The Church

The Church is the assembly of those whom God calls and gathers in Christ to form one People. She unites believers in one same faith, one baptism and one life received from God, and joins them to Christ as to their head. Christ himself founded her and promised her to endure until the end: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18

The very word says it. “Church” comes from the Greek ekklêsia (ἐκκλησία), the assembly of citizens summoned by a herald, formed from the verb “to call out.” The Greek translators of the Bible had chosen it to render the Hebrew qahal, the assembly of the people convoked by God in the desert to hear his word and seal the covenant. In naming itself Church, the new people recognises itself as heir to this convocation: it is not an association that men give themselves, but an assembly that God calls and gathers. The Church exists only as convoked.

Founded by Christ

The Church is born of Christ. He gathers her during his life, establishes her on Peter and the apostles, and makes her rest on himself as on her cornerstone: “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.” Ephesians 2:20

Born of the Spirit

On the day of Pentecost, the risen Christ, ascended into heaven, sends the Spirit he had promised. The Apostles are gathered in prayer with Mary when the Spirit descends upon them in a great wind and tongues of fire: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues.” Acts 2:4 Those who had kept themselves hidden go out and proclaim Christ with boldness. At Peter’s preaching, that day, about three thousand men believe and receive baptism: “They therefore that received his word were baptized: and there were added in that day about three thousand souls.” Acts 2:41 The group gathered by Christ becomes a people sent to the world.

The Church had been formed by Christ; at Pentecost she receives life. What Christ had prepared, the Spirit gives life to and sends forth. At Babel, the pride of men had confounded their tongues and scattered the peoples; at Pentecost, the Spirit grants men of every nation to hear, each in his own tongue, the same Good News, and gathers into one body what sin had divided. From her birth, the Church is catholic, open to all the nations.

The Body of Christ

The Church is the Body of Christ. Christ is its head, and the baptised are its members: joined to him and to one another, they receive their life from him and together form one body animated by one Spirit: “Now you are the body of Christ and members of member.” 1 Corinthians 12:27

It is from the head that the whole body holds its growth and its unity: “He is the head of the body, the Church.” Colossians 1:18 This People gathered by God is consecrated to his service and called to make him known: “you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: Who in times past were not a people: but are now the people of God.” 1 Peter 2:9-10

Temple of the Spirit and Bride of Christ

Scripture names the Church by several images that complete one another. To the Body of Christ it joins the Temple of the Spirit and the Bride of Christ. She is the Temple where God dwells, built of living stones, the believers whom the Spirit gathers and animates. “you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” 1 Corinthians 3:16 The Holy Spirit is the soul of this body: he unites it, sanctifies it, and pours out his gifts within it. She is also the Bride, whom Christ has joined to himself for ever and loves to the point of giving himself. “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:2 Body he animates, Temple he inhabits, Bride he loves: these images express one single reality, the union of the Church with her Lord.

Scripture offers others still, drawn from the life of the fields and of the shepherds. The Church is the fold whose one shepherd is Christ, the flock he leads and for which he gives his life. “And there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” John 10:16 She is the vine of which he is the stock, apart from whom the branches bear nothing. “I am the vine, you are the branches.” John 15:5 She is, finally, the field that God cultivates and makes grow. “You are God’s husbandry: you are God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:9 Each image throws light on one trait: the keeping of the shepherd, the sap that comes from Christ, the patience of growth.

Visible and spiritual

The Church is at once visible and spiritual, in the image of her Lord made man. As the Word united in himself divinity and a flesh, the Church unites a reality that is seen, the gathered people, her pastors, her sacraments, and an inner reality, the life of grace and the presence of the Spirit who animates her. The two are but one mystery: the visible society is the body through which the invisible life passes. To reduce her to a human organisation would be to forget the Spirit who dwells in her; to reduce her to an inner communion would be to forget the body that Christ willed visible. This is why he endowed her with an authority and with sensible signs, to lead a people towards a salvation that surpasses it.

