Knowing that He
would soon be going to the Father Jesus entrusted His mission to His closest
disciples - the Apostles. He first ordained them priests who would act on His
behalf when in Luke Chap 22 we hear Him tell the Apostles "This is my
body" and "This is my Blood" and commanding them to "Do
this in memory of me".
By commanding them
to do the same He thereby gives them the power to celebrate Mass in which the
Bread and Wine will be changed into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of
Jesus Christ Himself. Then knowing that after He returns to heaven the faithful
would be left leaderless, Jesus establishes a church with a leader who would
continue His work and guide the people.
In Matthew chapter
16 Jesus makes Peter, the first Pope, the head of His church on earth when He
says "You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church". In
John chap 21 Jesus tells Peter to guide the flock and to teach them when Jesus
tells him "Feed my sheep". In Matt chap 28 Jesus tells the Apostles
that He will never leave His church when He says "I will be with you
always, until the end of the age."
And then Jesus gives
His Apostles, who are the first Bishops, the authority to act on His behalf in
spiritual matters in His church when in Luke chap 10 He tells His Apostles
"Whoever listens to you, listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects
me." In John chap 20 Jesus gives the priests of His Church the power to
forgive sins in His name when He said "Peace be with you. As the Father
has sent me, so I send you. He breathed on them and said to them "Receive
the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them. Whose sins you shall retain they are
retained." This breathing on them
is quite significant because the only other time that God breathes on anyone is
when He created man.
Jesus gives to His
Church the power of loosing and binding or in other words to make decisions and
to rule His church on earth on Jesus' behalf when in Matt Chapter 18 Jesus says
"Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven".
The apostles
ordained others to help them. The church began to spread throughout the
world. Bishops were ordained here and
there and they in turn ordained priests and deacons to help them.
We read in Acts 6
"the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them", and again in
Acts 13 "they laid hands on them
and sent them off". Paul ordained other priests to assist him as we read
in Acts chap 14. "After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and
made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium
and to Antioch.
They strengthened
the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith saying
"It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of
God."
They appointed priests for them in each church
and, with prayer and fasting , commended them to the Lord in whom they had put
their faith." And this handing on of the faith and the authority to preach
the truth in Christ's name by appointing and ordaining priests in every church
continues even to this day. Father Kaz and I are both ordained ministers of the
church. He is a priest and I am a deacon. We were ordained by a Bishop. This Bishop was also ordained by a Bishop who
was Himself ordained by a Bishop who was Himself ordained by a Bishop.
Bishop after Bishop
after Bishop going all the way back 2000 years to the Apostles and to Jesus
Christ Himself. It is an unbroken link
to the very first beginnings of the church. Just like a genealogist would do we could
trace our spiritual roots all the way back to the Apostles who were ordained by
Jesus. This handing on of the teachings of Jesus Christ and His teaching
authority over the centuries by ordaining ministers without a break in it's
2000 year old history is called Apostolic Succession.
What authority does
the Church have to ordain minsters? It has no authority except that which was
given to it by Jesus Christ. The
Catholic Church teaches that Jesus gave His authority to His Holy Church at the
very beginning and that Christ' power is handed down to the Church from
generation to generation through this Apostolic Succession.
The church was a
reality and was flourishing 400 years before the bible even came into
being. In fact, it is through the
authority of the Bishops of the Roman
Catholic Church that we even have a bible. In the 4th century after Christ, it
was the Bishops of the Catholic Church who gathered together and decreed which
books were divinely inspired and which ones were not. This was ratified by the
pope.
1 Timothy 3:15 the
Bible tells us that "the Church of the living God, is the pillar and
foundation of the truth." From the very beginning the Catholic Church has
been celebrating the Liturgy of the Mass with the Holy Eucharist as the central
part of our liturgy. Holy Communion, where we receive the Body and Blood, Soul
and Divinity of Jesus Christ Himself. This is not a symbolic gesture but rather
the actual Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Himself as Jesus says in Luke Chapter
22 "This is my Body".
Catholics take these
words just as Jesus meant them to be taken. Quite literally and that is why the Catholic Church considers the
Eucharist as the centre, the source and the summit of our Catholic Faith. In Acts
chapter 2 we read St. Paul telling us that "They devoted themselves to the
teaching of the Apostles, and to the communal life, to the breaking of the
bread and to the prayers."
Which is exactly what we continue to do today
in the Mass - we gather together as a community, we listen to Holy Scripture
and to the Sermon and then receive Holy Communion or as they called it in the
early days of the Church, " the breaking of the bread". The Apostolic
or Early Church Fathers, that is those who were taught by the Apostles
themselves or their immediate successors and were themselves ordained by the
Apostles or their immediate successors as Bishops - the Apostolic Fathers tell
us about the Mass that was celebrated in those very first days.
When we read their
writings we can readily see that today's celebration of the Liturgy of the
Eucharist models very closely the Liturgy of the Eucharist as was celebrated by
the early church in the very first days. Our Sunday celebration is not so much
focused on the preaching and the music as it is on the Eucharist. This is the
centre of our celebration.
In the early church
Paul tells us that they gathered together as a community. So do we. They
listened to the Word of God and to the teachings of the Apostles proclaimed in
their midst. We just listened to the word of God proclaimed in our midst and
are now listening to the Homily.
They devoted themselves to prayer and to the
breaking of the bread. We also are devoting ourselves to prayer and soon we
will be breaking the bread and receiving Holy Communion. From the very
beginning of the church and for over 2000 years, the Catholic Church has
celebrated the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Jesus Christ gave
His church the command and the authority to do this and to pass on to others
the Authority to continue to do this in His name.
Jesus Christ
commissions His Church and commands it to spread the Good News. In Matthew
Chapter 28 "All power in Heaven and earth has been given to
me....Go...make disciples of all nations... teaching them to observe all that I
commanded you". So it is under the authority of Jesus Christ that the
Catholic Church worldwide endeavors to continue to do exactly that... to do this in Memory of Me
and to teach, not just our local church, or not just the church in this country
but all over the world, teach all nations to observe all that He has commanded
us to do.
God Bless.
Deacon Bernie
Ouellette
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