By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 1
Did Jesus Christ, Son of God and Redeemer of mankind, found a visible Church?
Simple logic indicates that either He did, or He didn’t. He could not have founded a visible Church for some and an invisible church for others. It cannot be both ways. It is irrational to accept the relativistic idea that for Catholics He did found a visible Church, but for non-Catholics He did not, and He just gave away the Bible and let them organize their congregations as they see fit.
But what do we mean by a visible Church? Something like a building upon a hill?
No, that would be a simplistic view of a visible Church. What is meant by a visible Church is a congregation of people, united under the same government, called to follow the same moral laws, to believe the same articles of faith, to obey the same Commandments, being taught the same truths, and sanctified by the same sacraments.
Some say that He founded many churches, something like the World Council of Churches. Or perhaps He left it to us individuals to decide which church denomination we should belong to, based upon our individual interpretation of the Bible. Or perhaps He wrote all of his teaching in a book, as with Mohammed or Joseph Smith, and left it to us to read.
Now, anyone can see that the concept of the World Council of Churches or the variety of denominations is thoroughly unbiblical, and totally unknown to the early Christians. The member churches of the World Council of Churches cannot all be true, because of the visceral contradictions that exist among them.
So, let us put our thinking cap on and reason: If Jesus truly founded a visible Church nearly 2,000 years ago, that Church should be identifiable, just as a city atop a hill cannot be hidden.
Now, Christianity is not a total breakaway from the Old Testament, in which all of the liturgies, ceremonies, laws, authorities, etc., etc., were done away with, as if an exclusively individual relationship with Jesus were all that is required, that is, to accept Jesus Christ in your heart as your personal Lord and Savior — and you are saved. But we know that this concept is neither logical, nor biblical nor historical — it is just a man-made tradition.
So, we continue our investigation:
Did Jesus follow the will of the Father, that is, did He follow the patterns given by God to David for the Temple, patterns taken from the Temple in Heaven, as the angel told His Mother (Luke 1)? Or did He do His own thing? We also know that He came not to destroy, but to fulfill (Matt. 5:17).
In order to properly understand the way Jesus formed His Church, it will suffice to take a look at the way God the Father organized the Jewish religion in the Old Testament. He established three main ministries, namely, the Kings, the Prophets, and the Priests. The Kings guided the people in their temporal affairs; they shepherded the people — they led the way. The Prophets taught them what they were expected to believe in faith — they taught them the Truth; the Priests offered sacrifices to restore their relationship with God — their spiritual life.
So the Kings led the Way, the Prophets taught the Truth, the Priests restored Life. The Way, the Truth, and the Life: They prefigured Jesus Christ in His saving mission. Jesus called to Himself the three ministries, and passed them on to the apostles.
When did He give the apostles the royal ministry, the power to rule the people?
“When therefore, they had breakfasted, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these do?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’
“He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’
“A third time he said to him, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved because he said to him for the third time, ‘Do you love me,’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my sheep’” (John 21:15-18).
Now, to “feed one’s sheep” in Hebrew/Jewish culture did not only mean to give food to, but to lead into the pastures, to protect, to guide, to shepherd over — that was the mission of the judges and later the kings of Judah, in the name of God.
“Shepherd thy people with thy staff, the flock of thy inheritance, that dwells apart in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Basan and Galaad, as in the days of old” (Micheas 7:14).
“Now I exhort you the presbyters among you — I, your fellow presbyter . . . feed the flock of God which is among you, governing not under constraint, but willingly, according to God; not yet for the sake of base gain, but eagerly; nor yet as lording it over your charges, but becoming from the heart a pattern to the flock. And when the prince of the shepherds appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:1-4).
Authority over the people was also present in the Old Testament, even prior to the kings:
“If in your own community there is a case at issue which proves too complicated for you to decide, in a matter of bloodshed or of civil rights or of personal injury, you shall then go up to the place which the Lord, your God, chooses, to the Levitical priests or to the judge who is in office at that time. They shall study the case and then hand down to you their decision.
“According to this decision that they give you in the place that the Lord chooses, you shall act, being careful to do exactly as they direct. You shall carry out the directions they give you and the verdict they pronounce for you, without turning aside to the right or to the left from the decision they hand down to you. Any man who has the insolence to refuse to listen to the priest who officiates there in the ministry of the Lord your God, or to the judge, shall die. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst” (Deut. 17:8-12).
Jesus followed the same model and established His Church as the arbiter of disputes among Christians — to exercise justice among the people like the Levitical Priests, the Judges, and the Kings did:
“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take with you one or two more so that on the word of two or three witnesses every word may be confirmed. And if he refuses to hear them, appeal to the Church, but if he refuses even to hear the Church, let him be to you as the heathen and the publican” (Matt. 18:15-18).
Conclusion: Jesus gave to the apostles the royal ministry, to exercise authority to pass judgment on the people.
Next article: Jesus gave to the apostles the prophetic ministry.
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(Raymond de Souza is director of the Evangelization and Apologetics Office of the Winona Diocese, Minn.; EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI], president of the Sacred Heart Institute and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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