A Portsmouth Catholic

What does authority mean? I asked a group of Catholics whether the commandments were important since Jesus had said If you love me keep my commandments. The answers were “Well you are you and I am me”. Another felt the Commandments are too hard to live by. Now it seems the words of Jesus were therefore not clear enough to convince these Catholics he meant it. Now I cannot see any hidden message in the remark of Jesus. If you love me seems to imply to me that if you don t love me then you will not listen. This is the point we are all so nice to one another that we dare not contradict the obvious, so we get round to accepting the idea that everyone has a different opinion and it is nice not to contradict them. In the First Letter of John we can read in Chapter 5 “We obey the commandments of Christ, in order to become images of Him and able to spread the Gospel.” Now that is the point of the Church so that it can spread Faith, and our opinions are not Faith, in unison with Christ. A Church that fails to spread the truth and exists on opinions does not reflect Christ in any way whatsoever. “I know he died for my sins”someone might say, but I use my own conscience.” Perhaps Jesus then is just a joke “I have come to beasr witness to the truth”said Jesus to Pilate. Well he answered “What is Truth” Where Faith has gone there is no truth.