8/27/17: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: How We Know that What the Church Teaches is What Christ Taught

Today's Gospel is astonishing. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, tells Peter, a weak and sinful man, a simple fisherman, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." He says this after giving him "the keys to the kingdom of heaven." Jesus makes Peter the head of his church on earth with full authority to act in his absence. So this is where our confidence comes from as Catholics that what the Church teaches -- protected by the Holy Spirit through the Office of Peter -- is what Christ taught. What a great mercy of God -- that I don't have to "figure out" for myself what is true. How liberating it is that I myself do not have to be the arbiter of what is true but that I can receive the truth through the One who is Truth in Person: Through the voice of the Church who has the authority and mandate to speak on behalf of Christ.

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