NÍ BẸ jẹ iporuru, paapaa laarin awọn Katoliki, nipa iru Ijọ ti Kristi ti o fi idi mulẹ. Diẹ ninu awọn lero pe Ile-ijọsin nilo lati tunṣe, lati gba ọna tiwantiwa diẹ sii si awọn ẹkọ rẹ ati lati pinnu bi wọn ṣe le ṣe pẹlu awọn ọran iṣe ti ode oni.
Sibẹsibẹ, wọn kuna lati rii pe Jesu ko ṣe agbekalẹ ijọba tiwantiwa, ṣugbọn a idile ọba.
NEW COVENANT
The Lord promised to David,
Of this I am sure, that your love lasts for ever, that your truth is firmly established as the heavens. “With my chosen one, I have made a covenant; I have sworn to David my servant: I will establish your dynasty for ever and set up your throne through all ages.” (Psalm 89:3-5)
David died, but his throne did not. Jesus is his descendant (Matt 1:1; Lk 1:32) and the first words of His preaching ministry announced this kingdom:
This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. (Mark 1:15)
The kingdom is definitively established in Christ through the shedding of His blood. It is a ẹmí kingdom, a dynasty that will endure “through all ages.” The Church, His body, is the embodiment of this kingdom:
Christ, high priest and unique mediator, has made of the Church “a kingdom, priests for his God and Father…” The faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood through their participation, each according to his own vocation, in Christ’s mission as priest, prophet, and king. -Catechism ti Ijo Catholic, n. Odun 1546
If God promised that David’s kingdom would endure through all ages—and Christ is the fulfillment of that kingdom—then wouldn’t David’s kingdom be a foreshadowing of our Lord’s?
HIERARCHY
David was king, but in Isaiah 22, we see that he invests another man with his own authority—one who would become the steward, master, or prime minister, one could say, of David’s own house:
On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah; I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open. I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family… (Isaiah 22:20-23)
It is unmistakable, then, that Jesus is referring to this passage when He turns to Peter, echoing Isaiah’s very words:
Mo sọ fun ọ, iwọ ni Peteru, ati lori apata yii ni emi yoo kọ ile ijọsin mi si, ati awọn ẹnu-bode ti ayé kekere ki yoo bori rẹ. Emi yoo fun ọ ni awọn kọkọrọ ti ijọba ọrun. Ohunkohun ti o ba so lori ile aye, a o de e li orun; ohunkohun ti o ba si tu silẹ lori ilẹ ni yoo tu silẹ ni ọrun. (Mat 16: 18-19)
Jesus came not to abolish the Old Testament, but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17). Thus, He hands the keys of His kingdom to Peter to be its steward:
Feed my sheep. (John 21:17)
That is, Peter now occupies a role as aropo tuntun for the king over his household. That’s why we call the Holy Father the “Vicar of Christ.” Vicar comes from the Latin vicarius which means ‘substitute’. Moreover, see how Isaiah’s words are fulfilled in the ecclesiastical garments worn throughout the centuries: “I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash...” In fact, Isaiah says that this vicar of David will be called a “father” over the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The word “pope” comes from the Greek papasi which means ‘father.’ The Pope then is a father over the “new Jerusalem”, which is already present in the hearts of the faithful who form “the city of God.” And just as Isaiah prophesies that Eliakim will be “like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family,” so too the Pope is a “rock,” and remains to this day loved and honored by the faithful throughout the world.
Who can fail to see that Christ has established His dynasty in the Church, with the Holy Father as her steward?
AWỌN NIPA
The implications for this are enormous. That is, Eliakim was not king; he was steward. He was charged with carrying out the king’s will regarding the kingdom, not creating his own order. The Holy Father is no different:
Poopu kii ṣe ọba alaṣẹ, ti awọn ero ati awọn ifẹ rẹ jẹ ofin. Ni ilodisi, iṣẹ-iranṣẹ ti Pope jẹ onigbọwọ ti igbọràn si Kristi ati ọrọ rẹ. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Homily ti May 8, 2005; San Diego Union-Tribune
Of course, Jesus also said to the other eleven apostles that they share in His teaching authority to “bind and loose” (Matt 18:18). We call this teaching authority the “magisterium”.
Ister Magisterium yii ko ga ju Ọrọ Ọlọrun lọ, ṣugbọn o jẹ iranṣẹ rẹ. O kọ kiki ohun ti a fi le e lọwọ. Ni aṣẹ atọrunwa ati pẹlu iranlọwọ ti Ẹmi Mimọ, o tẹtisi eyi ti o jẹ olufokansin, ṣe itọju rẹ pẹlu iyasimimọ ati ṣafihan rẹ ni iṣotitọ. Gbogbo ohun ti o dabaa fun igbagbọ bi ṣiṣafihan atọrunwa ni a fa lati idogo idogo igbagbọ kan. (CCC, 86)
Thus, the Holy Father and the bishops in communion with him, as well as the lay faithful, share in the “kingly” role of Christ by preaching the truth which sets us free. But this truth is not something we make up. It is not something we manufacture throughout the centuries, as critics of the Church continue to claim. The truth we pass on—and the truths we speak today to address the new moral challenges of our times—are derived from the immutable word of God and the natural and moral law, what we call the “deposit of faith.” The faith and morals of the Church, then, are not up for grabs; they are not subject to a democratic process whereby they are fashioned according to the whims of a particular generation, or rejected altogether. No man—the pope included—has the authority to override the King’s will. Rather, “truth is firmly established as the heavens“. That truth is guarded by a “dynasty… through the ages. "
The Church… intends to continue to raise her voice in defense of mankind, even when policies of States and the majority of public opinion moves in the opposite direction. Truth, indeed, draws strength from itself and not from the amount of consent it arouses. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Vatican, March 20, 2006
EVEN IN SCANDAL
Despite the sexual scandals that continue to shake up the Church, the truth of Christ’s words are no less powerful: “…the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” We must resist the temptation to throw the baby out with the bath water; to see the corruption of a few members of the body as a corruption of the whole; to lose our faith in Christ and His ability to govern. Those with eyes can see what is happening today: that which is corrupt is being shaken to the foundations. In the end, that which is left standing may look a lot different. The Church will be smaller; she will be humbler; she will purer.
But make no mistake: she will also be governed by a Vicar. For the dynasty will last until the end of time… and the truth she teaches will always set us free.
…with regard to divine scripture… no man, relying on his own wisdom, is able to claim the privilege of rashly twisting the scriptures to his own meaning in opposition to the meaning which holy mother Church holds and has held. It was the Church alone that Christ commissioned to guard the deposit of the faith and to decide the true meaning and interpretation of the divine pronouncements. —POPE PIUS IX, Nostis ati Nobiscum, Encyclical, n. 14 DECEMBER 8, 1849
SIWAJU SIWAJU:
- Lori itumọ Iwe-mimọ: Isoro Pataki
