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What Is The Church?

By

GERALD C. TREACY, SJ.
Fourth Printing (Revised]

(Formerly: 'The School of Christ")

THE AMERICA PRESS

New York, N. Y.

1937



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April, 1926.

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Copyright, 1926, The America Press.



I. What Is the Church?

T
he Church of Christ is set in the world of men to teach all
truth and to lead men to salvation. It does not deal so much

with theories as with facts. Every school handles a great many

theories for it is dealing with science, philosophy, literature, art,

and all these subjects admit of theories. The Church deals with

Divine Truth. It is sure of its subject for God has made it sure.

It is positive in its statements for Christ its Founder never wavered

in His statements. Its doctrine is the same today as it was when

it began. Theories change, facts remain. The Church of God

and Divine Truth are facts.

The strange thing is that, though in every branch of knowl-

edge we are willing to admit that we need a teacher, in the knowl-

edge of Divine Truth, people think they can learn enough

without a teacher. Some say that they only have to turn to the

Bible to find out anything they want. But the Great Teacher

never said that. No. There was no book in the year 33 on the

first Ascension Thursday. But what the Great Teacher said was:

“Go and teach men everything that I have taught you.’’ And

they went. The story of their going is a long one; for it is the

story of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church then is God’s own Church, set down in

the midst of the earth. Its charter is from Heaven; its seal the

Blood of the Lamb. Over its gates there hangs a sign, “World-

University.” That is what Catholic means. Its Founder is the

only one of all the great educators who plainly stated that there

was no phase of truth that was not thoroughly treated and ex-

plained by Him. Some since His day claimed that they could

teach one branch of truth from A to Z. But no educator that
I know of has ever been rash enough to say: “Come to Me; I am
the Truth.” No one will ever say it again. But He could not
say anything different, for He is God. Many subjects others
have tried to teach fall under the scope of His teaching. For

instance, the people of the twentieth century have been much

interested in the subject of peace. It is a rather important topic,

too, for the nation as well as for the individual. A well-inten-
tioned man (but remember he was only a man) realized this
strongly one day, and having a great deal of gold, he changed

a few carloads of glittering coin into a marble palace and called

it the Temple of Peace. The representatives of the nations niet
there, and made speeches and signed agreements and gave out
prizes. “The science of Peace is taught,” they said, “and War has

1



2 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

gone a-begging.’’ The nations went to the Hague school to learn

peace and, when the test came, the nations failed; their failure

is written in blood. What was the matter? Simply this. The

great Peace-Teacher was not there. There was no. room for Him.

So it really seems that weVe got to go to Him if we want to

learn peace or in fact any subject. For what He teaches embraces

every other branch of knowledge, correcting and coordinating

all the arts and sciences. We can’t stretch out our hands and
put knowledge of any kind into our minds but we need a

teacher. If that is true of any truth, how much more true is it

of All Truth?

So Christ founded a teaching body, a living course of in-

struction, which He calls His Church, and there we must go to

learn. Did you ever hear of people getting knowledge without

some kind of instruction? The Church teaches all without dis-

tinction of race or color, social standing or mental equipment.

It is international in the true sense of the word, and democratic,

too, in a very literal way, for it is for the people and all the people.

An important entrance requirement is good will. Smart men and

women sometimes cannot qualify at all. For they generally

know so much about so many things that they know little about

anything. They are usually stumped by the first question: ^^Can

you become a little child?” And in the history of this Church,

those who have ranked highest in human knowledge always

were aware of their ignorance. They knew so much that they

were athirst for Divine Truth.

“God has given us apostles, prophets, evangelists, doctors in

order that we may not be as children tossed to and fro by every

wind of doctrine by the malice and cunning of men who sow error

around us.” That was the way St. Paul made clear to the

Ephesians the need they had of a Divine Teacher. And long

before St. Paul, Plato after casting about a whole lifetime in

search of truth, threw up his hands one day in despair and uttered

one of his best truths: “It is necessary for a master to descend

from heaven to instruct humanity.”

II. How the Church Began

The Church began in this way. Christ one day asked this

question: “Whom do men say that I am?” The Twelve began
to look at each other, and then Simon looked away, as a fisher-

man looks out toward the sea if you ask him a big question, and



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? 3

turning his gaze back again toward the Questioner, he said: ^‘Thou

art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’’ That was a good

speech, and well rewarded. “You have given a perfect answer,

Simon,” he was told by Eternal Truth, “and in reward I will

change your name.” Jewish teachers did that when a pupil had

given an exceptionally good recitation. “You are Peter the Rock,

and upon this Rock I will build My Church, and against it the
gates of hell shall never prevail.” That was the beginning.

It has been called “the great confession and the great promise.”

