PM1 Lesson 2 Discussion: The Four

Marks of the Church

The Four Marks of the Church, also known as the Attributes of the Church, is a term
describing four distinctive adjectives—"One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic"—of traditional
Christian ecclesiology as expressed in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed completed
at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381
 
A. The Church as One
Words associated to One - unity, uniformity
 
This Unity if patterned after The Holy Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit

1. Its source  (God the Father),

2. Its founder (God the Son),
3. Its soul (God the Holy Spirit).

 
The UNIFORMITY of the Church is best expressed in the latter of St. Paul:
"There is one body and one Spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to
your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father (Links to an external
site.) of all, who is over all and through all and in all."[Eph. 4:5–6]
 
B. The Church as Holy
Holy: divine, balaan, banal, or sagrado.
"The word holy means set apart for a special purpose by and for God."
Christians understand the holiness of the universal Church to derive from Christ's
holiness.
Please click the link below to carefully watch and listen to Pope Francis so we can
deepen our understanding of the holiness of the Church:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVt40x6vIUA (Links to an external site.)

 
How does the Church keep her members holy?
With the 7 Sacraments – the fullness of the means of salvation.
The Church is holy, because it is the Body of Christ with Jesus as the head. It means that
the Church and her sacraments help to make us holy.
 
C. The Church as Catholic
The word "catholic (Links to an external site.)" is derived from the Greek (Links to an
external site.) adjective katholikos, meaning "general", "universal".
It is associated with the Greek adverb katholou, meaning "according to the whole",
"entirely", or "in general“.
The adjective "catholic" means that in the church, the wholeness of the Christian faith,
full and complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking, is proclaimed to all
people without excluding any part of the faith or any class or group of people.
 
D. The Church as Apostolic
The Church is apostolic in three ways:
1. She is built on "the foundation of the Apostles," those witnesses chosen by Christ.
And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my
church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of
the Kingdom of heaven; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and
what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” (Mt 16:18-19)
We cannot think of anybody aside from Christ Himself who started this Church. Think of
some other religions or protestant groups like Lutheranism, and others, and search about
their founders and you will end up talking about a particular founder like Martin Luther,
Gregorio Aglipay, Felix Manalo and so on. 
 
2. The Church hands on the teaching of the Apostles (the deposit of faith).
God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth": that is, of
Christ Jesus. Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this
revelation may reach to the ends of the earth:
God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of
all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be
transmitted to all generations.
The Gospel was handed on in two ways:
- orally "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching,
by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they
themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and
his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit";
- in writing "by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who,
under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation
to writing".
 
3. The Church is guided by the successors of the apostles, the bishops in union with the
Pope. Jesus is "the eternal shepherd who never leaves his flock untended“.
"In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church
the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position
of teaching authority." Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a
special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of
succession until the end of time."
This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since
it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through
Tradition, "the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and
transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes." 37 "The
sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this
Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the
Church, in her belief and her prayer."
The Father's self-communication made through his Word in the Holy Spirit,
remains present and active in the Church: "God, who spoke in the past, continues
to converse with the Spouse of his beloved Son. And the Holy Spirit, through
whom the living voice of the Gospel rings out in the Church - and through her in
the world - leads believers to the full truth, and makes the Word of Christ dwell in
them in all its richness." (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
Link: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a2.htm