{"id":17838,"date":"2017-07-14T01:01:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T06:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/?p=17838"},"modified":"2017-05-24T06:19:45","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T11:19:45","slug":"the-church-complete-lesson-24-being-perfect-in-unity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/2017\/07\/14\/the-church-complete-lesson-24-being-perfect-in-unity-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church Complete Lesson 28: The Broken Unity of the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Saint<\/a>
\nCC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=166810<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the unity of the Church suffered some ruptures. They are the schisms: that means the rupture of the communion with the Pope and not necessarily implies in heresy. It is the division of the Mystical Body; it is like tearing Christ\u2019s seamless gown.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots\u201d (Matthew 27, 35).<\/p>\n

The Church has always regarded the garments that the soldiers divided (without tearing them) as a strong symbol of the Unity Christ wants for Her.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, these garments have been torn in the worst moments in the history of the Church. Saint Hillary of Poitiers (dead 367 A.D.) brings us consolation by saying: \u201cIt has been always the great privilege of the Church to win when She is wounded, progress when She is abandoned and to grow in wisdom when She is attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was precisely during Her worst moments of fight against heresies arisen in Her own Body that the Church solidified Her Doctrine in those principles we profess in the Credo.<\/p>\n

Christ and the Apostles had warned the Disciples about the dangers of false doctors and false prophets. Jesus started warning people very early in His Mission, when He proclaimed the Blessings in His Sermon on the mount:<\/p>\n

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves\u201d (Matthew 7, 15).<\/p>\n

Saint Paul exhorted the elders and bishops of Ephesus in his farewell to them:<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them. So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day, I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears\u201d (The Acts of the Apostles 20, 28-31).<\/p>\n

It is worth noticing that Saint Paul affirms that the wolves will emerge from \u201camong the flock\u201d.<\/p>\n

Saint Peter puts the same stress in his exhortations:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves\u201d (The Second Letter of Peter 2, 1).<\/p>\n

It is very important to notice in this sentence that Peter mentions \u201cdestructive heresies\u201d that abound today in countless sects.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor Felipe Aquino<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor Felipe Aquino\u00a0is a\u00a0widower, father of five children.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>On TV Can\u00e7\u00e3o Nova he presents the program \u201cEscola da F\u00e9\u201d [School of faith] and \u201cPergunte e Responderemos\u201d [Ask and respond], on Radio he presents the program \u201cin the heart of the Church\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>On weekends he preaches deepening meetings throughout Brazil and abroad. He wrote 73 books of Catholic background by publishers, Loyola and Cleopas and Can\u00e7\u00e3o Nova. His teacher\u2019s page:www.cleofas.com.br<\/a>\u00a0Twitter:<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>@pfelipeaquino<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=166810 Unfortunately, the unity of the Church suffered some ruptures. They are the schisms: that means the rupture of the communion with the Pope and not necessarily implies in heresy. It is the division of the Mystical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18855,178913],"tags":[5011,178868,178913],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17838"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17845,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17838\/revisions\/17845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}