It is really much more. We might call it Peter’s perfect tribute,
and the seal of Heaven on a good act of Faith. It is not hard,

however, to realize that a test-question was put to the Twelve;

one gave the right answer. He was singled out and blessed as

the foundation-stone of the Church. It was to be built on solid

rock. Christ centered everything around the son of Jonas, but

not until after He had changed his name to Peter, the Rock.

Once He had determined upon the foundation He made it clear

what was to stand thereon: “I will build My Church.” That was
it. one solid rock foundation for one building. My Church, not
My churches or any church.

There was good reason for a rock foundation, too, as the

Church was to withstand solidly any attack however violent;

even the battle-hosts of hell which were strong enough to shake

the skies were not to prevail against the structure in which Peter

was the rock-bracing element.

Why Simon’s name was changed was made clear at the Last
Supper in the Cenacle. The Founder showed that the change of

name meant an office and a trust in the Church built on rock:

“Simon, Simon behold Satan has longed to have you for his own,

to sift you as wheat is sifted by the thresher. But I have prayed

for you that your Faith fail not, and being once strengthened,

may you make the others strong.” That same night the Founder

was condemned by the chief teachers of the Synagogue, and the

next day was handed over to a Roman governor who put Him
to death. It looked as if His plan was a failure, for when the

first storm burst the Rock was badly shaken, and the Builder was

laid away in a tomb. The first Catholics, too, were very much

afraid and hid behind bolted doors.

They had forgotten a great many things that they had learned,
but they did remember one thing, to stay together. Whether

huddled in fear in the room of the Last Supper, or in an open



4 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

boat at sea, they stayed together. No one seemed to think he
could do much by himself, even at fishing they followed the policy

of united action. And one early dawn when they were together

after a luckless night they were called ashore by a familiar Voice

that bade them come and dine. Peter was spoken to and singled

out again. Some months before he had made his act of Faith, now

he was to seal it with an act of Love. His answer to his Sa-

viour^s: “Do you love Me?’’ was a simple statement: “You know

that I do.” And in replying our Lord gave the complete mean-

ing to Peter’s name and office. For he was told: “Shepherd My
flock.” Not part of the flock but all, the lambs and the sheep.

A very plain commission in three words. One of the Twelve was
made a shepherd, to rule and guide, to bring back the wandering;

to restrain the unwary, to urge on the timid; the same who was

the foundation-stone, for whom Christ prayed a special prayer

that strength might be his to strengthen others. What the founda-

tion-stone stands for in the towering building, the shepherd is to

the flock, a steadying, controlling force. Indeed, the shepherd

notion puts Peter’s position very clearly, it is the complement, the

development of the stone notion. If the first rock-title held a

promise (and He said it did “I will build”) the shepherd-office is

its fulfilment.

So when I look around me today, some centuries later, I

should be able to see a Church if it claims to be of Christ whose

foundation-stone is Peter the Shepherd.

The Stone and the Shepherd, that is the twofold sign of God’s

Revelation. Where that sign is there is the Church Christ

founded. There are many churches but only one that shows the

sign of the stone and the Shepherd. It is in Rome, and Rome is

everywhere for Rome is Catholic. And wherever Rome is there

is Peter, “and where Peter is there is The Church.”

Ancient Rome was not big enough for Peter. It was big

enough for Caesar who was ruling a world empire but not for

Peter who was to rule the empire of God. So the empire-city dis-

agreed with Peter and argued with him
;
the argument ended with

iron nails and two cross beams. “That is the end,” was Rome’s

verdict. But it was not the end. It was only the beginning.

The end will be when earth meets sky at the great trumpet call,

in one kingdom, one truth, one great fact eternal. Even then

there will be one Rock and one Shepherd.

The Church makes much of Peter. She teaches her chil-



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? S

•dren to honor him, and she follows a safe Guide in so doing.

Because they honor him as the Stone and the Shepherd they are

^‘no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the

saints and members of God’s household, built upon the founda-

tion of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the

chief Corner Stone.”

E Church of Christ makes no mistakes. It is human to

make mistakes. But the Church is Divine. Divine in its

origin, its mission, its methods, its Founder. True enough it

has its human side, for its members are men and women, but its

Supreme Teacher is God. Now God could have made His dwelling

upon earth permanent and visible. As He was in Nazareth cen-

turies ago so could He be in Rome today. And when pilgrims

journey to the Holy City they would say: “We are going to see

Christ.” And not as they say now: “We are going to see the

Vicar of Christ.” To make Himself visible to men God became

Man. In Nazareth and Galilee it was not only a Voice that spoke

but it was a Man. And when He spoke He did not say: “Perhaps

you might follow Me, and you would be consoled.” But He said:

“Come unto Me, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. . . . Un-

less you believe you shall not have life.” In a word He spoke with

authority and His inspired biographer remarks that the people

warmed to Him for that very reason. There was no “perhaps” to

His teaching. It was direct, positive, authoritative. No faltering
in His tone, no compromising in His style of address and so the

“people heard Him gladly” for authority rang through every word

He uttered.

