THE POPE, THE BISHOPS, THE PRIESTS—INSTRUMENTS IN THE HANDS OF GOD

The Holy Apostle Paul says to us that Christ is not divided. He says this, because there were factions among the Corinthians, which were loyal to different Christian teachers. Paul names three such teachers, which the factions followed: Paul himself, Apollos and Cephas. We should note that Paul immediately blames those, who are his ardent followers, and later, in the third chapter, he ridicules those, who follow Apollos, but he never blames those, who follow Cephas, since, as Catholics, we can understand that Paul already recognizes the apostolic authority of the Holy Chief-Apostle Peter, namely Cephas. In other words, when the Corinthian Church split into factions, some people appealed to the center of unity-- the blessed Apostle Peter. This behaviour was not fractious, because Christ gave to the Apostle Peter an authority over the other apostles, in order to confirm the unity of the Church in love. For this reason, after many years, Saint Ignatius the God-bearer, the archbishop of Antioch, described the Church of Rome, which inherited Saint Peter's authority, as "the Church that presides in love over all the other Churches."

 The unity, which comes from the Holy Apostle Peter, is a very great treasure of our Catholic Church, since through this unity we have association not only with the visible Church, but also with all the saints in heaven. This is true, because our Church has a guarantee from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that we will always have the correct faith, for He said to Peter before His Passion: "O Simon! Simon! Satan has asked leave that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail." So, we can be absolutely certain concerning our faith, if we are united with the successor of Saint Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

 Naturally, this does not mean that everything that we hear from the Vatican is true and is a part of our faith. On the contrary, many things from the Vatican can be incorrect. We must be able to discern between the things, which are essential to faith, and those things, which are merely personal opinions. For example, the personal opinions of the Pope of Rome concerning global warming are obviously not part of our faith, but Church teaching concerning doctrine and moral questions-- these things are part of what we believe, and we must accept these things very seriously. We must always keep this truth in our minds: when we hear the teaching of the bishops, and especially the bishop of Rome, we hear the voice of the Holy Apostles, and, through them, we hear the voice of Christ Jesus, since the Lord Jesus continues to speak in His Church.

 This lesson is very powerful in today's Gospel, since we see that the disciples did not feed the five thousand people by their own power, but by the power of the Lord Jesus. They went to Jesus with a problem, and He miraculously created loaves and fish to feed the people. In the same way, the power of the bishops to feed us comes directly from Christ. Therefore, we should have confidence in Christ and trust in Him, because He grants to us a share in a victory, which He has already won on the cross. There, He already answered all our prayers and satisfied all our longings. We merely need to accept this treasure of the Lord's goodness. This treasure belongs to the Church, and she gives it to us through her Mysteries and divine service.

 So, how senseless it is, when people stop going to church, because they don't like the bishop, or, even less, the priest, since these people are only instruments, tools in the hands of God. Just as you have good tools and poor tools, so too does God have good tools and poor tools. As you know, a bad tool does not diminish the innate skill of the worker. In the same way, we also recognize that all of us are instruments for our salvation and for the salvation of others. We must try to be good tools for God, even as we recognize that bad tools can also be useful for us on the way to God. Even more, we must recognize that every bad tool can become a good one through the action of grace.  For this reason, we pray for our bishop, the Pope, our Metropolitan, our Patriarch and our priests and one another, because they can change, even as we can change. In this way, we fulfill our role in the communion of the Catholic Church, and by our part, we strengthen this communion.