Heresy

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Tuesday, 30 July 2013 : 17th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Scripture Reflection)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we listened to Jesus explaining the meaning behind the parable of the weeds and the sower which He had told to His disciples and the people of Israel. He told them that the fate awaiting the wicked ones is death and eternal suffering in hell, while the fate awaiting the righteous ones is eternal joy and bliss in heaven, with our Lord, reunited in perfect goodness and glory of God.

The seeds of the weeds spread by the devil is the evil and corruption he had spread in this world to lead mankind astray from their path towards the Lord. The seeds of evil are greed, wrath, hatred, lust, jealousy, despair, arrogance, and pride. They are our weaknesses that made us prone to fall into the damnation reserved for the devil and his fallen angels, the fate of the weeds. This is because, as we all know, weeds are dangerous, because they compete with the healthy plants for nutrition, and when the weeds grow large, they also may likely strangle the healthy plants and kill them.

The same therefore is bound to happen to all of us, if we do not take precautions against the devil and his mischievous tools, all the tools in the world that he possesses to be employed against us, the beloved children of God. The devil is the sower of the evil weeds of sin, that if we are not careful, will grow within us and around us, and choke the good that is in us, turning us from the path of salvation into the path towards doom.

Our Lord and God, as Moses had said in the first reading we heard today, is a merciful and loving God, One who is slow to anger and rich in kindness and compassion. He is sure to welcome us back into His embrace if we are to be repentant and truly regret our sins and our wrongdoings before Him. We must not be shy to admit that we have sinned before God, because He is our loving Father, and He wants to rescue us from certain death.

But He is also a jealous God, a God who is just and against any form of sin. That is because He is perfect goodness and sin is corruption that had marred our perfection ever since the times of Adam and Eve, when Satan tricked Eve into eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and disobeyed the Lord in the process. It is because of our disobedience that we deserved death, and Adam and Eve deserved death and annihilation, and yet God showed them mercy and although they were punished to live in great difficulty on earth, they were not annihilated.

Death did claim them and our ancestors in the end, but death would not have the final say. That was because the Lord Himself gave His all so that we may have a new hope for eternal life in Him, to return us to our true inheritance, as what God had originally intended for us at creation. He did not desire us to suffer or die, but He wants us all to live, forever with Him in the bliss of heaven, to spend all our time in the beautiful Gardens of Eden.

He sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be the fulfillment of His long-awaited promise, that He would send a redeemer to all mankind. The ultimate proof of His love and care for us. So great is His love that He is willing to suffer in our place, to die in our place, and to be our light of hope. He is the light of hope and salvation, because He did not remain in the land of the dead, but by the power of the Lord, He broke free the chains of sin and death that had held us for generations, and risen from the dead He became the source of salvation for all who believe in Him.

We must sow the seeds of faith, of hope, and of love in our hearts, brothers and sisters in Christ, so that we will be ever ready to combat the seeds of evil that Satan and his cronies always try to sow within our hearts. Do not be afraid, for he no longer has any power or authority over us, ever since Christ broke that bond that enthralled us to the evil one. We must however remain ever vigilant and ever careful, lest the devil successfully subvert our thoughts and our hearts to be against the Lord and His will.

Let us strive to be the wheat and not the weeds, and may the seeds of faith, hope, and love that is within us grow strong, that they become the nutrients and fertiliser that help us, the wheat to grow strong and bear much fruits, that the Lord who sees us, will be pleased and He will then tell His angels to come and collect us from amongst the weeds and bring us to Him, to enjoy forever His grace, His blessings, and His loving embrace.

Today, brothers and sisters, we also commemorate the Feast of St. Peter Chrysologus, who was made a Bishop of Ravenna in the ending years of the Roman Empire during the early Church. He was well known for his inspiring speeches and preaching, that called all Christians to be faithful to God and defend themselves against any form of heresies that threatened to corrupt their soul and their true faith in God.

At the time of St. Peter Chrysologus, at the heyday of the Roman Empire, there existed numerous heresies of the faith, many of which were really serious threat on the unity of the Church and the faithful, and some of them had ideas diametrically opposite to the truth of the Apostolic Fathers, the truth that is of Christ. Many of them, corrupted by the seeds of evil, the weeds planted by the evil one, subverted the words of the Lord and the message of salvation to serve their own ends, and ultimately, serve the cause of evil.

