DIVINE AUTHORITY

IN A moment of brilliant clarity, the fisher of men sees through the temporal order and beholds the divinity of Jesus.  He grasps with certainty the core truth of divine revelation: Jesus is the Son of God.  He intuits, albeit momentarily, that Jesus' would triumph as the Christ of unimaginable glory irrespective of his impoverished origins. "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," Peter exclaims. His confession of faith signals his eagerness to know the will of God and put it into practice. No longer looking for an image of himself in Jesus face, Peter "looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty" and beholds the face of the heavenly Father. Jesus, delighted with Peters insight, confers the name <em>rock</em> upon him; he entrusts to Peter the mission of leading his Church and the authority to bind and loose sacramentally. Hence, Jesus establishes Peter's relationship to the Twelve as <em>servus servorum Dei.</em>

THE COLLEGE of the Twelve with Peter at its head was not established by Christ as an expedient labor pool which would dissolve abjectly and embarrassingly after his ascension or on the death of the last apostle. Never will the apostolic foundation of the living letter be subjected to dissolution by corruption or death. The Holy Spirit is genuine. The Church's apostolic sacramental ministry is no less genuine.  The healing ministry of the Holy Spirit is authentic, and the Churchs historic emphasis on God's generative love, immutable justice, and prodigal mercy is no less authoritative and valid. If the Church is to rescue sinners who are as good as dead in their sins, she herself must be free from failure or decay. The <em>one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church</em> does not exist by her own volition; the Church is no more an adventitious accessory than God's magnificent Kingdom. Indeed, the Church is a "crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God."

FROM OUR personal vantage point, we may think ourselves more perceptive or sensitive or readily inclined to react appropriately or sympathetically to cultural influences, creative suggestions, and emotional impressions than the Church. Perhaps our reliance on our own agency or instrumentality has not failed us yet. However privileged we may be to recognize Jesus in a particular and unique way, Holy Scripture wisely cautions us to slow down and trust the Church. Should the authority of the magisterium in faith and morals be rejected, the mystery of Christ's passion, death and resurrection becomes inaccessible. Hence, Christ made no compromise whatsoever regarding the moral <em>obligation of the law and the prophets</em>, the form of the Church's apostolic governance, or his entrustment of its pastoral leadership to Peter and the apostles and their successors.

ULTIMATELY, GOD'S sacred order is much more than the Church's governance, for it encompasses the whole of the spiritual and temporal worlds, divine truth, and salvation history. There is no small irony in the fact that dissenters who demand the deconstruction of the temporal Church cannot themselves build. As in the test of temptation, however, dissenters afford the faithful a clear opportunity to prove the truth. The dissolution of the hierarchical Church would signify Christianity's collective separation from its true home (Lat. <em>a mensa et thoro</em>), an abandonment of such magnitude as to overwhelm the sorrow of Eden. Were the new covenant of Christ to be stripped of its binding authority, the Church would cease to exist. No longer bearing the image and likeness of heaven, Christ would not recognize her as his bride.

RELATIONSHIPS IN the family of faith are based on the highest law, that is to say, the law of love and the care of souls, the natural law quickened in the human soul at conception and brought to harvest in the man whose conscience is perfected by the authority of Christ. As faithful followers of Christ, we express Gods law in shared communal and religious values in the company of one another, the Church. Formed in the grace of Christ, the Church's unity is sustained by a shared vocabulary of sacrifice and self-restraint. Families of faith, whether in homes or Church, are commissioned by Christ to glorify the Father as he, himself, has done.  This is the true reason that children obey parents, husbands and wives submit to one another, Catholics entrust themselves to the teachings of the Universal Church, and all kneel before the Son of God on whom was bestowed the "name above every other name." The Father will honor those who serve the Son in this way.

A MOTHER turns to her son, himself a guest, confident that he can deal with a provocative situation. Jesus orders six large stone jars to be filled to the brim with water:  "Now draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast." The chief steward tastes not water but the select wine. He praises the plenitude of God's merciful love. The servants are astonished. The chief steward is delighted. Water becomes wine. And the hour of Jesus' ministry--"O woman, what have you to do with me?"--begins with the first of his many signs. These telling images in John's gospel reveal a common thread: human expectations have been overturned to manifest the glory of Christ. The catalyst and mediatrix is Mary. The Church gathered in celebration approaches Mary to say, <em>Apart from Christ, we can do nothing</em>. Contemplating her son, our Blessed Mother answers, "Do whatever he tells you."