On the Church's Teaching Authority

This is probably one of the least understood ideas by our protestant friends.  These two paragraphs, together, summarize why we follow the pope, and why we put our faith, as they say, in a 'man'.  Oh, there are bible passages, intellectual arguments, and apologetic works that go along with this.  We could fill a few books with proofs of the Pope's infallibility.  But really, there is no ABSOLUTE proof.  In the end, just like belief in God, it takes faith to follow the Pope.

That faith is such a wonderful gift.  It opens our eyes to the truth.  It lets us see everything that God wishes to communicate.  Denying it is like shutting our eyes to the light and trying to go through life as a blind man.  It's possible to do.  There are plenty of blind people in this world.  Many of them struggle through life and endure their hardships with patience.  In the same way, we see lots of people who live good lives without the faith.  But we must remember, that they do this because they cannot see the light.

For those of us who have this light of faith, it would be a sin to close our eyes to it.  It would be a denial of God's gift... something He wouldn't take lightly.  

Remember when Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath?  Everyone had questioned him for it and it caused such a big stir in the temple.  But what did he say?

"For judgment I am come into this world: that they who see not may see; and they who see may become blind."   And some of the Pharisees, who were with him, heard and said,  "Are we also blind?"  Jesus said "If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see. Your sin remaineth."

You see, we cannot be like the Pharisees.  We have sight.  We have light.  If we don't use that light, we are shutting ourselves off from God, and our sin remains.

For those without light--those loved ones of ours who won't accept the power of the church to give sight--we must pray and trust that Christ will have mercy, as He did on the blind man on the Sabbath.