Only Through Jesus

    First things first on this wonderful day! Let us take a few moments to embrace the fact that God has named the new successor to Peter. We welcome Pope Francis I as Pope. We shall come together and pray for him like he asked us to do as one of his very first decisions as Pope. This man seems to be a very humble and loving man, who I pray and think will be a beautiful witness of our Church and a great leader for us Catholics. With that said, let us get into the Gospel for today as we rejoice in HABEMUS PAPAM!


    I began prayer in thanksgiving today for the excitement of yesterday and screaming down the hallway at work that the smoke was white! Yes I did scream! But I thanked God for such a pleasant surprise in the Pope. A man who is humble and who is going to bring the Church back to the very basics of the teachings. Now if you think priests should be married and women should become priests, well I am sorry that is never going to happen, but you should be excited for what this Pope has the power to do as he is looking for the fraternal bond of the Church once again. Anyway I came across one line in the Gospel that has totally inspired me today about the truth that is found within the Catholic Church!

"You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them;

even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life."

    This is so strong in my heart and I am going to try and figure it out here, so bare with me. The faith that I have is not simply based on what the Scripture says. It is based on yes Scripture, but also the traditions instituted by Christ. Now we can not get to Heaven simply by faith, you must have the works in there as well. As I recall, the traditions of the Catholic Church are not done simply because they have been done like that for 2,000 years, but because every Sacrament, every devotion, every Saint, every Tradition in the Catholic Church is a means created in Divine Inspiration or by Jesus Christ Himself in order to bring us, the people, into a deeper relationship with God our Father.

    A lot of people simply look for their answers to questions in the Scripture. "Well Scripture says this or Scripture does not say this so I can/cannot believe that this is truth." You see this is where we begin to misuse the gift of the Bible. We begin to have the Bible be the final judgement of what our relationship with God is. Yes it is a beautiful and truthful book, but just like Jesus says in the Gospel today found here in John, we cannot find out eternal life through the Scripture, rather we must have a living relationship with Jesus Himself. I know there is a lot of things that people do not agree with the church on, but really, Jesus never said that His teachings were going to be the social norms. He actually touches on this today on how, we will refuse Jesus, but follow another (human law and practice):

"I cam in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another

comes in his own name, you will accept him."

    We will not find forgiveness in ourselves, we will not find joy or peace in ourselves, because we as humans are unable to do so. Not because we are bad people, but simply because these are only possible through Jesus and through God. We are not able to fulfill our relationship with Jesus simply through Scripture only and we are not able to fulfill our relationship with Jesus through following ourselves or the society that is so flawed. (Yes the humans in the Catholic Church are flawed, but Jesus, who runs the Church is not.) We do not have the ability to do anything without Christ because we ourselves do not obtain the love of God unless we fully accept that love of God, which is not fully found in the Scriptures, you must be able to meet with Christ through the state of grace found in prayer, scripture and the Sacraments of the Catholic Church.

    So today, if you only base your faith on the Bible or if you simply do not understand everything that is taught in the Catholic Church.... I prompt you to have some faith and trust God, even when you cannot see or hear Him, because the relationship you will create between you two will be one in which you will have forever!