THE AUTHORITY GIVEN TO THE APOSTLES

By: Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL's Gospel reflection for Kerygma Family of Bro. Bo Sanchez

"I get a bit tired defending the Catholic Church’s position on the authority given to the apostles against any of the Protestant Churches as, after all, they are the ones who insist on taking the Word of God literally. It is quite plain and simple to see that Jesus gives the apostles the authority to forgive and retain sins. I do not see how the text in today’s Gospel can be interpreted in any other manner.

"Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” -Jn 20:27

"It is not just this text but there are many other texts that support the fact that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is instituted based on a theological point of view. If this is not enough, the undisputed evidence of Church history for the first 1,500 years after Christ also supports the Catholic Church’s position. If the Protestants want to do away with the Sacrament, they will have to do a lot better than merely asserting that they are developmental mistakes of the Catholic Church. Like nearly all of the Protestant theological positions, we are ultimately left with supporting arguments that pick and choose those pieces of evidence that give vague support to what they want to establish and reject anything that remotely disagrees with their position no matter how well attested the evidence may be. There is no intellectual credibility, let alone integrity in such a position.

"As Catholics we need to better understand our faith so that we can live it more faithfully. Ironically it is the converts who are in the forefront of renewal here. There are many recent converts to Catholicism who witness to the fact that it is precisely when they take history seriously and search for what the early Church believed and why, that they become convinced of the authenticity and correctness of the Catholic Church’s position. One of them, Scott Hahn, echoes another of them, Cardinal John Henry Newman, when he says words to the effect that you cannot remain a Protestant if you take the study of Church history seriously."