Dear PJM,
I thank you for taking the time to respond to my post in #311.
I hope that you will bear with me just one more time, because I just want to explain what really is my thinking in this matter.
The Church is the family of God. We have Jesus as the invisible Head and the Holy Father as the visible Head. We have a hierarchical Church. Jesus created it that way. The Bishops, in union with the Bishop of Rome are the leaders. I am going to use the analogy of the family. I apologize in advance because as with all analogies, they all fall short in some aspects. The Holy Father and the Bishops are the parents of this family. That is why we call the Holy Father, Father. We, as the laity, are the children of the family.
In our family, I being the wife, try to defer to my husband. My husband, being the Godly man that he is, usually never imposes his will on me. In other words, he never says to me,“It is this way because that is how I see it, and I am the husband, no discussion.” Rather, by being patient with me, explaining to me his point of view, and hearing my point of view etc. I will have to say that usually we come to agreement in almost all matters. And usually, our differences in point of view are settled lovingly, privately and with little disturbance to the household. I’m not saying that it always happens this way because we are both human and we err.
Now our children, having been raised in our household, know that this is how it works. If dad has one idea and mom has another opinion, they know** never** ever to even try to
side with one over the other or worse yet to set one in opposition to the other. They know by experience, that even a hint of this will immediately bond Dad and Mom together in stern disapproval of any dishonor that the children do to either parent.
My point is this. If you(I assume you are part of the laity) or I, as the laity, or kids in the family, went to the Holy Father and pointed out that the Bishops of so and so Conference
are not honoring what he said, what do you think he would say to us? The feeling that I have is that the Holy Father would say, “Listen to your Bishop.” Why? Because the Holy Father is a good head of his household. He would not encourage his children in opposition to their parent. Then, I would imagine, and hope and pray, that he, himself, the Holy Father, would approach his brother bishops, in private, and ask them for their obedience in the matter so as to prevent further disruption to the household.
No matter how correct one child is and how incorrect another child is, the disagreement and division in a household can never be settled until the parents speak with one voice.
The disagreement we have with the manner of receiving Jesus, will never be fully settled until the Holy Father, and the Bishops speak **very clearly **with one voice. Until then, it is our duty as children to pray earnestly for them, that guided by the Holy Spirit, they will speak as one!
Then it will be our duty to accept what they say, in obedience, as children to their parents.
God Bless!
To Jesus, through Mary
