of hell can do against it. Happy are they who belong to that Church, who believe as she believes, and who observe her commandments.
Yea, happy are they who belong to the Church and are her living members [1]. Jesus Christ, the King of kings, will own them as His brethren. They shall dwell with Him and His Saints in a new heaven and a new earth[2], and shall eat of the Tree of Life[3] in the Paradise of heaven.
COMMENTARY.
The wonderful preservation and growth of the Church prove 1. that Jesus Christ is God, and 2. that the Church is a divine institution.
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself foretold that the powers of hell should not prevail against the Church, and that she would grow and spread like a tree springing from a small grain of mustard-seed (see chapter XVIII). This prophecy has been in a perpetual state of fulfilment for nineteen hundred years; therefore He who uttered it must be Omniscient, i. e. God.
2. During the first three centuries the Church was persecuted in the most cruel way, and yet, far from being destroyed, she throve and grew. Even in the centuries which followed, down to the present day, she has been continually opposed, oppressed, and persecuted. She would have infallibly succumbed to the combined forces of heresy and the civil power, if Almighty God had not protected and sustained her. That after nineteen centuries she still exists is a great miracle, and a tangible proof that she is the work, not of man, but of God.
The Papacy. Peter is dead, but his chief pastorship continues. Peter having died bishop of Rome, his present successor in the See of Rome is the chief bishop, the supreme pastor of the Church. As such he is called the Pope, or Father of Christendom.
The Bishops. The other apostles likewise died, but their pastoral office did not cease, having been continued to this day in an unbroken chain of bishops.
The Priests. The bishops are aided and supported by the priests in the exercise of their pastoral office.
- ↑ Living members. Living in God’s grace, and according to their faith.
- ↑ A new earth. For, at the end of the world, heaven and earth will be transformed and renewed.
- ↑ The Tree of Life. This Tree of Life is Jesus Christ Himself, whose glory the blessed shall share. The words: “They shall eat of the Tree of Life” are taken from the Apocalypse (2, 7), where our Lord says: “To him that overcometh (temptation), I will give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the Paradise of My God."
