Priests and the Authority to Forgive Sins

 In John 20:19-23 the apostles have locked themselves in a room, and the resurrected Jesus comes and stands in their midst. After showing them the wounds in His hands and side, He says to them, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." He then breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."

In the original Greek, the word "send" here means to send forth with the full authority of the sender. So when Jesus says to the apostles that He is sending them, what that means is that He is sending them out with His full authority. Does His authority include the authority to forgive sins? Of course it does, as story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man in Matthew 9:1-8 and Mark 2:1-12 shows. So the apostles received from Jesus His authority to forgive and retain sins. This authority has been passed down to every Catholic priest today through apostolic succession, and is exercised in the Church in the sacrament of Confession.

Peter and the Keys of the Kingdom

In Matthew 16:19 we see Jesus saying to Peter alone, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven." So, what does it mean for Jesus to give Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven?

Well, in the Old Testament and at the time of Jesus, the phrase "keys of the kingdom" referred to a governing office within a kingdom. It was the office of chief steward, who was basically the second-in-command after the king himself. Whenever a king would leave on a trip, he would place his chief steward in charge of the kingdom, and this chief steward would govern the kingdom with the full authority of the king.

So we see here in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus entrusted to Peter, and to his successors who came after him down to the present day, the governing office of chief steward over the kingdom of heaven, which is the Church. This chief steward, who we call the pope, has been entrusted with the authority of Christ to govern the Church until Jesus, the King, returns someday in glory.


Mary, Full of Grace

Luke 1:28 is a verse that most of us hear around Christmas time, but yet, we don't stop to really think about what it means. It is found in the story where the angel Gabriel comes to Mary to tell her that she, even though she is a virgin, will conceive and give birth to the Son of God. Gabriel greets Mary in Luke 1:28 by saying, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." So what does it mean when Gabriel calls Mary "full of grace"?

The Greek word used for "full of grace" is the word "kecharitomene," which means to be "completely, perfectly, and enduringly endowed with grace." It is the only time that this word is ever used in the Bible, and it is used in reference to Mary. But that is not all. Another interesting thing is that "kecharitomene" is a perfect passive participle, which "denotes the present state resultant upon a past action."

Now, what does that mean for us lay people, who may not know Biblical Greek? It means that Mary was given the special privilege and gift from God to be already completely, perfectly, and permanently endowed with grace before the angel Gabriel appeared to her, before Jesus was conceived, before Jesus was born, before He performed His first miracle, before His death on the cross, before His resurrection from the dead, and before His ascension into heaven. How long before? The Bible doesn't say. But according to Church Tradition and belief, Mary was full of grace from the very moment of her conception, which is what we call the Immaculate Conception.


Salvation by Faith and Works

Catholics reject the idea that we can be saved by works alone, apart from faith. But at the same time, we also reject the idea that we are saved by faith alone, apart from works. We believe that our faith and our works go hand-in-hand to bring about our salvation.

James, in the second chapter of his letter to the early Christians, writes about how faith that does not have works with it is dead, and cannot save a person. He uses Abraham as an example and writes: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works...See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone" (James 2:21-22, 24). James is clear that we cannot separate faith from works. Faith is active along side of our works, and works complete our faith. We are saved by the union of the two.

Many people see good works as simply the result of already having a saving faith, but that is not what the Bible teaches, nor what Christians have taught or believed from the beginning. The truth is that we are saved by both faith and works, and both of these have an essential part in bringing about our salvation.


Praying to the Saints

When Catholics say that they pray to the saints, many people equate the word "pray" with the act of worship that is reserved for God alone. But that is not at all what we are meaning. When Catholics say that they pray to the saints, we are using the word "pray" in its most basic meaning, which is "to ask a request of."  In other words, we are asking the saints in heaven to pray for us concerning some issue or problem that we may be having, just like we would ask our spouse or friend to pray for us here on earth.

You see, Catholics don't see ourselves as being separated from those who are in heaven. In Hebrews 12:1, the writer of Hebrews writes:  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us."  The Greek word that the writer uses for "witnesses" here is the same word that the Romans used to refer to spectators at a sporting event. So the picture that he is trying to paint for us is that while we are here on this earth running our race of faith that lies before us, the saints in heaven are surrounding us, and cheering us on. They celebrate with us when we do good, and they cry with us when we fall. And we can turn to them and ask them to pray for us. Since they have already finished their race of faith, and are now in heaven, they know how to pray for us with compassion, and in accordance to God's will. It is a wonderful thing to be able to turn to them for their prayers.


The Reality of Purgatory


"All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 1030). This final purification described in the catechism is what Catholics call by the name of purgatory.

In this world we still have a sinful nature, unforgiven sin, attachments to sin, and unfulfilled temporal punishment. But in heaven we cannot have those things. After all, Scripture tells us that nothing unclean shall enter heaven (Rev. 21:27). So this must mean that after our physical death, and before our entrance into heaven, there has to be a change (or purification) that takes place to us that makes us perfectly holy. This change, or purification, is purgatory.

The belief in purgatory is the logical solution to the problem of our present personal sinfulness in this world, and the perfect holiness required to enter heaven. Through purgatory, our souls are made completely pure, and we can then enter into the glorious presence of God in heaven.


The Written & Oral Tradition


Catholics believe that both the written AND the oral teachings of the Apostles that have been passed down through the centuries are authoritative for the Christian disciple. The Apostle Paul writes to the Christians in the ancient city of Thessalonica to "stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours" (2 Thess. 2:15). Notice that the Apostle Paul told them to remain faithful to what he had taught them both orally and in writing. He doesn't say to only follow his oral teachings, or only his written teachings. He says for them to follow both.

In the Church we have the written teachings of the Apostles preserved in the New Testament Scriptures. These writings include personal, pastoral, and universal letters written by several of the Apostles themselves, and by their close companions. We also have the oral teachings of the Apostles faithfully preserved and passed on in the Church by the successors of the Apostles through the centuries. The written and oral teachings together form the whole Apostolic Tradition that Catholics have followed from the very beginning of the Church.