Fr. John P. Markoe, S.J. "The True Church Of Jesus Christ"

 ARE YOU AMONG THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST?

    Jesus Christ established only one Church. He said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." Notice He does not say Churches. He said, "There shall be made one fold and one shepherd."  In His prayer at the last supper He said, "I pray for them also who through their word shall believe in Me; that they all  may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me."
    Today we see many Churches. We see Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and many other kinds of Churches. But Christ founded one Church, therefore all these different denominations cannot be His. If you invite a friend to dine at your house and many guests come, having invitations, you know that these invitations are false, because you only wrote one. Christ founded only one Church.  Therefore, there is only one true Church. Consequently, all other Churches must be false.

     Christ said, "He that is not with Me is against Me."  Therefore, those who do not belong to that one Church of Christ, are against Him. They are associated with the enemies of Christ. They may not mean to be against Him, yet they are against Him.  Is it not deplorable to be against Christ, to be among they enemies of God! How said to die amongst the enemies of God! How miserable the condition of those who die in that state!
     How can it be avoided? By immediately becoming a friend of God. By joining the one true Church of Christ. That is the only way. But what is that one true Church? Christ speaking to His followers, said, "You are the light of the world.  A city seated on a Mountain cannot be his"  His Church, therefore cannot be hard to find!

     Which Church goes back to Jesus Christ and the twelve Apostles. A family is Irish if of Irish descent. Similarly, that Church is the true Church of Christ, which goes back to Christ. The only Church which goes back to Christ is the Catholic Church.  Therefore, it is the only true Church of Christ.  All others, started by men, are impostures.
       The Lutheran Church was founded by Luther. It is Luther's Church not Christ's.  The Baptist Church was started in our own country in the year 1639, less than three hundred years ago, by Roger Williams. It is not the Church of Christ, but of Roger Williams.  The Methodist Church was started in England in the year 1739, less than two hundred years ago, by John Wesley.  It cannot be the Church of Christ. So likewise all the Protestant Churches were started by men. None of them existed four hundred years ago. Therefore, not one of them founded by Christ.  Christ founded His Church in Palestine, almost two thousand years ago. The Catholic Church alone existed since the days of Christ.  It alone goes back to Christ and the Apostles.  It is of Divine descent from Christ Himself.
       It is the same Church that Christ built upon a rock.  He said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it."   "Behold I am with you you all days even to the consummation of the world." That is, His Church will last in all its purity, until the end of time.  He did His work well.  Men cannot build new and better Churches than the one Christ built!

John Wesley

      "He that is not with Me is against Me."  If you love Jesus, you will prefer any evil, even death itself, to being against Him; to being a help to His enemies.  "He that gathereth not with Me, scattereth." What sacrifices did you not make in the late war because you loved America! Will you not do something to show that you love God?  Would you have loved America if you had belonged to the army of her enemy?  Do you love God by remaining among the enemies of Christ?
      But you may say you are to old to change. To be a Christian and to love God is good enough.  But you must love God in the way He wants to be loved.  You do not love God the way he wants to be loved unless you do what He demands, unless you belong to the Church He founded for your welfare.
      It is never to late to begin.  The twelve Apostles were born in the Jewish religion.  Their forefathers had been Jews more than a thousand years. Yet they left the old Jewish religion to be true followers of Christ.
      A sensible man will gladly return to the right road from which he has wondered.  Thousands have done so and found supreme happiness in the Catholic Church, the true Church of Jesus Christ.

This essay comes from the booklet entitled, The Triumph of the Church written by Fr. John P. Markoe, S.J. originally published in 1926. This booklet contains a Nihil Obstat by Joannes Rothensteiner Censor Librorum Sti. Ludovici die 11 Nov., 1926, an Imprimatur by Joannes J. Glennon Archiepiscopus Sti. Ludovici Sti. Ludovici die 11 Nov., 1926

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Fr. John P. Markoe, S.J.

An All-American football player and graduate of West Point with Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley; 

a soldier who was jailed for drunkenness in a Mexican saloon and later drummed out of the Army; a lumberjack in Minnesota; a buck private in the Minnesota Guard who was called back for active duty during World War I; a Roman Catholic priest who had given up drinking and smoking but was kicked out of  St. Louis University for being a civil rights activist; 

a mathematics professor at Creighton University. All this describes Fr. John Markoe, S J.