Ecclesiology Short Paper
Why is it important to understand the Church as
apostolic?
The Church founded by Jesus
Christ exhibits four visibly identifiable characteristics,[1]
namely that she is one,[2]
holy,[3]
catholic[4]
and apostolic.[5]
If one of these “essential features”[6]
was lacking, the rest would and indeed could not exist, as they are
inseparable.[7]
Thus, since the Church’s apostolicity is inherent to her very nature, and
interacts with her other fundamental characteristics, understanding the Church
requires understanding her as apostolic. This paper will argue that if the
Church were not apostolic, then her oneness, holiness and catholicity would
each be undermined to the point of nonexistence.
Apostolicity refers to the notion that the Church, through the office of
bishop, preserves and hands on the truths of divine revelation, the content of
the deposit of faith, as contained in both Scripture and Tradition.[8] The Church is founded on the Apostles because she is built on
those original witnesses,[9]
she guards and hands on the teaching received from them,[10]
and because she continues to be taught, sanctified and guided by their
successors, the bishops, in Christ’s name.[11]
This apostolicity attains the fullness of its meaning when all of these aspects
are working together.[12]
The Church’s oneness stems
first and foremost from her source, founder and soul.[13]
This is manifested through the bonds of unity, which are the profession of one
faith received from the Apostles, common celebration of liturgy, and apostolic
succession.[14]
Each of these relies on the Church being apostolic. Professing one faith[15]
is impossible without some principled means of distinguishing between those
teachings handed down by the Apostles, and heretical ideas invented by false
teachers.[16]
This is the task of the magisterium:[17]
to safeguard the true faith, defend it, and explain it.[18]
Ensuring that divine worship takes place both in unity and in diversity is included
in this deposit handed on through the ages, and so maintaining the tension
between unity and diversity is also the charge of the successors to the
Apostles. The visible bond of apostolic succession is obviously an intrinsic
element of apostolicity, and it is these successors that constitute the very
magisterium mentioned previously. Thus, unity can neither exist[19]
nor be understood without reference to the apostolic nature of the Church.
The Church is holy because
she is both Christ’s Bride and His Body, and as such is intimately connected to
Him, thereby being sanctified by Him, and becoming sanctifying through and with
Him.[20]
This connection with Christ is severed if the Church is not apostolic, for the
Apostles are the ones He sent,[21]
and if the Church is not founded on them, the historical link with the One the
Church claims to profess is lost, and thus cannot be the Church Christ founded.[22]
The holiness of the Church’s members flows from the grace dispensed by the
Church through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. This sacrament the
bishop offers or causes to be offered is the one by which the Church lives and
grows.[23]
The Body of Christ (the Church) receives the Body of Christ (the Eucharist),
becoming Christ in a mysterious way.[24]
Thus these successors of the Apostles make possible the imparting of Christ’s
abundant holiness to every member of the Church, and sanctify the faithful
through the sacraments.[25]
Finally, the Church’s
catholicity arises because of Christ’s presence in her,[26]
and also because of the mission He has sent her on- to gather all of humanity
around the world into Christ.[27]
Every disciple of Christ is called to participate in this mission, but the
bishops have a distinct role in bearing witness to the truth entrusted to them:
all the baptised have a duty to speak of who Christ is for them, while the
bishop’s role is to speak the fullness of truth regarding who Christ is, in a
manner that transcends his personal experience.[28]
The collegial character of the Episcopal order, insofar as the College is
composed of many, expresses the universality of the Church.[29]
Furthermore, the “variety
of local churches with one common aspiration is splendid evidence of the
catholicity of the undivided Church.”[30] Catholicity
is closely tied to unity, in that the unity of the Church allows her
proclamation to be consistent, so that as she takes her mission around the
world, she remains the universal
Church. This means that the arguments given above with regard to unity apply
also to the Church’s catholicity, further illustrating the insuperable
connection between these four marks.
