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Verbum Paragraph 8
It seems the Episcopal Church is going through what the
Catholic Church did a couple of decades ago.
Speaking with broad strokes, we stopped teaching rules and dogma and
focused on “Jesus loves you,” which is great, but knowing Jesus loves you and
knowing what that means are two different things. We need both or we run into trouble.
The latest marketing slogan from the Episcopal Church that
is found on signs, bumper stickers, and marquees is, “God loves you. No exceptions.” Which, once again, is great. As Catholics we thoroughly believe this. God cannot not love you or He wouldn’t be the source of all love. But what the bumper sticker doesn’t say is,
“And that love requires something of you.”
That something is expressed in the teachings handed on to
the Apostles by Jesus. Those teachings,
Paul stresses, given by word of mouth
(Tradition) or by letter (2 Th. 2:15), are to be jealously guarded and fought
for. This revelation of God and His will
are handed down in Scripture and Tradition and is safeguarded by the Church in
its entirety (including you) for every generation.
This is aided and spearheaded by the Holy Spirit Who, though
there will be no new revelation, continues to lead the Church into all truth by
allowing her to fall more deeply into the truths already revealed to her. (Think of the teachings of St. John Paul II
on the Theology of the Body. Everything
he taught us was already there, but he brought it together and explained it in
a new and exciting way.) Thus the Father
continues to speak to the bride of His only begotten Son and through her to the
world.
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