Before Jesus died, He said to Peter, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Therefore, the pope is ‘In loco parentis,’ a Latin phrase meaning, in the place of a parent. In this case, God being the parent, Father of us all.
By saying these words to Peter, Christ was telling us that Peter was to be the head of all people who believed in Christ/God and of those who don’t. They, YOU are God’s Church – it was about all people, everyone He created. Not a building, not necessarily a religion, but every person God created. God does not divide or separate. Man and religion does. God, just as Jesus showed us, loves all without discriminating whether they believe or don’t believe. Religion is good, but ONLY when it leads to and follows God, not man.
God loves us all. Jesus loved everyone too. Only sinners and hypocrites are the ones He dislikes. He still loves them, but not their deeds. He gives every sinner, of which we are all in that bracket, till their last breath to repent, truly repent. Sins can be small, in between or huge. We are all guilty of sinning through life, some will repent, others will refuse to as they see nothing wrong in their badness and even revel in it.
It is this love, guidance and teaching Christ asked Peter to carry on sharing with the world. He would be the head, the other Apostles akin to priests of today. The next pope elected will be just one more in a long line of pope’s since Peter was appointed as the first one to watch over God’s people. As Pope Francis showed us, there is no discrimination and never should be if loving, guiding and teaching God’s ways as Christ intended and wanted. Love is most important. Unity even more so.
Jesus quotes almost verbatim from Isaiah. He is raising Peter up as a father figure to the household of faith (Isa. 22:21), to lead them and guide the flock (John 21:15-17). The authority of Peter has been passed down for 2000 years by the papacy, hence, the pope is Father of us all. Here to guide and teach us to what is God’s will, rather than man’s.
Not all wish to accept this fact, which is why Protestants protested. They have decided they don’t wish to do God’s will or be guided in His ways. They’d rather do their own thing, pander to man’s (mostly women’s today) whims and demands instead in order to be more popular while following just a little of what Go asked of us all. Their very division and so many schisms show us how they’ve removed themselves from God’s teachings and moved more towards man’s.
Protestantism has seen numerous divisions and splits throughout the history of Christianity, leading to far too many denominations and independent churches with watered down and diluted rules and laws that are hardly anything of God’s will or laws. How easy it is to do what one likes in life with no guidance, structure or laws to uphold or adhere to except the softer ones far easier to follow due to fitting in with one’s own earthly desires.
There is one huge problem with all this division, protesting and splitting up, it causes weakness. A weakness that loses strength against Satan. Everyone of Satan is united, whereas everyone professing to be of God is divided. “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand” (Mark 3:24). This warns us about the destructive nature of division and the importance of unity. This warning is found in both Mark and Matthew (12:25) and yet is ignored by those who divided the Universal Church.
Yes the Catholic Church has many faults in both leaders and followers, but so do all other religions. How easy to follow a religion or faith where God is made into whatever people want Him to be, where they can change His laws to suit themselves and lifestyles. Wherever man is, there will be earthly failings, corruption and badness thrown into the mix, thereby diluting the goodness seen in so many other people.
It is man’s sins seen within religions that makes so many who don’t believe in God mock those who do. It also causes others who confuse religion and God as being one and the same thing to walk away. They thrust God out of their lives confusing Him with the earthly beings who are going against His laws.
God does not change with modern times, man does. God’s ten Commandments have never changed, man has. God wishes us to follow His laws and guidance as given to Moses. The same when He sent Jesus to teach and remind us about those teachings and Commandments. This should be the same for everyone. No if’s, no but’s. He sent Him to teach, give guidance, help us to nourish our souls in order that we may one day join Him in Paradise.
If we water down His teachings, change them, ignore them, then we are weakened and Satan wins. We are not a whole anymore, we are small divisions rather than one big army. Due to this, Satan and his workers have overcome goodness in so many ways now. The light, the goodness is weakened as it’s all divided into small parts fighting against each other instead of with each other against badness, to ensure God’s Holy will can be done. This is why we’re seeing the escalation of such badness in the world. You are all allowing Satan and all those living with him inside them be united, thereby making them more powerful.
Sadly, many don’t want to accept these truths told here, as they’re too weak to be true followers of Christ. They prefer the simple, easy path of their own making. They don’t want to nourish their souls. They prefer man’s ways – their own – over God’s as they’re much easier to follow. The weak ways don’t require humility or giving up so much of earthly things in order to follow Him. They don’t require acknowledging one’s own sins.
Earthly things and materialism are far more important to most. Living how they please and sadly, far too many today believe they can do, speak and behave as they please without ever having to pay for it. This is the weakened down version of those calling themselves Christians today. They aren’t Christians in the true sense, they are but by title only.
For so long there have been warnings about a spiritual battle. It is here, we’re in it, but no one except a very small minority seems to recognise or care that we are. They don’t want to be in God’s Army fighting for Him or for goodness, they’d rather sail through life doing as they please; maybe showing up at a place of worship now and then, or even weekly, trying to tell themselves how good they are for doing so.
Pope Francis abhorred division, hate and bigotry. He despised superiority, grandeur, materialism and ego. He did God’s work properly as asked of Peter all those thousands of years ago. He was a true leader for God. Yes weak in some ways as are all humans, but overall he was strong in others. A good man, a holy man who did what God wanted, not what man demanded.
I hope we have another pope now who is the same, more about joining people together and accepting everyone no matter who they are or how they live rather than dividing. Another who is humble as he was. Who cared more about saving souls than losing them through his own ego of being seen to be a leader who divides and acts superior to others.
How wonderful if everyone united and followed only God instead of man. It won’t ever happen in my lifetime or yours. I’ve been told it won’t. The death of religion will start in my lifetime though, it already has which is plain to see. The Church will one day die due to all the hate, bigotry and division. Once it does, another will then be resurrected just as Christ was resurrected, only the new one will be as one. It will be united not divided. It will allow only God’s wishes and laws not man’s.
My wish is to see the world united. To see people serve only God. To stop fighting each other for their own selfish ends and wishes. Most of all, I would love to see people fighting hard to nourish and save their souls. Instead, we are presently seeing so many throwing their souls away so casually with no thought nor care. In fact, I doubt most even know what their souls actually are. If only they could be taught and understand what the results of this will be.
For now, my hope is to see a new pope who is true to God not man. Who teaches and guides us as well as Francis did. A man who unites us and accepts all, just as Francis did and as Jesus taught us to be. I also hope every person of every religion or none will see him as a man of God doing the job asked of Peter all those years ago. That they will acknowledge he is their father too in loco parentis, that the guidelines are there for us all, not just Catholics. Jesus came to love and save us all, not just people of one religion. It’s time everyone remembered that.
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