Renew The Church! – website and Blog

Yes, “we have, other times, had ‘bad popes’”. My conclusion drawn from hearing the passages below is that “yes but….”.  The papacy has always had a root problem – that is, concupiscence – that will effect (by prophecy, I conclude) the fall of the papacy itself before the End. The petrine dimension of the Church will fall before, but the johannine dimension of His Church will remain even until the Second Coming and the final end of this creation.

We can see two or even three “primacies” in types originating in the Twelve.  Jesus shows us a “trinity of primacies” among the Apostles Peter, James and John, gathered in the Transfiguration scene (Mt 17) – window to the Second Coming in Glory.  They saw His Glory – and with Him Moses of the Law and Elijah of the pre-Christian prophets. Peter – the type of the petrine dimension in the Church – would have the primacy of governance, the papacy. James, type of the jacobian dimension, the first apostolic martyr, would have the primacy of self-sacrifice in blood after Christ. John – type of the johannine dimension in the Church – has the primacy of divine [agapaō] love – holy supernatural charity – in the Church: John “the Beloved Disciple.”

The johannine and the jacobian dimensions in the Church will remain, but the petrine church will fail and must (according to prophecy) fall at the End, completely corrupted by a false prophet – in apostasy – sitting in the Chair of Peter.

Below are listed foundational Scripture passages that establish the conclusion and title of this paper.

(1.) Prophesy from the OT, Isa 22:14 – 25 especially:

Isa 22:22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Isa 22:23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house.
Isa 22:24 And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.
Isa 22:25 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a sure place will give way; and it will be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”

Comment on (1): verse 22 points ahead clearly to Simon Peter’s reception of “the keys” in Mt 16; verses 23-24 strengthen that identification to the Chair of Peter, to the papacy. Verse 25 is startling and disturbing, heard outside of and apart from the additional pointers to the final conclusion God wants us to discover.  This conclusion is strengthened in the prophecies in the New Testament presented below.

(2.) NT Scripture, Peter is given the keys:

Mt 16:15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Mt 16:16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Mt 16:17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
Mt 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.
Mt 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
…..
Mt 16:22 And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
Mt 16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.”

Comment on (2.): The Church will endure until Jesus comes again: the Church will not succumb to the “powers of death.” But the petrine dimension, the papacy, has its deep human natural flaw which is to bring its fall near the End. Simon, type of the petrine, is “Bar-Jona” – son of, the younger of, John and John of course is the type of the johannine dimension. The petrine is “son of/ the younger of” the johannine dimension. Prayerful supernatural communion with God the Holy Trinity in Holy (agapao) Love has precedence over governance in the institutional Church.

(3.) NT Scripture, Jn 21:11,12; a hundred and fifty-three large fish; the net is not torn, they knew it was the Lord.

Jn 21:11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large*[megas-large or great] fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many*, the net was not torn.
Jn 21:12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

(3.) Comments: megas can mean “large” simply in size or great in significance.  It seems Simon only gradually began to sense Jesus was showing them a number of fish – 153 – great in significance to Peter.  Peter would remember, in time, that 153 was the total number of soldiers sent by evil king Ahaziah, son of the archetypes of evil Ahab and Jezebel, sent to the prophet Elijah (2 Kgs 1:1-15).  The soldiers were sent in three waves of a captain and his 50 soldiers – three captains and their fifties, a total of 153 sent to the man of God, to fetch him before the evil and offended king.  The first two groups of captain plus 50 sent were killed by fire from heaven by the word of the man of God for whom the captains had shown no respect.  The captain of the third group, knowing the fate of the first two, was rightfully afraid when he was next sent by the king to get Elijah.  This followed:

2 Ki 1:13 …  the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and entreated him, “O man of God, I pray you, let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight.
2 Ki 1:14 Lo, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties; but now let my life be precious in your sight.”

Thus Peter would hear, eventually, the prophetic significance: “Peter, do you love [agapaō] Me more than these captains of their fifty feared the God of Elijah? “– the Peter, in fear for his own life, who had denied Jesus three times?  This, then, introduced the interrogation of Peter by Jesus specifically about his love for Jesus Who Is God Incarnate.  It is as if Jesus is saying, “Is your love the perfect love, Holy Charity, agapao love, the love for God above and first of all – supernatural and divine?”

(4.) NT Scripture, Jn 21:14-16, the Interrogation of Peter by Jesus in His final (3rd) post-resurrection appearance to the disciples:

In this interrogation Jesus asks Peter twice if he has Holy Love, the Greek agapaō Love, for Jesus who is.  This is the Love that is commanded in the New Commandment for the Church, the Love that coheres with and within God the Holy Trinity.  Peter answers truthfully no, his love for Jesus is brotherly (phileō) – this is good – but fundamentally incomplete without the higher, supernatural and divine love of agapao love.