Is it surprising then that the Church which He founded to con-
tinue His mission, should speak as He spoke, and not merely air
opinions. Scribelike? Strong in the strength of her commis-

sion, she goes before the world today, as she has gone before

it since Peter’s day, and proclaims in no uncertain terms her right

to a hearing:

“I speak with the lips of Eternal Truth and when I propose

for the belief of men a God-given doctrine my words are infallibly
true. I have no new religious theory wherewith to tickle the ears

of a modern world, crying as the modern Athenian cried in the

ears of Paul for ^something new.’ But I bear with me the charter

III. The Church Without Mistakes



6 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

of revelation that John sealed at Patmos, and to that body of re-

vealed truths I call for your whole-hearted allegiance. I can neither

increase nor diminish those saving dogmas. Nor can you reject

one and accept another. It is all truth, for all men, not some

truths for the chosen few.’’

We call the dogmas of salvation the Deposit of Faith, and we
know that as the Son of Man came to teach not human wisdom

but Divine Truth, and as the Church is His living Voice speaking

to the centuries that have not seen Him in human form, that

Church can make no mistake in what she teaches regarding

Christ’s revelation, nor can she blunder in telling men what she

believes to be contained in that revelation. Grasping the full im-

port of this truth which is conveyed to my mind by the single

word “infallibility,” the only task that is mine is to find out what

the Church believes and teaches. When I do. Divine Truth is

within my hand, and I cling to it on God’s authority. Difficulties
may come surging through my troubled mind, but they can in no
wise weaken my loyal assent, for it is rock-riveted on God’s un-
failing Word. I know to whom I go, as Peter did in other days,

and my reason is Peter’s reason. The Church, God’s living Voice,
holds the words of Eternal Life. When that Voice spoke from

human lips in Judea and Galilee what room was there for doubt

that the message delivered was eternally true? Nineteen centuries

later when that Voice speaks from the Fisherman’s Throne, under

the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, whose coming was to be

signalized by the teaching of “all truth,” have I reasonable cause

for doubt? The span of twenty centuries does not shake the

bed-rock support of Catholic belief, which is grounded strong and

firm on the infallible Word of Eternal Truth.

Now when we apply the word “infallible” to the Church that
is Christ’s living Voice we simply mean that she never makes a

mistake, nor can she make a mistake in teaching and believing

what is contained in her sacred Deposit. She cannot draw there-

from a counterfeit and expect it to pass currency among the chil-

dren of the Kingdom. What the Church teaches, we Catholics

must believe, or else cease being Catholics. Not part of the

truth, but all truth and nothing but truth, “One body and one

^spirit—one Lord and one Faith,” was Paul’s concise and incisive
w'ay of putting it. Moreover, in holding this one Faith the mem-

bers of Christ’s Mystical Body cannot fall into error, under Di-

yine guidange, or, as the schoolmen say, the Faithful are “pas-



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? 7

sively infallible.” Of the great body of believers there are some

who hold the commission to teach all nations, namely the Bishops

of the Church acting with the Supreme Bishop, or the Pope alone

acting as supreme teacher in matters of Faith and morals. Inas-

much as this board of teachers cannot go wrong in spreading the

good tidings we say the Church is ^^actively infallible.” So in-

fallibility falls upon the teacher for the good of the pupils who

form a God-made society of believers.

Now the Church in speaking infallibly does not say: “Here is

a very consoling doctrine, you may believe it.” No. But she

says: “This is truth and you are bound to believe it.” The

Church is different from all the other churches in this. For it is

the boast of the other churches that religion is largely a matter

of opinion. The Church speaking infallibly has passed beyond

opinion and theory and is dealing out facts. The other churches

are constantly varying in their opinions and rightly so, for they

make no claim to infallibility. They openly admit error and

teach that what is error today may be truth tomorrow. But the

Church will not admit error. She is intolerant of error and for

that reason unpopular, though she is tolerant of the erring and for

that reason misunderstood. She is as intolerant as Christ was

intolerant. As she is living His life and taking His place upon

earth she speaks as He spoke. When her supreme pontiff speaks

as Christ’s Vicar his words are as binding as were Christ’s words

when He bade men eat His Flesh and drink His Blood or else take

the consequences of losing their lives.

Now it may occur to you that an infallible teacher should pos-
sess great personal holiness. Well, that is entirely wrong, for a

man who has reached a very low degree of sanctity may teach

infallibly, if that man is teaching from Peter’s throne, as the Su-

preme Teacher of Christendom, on a question of Faith or morals.

