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Nature, Origin and Structure of the Church |
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It is common to speak of the “mystery” of the Church. Mystery in a religious sense does not imply something closed and inaccessible but rather a reality so deep that we can always discover more to its meaning without ever exhausting it. The Church is more than she appears, and the key to grasping her full reality is faith; “it is only ‘with the eyes of faith’ [Roman Catechism I, 10, 20] that one can see her in her visible reality and at the same time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life” (CCC 770). The Church is the fulfillment of the design of God the Father “to raise up men to share in his own divine life” (Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 2). It is the kingdom of God, which Christ inaugurates with his Incarnation, manifests with his words and actions, and whose elements – sacraments, primacy, apostolic college, etc. – he institutes during his life here on earth. The opening paragraph of Lumen Gentium says that “the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of sacrament”; the Church is, in other words, a sign and a means of grace. The logic of the Church is the logic of the Incarnation, of which, in her visible, structured institution, she becomes in effect a sacramental prolongation. Christians believe that Jesus, God-become-man, is the Savior of mankind: of each individual person (“there is salvation in no one else” [Acts 4:12]). How does his saving work reach us? Prayer is the most immediate form of contact open to everyone, everywhere. Is it possible, outside prayer, for a person to have real, living, and saving contact with Christ – such, for instance, as his own contemporaries had? One feels a natural envy for those who lived in Palestine two thousand years ago, with their opportunity of meeting Jesus in the flesh, of being taught and healed directly by him. If only we had been given the privilege of living in his times; or if he had chosen to be present in ours – so that we, too, could meet him. We can! Says Pope John Paul II in his encyclical The Splendor of Truth, Veritatis Splendor: “In order to make this ‘encounter’ with Christ possible, God willed his Church” (7). The Church “wishes to serve this single end: that each person may be able to find Christ, in order that Christ may walk with each person the path of life” (John Paul II, The Redeemer of Man, Redemptor Hominis, 13). Jesus Christ came to save us by his sacrifice on the cross and to lead us, having become saints, to heaven. He saves and sanctifies us through his teaching (“I am the way and the truth” [Jn 14:16]); through his sacraments (“I came that they may have life” [Jn 10:10]; “he who eats me will live because of me” [Jn 6:57]); and through the expressions of his will (it is “he who does the will of my Father” who will enter the kingdom of heaven [Mt 7:21]; “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me” [Jn 14:21]). He has in a very particular way entrusted his doctrine and sacraments and authority to his Church: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:18-20). So, the Church is the continuation of the presence and work of Christ: “The Church is one with Christ” (CCC 795). Faith in the Church is the natural consequence of faith in Jesus Christ. One can distinguish different moments in the founding of the Church. Its first solemn announcement comes when Peter is chosen to be the rock on which is laid the Church’s foundation (Mt 16:18): “On the rock of this faith confessed by St. Peter, Christ built his Church” (CCC 424). Then there was the commission given to the body of the Apostles collegially after Our Lord’s Resurrection: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. . . . I am with you always” (Mt 28:19-20). And finally, on Pentecost Sunday, there is the external birth of the Church – beginning to startle the world with a forceful call to repentance, so as to receive forgiveness and salvation (Acts 2:1-4; 11; 37-40). Not only this “birth” of the Church but her continuing life-giving existence is considered to be in a particular sense the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. CCC 737). “The Church is . . . the place ‘where the Spirit flourishes’ [St. Hippolytus, Trad. Ap. 35: SCh 11, 118]” (CCC 749). Mission and Activity • The work of the Church in spreading the spirit of the Gospel has always had a powerful effect on human society through the call (the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, etc.) to live justice, mutual understanding, forgiveness, and peace. The promotion of these noble human purposes is indeed part of her work; yet her mission is at the same time not political. As Vatican Council II teaches: “Christ did not bequeath to the Church a mission in the political, economic, or social order; the purpose he assigned her was a religious one” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 42; cf. CCC 549) – to sanctify, teach, and guide people on the way to heaven – though this religious mission itself, as the Council also points out, is a source of commitment to foster human community and human rights. In her identification with Jesus Christ and his Messianic work, the Church continues his threefold office of priest, prophet, and king. Jesus is priest (Heb 7-8; 1 Tm 2:5; CCC 1544), he is teacher (which is the root meaning of prophet), and he is king (cf. Jn 18:36-37; CCC 664). The Church is similarly characterized as having a triple mission or munus: priestly, prophetic, and kingly (CCC 888-896). That these missions are central to understanding the Church is exemplified by the structure given to the 1983 Code of Canon Law (described by Pope John Paul II as “the last document of the Second Vatican Council”). In a complete departure from the previous Code, the new Code configures the laws of the Church according to the Teaching Mission or Office (Munus Docendi, Bk. III), the Sanctifying Mission or Office (Munus Sanctificandi, Bk. IV), and the mission of ruling (Munus Regendi, Bk. II, Pt. II; Bks. VI and VII). While the laity do not exercise the triple mission of Christ within the Church with full ministerial power (for which a special sacramental ordination is needed [cf. CCC 875]), their peculiar Christ-given mission is in a certain sense even more challenging. It is – on the basis of their sharing fully in the universal call to holiness (cf. Lumen Gentium, Ch. V) – to lead, teach, and sanctify, not the Church but the world, doing so “from within” (Lumen Gentium, 31). The proper role or mission of the laity is to make Christ and his saving truth and grace present, known, and attractive in the world. The Church is a free community. No one is forced to belong to the Church, even though