The visible structure

The visible dimension of the Church has a definite form. Christ gave her a foundation: he built her on the Apostles, with Peter at their head, and gave them to teach, to sanctify and to lead the people in his name. The bishops succeed them, the bishop of Rome succeeds Peter, and around them priests and deacons serve the faithful: this is the hierarchy, through which Christ continues to lead his own. “the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Acts 20:28 Three visible bonds unite her members into one body: the profession of one same faith, the celebration of the same sacraments, and communion under the legitimate pastors. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” Ephesians 4:5 By these bonds, the Church lets herself be recognised in the world as one visible society.

One, holy, catholic and apostolic

The Church bears four marks by which she is recognised, professed in the Creed. She is one: a single body, in one same faith, the same sacraments and communion under the successor of Peter, according to the prayer of Christ: “That they may all be one, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” John 17:21 She is holy because Christ loved her and gave himself for her; he sanctifies her and gives her the means to lead her members to holiness: “Christ also loved the church and delivered himself up for it: That he might sanctify it.” Ephesians 5:25-26

She is catholic, that is, universal: sent to all peoples and all times, she carries salvation to the whole world: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations.” Matthew 28:19 She is apostolic: she keeps the faith received from the apostles, and the bishops, united to the Pope, succeed them in handing it on faithfully until the end of time.

The Magisterium and infallibility

To keep intact the faith received from the Apostles, the Church has received from Christ the charge of teaching it in his name. This living authority of teaching is called the Magisterium: it is exercised by the Pope and the bishops united to him, successors of the Apostles. Christ has bound their word to his own. “He that heareth you heareth me: and he that despiseth you despiseth me.” Luke 10:16 He did not leave them alone, but gave them the Spirit who guards from error. “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth.” John 16:13

From this comes what is called infallibility. It does not mean that the pastors are without sin or always wise, but that the Church, when she proclaims in a definitive way a truth of faith or morals, cannot lead the people of God into error, for the Spirit watches over her. This assurance is exercised when the Pope, successor of Peter, pronounces solemnly as pastor of the whole Church, and when the bishops, united to him, teach with one accord, above all gathered in council. Thus the Church remains what the Apostle calls “the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15

Sacrament of salvation

The Church is the instrument by which Christ gives men the salvation he won. She is like a mother who gives birth to divine life through baptism and nourishes it through the sacraments and the word of God. In her, men receive what Christ entrusted to his Church for all.

She is necessary for salvation, for Christ willed that one come to him through her, and all salvation flows from him through his body. Turned toward her fulfilment, she journeys toward the day when God will be all in all, when she will be fully united to Christ in glory: “I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 21:2

Militant, suffering and glorious

The one Church exists in three states that form but one body. On earth she is militant: the faithful there fight against sin and journey toward God. Beyond death she is suffering: the souls who die in the friendship of God but still need to be purified before seeing him are cleansed there little by little. In heaven she is glorious: the blessed contemplate God face to face. These three states are not separate; they form what the Creed calls the communion of saints.

In this communion, the members help one another beyond death. The living pray and offer for the dead who are completing their purification, a practice attested from the Old Testament. “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” 2 Maccabees 12:46 And the saints of heaven intercede for the Church on her way, all united in Christ who gathers them. “you are come to mount Sion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the church of the firstborn who are written in the heavens, and to the spirits of the just made perfect.” Hebrews 12:22-23

Outside the Church, no salvation

This necessity tradition has expressed in a formula that comes from Saint Cyprian: outside the Church, no salvation. It does not mean that God damns those who could not know her, but that all salvation comes from Christ and passes through his Body: whoever is saved is saved through the Church, even without knowing it. Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel and seek God with an upright heart, doing his will as their conscience grasps it, can attain eternal life: they are ordered to the Church without belonging to her visibly, and the salvation that reaches them remains that of Christ, given by ways God knows. The formula weighs therefore above all on those who know: to refuse knowingly the Church one has recognised as founded by Christ is to refuse Christ himself. For all, she remains the way the Lord gave, and no one may hold her to be optional.