Nor does it mean a special inspiration, or a new revelation, but

what it means is the certain truth of the teaching given. This

gift does not carry with it a guarantee that it will only come into

action at the most opportune time and from motives most perfect

;

its one and only object is to give the children of the Church

positive assurance that what is officially taught as revealed truth,

really is revealed truth. And I know from the pages of history,

that God in His loving Providence has guided His teachers in de-

fining and condemning just as the needs of His Church called for

the exercise of the great gift. “I am with you all days” has been



8 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

verified in the first centuries of the Church’s history and in modern

times.

To those who stand without the City of God the word ‘‘in-

fallibility” spells intellectual bondage. It destroys .freedom of

thought. Of course it does, for it is truth. And in the face of

any truth I am not free. I am not free to think that two and two

make six or that the earth is hanging from the sky by a chain.

If I have any difficulty in determining the truth of these matters

I know where to go for an answer. So in matters of eternal im-

port I should know where to go. As a citizen in a kingdom whose

mission is to teach I should know to whom I may turn in this

century as Peter knew in the first century when he cried out:

“Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

That kingdom has a truth treasury. Is it unreasonable to think

that God has given some special help to preserve this treasure of

truth incorrupt? And what more simple means for safeguarding

doctrine than infallibility as the Catholic Church explains it?

IV. The Church of Every Nation

I

T has been the dream of all conquerors from Alexander to
Napoleon to raise their standards the wide world over, so that

the sun would never set on their dominions. Yet it was only a

little army of Twelve that really succeeded in buiding an empire

which girdled the world and that too without the flash of steel or

the horrors of battle. Indeed when the standard of their King

was flung to the air outside the walls of Jerusalem one Friday

it pointed to the comers of the earth as if to proclaim the uni-

versal mission of the cause that was symbolized. “When I shall

be lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to Me.”

His message was not for Judea or for Rome, but for mankind.

His was to be a world empire and so we call His Church Catholic.

Prophet and seer had sung in varying harmony of the Messias

to come, but one note they struck in unison: He was to be the

expected of the Nations, not of any one nation. “The mountain

of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the moun-

tains and it shall be exalted above the mills and all nations shall

flow into it.” That was Isaias’ vision of the Church to be, the

world empire of hearts over which the Messias would reign. Gen-

tiles would walk in its light and kings in the brightness of its

rising. The voice of the Synagogue did not echo over the whole



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? 9

earth, nor ^^its words go forth to the ends of the world’’; for its

protecting shadow hung over but one nation. The Church, how-

ever, was to shatter all national barriers and every creature was

to hear the Gospel tidings, and hold a claim to the New Dispensa-

tion. The Messias Himself showed that the picture drawn in

prophetic lines was to mark with unmistakable seal His Church

world-wide, catholic
;
for He bade His followers carry His truth to

the “uttermost parts of the earth.”

Did they do it? Yes, on the day of their first appearance in

Jerusalem as God’s ambassadors the catholic character of their

missions was emphasized by the gift of tongues. And before the

same Church had reached its first year of jubilee St. Paul in his

letter to the congregation at Rome was grateful to God because

the Faith was spoken of the world over. As early as the third

century Tertullian could tell the proud emperor of Rome: “We

Christians are of yesterday yet we fill all the places belonging to

you, the camp, the senate, the forum. Your temples alone we

leave empty.” Without doubt the well built roads of the Roman

Empire, its organization, its world language helped the rapid spread

of the good tidings of salvation. But neither one nor all of these

natural helps that were at hand caused the growth of the power that

was to rule all hearts notwithstanding national prejudices and tra-

ditions. With the legions of Caesar marched a literature of battle

song and camp-fire tale. Where now are the songs and stories of

Caesar’s army? Yet the Faith that was sacred to a scattered few

of the imperial legionaries remained after the legions had filed into

their graves, and remains today. For the Faith was Catholic with

a divine catholicity.

Page after page in the long book of centuries tells the same tale.

A Church of no nation but of all nations lifting her hymn of
thanksgiving to the God of Jew and Gentile. “Thou hast redeemed

us O Lord, to God in Thy Blood, out of every tribe and tongue
and people and nation.” As this Catholicity is the mark of the

true Church so is its absence the brand of the counterfeit in any

organization that claims to be a church. For as Christ died for

all so He left His legacy of a Living Voice to sound in every ear
and strike upon every heart. Or else His preaching was vain, and

the Faith delivered to the Saints, vain.

It matters little how diverse may be the individual interests of
the family of nations, their eternal interests are the same and there

is no such thing as a superior race in the City of God. In that



10 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

commonwealth all are equal and citizenship therein is above all na-

tionalities. The “Parliament of man, the Federation of the

world” was the poet’s dream of the era of peace. But the poet

sang in England where the church of his nation was an isolated

thing, standing apart from the great world-wide Church which was

a parliament of man, an international body in his day as it had been

from the day of its founding by Christ. And what to Tennyson

was a dream of the distant future to his Catholic fellow citizens

was an accomplished fact, ages old. The Church called Catholic

today is the same that was Catholic in the days of imperial Rome

and the twentieth century only repeats the tribute of the fifth

century spoken by the great Augustine: “Among the many titles

that hold me in the bosom of the Church is her glorious name

^Catholic.’ Though all heretics wish to acquire that name, should

a stranger ask, Where do the Catholics assemble?’ the heretics

will not dare to point to any of their places of meeting.”