she is open – and necessary – to all. One belongs because of God’s call, but also because of one’s own free response. The Church is a free community, too, because only within it does one find the fullness of that Truth which “makes us free” (cf. Jn 8:32). There is a fundamental equality in this community of redeemed persons, all likewise raised to the unique status of being children of God (CCC 683). Along with this equal dignity and vocation within the Church, there is also, as in any society, a variety of functions. Following the principle of the Incarnation, the Church is both human and divine. “The Church is both visible and spiritual, a hierarchical society and the Mystical Body of Christ. She is one, yet formed of two components, human and divine. That is her mystery, which only faith can accept” (CCC 779). The visible structure of the Church consists not so much in buildings as in persons, institutions, and actions. Authority in the Church • The Church has a constitution given by her Founder. She is not a democracy in the sense of being an institution where authority originates with the people; authority comes, rather, from above. The Church, by the will of God, is hierarchically structured (CCC 874-896). Our Lord sent the Apostles to teach and rule (Mt 28:18-20; Lk 10:16). Along with the Pope, the bishops are the only teachers constituted by divine right. Their authority comes from God; they are not delegates of the clergy or the people, nor for that matter of the Pope. But the choice of each bishop pertains to the Pope. In sum, the authority of bishops is not unlimited, but its limitations come not from “below,” but from “above” – from the nature of their mission and office (cf. Mt 16:18, 18:18). Authority in the Church is both to be exercised and obeyed. In its nature and in the mode of its exercise, however, it is very different from authority in secular societies. It is important to note two peculiar characteristics of Church authority: it is sacred and it is a work of service. It is sacred precisely inasmuch as it derives directly from Christ, and not through any democratic commission. “No one can give himself the mandate and the mission to proclaim the Gospel. The one sent by the Lord does not speak and act on his own authority, but by virtue of Christ’s authority; not as a member of the community, but speaking to it in the name of Christ. No one can bestow grace on himself; it must be given and offered. This fact presupposes ministers of grace, authorized and empowered by Christ” (CCC 875). This is why we speak of “hierarchy,” which, in its Greek origin, means sacred power – “which is none other than that of Christ” (CCC 1551). It takes faith to keep the sacredness of authority before one’s mind, just as, with the Blessed Sacrament, someone lacking faith discerns no more than the natural substance of bread. Authority in the Church is sacred also in that it has a special sanctifying effect, when accepted out of supernatural motives. Authority in the Church is a work of service (cf. Lumen Gentium, 24; CCC 876). “It is entirely related to Christ and to men” (CCC 1551). It is first of all service toward Christ, carrying on his mission. Those in authority in the Church must obey God before anything or anyone else (cf. Acts 5:29), and must devote themselves to the fulfillment of his will. Church authority is also service of the people, facilitating their way to – and their return to – Christ. Therefore, the structures in the Church are not power structures, but are geared to diakonia and ministry (both words that literally mean service). Jesus said of himself that he “came not to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:28). St. Thomas Aquinas teaches in his commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard that “although the Church is supported by God’s gift and authority, nevertheless insofar as it is a gathering of men, in its actions some element of human imperfection appears that is not divine.” The Apostles, too, had their defects, which were used by God to sanctify both them and those in regard to whom they exercised the missions given them by Christ. Although we have a guarantee that Christ’s truth is behind the solemn exercise of the Church’s teaching office, it would be a mistake to look for the same guarantee in relation to the ruling office. Issues of truth are not normally involved in questions of Church discipline or government (but issues of justice could be; and Church law provides means for seeking redress if this is in fact so). The presence of the Holy Spirit is nevertheless guaranteed to the Church in her government. This does not imply that each measure of government or discipline will always be an exercise of perfect prudence. The guarantee is, rather, that Christ’s will (as distinct, if one wishes, from his truth) is behind measures of government, when exercised in catholic communion; and, further, that whoever accepts such measures in faith and responds to them is in fact doing what God wants (“he who listens to you, listens to me” [Lk 10:16]). A Means of Grace • “The gathering together of the Church is, as it were, God’s reaction to the chaos provoked by sin” (CCC 761). She exists not only to save us from the dispersion of sin but to gather into one the scattered children of God (cf. Jn 11:58). She purposes to raise us to the heights of sanctity, to “the hope of sharing the glory of God” (Rom 5:2) and of attaining “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). “United with Christ, the Church is sanctified by him; through him and with him she becomes sanctifying,” inasmuch as “no one can bestow grace on himself; it must be given and offered” (CCC 824, 875). From this it follows that the natural attitude of a Christian toward the Church should be one of gratitude and love: for her teaching, guidance, goodness, richness, sacraments, saints. Our love for the Church should produce in us an attitude of grateful reverence filled with respect. St. Augustine says: “Let us love the Lord our God; let us love his Church: the Lord as our Father, the Church as our Mother.” To engage in negative criticism of the Church is not natural, just as it is not natural to criticize one’s mother or one’s family. One prays for the Church; one is proud of the Church. If we love the Church, we will want to bring others to her, helping them, if necessary, to overcome the prejudices they may have acquired. Our love for the Church is precisely a condition for drawing them to Christ, present in the Church with the fullness of his saving and sanctifying power.
See: Apostolic Succession; Canon Law; Church, Membership in; Communio; Holy Spirit; Infallibility; Jesus Christ, God and Man; Jesus Christ, Life of; Mystical Body of Christ; People of God.
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