A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Jesus said to his disciples, as the father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. You will live in my love if you keep my commandments even as I have kept my father's commandments and live in his love. All this I tell you, that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete.
And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. The last few days in the readings the first readings from the book of the acts of the apostles, these readings have narrated the continuous narrative of a problem which rose in the early church and which sowed dissension. Notice dissension is nothing new to the Catholic church. Started with the the very beginning.
The dissension was about the admission of Gentiles into the new way, into the followers of Christ's company. The question was that when a Gentile wanted this was all we had in the last few days, but I just want to remind you because there's a point to this that I want to make. That first of all, there was a dissension among the apostles. How to treat Gentile converts? Did they have to come in to be followers of Christ through the old law?
And the touchstone of the situation was circumcision. The problem was, did you the gentiles, male gentiles, have to be circumcised in a co in conformity with the old law and in conformity with Jewish practices in order to come into the company of Jesus Christ followers. It was called the new way. Some said yes and some said no. Now here's my point, Paul and Barnabas, they're out on the missions.
They can't they don't pretend to resolve the problem. And let me tell you, more than once Paul said, I am the equal of any of the apostles. Because he said, I did not get my doctrine from them. I got it direct from Christ. Paul says this, but he did not undertake to resolve the problem alone.
He and Barnabas took themselves up to Jerusalem, and they laid the matter before the the apostles in Jerusalem. Here's my point. Who was the spokesman for the apostles? Who spoke out this morning? Peter.
Peter. Now, so much of what when when we go to the bible, using it the word bible as the collect collectivity of all the books, we give quotations. Now, anyone who's had any experience with language knows what you can do with words, even before we had all the electronic gadgets. You can make words mean almost anything you want, even in your own language. Think what happens in congress passes a law before the print is dry, when it's promulgated, loopholes are being felt.
What do you mean by loopholes? It means interpretations. Then when you get into translations, you're in deeper trouble still. We speak of the tyranny of the translator. Then you get in the question of authenticity of texts.
Do you have all the texts? The transmission of the text? How much of it was added? Maybe some was left out, and so on. Where What are you left with?
To me, the most The strongest kind of an argument from a book isn't just this sentence or that paragraph. It's the ensemble. Now you take the synoptic gospels. How does Peter come out? He comes out as the leader.
He wasn't elected. But on every occasion, it's Peter who speaks up. It's Peter who jumps in the water. It's Peter who takes the initiative. It's Peter who who goes in advance.
It's Peter who shows even arrogance. Lord, don't worry about me. Even if I have to die, I'll follow you. In ours, he denied he even knew Christ, and Judas never did that. Now my point is this, this narrative today and in the previous days is a very strong argument to show, in fact, the superior position of Peter.
I don't know how he got it. Our blessed lord singled out Peter though individually and said, thou art Peter. Well, you know how that text is handled, for example, by the Lutherans. But you see, the point is Christ said that to Peter that thou art his name was Cephas. He said, thou art the rock, patriarch, and on this rock.
Then we have the facts beyond any question of text of how Peter was actually the self made, you might say, leader of the apostles, then we have subsequently to our lord's ascension, the testimony that we've been reading from the book of the acts, and especially this this matter of the dissension over the admission of Gentiles. That when Paul and Barnabas appeals appeal to Jerusalem, to the college of the disciples, it's Peter who's the spokesman. That is a fact beyond dispute. It is this fact that Saint Thomas Morelady's life down four. It is this fact which is being today in some instances not only questioned, but rejected.
Within the last forty eight hours, a man I admire quite a bit is a writer for Gatham, his name was Frank Morris, maybe you saw it too. It's in this matter of this pastoral letter on nuclear war. Mister Morris said, if I got him correctly, that this is just another indication that is the autonomous action of the American bishops. This is just another little hint of this idea of individual churches. In other words, downgrading the autonomy of Rome.
If any of you read Kelly's book, you will see plenty of evidence, I mean evidence, real hard evidence, for this idea. Furthermore, you have today, if you can believe the letters which have been coming into the homiletic review, you have today a strong opposition to what is called papist priests. Papist priests because they're too loyal to the papacy. So they're farmed out. I don't know how many letters came into the homiletic review on this matter from priests who said that's what happened to them and some and some teachers.
Now whether it's true or false, don't know. I'm only saying there the the letters are signed with addresses. So we have today, we have today a a a rising attitude of downgrading the papacy. And my friends, look at history. I'm no historian, but just look at the big, bare, indisputable facts.
We referred yesterday to Arianism. You read the life of Saint Augustine, that's March to 04/30, how he appealed to Rome. How in every instance and and you take it in Saint Jerome. Again, how Rome stands out as the leader, and Rome and Jerome was over in Jerusalem. This is the fourth century.
These are facts beyond dispute. Wherever there has been a dispute, in many instances, the underdog was Rome. I mean, the papacy, the vicar of Christ, or the theologians defending his view or his backing their view. In many years, they have been the minority. They have been not been the intelligentsia.
They have not been the elite. But in the long run, they are the ones who persevered and survived. There who know how many here know a thing about areas today? And so there's a the church of Jesus Christ is a unit. It's a human it's a human element.
Remember, out of 12 disciples, there were two bad bad apples. And one of them stayed bad, and the other one recovered. But it was two out of 12, that's one sixth isn't it? So let's not be disturbed by the human element. We the church has its human side, of course, of course.
But Saint Thomas More was a man who could see the difference. Henry the eighth didn't, you see. And so I think we today need to take a reaffirmation that when our lord said to Peter, thou art Peter, and on this this rock I will build my church, Jesus Christ, the son of god, meant what he said. In the name of the father, of the son, holy spirit. Amen.