A Meditation On The Papacy And The Apocalypse Letters
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Some neat theology to share:
The woman at the well can image the apocalyptic history of Christian division. Firstly, the woman is unorthodox and separated from the Jews; a remnant from the schismatic north which separated from the true kingdom, the south. Hence, in some some sense, Christian division is already warranted
What about the husbands? Spiritual sexuality has to do with holy orders. Jesus marries the church, every priest marries his community, the parish, the diocese, and so forth. Hence, holy orders are inseparably tied to Christian Unity, since the purpose of all the orders is to preserve the truth and the sacraments. Obstructions to holy orders yield different kinds of division, and so could image parallel obstructions to sexual purity from a spiritual standpoint.
When the community rejects the Supreme Apostolic successor but retains General Apostolic succession, they are merely in schism and retain holy orders. To separate from Christ's body is like a divorce, spiritually. So schismatic holy orders are like divorce and remarriage, because they are still legitimate spouses.
The Heretics, on the other hand, reject all Apostolic succession and therefore lose holy orders. Hence, their men of God are not true men of God but only seeming or pseudo. This is because they do not have the formality of holy orders. Hence, their spiritual condition is like that of a man that is like a husband but is really informal and so a live-in fornicating partner
Now for the gem:
The woman at the well has had five husbands, and now has a live-in partner. There are five Apostolic Sees: Peter, the first and the greatest, and then the other four now living in schism. Hence, in the beginning, the woman has one husband which is Peter, the ultimate husband on earth, who espouses himself to the whole church. She then divorces him and marries 4 other husbands, the 4 Sees of the Orthodox, or the schismatics, those who are divorced and remarried.
In the Final Phase of Christian division, out of the Catholic Church came Protestantism which has no legitimate husbands since it has lost holy orders and so the woman is with a man that is not her husband.
I am a Catholic revert. I desire to share deeper theology about the Catholic Church that is admittedly speculative but that makes perfect sense from Catholic doctrine and church teaching.
The Catholic Church shows us that we are all priceless regardless of what anything the world may say about us. We can hold our heads high and know that God loves us no matter what and desires us to be with him forever if we but persevere in love with him unto the end.
To know these things gives me great joy and I am just a poor sinner striving to become holier little by little.
May God bless all writers and readers on this site in all ways, amen!
