THE CHURCH:the Series

Part Ia: Definitions,Biblical, Divine Origin,Meanings Today.

a church building?

the people in my parish?

the Vatican in Rome?

I am/we are the church ?

the Body of Christis the church ?

The study of the Catholic Church can be both historical and apologetic. The Church will be examined from the early beginnings in the Gospel, through the apostolic age and the centuries of persecution, with special emphasis on the Roman primacy as the most important visible bond that unites modern Catholicism with the society that Christ established.

It will be determined that of all the religious bodies in the world, only the Catholic Church has the right to profess divine authority for her actions because, like her Founder, she confirms the profession by working miracles of power and wisdom which no other body can claim.

The treatment of this series will be dogmatic, drawing on the Church's teaching about her own nature and prerogatives, and thus gaining a deeper insight into that mysterious reality which of all human institutions is the most loved when its character is properly known, and the most hated when perverted and misunderstood.

The Church

As the ground plan for analysis, a person must know what the Church is;how is it defined; what are its essential properties.

These answers may be found in the writings of the popes and in the general councils, or in the common teaching of theologians.

And the agreement on what constitutes the Church is uniform in Catholic theology.

However, the definition of the Church may be approached from two aspects:1) the first is comparable to the two-fold nature in Christ, and 2) depending on which aspect is kept in focus, certain

characteristics will be stressed and others implied; so that an adequate understanding of the Church's nature comprehends both viewpoints, considering the Church as

a visible, juridical society, and as a spiritual entity whose cohesive force is the invisible grace of God.

The Divine Origin of the Church The Concept Church

Explanation of the Word

The English word “Church” is derived through the German “Kirche,” from the Greek word kurikon, a vulgar form of kuriakon, which, like the corresponding Latin dominicum, has been current as a designation for the Christian worship-structure, at least since the beginning of the fourth century.

The Latin word “ecclesia” is the unchanged rendering of the Greek ekklesia = assembly, community.

The Bible uses this word (the Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew kahal) in a profane and a religious significance.

In the profane sense it designates the assembly of the people, the civil community, any kind of gathering of people.

Psalms 25:5I hate the company of evildoers; with the wicked I do not sit.

Acts 19:32, 39, 40Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, others something else; the assembly was in chaos, and most of the people had no idea why they had come together . . . let the matter be settled in the lawful

assembly, . . . With these words he dismissed the assembly. In the religious sense it means the community of God, that is, in the Old Testament, the assembly or community of the Israelites.

Psalms 21:23, 26Then I will proclaim your name to the assembly; in the community I will praise you . . . I will offer praise in the great assembly.

Psalms 39:10I announced your deed to a great assembly.

The New Testament

The assembly or community of the believers in Christ, and indeed, the individual assemblies, is used in the New testament.

• the community in the house of Aquilas and of Prisca

Romans 16:5Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I am grateful but also all the churches of the Gentiles; greet also the church at their house.

• or the community of Jerusalem

Acts 8:1Now Saul was consenting to his (Stephen’s) execution. On that day, there broke out a severe persecution of the church in Jerusalem.

Acts 11: 22 The news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas (to go) to Antioch.

• of Antioch

Acts 13:1Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers;

Acts14:26And when they arrived, they called the church together and

reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. • of Thessalonica

1 Thessalonians 1:1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ;

2 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ;

• as also the totality of the believers in Christ

Matthew 16:18And so I say to you, you are Rocky, and upon this rock I will build my church;

Acts 9:31The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at

peace.

Acts 20:28Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the

church of God that he acquired with his own blood.

Galatians 1:13For you heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I

persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it;

Ephesians 1:22And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body;

Ephesians 5:23For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the

church, he himself the savior of the body.

Philippians 3:6In zeal I (Paul) persecuted the church, in righteousness based on the law I was blameless.

Colossians 1:18 He is the head of the body, the church.

1 Timothy 3:15 But if I should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.

• Synonymous designations: “Kingdom of Heaven” in Matthew, “Kingdom of God,” “House of God”

1 Timothy 3:15 You should know how to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.

Hebrews 10:21 . . . since we have “a great priest over the house of God;”

1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of

God;

• of the faithful

Acts 2:44 All (the faithful) who believed were together and had all things in common;

The Roman Catechism (published in 1566)“The word was subsequently employed to signify the Christian society only, and the assemblies of the faithful; ” (I 10, 2)

St. Augustine (354-430)“The Church is the faithful of the whole world.” (Enarr. in Ps. 149. 3)

Material Explanation

The Church is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. (Sententia certa)

Pope Pius XII (1943) “To describe this true Church of Christ--which is the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church--there is no name more noble, none more ex- cellent, none more Divine, than the expression, ‘the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ’ .” (Encyclical Mystici Corporis)

St. Paul teaches that the Church, the community of the believers in Christ, is the body of Christ, and that Christ is the head of the Body. Under the image of head and body he vividly depicts the inner spiritual connection between Christ and His Church restored by faith, charity and grace.

