Our Catholic church was founded and built by Jesus himself using St Peter as the rock. In Mathew 16:18 it is written, “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” But be careful, right before this Jesus says (Mathew 16:17), “Blessed are you…For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” Which implies that the church will not be directed only by men but by men inspired by God through the Holy Spirit. This is one of Jesus’ promise to His church.
In bible terms, a covenant is an unbreakable promise made by God to His people. The bible describes 7 distinct covenants of God with His people: Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, Prophetic and Eucharistic. Onto itself, the understanding of each of these covenants is a fascinating but lengthy endeavor that we will not have time to cover here. But suffice to know that to understand the history and path of these covenants is to understand the mesmerizing history of salvation. They describe the history of humankind from the days of Adam and Eve to the end of times.
In the last one, the Eucharistic covenant, the promised made through Ezekiel to Israel is fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Mankind’s relationship with God is then restored when Jesus allows crucifixion to happen fulfilling God’s ancient promise.
In some cases, Jesus gave us some very clear directions on what to do and what not to do. For example, marriage and divorce is very clearly defined in the bible. He also showed us His unconditional love by accepting the selfless act of dying in the cross. For 3 years He walked on this earth performing miracles, giving sermons, explaining God’s will, etc. He did all this so we would know what to do when He was no longer walking in human form among us. He showed us the way!
Jesus unconditional love is never changing, God’s covenants with mankind are never changing Jesus promises are never changing, then why do we think that His church has to change? He walked on this earth only 2000 years ago that in world history’s timeline is nothing. If we believe in Him, if we believe in His divinity, if we believe in His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience, then, how can we question His teachings? If we don’t like His teachings, we rationalize it and come up with a new version that suits our new “reality” … in other words, we say “the old man was wrong, this is what He meant, we know better”… the provocation of this thinking is perplexing.
His love for His people has never changed, and more importantly for us, it will never change. His one directional promise, His eucharistic covenant, will stand the test of times as a beacon of light that could guide mankind towards heaven. All we have to do is to accept His never changing love with humility and open heart. All we have to do is to pray to the Virgin Mary for her intercession, so God can be revealed onto us, just like He did to Peter, the rock.
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