Many people fell victim to the corrupting nature of these heresies, which attacked the truth about our faith in the Lord, in the Lord Himself, and even His Blessed Mother, Mary. St. Peter Chrysologus, as the then Bishop of Ravenna in today’s Italy, was faced with the same problems and challenges that faced the Church of his time. Yet, he did not waver nor did he become afraid to confront those challenges. Instead, he faced them courageously, and with great zeal and inspiration, through his sermons, he converted the faithful back to the truth of Christ, getting rid of the weeds that choked the life out of the faith of the people of God.

Today, my brothers and sisters in Christ, the need is ever greater for more people like St. Peter Chrysologus, in defending our faith and ourselves, from the corruption that comes from Satan. We must be courageous in standing up for the Lord in the face of the devil and bluntly reject all his approaches and his temptations to us. We must stand up for the Lord and His love, His compassion for us. Never let go of the Lord and embrace evil, no matter how difficult the challenges of life are. We must always be strong, as St. Peter Chrysologus had been.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us today renew our commitment to God, to the Lord who loves us, to God who cares for us every day of our life, and commit ourselves to glorify His Name among men, and to never give in to the allures of the evil one, and be courageous to reject all of his approaches. May the Lord who is love and who is mercy, forgive us our sins, purify us and make us whole once again. St. Peter Chrysologus, pray for us sinners and intercede for us before the Lord our God. Amen.

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Thursday, 27 June 2013 : 12th Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we learn from the readings, of the need to put our complete trust in the Lord and in His power and authority, instead of placing our trust in the falsehood and facade of the power of man. Not that man does not have any power, but any power that they have with them ultimately came from the Lord, and therefore no man should boast of his or her own abilities and powers, but instead should give due praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, who is the source of all power and authority in the universe.

When man begins to lose trust in the Lord and begins to put their trust in feeble man, that is when problems will rise, and even though initially not that apparent, the problems will certainly and eventually rise to the surface. Such was what happened with the case of Abraham, then Abram, who was kind of desperate of having a son to be his successor and heir to all the wealth he had in his possession.

The Lord promised Abram great wealth and affluence because of his faith and love for Him, but above all, He promised Abram that his descendants will number like the sands on the shores of the sea, and as numerous as there are stars in the sky. Such is the greatness of the descendants of Abram, so numerous that they would indeed fill up the entire earth with their presence. But Abram was growing old, and more importantly so was that his wife, Sarah, then Sarai, was also growing old, and had gone past the child bearing age.

That was when alternative methods were sought and then taken up by Abram, with the suggestion from Sarai, that he took Hagar, Sarai’s slave, to be his wife, and therefore act as a proxy to produce an heir for Abram. For in those times, slaves have little value for themselves, and therefore, the mistress, Sarai, had every right to claim the child birthed by the slave and claimed him as her own. Nonetheless, as we saw in the first reading, we can certainly note that tensions soon arose between Sarai and Hagar, as Hagar felt proud in her achievements in being able to bear a child for Abram, which her mistress could not do herself.

Pride and arrogance quickly become the order of the day if we put our trust in the powers and abilities of man, and do not give proper glory to the Lord, to whom we should give all glory to. The same had happened to Hagar, whom in her pride had brought about division and frictions within Abram’s family, and caused the diversion from the true plan of salvation that God had brought through His promised son to Abram, that is Isaac.

Abram did not wait for the promise of the Lord to reach its perfection and completion, but following the advice of Sarah and succumbed to human weakness, that is to distrust the promise and words of the Lord, and the result is the birth of Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. Later on, further conflicts between Ishmael and the newborn Isaac, the child of promise, would end up in Ishmael and her mother to be cast away from Abraham and his family. God indeed did not leave them to die, but provided for them and also made Ishmael a great nation, but it is not through him that God would make perfect His covenant with Abraham and mankind, but through Isaac and his descendants.

Today, brothers and sisters in Christ, we celebrate the feast day of St. Cyril of Alexandria, the bishop of the early Church, a Church Father and a Doctor of the Church, who fought ceaselessly against those who denied the divinity of Christ, the Nestorians, led by none other than the Patriarch of Constantinople himself, one of the most senior clergyman at the time. He chastised those who opposed the orthodox faith and those who had embraced the heresies of man.

