The Promise of Jesus

Surely the promise of Jesus will not fail, after all the trials and difficulties in the world. Because He speaks as God’s Son, immortal, all-knowing, and almighty. “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ ‘Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So now I say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven’” (Mt. 16:13-20).

We know as we see the Catholic Church’s course through the ages and centuries that it has been by God’s power and mercy that she has reached till our present century after all the trials of past events and persecutions, and the challenges that tested her virtue and mission. After all she only endeavors to follow the ways of the Divine Master and Founder whose main teachings are basically truth and love, yes, Jesus the Savior of the world. It would be fitting to remember past history in the advice of Gamaliel, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin who advised the Jewish leaders to cease harassing the Christian groups. He said: “What I suggest, therefore, is that you leave these men alone and let them go. If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of human origin it will break up of its own accord; but if it does in fact come from God you will not only be unable to destroy them, but you might find yourselves fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).