The threads touched upon in this paper are found carefully tied up
in this densely succinct sentence: “The Church as a living presence of the
Divine Word mediated by apostolic succession and carried forward in history
again depends upon the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit and is
sacramentally embodied in the Eucharist.”[31]
The Church is the Incarnation of God the Son, Jesus Christ, if and only if[32]
she is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. In particular, therefore, apostolicity
is integral to her identity. This results in the inevitable conclusion that to
understand the Church at all, one must grasp what it means for the Church to be
apostolic, and consider it in relation to her other defining characteristics.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2nd Edition,
English translation for USA (Washington, USA: Libreria Editrice
Vaticana, 1997)
George, Francis
Cardinal O.M.I., “God’s Point of View: Apostolicity and the Magisterium”, Nova et Vetera, Vol. 6, No. 2 (2008):
pp. 271-290
New Catholic
Encyclopedia, Volume 2, 2nd Edition, Berard
Marthaler (ed.) (Washington, D.C.: Thomson Gale, 2003)
Second Vatican
Council. Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium (21 November 1964)
(http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html Accessed 4 April 2013)
The
Holy Bible Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2004)
[1]
It is important to note, however, that “the Church does not possess them
of herself; it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one,
holy, catholic, and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of
these qualities.” CCC 811
[2]
“You are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my Church.” Mt.
16:18 (emphasis added); Unless otherwise noted, all references from the
Bible will be from the Revised Standard Version
[3]
Rev. 21:2,9-11
[4]
Mt. 28:19
[5]
Rev. 21:14
[6]
CCC 811
[7]
Ibid.
[8]
Francis Cardinal George
O.M.I., “God’s Point of View: Apostolicity and the Magisterium”, p. 281
[9]
Rev. 21:14
[10]
Acts 2:42-“They devoted
themselves to the apostles’ teaching.”
[11]
CCC 871, 873
[13]
CCC 813
[14]
CCC 815
[15]
As we are exhorted to do by
Paul in Eph. 4:4-6 and Phil. 1:27
[16]
2 Pet. 2:1
[17]
The magisterium is the College
of Bishops in communion with the Bishop of Rome- CCC 873, 883
[18]
Along with the other tasks of
governing and sanctifying- CCC 873
[19]
Although the bonds discussed
refer specifically to the visible manifestation of the invisible, unchanging unity
that derives from God being the source of the Church, the unity of the Church
as one of the four marks does in fact refer to the visible aspect, since these
four marks are, by definition, the visible identifiers of the true Church.
Furthermore, in harmony with the understanding of the Church’s invisible
realities being indivisible from her visible, just as the human person is a
comprehensive unity of visible body and invisible soul, when her unity is not
expressed as it ought to be, there is a certain diminishment in the perfection
of the Church’s unity even if the underlying reality remains unchanged. In
other words, by “exist” here we refer to the concrete realization of unity,
rather than the unity that derives from Christ, which is untouchable.
[20]
CCC 823-824
[21]
Mt. 28:19
[22]
There is also no guarantee that
one has the fullness of the faith, since Christ sent the apostles to “make
disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded of
you.” Mt. 28:19-20
[23]
Second Vatican Council. Constitution on the
Church Lumen Gentium (21 November
1964) 26
(hereafter LG)
[24]
CCC 790; In Acts 9:4, we hear
Christ ask Saul “Saul, why do you persecute me?” Christ identifies the Church
(whom Saul is persecuting) with Himself, indicating that the Church is a
continuation of the Incarnation.
[26]
CCC 830
[27]
CCC 831
[28]
Francis Cardinal George
O.M.I., “God’s Point of View: Apostolicity and the Magisterium” , pp. 275-6
[31]
Francis Cardinal George
O.M.I., “God’s Point of View: Apostolicity and the Magisterium”, p. 280
[32]
In the sense of being both
necessary and sufficient, as these terms are used in formal logic
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