Church of Saints and Sinners

The following notes are from a Catholic apologetics class:

The Church is a mix of saints and sinners.

1) Parable of the Darnel (Mt 13, 24-30)
2) It isn’t our prerogative to judge anyone, since this is something that is an exclusive right of the Lord.
3) For example, let’s take a look at our families. This is the battle that we are called to fight, there within the hodgepodge.

How do we know that the Church is the only true one?

1) Biblically (Mt 16, 18; 28, 20).
2) Historically. She was referring here to the Councils and list of Popes, which she said there are 266 in all. Responding to the invalidity of other denominations/sects such as the Jehovah Witnesses, she said we mustn’t look further than asking, “Where were they during the beginnings of the Church when it was going through such hardship and persecution?
* One of the students was unsatisfied with such a simple answer and asked the teacher for “something more concrete,” that is, something more substantive. And she could only recite back what she had already said.

The Church has 4 characteristics:

1) One
2) Holy
3) Catholic
4) Apostolic
* Holy because God is holy. The word Catholic is a term that St. Ignatius of Antioch introduced, basing it on the verse from Mk 16, 15. Our first name is Christian and our last name is Catholic.

Piedrecita Reply:

Dear public, it’s evident that even a child starting out in grade school will understand when someone says that the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. We started learning this almost as soon as we began going to Mass when we were children, and we don’t believe it necessary to give an explanation with respect to this, at least not for now.

Church of Saints and Sinners is Synonymous with Continuing to Sin

But herein lies a very “small” detail that’s slipping right past these leaders. As our Lord Jesus Christ would say in his time, “…hypocritical Pharisees who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel” (Mt 23, 24).

To say that the Church is made up of saints and sinners is indeed a fatal error and one which is very misunderstood. That is to say, if we’re going to teach with this very popular phrase, we must be very clear and very specific as to what we’re referring to.

That is, leaving it to each individual’s imagination is the same thing as saying let’s keep on sinning, since Jesus Christ died for all of us and we are now saved.

The Church Makes of Christ a Liar

This phrase, if we pay close attention, is more of a philosophical saying based on two principles: good and evil. This is a disaster because it tosses away Christ’s salvific plan, and we make of him a liar. In other words, there’s no need for sacrifice, no need to work for peace, for the sick, for humility, for benevolence, and there’s no need for devotion to God in poverty and simplicity.

This lends itself to democracy within the Church and paves the way for making liberal decisions that are contrary to the Gospel, creating the politics or political regime amongst the very people of God, while at the same time putting Christ in second place.

The Church Is Made Up of Saints and Demons

We are asserting that the Church is one and that it’s made up of sinners and saints, and therefore, we are already saved. What a tough battle the Apostle Paul had with the Gnostics of his time, whom corrupted the communities with human principles of salvation that were based on pleasures and on the understanding that resurrection was a thing of the past, since salvation had already arrived. Thus, the Apostle would tell them, very well my brothers, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.

If we pay a bit of attention, the primitive communities in the beginnings of the Church, in order for them to put someone in charge of evangelizing and instructing the community, they had to pick someone that was qualified and filled with the Holy Spirit. The chosen person had to be recognized for their holiness.

The Church Will Install Anyone as a Leader, Especially Someone Lacking in Holy Spirit

But nowadays, the Church is so modernized that it no longer cares about doctrinal preparedness and even far less about the virtues of sanctity in its members or that they’re filled with the Holy Spirit. Today the Church installs anyone who’ll laugh and agree with the mentality of the entire world, but not with Christ and his Gospel, of course.

And so these corrupt leaders, which are everywhere in the Church, are the ones in charge of kicking out or dismissing the first person that opposes them on account of their filth and doctrinal corruption. And as if it were not enough, the Church nowadays has wound up with Protestants teaching within our very own Church. Glory be to God! This truly deserves to be celebrated by the priesthood.

The Church Attacks Its Own Faithful

If that still were not enough…if they happen to run into a priest filled with the Gospel or run into an apt layman that’s highly qualified in religion—and seeing as how the Church already established new rules with respect to Protestantism—they apply these same Protestant laws to that individual and immediately lunge at him, as if he were an assassin amidst the Church or the Lord’s flock.

And all of these errors are caused by the false interpretation of the Scriptures and by all of these crooked phrases which are created by the corrupt Church itself.

Church Leaders are Ignorant in Religious Subject Matter

Saying that the Church is made up of saints and sinners to a public that isn’t knowledgeable in religion is fatal, as this lends itself to a most becoming personal opinion of oneself, where each individual applies to themselves just the part that’s most suitable and convenient for them.

That is, Jesus Christ did not come to form a Church or holy people comprised of people who hate him and are loyal to him at the same time…no—this He spits out of his mouth. In God, there are no such principles of eternal good and evil. He is the only true God, and the issue of a god of evil or eternal principle is purely the construct of human mentality and reasoning.

Church Leaders Have No Share with Christ in His Kingdom

Jesus Christ is very clear and concrete when he affirms that no one who says Lord, Lord can enter Heaven but only he who does my Will. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He is assuring us that there is no room for evil in his Kingdom. That is to say, Jesus Christ ensures us that his Church or Kingdom is not made up of sinners and saints at the same time. When a sinner turns his life around, that is, towards God and has been sanctified by the Grace of Christ, then he or she is no longer constituted a sinner but a Saint.

So then, the Church is formed by Christ’s Sainthood. The men and women who have yet to turn their life around and although being alongside their family and relatives and members of the Church, these persons cannot enter his Kingdom, yet socially, we assume that we’re in the Church but in reality we’re not, that is, we are not Christ’s Church even if we are mixed in the bunch.

Not All Priests Are The Church

To give an example: In any given Mass, perhaps 2,000 Catholics may attend but out of all of these maybe only five of them are the Church…five of which actually are truly loyal to their Lord and everyone else would just be the bunch. By the same token and although the Holy Spirit transforms the bread and wine into the body of our Lord Jesus Christ through them, even some of our priests may not be the Church because they are not holy and betray Christ, even as they stand front and center on the altar.

The Mistakes of Leaders Cause Our Dismissal From the Church

That’s why when we teach in this way with controversial phrases, it’s very necessary to think twice before wanting to teach, that is, if we don’t want to corrupt others. As the saying goes, “the devil’s in the details,” and it’s the ignorance of these details from our Catholic leaders which have caused significant misunderstandings and led many Catholics astray. For decades now, these errors which our leaders continually make have been causing the incontrollable, mass exodus of laymen towards Protestantism.

Blessings and peace in Christ.

The Church isn’t composed of both saints and sinners at the same time, but we sinners can be saints. And if we sinners can be saints, then the Church is Holy.
Best Regards,
Jesé Retoño
Editorial Piedrecita.
Translation by León Jesuita.

Author: Jesé Retoño - An Apocalyptic Wolf

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