Day 13: The Single Deposit of Faith

The Catholic Church was founded by Christ, who endowed his apostles with authority to teach in his name. The Church, then, is the defender of the Gospel of Christ, and his infallible witness to the world. That said, the Church is made up of sinful human beings, with popes and bishops in its history who lived sinful lives. Even today, the Church's leaders are not perfect, so how can we trust what they say? Quite simply, we can trust the Magisterium because Jesus assures us that we can. (Catechism in a Year Companion I, p. 31)

Today's reading in CCC 96-100 was an "In Brief" one, which is something that summed up the section in about 5 sentences. Not a bad summary. I liked how the Companion book puts it above, especially when considering the Church's history. Yes, we've had saints and men of mostly goodwill, but we've also had some real stinkers too. Non-Catholics usually like to focus on Medieval bad boy popes, which I'm very familiar with. I'll give perhaps one of the most despicable, dishonorable, and scandalous episodes in Church history: the Cadaver Synod. I believe I can safely surmise that God was not pleased with that one. So given the sin of popes, bishops, priests, nuns & monks, as well as the laity down through the centuries, how can I still believe in the Church? Simple. I see the story of humanity in all it's glory, wickedness, and mediocrity. You name it, humans have done it and will do it again if given the chance. I see it in the Apostles, all of whom the Gospels record as abandoning Him in his hour of need, with scandalous episodes in their own lives. From Matthew being a tax collector (uber-scandalous back then) to Peter being called a devil by Christ and denying him three times. All of them He still loved and helped raise up to do great things in his name, which began the early Church. I'm not trying to preach or engage in apologetics here, this is just how I see it.

All in all, a good summation provided in the Catechism for this section. Tomorrow: Day 14!