Some sixteen centuries after the Church had been launched

on her world-wide mission a few of her unworthy children started

a revolt and called it a reformation. They would preach a new

gospel of freedom, and raise a man-made temple to rival the Temple

not built by hands. The power of princes was on their side, in

fact a king of a strong nation soon rallied to the support of the

unholy cause. Since that evil day sects blown about by the wind

of every doctrine have sprung up on every side. If you marshal

them all before you on the map of the world, you will seek in vain

for one that is not distinctly national or local in the appeal it makes

to the human heart. More than that, add these discordant ele-

ments together and by a stretch of imagination credit them as being

one church. You will find that imaginary church world-wide in

only one thing, opposition
;
unanimous in only one thing, disagree-

ment.

But did not the Reformation destroy the Catholicity of the

Church? It did no such thing. If the Church in the sixteenth

century was decimated in Europe at the same time thousands upon

thousands from India, Japan and America entered her fold and

the New World more than compensated for the losses registered
in the Old. Indeed it is a striking fact in Catholic history that

whenever other nations proved untrue to the Church that had

mothered them, new peoples rushed to her arms that the title

“Catholic” might never be challenged.

Try as you will you can find no natural explanation for the



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? 11

world empire of Christ. What power can account for it? The

greatest of modern empire builders in his lonely solitude at St.

Helena realized the power that made possible the world empire

of the Catholic Church. This was his explanation: “Alexander,

Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires.

But upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon

force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love, 'and to

this very day millions would die for Him. He asks for the human

heart. He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it uncon-

ditionally and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful!

Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus Christ makes a

demand that is beyond all others difficult to satisfy. And in de-

fiance of time and space the soul of man with all its powers and

faculties becomes an annexation to the Empire of Christ.”

V. The Church and Unity

I

F the existence of the world empire of Christ builded on love

startled Napoleon to wonderment, what of the unity of that

empire? For it is not only made up of many nations and all peo-

ples but its members believe the same truths. The Faith is a fact

with Catholics, and it is the same fact for every Catholic. Re-

ligion is a theory with everyone else. Years before Christ founded

His Church IsraePs seer declared: “One is my dove, my perfect
one is but one.” And whenever our Saviour in His days on earth

spoke of His Church, whether He imagined it as a kingdom, a

sheepfold, or a city set on a hill the idea He emphasized was unity

of Faith and Government. Take the idea away and you may have

any kind of a church but you will not have Christ’s Church, as He
outlined it, as the prophets before Him envisioned it, as it has
stood in the world since its life began. Division may mark the

latest school of modern thought and this division may be a sign

of progress. But not in the Church of Christ. Where He is there
cannot be disunion. His Kingdom must be undivided. For this it

was He prayed when His life on earth was closing: “That they
may be one, as Thou Father in Me and I in Thee; that they also
m^ be one in Us.”

If that prayer was answered the passing of time should not

have hidden the answer. And today we should be able to read the

answer in every part of the world. Is the unity of the Catholic

Church apparent, has it always been apparent?



12 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

Three centuries after Christ’s prayer for the unity of His

Church a Bishop in Asia Minor wrote: ‘^Though spread over the

whole world the Church preserves the Apostolic Faith with the

utmost zeal as if she dwelt in one house. She believes as if she

had but one mind and one heart, and with admirable accord she

professes and teaches as if she had but one tongue. The languages

of the world may differ but the Faith is everywhere the same.”

And many centuries later Robert Hugh Benson expressed the mar-

vel of Catholic unity in a brief sentence: ‘When I was a student

in the University of Cambridge I used often to find in one lecture

room men of one nation and six religions; when I became a stu-

dent in the University of Rome I found in one room men of six

nations and one religion. Is it conceivable that it is merely a

human power that makes such a thing possible?”

If the Catholic Church were a national institution, its unity

would not be so astounding; but when we remember that it was

given an international character at the very outset of its career

and its doctrines were to be preached to all nations, we can ap-

preciate the fact that its Founder’s prayer was for unity of such

a striking character that it would command the belief of un-

prejudiced minds. For Jesus Christ wished His Church to be one

in such a unique fashion “that the world may believe.” They

were not to take this element of truth, and leave the other; but

all peoples were to receive all truth; not one dogma of Catholic

Faith was to be whittled down in deference to public opinion,

whether of the tenth century or the twentieth.

