The Creator’s Design is not only forming One Family, but it is also forming, as we will discuss, the discipleship of Christ. Christ wanted the new One Family of God to mature in her relatedness to God to the level of becoming disciples of Christ and that is significant. Pharisees, Sadducee, and the Jewish priesthood emphasized following strict rules to maintain the human obligation to God. Following rules is great, of course, and expresses obedience to the contractual stipulation between man and the Creator. Christ explained to the Apostles the relationship He desired saying, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends.” (John 15: 15). Recall the discussion of Christ asking Peter twice “Do you love Me” using Agape as covenant type of love. Thus, this friendship is a covenant type of relationship and not a contractual type of relationship. If we strive to obey God's rules, pray, and attend Church regularly, we could be doing it contractually if we do not pay attention to the message Christ is calling us for. The Church collectively becomes the spouse of Christ and that is a Covenant relationship where the goal is to spend life coming to know each other's mind, heart, and will. Christ continues, explaining this friendship, “For all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (John 15: 15). Thus, as a spouse of Christ, I need to grow in my thinking to think the same thoughts in the mind of Christ, to grow in my feeling to feel in Christ's heart, and to desire in Christ's will. This appears to be a difficult task. But that is expected from spouses entering a marital covenant and Christianity is a marital covenant.
Christ helps us to understand and see visible examples in the priesthood. Every Catholic priest, by their ministerial Sacrament, should speak, respond, work, choose, and feel as One Flesh with Christ at least while performing the authorized duties faithfully. In the Mass and administering the Sacraments such as the Reconciliation, every Catholic Priest is thinking, doing, making decisions, desiring, and feeling in the Heart, Mind, and Will of Christ or what we call “In-Persona-Christi.” Likewise when receiving the Holy Eucharist, or praying to our Father, even for that ten minutes we, the laity, are eating and drinking the exact Flesh of Christ in His Mouth and uniting with Him in mind and heart and will. What we are doing is His own Desire; thus we become one part of the whole Body of Christ who is His Bride.
I heard an answer of a wise sport champion who returned to competition at an old age after fifteen years of retirement. He was asked about how many hours he had been practicing. The wise sportsman answered that he considered eating, sleeping, and all activities outside the few hours at the gym as an integral part of a true champion’s exercise and readiness. He explained that if his sleeping suffered or his diet suffered, or if he were addicted to drinking or partying long night hours or if he followed a sedentary lifestyle, then his gym exercise would be negatively impacted. Thus, he chose to live the entire day thinking, eating, exercising, sleeping, or breathing as a champion. I found that champion not only maintained his same body physique and skills, but gained wisdom, although in vanity. Well, Christ is calling us to live, think, desire, love, and work as Christ in one flesh. Whether priests or laity, we can and should experience it all day and every day.
It is disgusting when a spouse takes the marriage as rules to abide by only when the other spouse is around, while disregarding the commitment to nurture the marital covenant to become one flesh in mind, heart, and will with the other spouse. Christ already knows our heart, mind, and will and wants more for us which is to become one flesh to enjoy and inherit the greatness that Christ is. When abiding by the contractual rules, one loses sight of the mind, heart, and will of the other party, but is merely concerned about the stipulations of the contract. Christ wants us to enjoy a relationship with Him and in Him and through Him. The rules are not to commit adultery or covet your neighbor's wife or daughter, but the Creator's deep thoughts are to treat others with the pure heart of God in God’s image and after the likeness of God without any sexual selfishness.
It is important not to kill a born or unborn human being unless it is strictly for self-defense when one’s own life is in danger. But becoming one in mind, heart, and will of Christ prompts us to have compassion for the weak, the young, the born, and the unborn and to avoid anger towards others. We will live in peace with the law and others when we avoid stealing anything that others have. But thinking, loving, and desiring in the mind, heart, and will of Christ prompts us to be generous with others, even with what we consider our belongings, and to avoid greed – for the blessing we have in Christ is beyond measure. We can be polite to those who are nice or neutral to us, but thinking and desiring in Christ's mind prompts us to be forgiving even to those who persecute us.
As disciples of Christ, we go beyond the good rules set between two parties because we want to get into the Mind and Heart and Will of Christ, the one we are in covenant with. Thus, as disciples of Christ, we ought to become Roman Catholic as we desire the fullness of the truth because it is the Spouse and Desire of Christ to form One Holy Church who has entered into a marital covenant to be an eternal Spouse of Christ. It appears impossible to me to be one with Christ without being one flesh with His will and without the design of the one Family that is His Body, the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Being separate of the Roman Catholic Church is following our desires or following the desires of those we trust without doing our due diligence. Being a disciple of Christ involves reflecting on the Mind, Heart, and Will of Christ through His teachings and gaining from the examples and reflections of His disciples for the last 2000 years, which will certainly lead us to the Roman Catholic Church.
We are not the entire Body of Christ alone; thus we should rely not only on our reflections of Christ’s sacred Teaching, but also on those of the disciples over the last 2000 years. Thus it is not just that I love what Christ loves, but I even love to share in the suffering of Christ. It is a marital vow that His Pain is my pain; His Joy is my delight; His Thoughts are my light to reflect on nights and days. His Rejoice is what causes my heart to skip a beat; His Mother is my Mother and His Flesh and Blood is my True Food and Drink and likewise, His Church is my Church. You see, if Christ wants me to rely on my personal interpretation of His Words, then Christ would not ask me to become His disciple because my personal interpretation is made without a living authority who is my mentor and who has my complete trust to direct me when I misjudge and misinterpret. Thus, the call to make disciples requires that the newcomers be taught and mentored by the authorized Living Voice. The authorized Living Voice can take me by the hands from where I am and my comprehension, weaknesses, and misfortunes, whether I am illiterate, blind, deaf, young, frail, or never had a written copy of the Sacred Scripture. Furthermore, if I rely on my own interpretation and the Holy Spirit, then surely Christ should not have His apostles and Church collect tithing as there is nothing they can offer me that the Holy Spirit would not and the Holy Spirit needs no tithing to do His functions.
