Archbishop's Message

The community of the Catholic Church, both in its particular and universal dimensions, derives its native culture solely from the Son our Lord Jesus Christ through His holy Apostles and disciples, namely the culture of ‘the Beatitudes’ as taught by Him. These were the men and women who were not only taught this culture by Him but also empowered by Him to express and articulate His divine and heavenly culture as the divinely constituted kingdom of heaven amidst the post-original world of sin and death, through His bestowal of His Holy Spirit on them on the day of the Pentecost, namely the Spirit of Truth who proceeds at once from Him and His Eternal Father in their one divine nature: ‘Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit...” So those who received the word were baptized and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And day by day, attending the Temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising and thanking God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:38-47).’ The universal culture of the post-original world of sin and death is one of ‘functions and festivities.’ The Son our Lord Jesus Christ personally expresses His divine culture in the people of His kingdom of heaven on earth through the mission of His Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth in every believing member of it and enables them to express it and articulate it amidst the kingdom of the world around them. Every human person will be judged in terms of his or her expressed and articulated culture at the judgement seat of Christ and either accepted for eternal life or condemned for ever at the judgement seat of Christ solely on the basis of the particular culture they have adopted, expressed and articulated in the course of their earthly journey to His judgement seat: ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world’ or ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal hell fire prepared for the Devil and its angels’ (c.f.St.Matt.25:31-46). As we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent de Paul on September 27th, we must assess the extent to which the Vincent de Paul societies in our parishes and dioceses express, articulate and promote the culture of the Son our Lord Jesus among the baptized people of His heavenly kingdom and Church on earth.