It is not difficult to bring one nation into a common mold of

thought, to give many minds in one country a common ground for

action. A wave of patriotism can sweep over a land and accom-
plish that. It can make a nation one. It can change a peaceful

civilian population into a fighting unit that counts the horrors

of warfare mere incidents, and laughs in the face of ugly wounds

and agonizing death. Yet patriotism is limited by the boundary

line of a nation’s frontier. Lift that line and you take the mean-

ing out of the word and you find its force is spent. When great

national issues are at st^e in the crisis of a country’s life pa-

triotism will unify a people’s action, but glance at the same peo-

ple when the danger clouds have scattered and ordinary life is

once more in full swing, and you will not find patriotism uniting

all the voices in a legislative assembly, or unifying every deal in

the stock market. In stress-and-strain periods patriotism can



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? 13

weld separate interests into one; but it can never pierce so deeply

into the fiber of the individual life that in the rights and duties

of man towards man, there is but one great driving force setting

in motion the wheels of common everyday life. If it could do

that, it would be more than patriotism
;
for it would pass beyond

the sphere of the natural.

And beyond the sphere of the natural you will find the secret

of Church unity. First it is modeled on the exemplar of the most

perfect unity conceivable, not the unity that is seen in the planets

that circle through the skies, nor the unity that marks the human

organism, but the unity of Eternal Father with Eternal Son.

^^As Thou Father in Me and I in Thee, that they may be one as
We also are one.’’ Clear in the light of that prayer I can read the
answer to an otherwise unexplainable fact, the agreement of Slav

and Teuton, Persian, Celt and Saxon on Divine Revelation,

though on other questions owing to racial tradition or national

viewpoint there is not a glimmer of unity. Some human mind

might be clever enough to draw up a code of conduct or a body

of truths that would appeal to different nations, but fancy mapping

out a world program for the life and action of king and peasant,

cultured and unlearned in the great family of nations! An Eng-

lish king tried to do it a few hundred years ago with an army at

his back. On that one little island today, there are 220 Chris-

tian bodies contradicting each other on essential doctrines of

faith.

Chesterton has summed up the situation in the Church of

Pmgland in accounting for his conversion to Catholicity: “I al-

ways believed in the Catholic view of Christianity, at least I have

believed it for twenty years. Unless the Church of England was

a branch of the Catholic Church, I had no use for it. If it were a

Protestant Church, I did not believe in it. In any case the ques-

tion is whether the Church of England can claim to be in direct

descent from the medieval Catholic Church. That is the question

for every Anglo-Catholic or High Church man. . . .

“Among the people who have helped me to answer the ques-
tion as to whether the Church of England was Catholic, are the

chief Protestant leaders in the Church of England, for instance.

Dr. Inge, Dean of St. Paul’s, and Bishop Hensley Henson, Bishop

of Durham. They have done me this good service and I wish to
express my gratitude to them for it. They have done me the best
service one man can do to another. I will give you examples.



14 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

“It appears to me quite clear that any church claiming to be

an authoritative church must be quite definite when great ques-

tions of public morals are put. Can I go in for cannibalism or the

murder of babies to reduce the population, or any other scientific

and progressive reform? Any church with authority to teach must

say whether it can be done. But the Protestant churches are in

utter bewilderment on these moral questions.

“For example on birth control. When you have people and

such sincere men as Dean Inge coming out publicly and definitely

as champions for what I regard as a low and poisonous trick, not

far removed from infanticide, you can see what I mean. On di-

vorce, spiritualism and suicide also they fail to speak with cer-

tainty. It is perfectly true that there are in the Church of Eng-

land and other Protestant bodies, many who would denounce these

heathen vices as much as I can. Bishop Gore would speak about

them as strongly as the Pope. But the point is the Church of

England does not speak strongly. In short, it has no unity of

action
;

it cannot give a common reply to people when they ask for

authoritative views. I have no use for a church which is not a

church militant, which cannot order battle and fall in line and

march in the same direction.”

But we need not look across the seas, for religion in America

outside the Catholic Church is as varied as the colors of the rain-

bow, no two sects agreeing on anything and no sect with all its

members in agreement. Such an important and vital question as

the Divinity of Christ could not be made the test of Faith for

any one of the many Protestant denominations. “What think you

of Christ?” was asked of Peter. His answer ages ago is the Cath-

olic answer today.

There are more than 600,000 Catholics in Pittsburgh speaking

seventeen different languages. In one parish alone in that dio-

cese fifteen languages are spoken. But the Faith of that polyglot

population is one. “Devout men out of every nation under

heaven” dwell in union of Faith now as they did in the first days

of the Church. “One body and one spirit, one Lord, one Faith,

one Baptism, one God and Father of all.”