“The Word became Flesh and made His Dwells among us.” (John 1:14). It is saying, “Christ became the Universal Kingdom and dwells among us.” Christ became the Catholic Church and dwells among us.”
Personal interpretation of Holy Scripture is not the Creator's Design for the one bonded Family, because Satan, pride, cultural and peer influences, and other reasons can lead us to misinterpret the Truth and doubt or reject the complete and authentic Truth of God. We notice the teachers and interpreters of the Torah made gross errors understanding the Messiah to the point of rejecting Him, killing Him, and persecuting His Church. Saul interpreted the Torah erroneously and that led him to persecute the Church. Christ taught about eating and drinking His Body and Blood to have True Life which led to the people deserting Him and many of His followers. John the Baptist, after pointing out the Lamb of God, Baptized Christ and saw angels descending and ascending on Him, yet had doubts from his personal interpretation of the Scripture. The Messiah’s message is peace and freedom to the captives, yet John the Baptizer is imprisoned and about to beheaded. John was confused about why he was seemingly abandoned in prison. Then John sends a message to Christ to confirm whether He is the Messiah or someone else (Matthew 11). Mary and Joseph know their son is the Son of the LORD but when He was left behind for three days they had doubts and worries about Him, “Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” (Luke 2:48). Peter summarized what we ought to do so well that Christ complemented him saying it was His Father who revealed this Truth to Him which is what we should do to avoid dangerous errors in interpretation, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68). In other words, Peter is saying I will not personally depend on my own interpretation of what you said about eating and drinking your Flesh – that contradicts the Scripture and would cause me to interpret erroneously and desert you as everyone else has. What Peter is saying is that the only one who could accurately interpret this mystery and all of the mysteries of the Sacred Scripture is Christ and thus I go to Christ.
Yet, what Peter stated does not mean for a person to pray to God and then interpret the Scripture by claiming that the Holy Spirit interpreted it in such a way correctly. Rather, it means to go to Christ for the authoritative interpretation and since Christ is one with the authorized visible and physical Church He left us, then we must go to the authorized Church (which is One with Christ) for the interpretation. This is what John the Baptizer did when sent a message to Christ to help his doubt, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Matthew 11:3). This is what Mary and Joseph did when they looked for and found Christ. This is what Peter did to keep the disciples from deserting, “Do you also want to leave?” This is what Christ did when He corrected Saul's personal interpretation by showing him that it was Saul’s blindness that caused Saul to fall and persecute Christ whom he thought was serving on the road to persecute the Christians. This is what Saul and the Church in Antioch learned on interpreting the Scripture of Circumcision by sending Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem knowing Peter was there. This is what the assembly understood to obey the Sacred Interpretation as final authority after Peter stood up and ruled on the issue of circumcision (See acts Ch. 15).
Christ explained some parables to the Apostles to teach us to go to Christ who is one Flesh with the authorized Church, so the Church can help us interpret the truth, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables.” (Mark 4: 11). The Holy one Church interpreted for us the Seven Sacraments, the eating and drinking of My flesh, divorce and remarriage, what Biblical books should be included in the Sacred Scripture as inspiration, Mary as our Mother, the authority of Peter in the keys of the kingdom, speaking of tongues as one mother (Church) faith and languages (interpretation) of the listeners, confession to priests, and so forth. Yet, some people believe in contraception, divorce, and remarriage. Some people believe in removal of the seven sacred Biblical books, and believe that being born again has nothing to do with Baptism. Some believe that women can be priests, that there is no need to confess sins to a priest, that Mary is as dead as all dead people and that personal interpretation of the Bible leads to absolute truth every time. Most personal interpreters claim their truth even when it is opposed to the Church's interpretation from Christ. They do not realize that most Pharisees and Sadducee did go to Christ as well, but held on to their interpretation even after their encounter with Christ who continued to speak to them in parables and left them to their erroneous interpretation. The stake is huge – the stake is salvation or possible permanent condemnation of the soul. Therefore, we must humble ourselves as Peter, Mary, and John the Baptist, to go to the Church that is one Flesh, inseparable with Christ and His authorized keys to interpret the mysteries of the Kingdom to avoid our imminent error and possible damnation.
If John the Baptizer (who pointed out Christ and Baptized Him) was doubtful about “are you the Messiah” and needed a human voice in human flesh to confirm to him the Truth, then how much more do we need a human authorized voice to confirm our interpretation! If Mary saw and heard the Archangel Gabriel, witnessed and heard the Angles announcing the Birth of the Messiah, witnessed the Three Wise Men and the shepherd worshiping Christ, yet worried about Him and needed assurance, how much more do we need assurance? If Thomas (who lived with Christ for three years) doubted the resurrection and needed to see and place his fingers in His Wounds to believe, then how much more do we need a physical and human authorized voice to interpret the sacred mysteries truthfully for us? Christ knows our needs, “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9: 37-38).
LORD, help me to think in Your Mind, to desire in Your Will, to work in Your Design, to see in Your Eyes, to hear in Your Ears, to breath in Your Spirit, to speak in Your Tongue, to eat and drink in Your Mouth, to reach in Your Arms, to hold in Your Hands, to walk in Your Feet, to love in Your Heart, to grow in Your Faith and to live in Your Life.