try to explain reality around them at the time. They erected huge temples to their favorite god or goddess and, like museums of today, were places where people gathered to think about what is before them in terms of what they see about reality. These rites and gods and goddesses were prayed to by their believers, but it was cold and void of any connection with that deity.
   • The Roman soldiers around Ist century AD onwards experienced various modes of spirituality while deployed. Some of them brought back to Rome a ritual and a set of beliefs called Mithraism.
   • This Cult of Mithras had an initiation ceremony, a celebratory meal, and a community with a defined purpose of life. Unlike the cold, museum-like cults of the State gods and goddesses, this personal cult was limited to those from the military and a few other prominent Romans of the day.
   • These Mithraians worshiped the god Mithras, a bull and sign that receiving the blood and eating the flesh of the bull would give those privileged to be members special knowledge and especially strength in mind and body.
   • The Mithrians were a secret society whose activities were members only, and all male, at that.
   • Early Christianity competed with Mithraism as a personal religion, unlike the Roman or State Religions of the time.
   • Father Aidan suggested that the word catholic was forged on the anvil of this competition, with the early Church being catholic and open to all, if they believed, contrasted with the Mithrians, who were limited to males and staunchly private.
5. As part of this evolution of ideas, in the time of St. Ignatius of Antioch (c 100 AD), to the declaration of the four marks of the Church which we recite even today in the Nicene Creed, promulgated in which was finalized at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, not the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Read Chapter 8 of his Letter to the Smyrnaeans. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm I use this Apostles Creed to suggest that these beliefs evolved over a period of centuries into what we know today. What follows comes from Google AI.
   • “The Apostles’ Creed ( I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.) Here is an excerpt from Google AI and the history of the Apostles’ Creed. “The Apostles’ Creed, a foundational statement of Christian belief, developed gradually from early Christian teachings and baptismal practices, rather than being authored by the apostles themselves. While the legend of each apostle contributing a line is a myth, its core tenets reflect the teachings of the apostles and early Church fathers. 
   • Here’s a more detailed look at its history, copied from Google AI
   • Early Origins (1st-2nd Century): 
   • Oral Tradition:.The Creed’s roots lie in the oral traditions of the early Church, particularly the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. 
   • Baptismal Formula:.Early Christians used creeds, or brief summaries of faith, as part of the baptismal process. 
   • Roman Creed:.A proto-form of the Apostles’ Creed, known as the Roman Creed, emerged in Rome around 200 AD, serving as a baptismal formula and a statement of core Christian beliefs. 
   • Development and Formalization (3rd-5th Century):
   • Heresy and Apologetics: The development of the Creed was influenced by the need to counter various heresies, such as Gnosticism, which denied key Christian doctrines. 
   • Widespread Use: By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Apostles’ Creed was widely used in the Western Church, particularly as a baptismal creed. 
   • Finalization: While the precise finalization date varies, the creed’s current form was largely established by the 5th century. 
   • Key Aspects of the Apostles’ Creed:
   • Trinity: The Creed affirms the belief in one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
   • Jesus Christ: It affirms Jesus’ divinity, incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. 
   • Church and Salvation: It affirms the existence of the “holy catholic Church,” the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the body. 
   • Doctrinal Summary: The Creed serves as a concise summary of core Christian beliefs, providing a framework for understanding Christian doctrine. 
   • In summary, the Apostles’ Creed, while not literally written by the apostles, is a powerful and enduring expression of their faith, shaped by the early Church’s need to articulate core Christian beliefs and respond to challenges of the time.” (Excerpted from Google AI)
6. We in the 21st century forget that all those creeds and beliefs by the early Church did not happen in a vacuum or with infused knowledge from God. CATHOLIC meant that the evolution of the Church Universal was growing from a small movement of Apostles and disciples in Judea,
7. Galatians 3:28, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches, states: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. Clearly, the evolution from the Old Testament to the New Testament using the Christ Principle was inclusion, not race-based or gender dominance. A milestone change of paradigm was Pentecost and handing off the baton from Jesus to the Holy Spirit, and to the Twelve Apostles. What is important here is that, moving forward in each century, the Church Universal tried to show its members how to make new wineskins, gathering together their collective and individual contributions for future generations (communion of saints), forming the real presence of the corpus of Christ here on earth and in heaven.

LEARNING POINTS

1. When looking forward in time to actually growing in complexity and consciousness, the Church AUTHENTIC, like everything in reality, moves along assimilating both good and bad ideas about what the meaning of life is, what the meaning of love is, and what truth is outside of human fallibility. The Church is the constant in each age that preserves what Christ wanted for those in future generations, and to make real the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and Sacrament of Penance. ALL humans are sinners (except Jesus and Mary).
2. The energy of God is channeled through these four marks of the authentic Church to ensure its members and believers receive what was handed down by Christ to give grace.
3. The Church Universal is the living embodiment of the head of Christ as Really Present to each age and to me during my short lifespan, so that I can know, love, and serve God on this earth while I live and be happy in heaven. (Baltimore Catechism, Question 6)
4. These four quantum entanglements stretch from Divine Nature through Christ, through His Body, the living Church in each age, so that I can tap into that energy from God so that I can realize the fulfillment of my humanity, to be an adopted son (daughter) of the Father.
5. CATHOLIC refers to that next level of evolution or maturation of the Pentecost event, one where the baton was handed off to, not just individuals, such as the Apostles, but also in an unbroken line through the Catholic Church, all the way to me. I learn how to use and access this energy by profound listening to God speaking to me in that upper room of my inner self. (Matthew 6:5)
6. CATHOLIC refers to how the authentic Church established by Christ helps ALL individuals who believe in each age, move forward (not backward from me to God) to sustain what is true and linked directly to Christ here and now. I can only go back in time to Scriptures and teachings of the Twelve if the Church moves forward, while bearing the marks of bruises and misteps down through the centuries, so that I can use the tools and energy from the Holy Spirit to say that Jesus is Lord.
7. CATHOLIC refers to that next stage in the development of reality where we ALL have to die to self (believe that Jesus is the Son of God, Savior) to be lifted up by Christ to the status of adoption by the Father and sustained throughout the existence of the Catholic Church until there is no more Church Militant, only Church Triumphant and Church Purgative.
8. ALL have the opportunity to make this leap from humanity to spirituality and be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. It is the task of the Church Militant to spread this good news throughout the world. Those who hear it and respond move to that next level of human evolution, adoption. Some will never hear the word of God from the authentic Church and thus are unable to make the choice that Christ wanted us to make to make the kingdom of heaven on earth as preparation or training for how to live in heaven. Many are called, but few are chosen.
9. It is not my job to say who is or who is not in heaven. It is my duty as a Catholic to pray constantly in season and out of season that first, God grant me mercy, and then I pray for God to be merciful to those whom I have contacted in my lifetime, next, to ask God to be gentle to men and women religious and bishops, priests, and deacons, and their wives, and not to forget to pray for mercy for the sinfulness of the Church Universal who sometimes wanders off the wayof truth to walk the wayward path of sin, and finally, for the whole world for God not to look upon our sins but the Faith of the Church and have mercy on all humanity. That in all things, God be glorified. — St. Benedict

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