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? 15

VI. The Church and Complete Truth

I

F a religion has not the right to teach it has no rights worth

speaking of at all. If a church has no doctrinal commission

then it might as well become a club. It will do more good as a

club, for then nobody will be deceived about its purpose. For

many years after Luther began his revolution Protestantism laid

claim to a teaching power. Today it is not so insistent on this

power. It still believes it has something to say. But as Chester-

ton found out and before him Benson and before him Newman,

all distinguished for their cleverness, Protestantism claimed no

right to speak its belief, at least no exclusive right. And that is

precisely the Catholic claim, the right to teach and the exclusive

right at that.

Arrogant and intolerant? Such is the Church making this

claim to many who look on religion as one of the incidentals of

life and not an essential. If Christ in His attitude toward the

world in which He lived was arrogant and intolerant then so is

the Church. For she takes His attitude as she is His Voice. She

is in truth Christ’s Ambassador. And unless a church or an indi-

vidual can prove this ambassadorship there is nothing to the mes-

sage or doctrine of that church or that individual. For every

ambassador stands or falls by his title. He must show his cre-

dentials if he hopes to gain a hearing.

^^How shall they believe him of whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how can they

preach unless they be sent?” That was St. PauPs neat climax,

at once a challenge and a test! The right of any man to teach

religion is directly proportionate to two things, the importance of

the office he assumes and the obligation on his hearers to heed his

lesson. And the Catholic Church claims the right to teach and

that this right to teach places an obligation on men to hear and

heed.

“He who hears you hears Me.” “If a man will not harken to

the Church have nothing to do with him.” These were our

Saviour’s words when He gave out credentials to the little group

of Twelve. That their office was of paramount importance to the

world at large no thinking man can gainsay. Now we do not
entrust the mending of a shattered frame or the adjustment of

shattered nerves to any man. We ask for evidence of medical
skill, indeed nowadays we generally demand the qualifications of



16 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

a specialist. Why then should we allow spiritual quacks to handle
the delicate something we call an immortal soul?

It is all very well to be thrilled by the magic of a powerful

speaker, and marvel at the good accomplished in the cause of

social uplift. But the vital question first to be determined is

whether the uplifter on the platform bears a brief for the message

he is delivering from the body commissioned by Christ to teach all

nations in His name, to give His Sacraments, to do His work

exactly as He would have it done. Can the man who calls me to

lead a better life show me why I must do as he says? Can he

go back to Apostolic days and prove that he is delivering the doc-

trine that was given on the first Ascension Thursday, and that by

valid ordination through lawful succession he has the right to

deliver it? Surely no man can take that honor to himself “only

he who was called by God as Aaron was.’’ Not only that, but as

St. Paul tells us, even if an angel from heaven preached a gospel

differing in one slight degree from that which was preached by the

Apostles, our duty is to ignore him, even to look on him as a curse.

The title to engage in soul-saving is not founded in a marble

church or a wooden tabernacle, or the financial ability to flood the

market with Bibles, but in this and this only, authorization from

Christ, succession from Apostolic times, and identity of teaching

and government with that of Christ. That is the triple seal and

its stamp is genuine. Any other sign is the mark of the counterfeit.

What St. Paul said of Christ is true of His Church, and of His

Truth, “the same yesterday, today, forever.” There is no progress

in Divine Truth. Everything else progresses but not the Truth

of God. It cannot progress for it cannot improve. The outward

garb of a Divine Truth, the verbal dress it wears, may be differ-

ent in the twentieth century than in the first, but the Truth that

rests within is the same. It has not lost, nor has it been added

to since the Apostles on Olivet received the signal to go and de-

liver “all things whatsoever they were taught.” Not to add to

the truth nor to diminish it but to preach it as it was preached by

Him who is Truth itself.

Progress! The word hinges on imperfection. We have pro-
gressed in many ways far ahead of the men and women of a hun-

dred years ago. Our methods of business, our transit facilities,

our everyday conveniences, the tube, the home, the radio, the

auto—all stamp the ages that have rolled into history as imper-
fect in the light of our own. Carry the progress notion into the



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? 17

realm of religious thought and what must we admit? That the

Christians of the first century were not in possession of all that we

possess, and that the command to preach everything that had

been heard from the Jordan to the Cenacle had not been fulfiled.

To glory in religious progress if we mean what the word means,

is to glory in shame, to deny that our forefathers in the Faith had

the same chance of salvation that is ours. As well say that twice

three is six today but in a thousand years of progress it will be

more than six as to hold that believe in God, the Holy Cath-

olic Church, the Communion of Saints’’ means more to the Ameri-

can Catholic in 1937, than it did to the Catholic in Rome in 37.

When twenty centuries ago, St. John sealed the deposit of

Faith at death, the Church in her Divine Revelation had pro-

gressed to the full. She was really ultra-progressive, for she was

able to propose ^^all things whatsoever,” all of Revelation to her

first children. She will propose nothing more to her last converts.

‘Torever, O Lord, Thy Word standeth firm in heaven, Thy Truth
unto all generations.”

VII. The Founder of the Church

The picture of the Founder of the Church is in the Gospelpages. It is an unmistakable picture too if we would follow
its separate lines. The first thing that strikes us is that our Lord

has a mission from the Heavenly Father:

All things are delivered to Me from My Father: Matthew
11: 27.

All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth: Matthew
28: 18.

Whosoever shall receive Me receiveth not Me but Him
that sent Me: Mark 9: 36.

He that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me: Luke
9: 48.

And I dispose to you as My Father hath disposed to Me,
a kingdom: Luke 22: 29.

Our Lord teaches with authority:

He was teaching them as one having power and not as
the scribes: Mark 1: 22.

Say to him: The Master saith: Matthew 26: 18.



18 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

Christ is the Son of God:

The High Priest said to Him: I adjure Thee by the Liv-

ing God that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ, the Son

of God. Jesus said to him: Thou has said it: Matthew 26: 63.

And no one knoweth the Son but the Father; neither doth

anyone know the Father but the Son: Matthew 11: 27.

Jesus saith to them: But who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ the Son of

of the Living God. And Jesus answering said to him: Blessed

art thou Simon Bar Jona: Matthew 16: 15.

And the devils went out crying . . . Thou art the Son of

God: Luke 4: 41.

Our Lord vindicated and exercised divine power:

Son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And there were some of

the scribes sitting there and thinking in their hearts. . . .

Who can forgive sins but God only? Jesus said to them:
Which is easier to say to the sick of the palsy; Thy sins are

forgiven thee; or to say: Arise take up thy bed and walk?

But that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on
earth to forgive sins. . . . Mark 2: 5.

Christ claimed the right to judge the world:

Watch ye therefore . . . that you may be accounted

worthy ... to stand before the Son of Man: Luke 21: 36.

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He
cometh shall find watching: Luke 12: 37.

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in
Heaven . . . and He shall send His angels . . . and they shall
gather His elect: Matthew 24: 30.

Christ is a spiritual Leader:

Come to Me all you that labor and are burdened:
Matthew: 77: 28.

Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you . . . perse-

cute you for My sake: Matthew 5: 11.
Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you ... for the

Son of Man's sake . . . your reward is great in heaven: Luke

6 : 22 .



WHAT IS THE CHURCH ? 19

He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not
woo-thy of Me . . . and he that taketh not up his cross and
followeth Me is not worthy of Me: Matthew 10: 37.

There are many other passages in Holy Scripture that are wit-

ness to the fact that our Lord made claims that no other prophet

or teacher had made before Him. He vindicated these claims by

miracles. He left after Him the Church which was to teach His

doctrine, and lead men to salvation until time should be no more.

VI il. The Church in Holy Scripture

The Church Is One

OTHER sheep I have that are not of this Fold; them also Imust bring and there shall be One Fold and One Shepherd.
John 10: 16.

Holy Father keep them in Thy Name whom Thou has given

Me: that they may be one as We also are. John 17: 11.

One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of

your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and

Father of all. Ephesians 4: 4-6.

The Church Is Holy

Christ loved the Church and delivered Himself up for it . . .

That He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in

the Word of Life . . . That He might present it to Himself a
glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,

but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians S:

25-27.

Sanctify them in Truth. Thy Word is Truth . . . And for

them do I sanctify Myself; that they also may be sanctified in
Truth. John 17: 17-19.

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity. Ephe-

sians 1: 4.



20 WHAT IS THE CHURCH ?

The Church Is Catholic

This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole

world. Matthew 24: 14.

All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth. . . . Going
therefore teach ye all nations . . . Matthew 28: 18.

Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words

unto the ends of the whole world. Romans 10: 13.

A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men
light a candle and put it under a bushel . . . Matthew S: 14, 15.

The Church Is Apostolic

Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build My Church.
Matthew 16: 18.

You are fellow citizens with the Saints . . . built upon the

foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ Himself

being the Chief Corner-Stone. Ephesians 2: 19, 20.

He gave some Apostles and some Prophets ... For the perfect-

ing of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of

the Body of Christ . . . Until we all meet in the unity of Faith

and of the knowledge of the Son of God . . . Ephesians 4: 11.

The Church Is Infallible

I will ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete

that He may abide with you forever . . . The Spirit of Truth

whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not nor

knoweth Him; but you shall know Him because He shall abide

with you and shall be in you. John 14: 16.

Behold I am with you all days even unto the consummation of

the world. Matthew 28: 20.

WTien He the Spirit of Truth is come He will teach you all

truth. John 16: 13.

The Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of truth.

1 Timothy 3: 15.

And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew

16: 18.



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