Handout 7.

The Church is Holy

 One sign that the Catholic Church actually is the Church of Jesus Christ is
that it is indefectibly holy.

 This is not to say that all of its members are holy – as we are only too
painfully aware these days – which would be Donatism or Catharism, not
Catholicism. Henri de Lubac S.J., a remarkable student of the Church, once
wrote that: “Whether he be a member of the hierarchy or not, a zealous
Catholic can be no more than a mediocre Christian.”

 Then, too, studying the Church is not like studying a bug under a
microscope. One should learn from stained glass windows – one only sees
their meaning only from inside the Church.

 From inside, Pius XII taught that the Church is the mystical
body of Christ. The term means that Christ “willed that His
Church should be enriched with the abundant gifts of the
Paraclete in order that in dispensing the divine fruits of the
Redemption she might be, for the Incarnate Word, a powerful
instrument that would never fail.”

And Christ himself is the Head of His Church (Colossians 1:18), but dynamically
since: “He fills the whole body with the riches of His glory.” (Vatican II)

 More precisely: “the Church [is] – human and divine at once, even in her
visibility, ‘without division and without confusion’ just like Christ himself,
whose Body she mystically is.” (de Lubac) The bit about being “without
division or confusion” is analogous to the saying of the Council of Chalcedon
(451) about the two natures of Jesus Christ.

 So the Church is indefectibly holy not because of what we do but because of

what God does and continues to do in Christ. The holiness of the Church does
not change even when its visibility at a particular time in history might be
affected by sinful people.

Sixteen centuries ago, Saint Augustine, wrote a letter to a Lady Felicia because of
her concerns about the Church in their time: “I do not doubt, when I consider both
your faith and the weakness or wickedness of others, that your mind has been
disturbed, for even a holy apostle, full of compassionate love, confesses a similar
experience, saying, ‘who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn
not?’” (2 Corinthians 11:29)
 These words express what Saint Paul himself said in his time. Saint
Augustine then reminded Felicia of Jesus’ own words:

 “Woe to the world because of offenses! For it must needs be

that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense
comes! (Matthew 18:7) These are the men of whom the apostle
said, “They seek their own, not the things that are Jesus
Christ’s.” (Philippians 2:21

 Far beyond these perennial worries, participating in the Church’s

great cloud of holiness draws us into incomparable associations
for salvation. So, de Lubac mentions that there are:

 no children without a mother; no people without leaders; no

acquired sanctity without a sanctifying power and a labour of
sanctification; no effective union in divine life without a passing
on of that life; no “communion of saints”– that is, of holy ones–
without a passing on of holy things. And similarly no constituted
assembly without a constitution and that includes a
hierarchy. . . .and no realized community without a society in
which and through which it is realized.

 In each phrase here, he used words from the great store of what the
Scriptures and the millennia of Spirit-driven tradition knew the Church to be.

 Just to explain one of these, the words “mother” and “children” refer to our
being drawn into relation, one to another, and to Christ as the children of a
loving mother, the Church. There are many obvious parallels here to Mary
and her role as Mother of the Faithful.

 But we should not forget that Mary herself is inside the Church. Vatican II
expressed this as follows: Mary “is ‘the mother of the members of Christ . . .
having cooperated by charity that faithful might be born in the Church, who
are members of that Head.’ Wherefore she is hailed as a pre-eminent and
singular member of the Church, and as its type and excellent exemplar in
faith and charity.”

 The holiness of Christ makes Mary holy and by pointing to Christ, she then
“mothers” wondrous new members into the Church, unifying them for
worship, sanctification and fulfilling the Church’s mission to the world. This is
just one great effect of belonging to the Holy Church.
  One last example: de Lubac said that there is “no ‘communion of saints’ –
that is, of holy ones – without a passing on of holy things.” “Communion” is
one of the few words that points to the cloud of interrelationships in the
Church passing on intercession, grace, and truth. It also points to the
gathering for Eucharist and to Holy Communion– sharing in the Bread of the
Angels.

Despite all her sins and failures, in the Church, the Holy God holds us in a truly
wondrous communion of happiness and – ultimately – fulfillment.

Reference: The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary.

Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

About the Author

Latest Articles