Yes, just as the theme of today’s readings had indicated, those who rejected God in favour of man will not survive, and they will be condemned, because they did not place their trust in God. Therefore, following the example of St. Cyril of Alexandria, in his courageous defense of the faith in the Lord, let us follow him in defending our love and adoration for the Lord, and reject those who glorify themselves at the expense of the Lord.

May the Lord be with us at all times, and remind us that we belong to God, in the covenant He had made with all of us through Christ our Lord and Saviour. May He remind us that He alone is worthy of praise and glory, and that His love is everlasting and infinite. St. Cyril of Alexandria, pray for us sinners, and help to bring us closer to our Lord and God. Amen.

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Sunday, 12 May 2013 : 7th Sunday of Easter (Scripture Reflection)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we hear of the glory of God, who is to come, the glory of God who had been risen in glory from the dead and therefore triumphed over death and evil, and broke their hold over all of us for eternity. This God who had been taken up in glory to heaven, in the glorious Ascension, and seated at the right hand of God the Father. This was seen by the first martyr, Stephen the deacon, who saw and proclaim the glory of Christ, that despite knowing that such proclamation would certainly bring about his death at the hands of the chief priests.

God’s promise will become a reality, that He will soon once again come down onto this world, this time not as the humble king born in a manger, which we celebrate now as Christmas, but this time He will descend as a great and almighty king in glory, as the ruler of all creation and the Master of all the Universe. He will come as the great judge who will judge all for their own worth, whether they are worthy or unworthy of heaven that is the reward for those who are faithful, and for those who keep God in their hearts.

Those who knows Christ will know the Father, because Christ was sent by the Father into this world in His first coming to be our Messiah, our Saviour from death and the slavery of sin. If we hold fast onto this faith, Christ too will know us, and make all of us His own, and when the time comes for all of us to be judged, we will be welcomed into His Kingdom, and we will receive our rewards of eternal life.

Christ desires also, first and foremost, that all of those who believe in Him be one and united, as one Body, and therefore one Spirit, in the Church that He established through the Apostles. This is because Christ knows human weaknesses and the extent of human susceptibility to the devil’s influences. The evil one will stop at nothing to prevent his ultimate fate that is total defeat and damnation, but his fate has already been decided. Nevertheless, through his numerous agents and tools in this world, he can indeed make life difficult for those of us who believe and keep the faith.

Christ knows that the Church He had established will be fractured by the agents of Satan, through human pride and arrogance, and self-serving attitudes, that resulted in the breaking of the Body of the faithful. That is why He prayed, and prayed hard to His Father in heaven, that all the faithful ones in Him, His sheep, will remain as one, as indivisible from each other, just as He and the Father, and also the Holy Spirit are together and united in an immeasurably strong bond and unity.

His wish, that they all may be one, that all of us may be one, as one Church, one people, with one Creed, and one belief, had been dashed by the evils of human ambitions and weaknesses throughout the past centuries. Many had succumbed to the temptations of the world and false teachings, through numerous false prophets, aimed by Satan to confuse the Church and the faithful, and broke the unity within the Body of Christ, that is the Church.

False prophets like Arius, Jan Hus, Martin Luther, and many others who even claimed themselves Messiah or the second coming of Christ, had spread seeds of disunity among the faithful, and also spread false teachings that ended up confusing the faithful and snared many into damnation because of them believing in teachings in contrary to the teachings of Christ, as delivered to us through the Apostles and the early Church Fathers.

Many today in our world had claimed that faith must be a personal one, that is to be a personal ‘encounter’ with Christ. But they had forgotten that faith in Christ is impossible to be described in personal terms, or separated from the whole community of the faithful, that is the Church. Humans are inherently weak because of our imperfections, and because of our own sinful nature, since our first rebellion through our ancestors who disobeyed the Lord’s command not to eat the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Since then, many think too high of themselves, thinking that they are capable of great wisdom and possessing great knowledge, and therefore are capable of interpreting the Scripture on their own, and as they like it. This is why, although reading the Scripture is important for the development of the faith, we have to anchor ourselves in the authority and the teaching magisterium of the Church, as only in good guidance of the Church, that we can fully make use and understand the Scripture.