Ephesians 1:22 He has subjected all things under His feet and has made Him head over all the Church which is His Body.

Colossians 1:18 And He (Christ) is the head of the body, the Church.

1 Corinthians 12:27Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.

Romans 12:4-5 For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not

have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another.

Colossians 2:9-10For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily, and you

share in this fullness in him, who is the head of every principality and power. Ephesians 4:5

One body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 5:23

For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body.

The clear teaching of Scripture lives on in Tradition

Pseudo-Clement or 2 Clement (late 300s) “It is not unknown to you that I believe that the living Church is the body of Christ.” (2 Clement 14, 2)

St. Augustine (354-430)“What is the Church? The body of Christ. Add to this the Head (Christ) and it becomes a man. The head and the body, a man.” (Sermo 45, 5)

Early Middle Ages (Paschasius Radbertus, 785-865)“Mystical Body of Christ” appeared as a designation for the Church in contradistinction to True Body of Christ, by which was understood the historical and sacramental body of Christ.

Early Scholasticism “Mystical Body of Christ” was employed of the Eucharist, in order to distinguish the sacramental body of Christ from the historical body.

The end of the 1100s“Mystical Body of Christ,” became general as a name for the Church. The word “mystical” (full of mystery, i.e., hidden things) indicated the mysterious character of the communion of grace between Christ and the faithful.

In the wider sense the designation “Mystical Body of Christ” means the communion of all those made holy by the grace of Christ. These include:

the faithful on earth; those in the place of purification who are not yet completely justified; and the perfectly justified in Heaven.

Correspondingly, one distinguishes the militant, the suffering, and the triumphant Church.

In the narrower sense the Mystical Body of Christ means the visible Church of Christ on earth. The Fathers, for example, St. Augustine (Enarr, in Ps. 90, 2, I), and St. Gregory the Great (Ep, V 18) and theologians often include in the Church on earth those who already before the coming of Christ were bound to Him in spirit by the faith in the coming Redeemer.

According to the individual periods of salvation, one distinguishes the Church of the Mosaic Law (Synagogue) and the Church of the Evangelical Law or of the New Covenant instituted by Christ. It is with the latter that the treatise on the Church is chiefly concerned.

In the concept of the Church of the New Covenant, one can, as in the concept of the Sacraments, distinguish between an external and an internal side;

the external juridical organization stemming from Christ, and the inner attachment by grace of man with Christ, operated by

the Holy Spirit.

Although both notions belong to the idea of the Church, they are basically separable from each other, as are the outward signs and the inward grace in the Sacraments.

St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) “The Church is a union of men who are united by the profession of the same Christian faith, and by participation in the same Sacraments under the direction of their lawful pastors, especially of the one representative of Christ on earth, the Pope of Rome.” (De eccl. mil. 2)

Johan Adam Mohler (1796-1838) Theologian“By the Church on earth Catholics understand the visible community of all

the faithful, founded by Christ, in which are continued the activities developed by Him during His earthly life for the remission of sin and for the salvation of mankind under the direction of His Spirit until the end of the world, by means of a continuous uninterrupted Apostolate ordained by Him, and by which, in the course of time, all peoples will be brought back to God. . .. Thus the visible Church is the Son of God in human form constantly appearing, constantly being renewed, eternally being rejuvenated, just as the faithful in Holy Writ are also called the Body of Christ.” (Symbolism, Par. 36)

The Foundation of the Church by Christ Dogma and Heretical Counter-propositions The Church was founded by the God-Man Jesus Christ. (De fide)

Vatican Council I (1869-1870)“The eternal Shepherd and Bishop of our souls (I Peter 2, 25) resolved, in order to give permanent duration to the saving work of the Redemption, to establish the Holy Church, in which all the faithful would be welded together as in the house of the Living God, by the bond of the one Faith and of the one Charity.” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, D 1821)

Pope St. Pius X (1835-1914) “The Church was founded immediately and personally by the true and historical Christ during the time of His earthly life.” (Antimodernist Oath,19I0 D 2I45)

The establishment of the Church by Christ means that He Himself laid down the essential elements of her teaching, her liturgy and her constitution.

The Reformers taught that Christ founded an invisible Church, and that her juridical organization is a purely human institution.

The Greek Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church recognize the Divine establishment of a visible hierarchical Church, but deny the Divine establishment of the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome.

According to modern liberal theology it was not Jesus’ intention to cut off His followers from the Synagogue and to weld them together into an independent religious community; both these things, it is asserted, occurred by force of external conditions.

According to Modernism, Jesus conceived the “Kingdom of Heaven,” whose nearness He preached, purely eschatologically in the sense of the later Jewish Apocalyptics. Since He believed the end of the world to be imminent, it was far from His intention to institute a Church as a society which should exist on earth for hundreds of years. The Church, it is claimed, developed out of the collective consciousness of the faithful of the first century which urged them to a social coalescence. ( D 2052, 2091)

End of Part 1a: Definitions of the Church

Go toPart 1b: Definitions of the Church in Scripture and Tradition