John the Beloved Disciple shows this self-forgetful self-donating agapaō love for Jesus in his remaining under the Cross with the Blessed Mother Mary, when all the other disciples had run away.  This fundamental distinction between Peter and John was acknowledged by Jesus concerning John and of course concerning Mary in His entrustment to them both, one to the other, John as “son” to Mary, and Mary as Mother to John, in Jn 19:26-27.  Thus John foreshadows all Beloved Disciples, as those in the Faithful (and Beloved [agapaō]) Church are foreshadowed in perfection by Mary.

Jn 21:15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love [agapaō] me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love [phileō] you.” He said to him, “Feed [boskō – feed, keep] my (little) lambs [arnion].”
Jn 21:16  A second time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love [agapaō] me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love [phileō] you.” He said to him, “Tend [poimainō- tend, rule] my sheep [probaton]..”
Jn 21:17  He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love [phileō] me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love [phileō] me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love [phileō] you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed [boskō – feed, keep] my sheep [probaton].

This deficiency in completeness of love, in Peter, did not bring separation of Peter from the Church nor from his own final salvation.  Peter’s case is parallel to Moses, the man of the Law also at the Transfiguration (Mt 17). Moses struck the rock twice to release the saving water from it (Num 20:11-12), and this defect in faith on his part blocked his entry into the Promised Land with his people.  In a parallel way, the defect in Love – in Holy Charity – on the part of Peter, lacking agapao love but having phileo love alone for Him, blocked his “presence” – that is, his papacy – at the Second Coming of Jesus in Glory at the end.  Of course both Moses and Peter were saved personally before they died, but their legacy was a prophecy for our instruction.  If and when we see the papacy fall, we need not fear if we remain in the Church that does remain faithfully in Him.

(5.) NT Scripture: Again, in the third post-resurrection appearance to the disciples:

Jn 21:20 Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”
Jn 21:21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”
Jn 21:22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!”
Jn 21:23 The saying spread abroad among the brethren that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Comment: The johannine dimension is to endure, to remain faithful even to the End when Jesus comes again in glory: he will remain even after the petrine falls. As Peter fell at the Passion of Jesus, so the petrine dimension, the papacy, will fall in the Passion of the Church (see CCC 675-677). The Beloved Disciple John was at the Cross with the Blessed Mother Mary; so also the johannine dimension will remain faithful to and in the faithful Church even in her Passion at the End.  Indeed, the johannine dimension is kept alive among us now in the living saints in their personal most holy communion with God in prayer.  Their lives are truly alive in the supernatural virtues of Faith, and Hope, and most beautiful Holy Charity, [agape] Love.

The petrine dimension, on the other hand, will fall:

Jn 21:18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry [or “lead”] you where you do not wish to go.”

Comment: Governance – the papacy – will be led by “another” in the coming Passion of the (institutional) church.  A false teacher will lead the institutional church into error. Thus Bp. Fulton Sheen’s prophecy of a counter-church, led by a false prophet elevated by our bishops, as Bp. A. Schneider quoted and cited in Christus Vincit (1):

“[Satan] will set up a Counter-church, which will be the ape of the Church. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content…. The False Prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a world to come. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a counterfeit Church. Christ’s Church will be one, and the False Prophet will create the other. The false Church will be worldly, ecumenical, and global. It will be a loose federation of churches and religions, forming some type of global association, a world parliament of Churches. It will be emptied of all divine content; it will be the mystical body of the Antichrist. The Mystical Body on earth today will have its Judas Iscariot, and he will be the False Prophet. Satan will recruit him from our bishops.”

That the Johannine dimension will remain, is shown also in the Church of Philadelphia – Brotherly Love – Rev. 3:7-13. This Church will remain as will Smyrna (i.e. the jacobian – those of martyrdom by blood), while the five worldly churches of compromise are called to repentance before judgement.  Philadelphia remained in His word – “kept” His words – as Smyrna did unto death.  Jesus promised this in John’s Gospel:

Jn 14:21 He who has my commandments and keeps [tēreō] them, he it is who loves [agapaō] me; and he who loves [agapaō] me will be loved [agapaō] by my Father, and I will love [agapaō] him and manifest myself to him.”

Thus was the johannine church, Philadelphia, loved [agapaō].

Rev 3:8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept [tēreō] my word and have not denied my name.
Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved [agapaō] you.
Rev 3:10 Because you have kept [tēreō] my word of patient endurance, I will keep [tēreō] you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth.

Conclusion:

The above shows prophesies from Scripture – the Old and the New Covenants – that reveal God’s faithfulness to His Faithful Ones, the true Church personified in the Blessed Mother Mary.  God remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself: Nothing unclean can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  All are called to holiness and the perfection of Charity; thanks be to God for Purgatory.  Hence my conclusion: the Church will remain; the papacy will fall.

End Note:

* Note: The issue of ‘153’ large fish was first considered in a paper I published in 2017, in Homiletic & Pastoral Review on-line, which led to the further study in this paper.

(1) from: Communism and the Conscience of the West, Bishop Fulton Sheen (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1948), 24–25. Cited by: Schneider, Bishop Athanasius; Montagna, Diane. Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age (pp. 306-ff). Angelico Press. Kindle Edition.