For the Scripture was written by the apostles and disciples of Christ, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and also the numerous prophets of the past times, who also received the message of the Lord, many of which are veiled messages that are part of the mystery of our faith. Even someone who is very knowledgeable and experienced in the Scripture, will certainly not be able to claim to fully understand the full and true meaning of God’s words contained in the Scripture.

Many today and in the past interpreted the words of God in the Scripture as they wished, and they ended up establishing new ‘faiths’ that they call churches, which in fact exist in thousands, millions, and maybe more today. There are as many ‘churches’ as there are heads, obviously because no one can agree perfectly with one another and mankind will certainly be influenced by pride and arrogance to shut out other’s own interpretations and keep one’s own interpretations to oneself. Such is the danger of self-faith and faith that does not conform to the will of God in the Church.

Indeed, many of them sinned grievously because they had caused division in the body of the faithful, the Church, the Body of Christ, and also spreading false teachings, and many of these, especially are intertwined with relativism, that is to include secular developments into the faith, which are in fact incompatible, and therefore, the faith, the true faith that we know of, no longer exists in those who had gone astray.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, strengthen your faith and resolve! Do not give up to the temptations of Satan and this world. Read the Scripture and learn the faith through the teachings of the Church, and deafen yourselves to the false allures of the false prophets and agents of the evil one. Be steadfast and be faithful, and the Lord will reward all of you.

Help one another in the faith, and pass the teachings of the Lord in the Church to those, especially those who had gone astray in their path, and those who has had wrong impression and ideas about the true faith in God. Who says that Christians can only evangelise to non-Christians and non-believers? Look into ourselves, and you can see so much division within the Body of Christ that is the Church, that we need to do some internal housecleaning first.

Just as Christ said, that if we are united then the world will believe in the Lord, if we are divided against ourselves, by attacking one another’s faith, how is the Church going to stand and bring then the fight to the devil? Let us strive to fulfill Christ’s wish and indeed, God’s will, that the entire community of the believers in Christ, would be reunited, into one body, one faith, and one belief in Christ our Lord, within His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, our Roman Catholic Church, the one and only true Church that Christ had established in this world, on Peter His Apostle, on whom He entrusted the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.

May God strengthen the unity between Christians and allow all those who believe in Him to be reunited once again within one Church, and one faith, under the authority and jurisdiction of the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter the Apostle, keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and Vicar of Christ in this world. God bless all of us, Amen.

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Sunday, 27 January 2013 : 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Scripture Reflection)

Today, we place our main focus on the oneness and the unity of the whole community of the faithful in Christ, that is as one community through the Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church to be specific, as the incarnation of the mystical Body of Christ that represents the Church and most importantly all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ. For all of us belong to God upon our baptism, and just as Paul said to the people of Corinthians, we all become part of the body, the Body of Christ, like the organs that allow the body to function when working together.

This body cannot function without its organs, and therefore, what makes the Church what it is, is all of us, brothers and sisters in Christ. Without us, there is no Church. The Church is one, that is indivisible, just as the Body of Christ is indivisible, for Christ is only One, and therefore we too should be one in Christ, as we are one in the Church. However, sadly, through the centuries, due to numerous misunderstandings and human selfishness, many had gone astray from the true faith, and in the process, brought with them many of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, establishing their own ‘churches’, which we now know as numbering in thousands, tens of thousands, or even more. There is no real unity in the one Church of Christ just yet, as these branches and splinters remain separated from the root and the trunk that is the Church.

Many political and theological disputes had led to divisions in the united community of the believers in Christ, and the evil one is hard at work, to make sure we remain divided. For if we are one, and united in Christ, evil will be vanquished by the power of Christ’s Church, the Body of Christ. It is sad therefore to look at the divisions, and how Christians even attack other Christians and openly mock the practices and the tenets of the faith in God, particularly that of the one Church that Christ established, our very own Catholic Church, from where all the separated brethren in myriads of ‘churches’ sprang decades, centuries, and millenia ago.

