Many think they would have believed in Him if they had lived in His day. But actually there would have been no great advantage. Those who do not see Him as Divine living in His Mystical Body today would not have seen Him as Divine living in His physical Body. If there are scandals in some cells of His Mystical Body there were scandals too in His physical Body; both put forward a human appearance which in moments of weakness or Crucifixion require moral strength to see Divinity.

In the Galilean days it required faith supported by motives of credibility to believe in the Kingdom He came to establish or His Mystical Body through which He would sanctify men through His Spirit after His Crucifixion. In these days it requires faith supported by the same motives of credibility to believe in the Head or the Invisible Christ, governing, teaching and sanctifying through His visible head and His Body the Church. In each case a "lifting up" was required. To redeem men, Our Lord told Nicodemus that He had to be "lifted up" on the Cross to sanctify men in the Spirit, He had to be "lifted up" to heaven in the Ascension.

Christ, therefore, still walks the earth now in His Mystical Body here as then in His physical Body. The Gospel was the prehistory of the Church, as the Church is the post history of the Gospel. He still is denied inns, as He was in Bethlehem; new Herod with Soviet and Chinese names persecute Him with the sword; other Satan appear to tempt Him to short cuts of popularity away from the Cross and mortification; Palm Sundays of great triumph come to Him but they are preludes to Good Fridays; new charges (and often from religious people. as of old) are hurled against Him - that He is an enemy of Caesar, is unpatriotic and would pervert a nation; on the outside He is stoned, on the inside attacked by false brethren; not even Judases who were called to be Apostles are wanting to betray Him and deliver Him over to the enemy; some of His disciples who gloried in His name walk with Him no more because-like their predecessors-they find His teaching particularly on the Bread of Life, to be "hard".

But since there is never a death without a Resurrection, His Mystical Body will in the course of history have a thousand deaths and a thousand Resurrections. The bells will always be tolling for His execution but the execution will be everlastingly postponed. Some final day, in His Mystical Body there will come a universal persecution when He will go to His death as He did before, "suffering under Pontius Pilate", suffering under the omnipotent power of the State. But in the end all that was foretold of Abraham and Jerusalem will come to pass in its spiritual perfection when He will be glorified in His Mystical Body as He was glorified in His physical Body. As John the Apostle described it:

Come and I will show you the bride the wife of the Lamb. So in the Spirit he carried me away to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God; it had the radiance of some priceless jewel like a jasper clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with twelve gates at which were twelve angels; and on the gates were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

There were three gates to the east, three to the north and three to the west........ I saw no temple in the city; for its temple was the sovereign Lord God and the Lamb. And the city had no need of sun or moon to shine upon it; for the glory of God give it light and its lamp was the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk and the kings of the earth shall bring into it all their splendour. the gates of the city shall never be shut by day - and there will be no night...He who gives this testimony speaks: Yes, I am coming soon! Amen, Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. - Rev. 21:9-14,22-26, 22:20-21 -

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN (1895 to 1979)

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -