March 8, 2011 – Catechism 758-762

I thought I would start with this comment from one of our last post because we continue to look at the Church and God’s plan for it. These paragraphs talk about the foundations of the Christian Church in the very beginning of creation and the foundation God laid through Israel as His Chosen People.

"I honestly don't think God's focus is on any denomination or how big they are. I think he's more worried about if each and every person in those churches has a personal relationship with Christ and if the church's focus is helping them cultivate that relationship."

It makes sense to me that if God had a one and only chosen people throughout the Old Testament then He would continue to want a one and only group through the New Covenant. I understand that He wants everyone to come to Him and that He has an individual and unique relationship which each individual person, but where does that leave us. If all God is interested in is each individual as an individual, there is no guidance or foundation. I agree that I do not think it has anything to do with numbers, but the concern is that the church is helping to cultivate that relationship. To cultivate that relationship you want to help it grow. I go back again, and again, to the idea that God would develop a system where there are so many churches teaching so many things. If the churches responsibility is to cultivate that relationship, they cannot do so by teaching different things. That does not help growth but leads to weakness and death. If a church’s focus is on our growth in relationship to God, explain to me how it can be God’s plan to have so many different denominations.

I understand there are that there are questions as to the Catholic Churches authority and its claim that it is the Church with the Fullness of Truth. But I would have you think about this?  If it is not the Catholic Church, which church is it?  I do not feel people really reflect on that. They can be very critical of the Catholic Church, but they do not reflect on what is really at issue. If God formed a church on earth, and He its focus is on bringing us in relationship with God, and there is only One God, and He is Truth and without contradiction, how do you come up with a church that is not singular. Any conclusion that does not involve a singular church is contradicting the premises. If you disagree with the premises, which ones do you not agree with. That God formed a Church; that the Church’s focus in on bringing us back to God; that there is only One God; that God is not Truth. When you are reflecting on this, ask yourself if your church claims to be the One Church?