The first major split came when gnostics and syncretists of the early Church created their own version of the faith, that is so different from the truth, that they can no longer be called Christians. Then came the Arians, who denied the equality between Jesus the Son and God the Father, claiming that Jesus was created by God, instead of what we believe, that Jesus was with the Father, one with Him, before all ages. Then came the Nestorians, who argued that Jesus as human being and Christ, the divine were separate entities, which actually ran so far from the faith, that it was in danger of claiming that Jesus was merely human, adopted by God as a divine Son. But we believe that Christ is truly human, and truly divine. He is fully human just as He is fully God, even though he appeared to us as we are, human as we are, and experience humanity as we are.

Then came Monophysitism, which was the total opposite to Nestorianism, claimed that Jesus is not human, and exist only in His divine nature. But again, Christ is as human as we are, born through Mary, His mother, who although bore the divine Son of God, at the same time, that Son of God is also the Son of Man, being fully human like us save in the matter of sin, as Christ was without sin. Then came many other divergent and heretical teachings across Christendom, but nothing caused greater damage to the unity of the Church other than the Great Schism of 1054, and the Protestant Reformation.

The Great Schism was seen as theological in nature, as the Eastern Church or the Orthodox Church had differences in their practices of the faith with our Church, and they also did not mention the ‘Filioque’, namely the phrase in the Creed present in our Creed, but not in theirs : “who proceeds (Holy Spirit) from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son…”

The Filioque clause became the centre of the division between us and our separated Orthodox brethren in Christ, as they see that the Holy Spirit proceeds to us, only from the Father, whereas we, our Church, believes that the Holy Spirit does proceed down to us from both the Father, and the Son, Jesus Christ as well. This can be supported by the words of Christ Himself when He appeared to His Apostles after His resurrection from the dead : “Peace be with you, (and breathing upon them He said) receive the Holy Spirit, those whose sins you forgive…” This clearly show that the Holy Spirit does proceed from the Father, but also through the Son, to the Apostles.

The other matter of division was  geopolitical in nature, especially because the Church at the time was divided along linguistic lines, between the Latins in the West, which eventually become our Church of today, and the Greeks in the East, under the protection of the Roman Emperors in Constantinople, present day Istanbul (Turkey), who became the present day Eastern Orthodox Church. The conflict in authority between the Bishop of Rome, and the Imperially sanctioned Bishop of Constantinople, head of the Eastern Orthodox faithful became the root and eventual cause of the division, which happened in 1054, and which we really look forward to reverse, to reunite the two Churches once again into one, just as Christ wanted in His prayer to God, “May they all be One, just as You and Me are One.”

The last and the greatest division in the Church of Christ came because of the Protestant Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther, but later on spiralled rapidly out of control, that countless ‘churches’ began to be born in all countries and languages, following their own leaders and interpreting the Scripture as they saw fit. Although it was often believed that we Catholics included the Deuterocanonical books, such as the Book of the Maccabees and the story of Tobit into the Bible, in fact it was Luther and others following him who removed these books from the Bible, which had been assembled in the early days of the Church by the Apostles and the Church Fathers.

Protestant Reformation happened in response to the weakening of the spirituality of our own Church at that time. As divine as the Church is, as established by Christ, it is also human, and bound to be tempted by the evil one. The dark times of the Church did happen at those times, with money and politics winning mankind over God. The corruption was what caused Luther to embark on his mission of ‘reforming’ the Church. Unfortunately, he and many others like him went too far, and caused a great breaking of the Body of Christ, the Church, which has already suffered from earlier divisions that I had mentioned. After the Reformation, out of the ashes, the Church reformed itself, and reorientate itself back towards God, and until today, through the guidance of the Pope, as the Bishop of Rome, we can truly look back at the transformation of the Church, beginning at the Council of Trent, and renewed by the Second Vatican Council, and even today, changes and ‘reform of the reform’ are still ongoing and necessary to make the Church of Christ, a truly holy Church.

Jesus, as the Messiah, had been anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, to bring the Good News of the Lord to all, especially the least among the people, to give new hope to mankind. He is the Greatest Teacher of the Law of God, who perfected the Laws of the Old Covenant, and brought them into the new Law of the New Covenant, which God sealed with His Sacrifice on the cross that brought about our redemption. From Him authority has been given, and passed down through the Apostles down the generations, to our present day priests and bishops, who are teachers of God’s new laws and commandments in Christ.

