A key to Church teaching?

[Della]

John 20:25, 27: So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

For a while now the phrase from Jn. 20:27, “do not be unbelieving but believe” has haunted me. It seems to me that Jesus isn’t exhorting Thomas to merely believe what he can see and touch, nor even that he, Jesus, is referring just to his Resurrection but to everything he would reveal to his Church (the Apostles and their successors) down through the centuries. Am I unto something here or is am I making too great a stretch?

 

[spauline]

Dear Della,

Well, yes, I definitely think you’re onto something, and I think St. John’s Gospel is quite appropriate in this. However, I would direct the attention to the real issue, John 17:20-23, which deals with the issue of the unity/disunity of Christians, a subject which even the CCC addresses. Of course, I realize that the Church has not settled the question of whether there will ever be that unity, only that she “unites her prayers with Christ’s for it…”

So, as you can imagine, Della, I’m going to shove postmill down your throat again and refer you once again to the best scenario that can be drawn from the mystics, according to EWTN:

Approved Catholic mystics (Venerables, Blessed and Saints, approved apparitions) throw considerable light on this order, by prophesying a minor apostasy and tribulation toward the end of the world, after which will occur the reunion of Christians

(EWTN: endtimes/millennium)

Yes, revisit John 17 above: Christ prays that “they may be brought to perfection as one…”. That is, is this not indicating that the vindication of the Church’s doctrinal development is a* process*? Again, this indeed appears to be the case from the mystics: there is an intermediate, Minor Apostasy that serves as the “dark night of the soul” (see here, referring to the illuminative phase of the typical saint’s life) that leads to the vindication of the illumination and the subsequent unitive phase, which finds its fulfilment, appropirately enough, in the Age of Peace of the mystics, which we see, again, from the same EWTN doc:

Although this is not Catholic doctrine, arising as it does from private revelation, it conforms to what is occurring in our time, especially in light of Our Lady of Fátima’s promise of an “Era of Peace.” This “Triumph of the Immaculate Heart” (other saints have spoken of a social reign of Jesus Christ when Jesus will reign in the hearts of men) would seem to occur prior to the rise of the Antichrist. The optimism of the Pope for the “New Evangelization” and a “Civilization of Love” in the Third Millennium of Christianity fits here, as well.

anyway, sorry for the diatribe, but I couldn’t resist!

GB,
scott

 

[Della]

Well, SP, I too pray for Christian unity. And one of the things that will bring that about is the recognition by all of the authority of the Magisterium, as given to it by Christ.

There’s so much confusion and misinformation based in fear and prejudice out there that it seems insurmountable (besides downright ill-will on the part of some, both Protestant and Catholic). It may be that Jesus prayed so ardently for unity because he knew the hearts of men so well. He knew that there would be those who would think they had as much if not more authority to speak for him as the Apostles. We can see that happening right in the NT in the very first stages of the early Church.

That’s why we have the duty to educate not only our own people but all who claim Christ so that one day we can be one in every way as Jesus desired us to be, always praying, praying, praying. Yes?