This is why we have the ordained clergy as a separate organ of the one Body of Christ, to complement all of us the laity, which represents the largest portion of that Body. These are men who have willingly gave themselves for Christ, for the sake of the Lord and for His people, all of us. They left behind all they had in their lives, and followed Jesus to be like His disciples. Through them, just like Ezra and the Levites in the first reading, we can understand the Law better, since priests and all the clergy has committed themselves to God and seek deeper into the mysteries of God, and through them, our understanding of the Faith and the Word of God in the Scripture can be made clearer.

For it is dangerous for us to assume that we ourselves have all that we need to be faithful in God, and to be a Christian, as our faith is communal as much as it is personal. It is by praying together and helping each other to grow in faith that our faith can grow stronger. Everybody has their own role in the Church, within the community of the faithful, just as St. Paul explained to the Corinthians, the nature of the Church and the necessities of hierarchy to ensure all parts of the Body are functioning properly.

We, the laity has a great role in our participation in the Church, through our daily lives, and through the actions, even as small as they are, that we regularly take everyday, in bringing God both into our own lives, and into those around us. Do not forget that priests were once laymen as well, and without good and faithful laymen, there will be no vocations to priesthood. It is in us, the laypeople, that the seed of faith germinates and grow.

Priests are teachers and father figures to us. They teach us about the faith, about the Scripture, and about God. It is through them that Christ manifested Himself and His Sacrifice on the cross through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where bread and wine is truly transformed into the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord, through the same authority that has been passed down from the Apostles to them, and ultimately originating in Christ Himself. Deacons are helpers that aid priests in their ministries, to proclaim the Word of God during the Mass, and to assist the priest in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and most importantly to make themselves available to all the faithful in Christ, especially those having the greatest of needs.

Bishops oversee groups of priests and act as a figure of authority just like Christ, and their role is as chief shepherds, just as priests are our shepherds, to help us and nurture us in our faith, and to guide the people together as an organ of the Body of Christ, which in turn is part of the larger Body itself, the Universal Church. They also teach like the priests and also conduct laying of hands on priests and other bishops upon their ordinations, passing down the Holy Spirit that has been given to the Apostles to the new priests and bishops, that the chain of Apostolic Succession will never break as long as the Church stands.

Therefore, it is very evident that all these peoples, these parts of the One Body are essential in ensuring that the Church as a whole, the whole community of believers can function properly. We cannot afford to lose any of these parts, or otherwise the Body will crumble, just as how we have noted the divisions that the Church had endured for the past two millenia of its history since its founding by Christ.

Let us pray therefore, that the Lord will send His spirit of courage and careful discernment to our young men today, especially those with sincere love and faith in God, that they will be eager to be called into the service of the Lord, as His holy priests, as the harvest, although plentiful, but has no one to collect them. We need more priests as labourers of Christ in ensuring that as many as possible are brought into the Kingdom of God through their ceaseless and tireless labour in the name of Christ. Let us also pray for our deacons who also labour with our priests in their ministry to serve the people of God, just as the original seven deacons were appointed to help with the faithful in the early Church.

Let us also pray for our bishops, that they will continue to be strong to lead us through these turbulent times, and that they will remain true to their faith and mission, as shepherds guiding us in faith in God. Most importantly, let us pray for our Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, our leader the Vicar of Christ, that God will always be with him at all times, and give him strength to complete his ministry as our Pope, and the leader of the Church.

Let us then strive to expand our roles in the Church, Starting from simple things that we can do everyday in our own daily lives, and let us work together as one, to make the whole Body, the Universal Church, a functional and vibrant community, connecting all those who believe in Christ. Let us strive to make the prayers and wishes of Jesus into reality, particularly regarding the oneness and unity of the Church, that very soon indeed, all Christians will be reunited again with the Holy Mother Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church represented by our Roman Catholic Church, under the leadership of the Pope, the successor of St. Peter the Apostle, on whom Christ established His Church and on whom He entrusted all of His sheep, namely all of us the faithful in Christ. God bless our Pope, God bless our Catholic Church, and God bless us all, who remain faithful in Him, Amen.

“Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam Meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam, et tibi dabo claves Regni Caelorum”

(You are Peter, and on this ‘Rock’ I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it, and I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven)

+Ut Omnes Unum Sint+

(That they all may be One)