Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus II (Pars Altera): Demonstratio Catholica

It is not yet asked what kind of Church was founded by Christ, but simply whether some Church was founded by Christ, i. e. whether Christ gathered His faithful into some society, which we call the Church.

None of the older heresies doubted this. Indeed, even the pseudo-reformers themselves of the sixteenth century attributed the origin of the Church to Christ. Since, however, under Luther as leader the Protestants rejected the hierarchy and visibility of the Church, they implicitly taught that Christ did not institute a religious society in the true sense of the word. This, to be sure, the Protestant rationalists have explicitly championed since the eighteenth century, with even the Modernists of today assenting. For they think that Christ taught individual disciples the religion of love, without uniting them into a religious assembly. Afterwards, however, toward the end of the apostolic age, the disciples formed certain communities, partly for the sake of mutual edification and partly for defense against adversaries, and gradually furnished them with a hierarchy after the model of the Roman republic.¹ Hence the ecclesiastical society is held to have been instituted immediately, proximately and directly by men, Christ Himself patronizing religious atomism, subjectivism and individualism.

On the contrary, the Vatican Council teaches: "God instituted the Church through His only-begotten Son."² Likewise Pius X ordered to be professed in the Oath against the errors of Modernism: "With equally firm faith I believe that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was instituted proximately and directly by the true and historical Christ Himself, while He dwelt among us."³

It is proved by the testimony of Christ Himself, of the apostles of Christ and of Christian antiquity.

1. Christ preached a social kingdom. That Christ was wholly taken up with announcing, founding, and propagating the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, we have abundantly demonstrated. Moreover, that the kingdom of God preached by Christ had the character of a society is evident both from the concept of the kingdom already set forth and from the parables that illustrate the kingdom.

We have investigated the concept of the kingdom of God preached by Christ in the question concerning His messianic testimony.¹ The whole Old Testament expected the messianic kingdom in the form of a true society. Yahweh had given the Israelite people not only a moral and religious law, but also a civil one, and in this way had established a Davidic-synagogal theocracy.

Yet that theocracy was nothing but a figure and shadow of that new, spiritual, and universal kingdom for the founding and governing of which the coming Messiah was foretold. Indeed, at the time of Jesus, carnal Judaism understood the kingdom of God in an earthly and political manner, but it never denied that the Messiah would found a true social kingdom.

Jesus finally restored the concept of the kingdom of God to its pristine purity and fulfilled it in deed by instituting the Church. For that the kingdom of God preached by Christ is identical with the Church is evident of itself and is expressly affirmed by the Lord Himself.² Hence the social character of the Church of Christ cannot be called into doubt.

Furthermore, the parables of the kingdom of God illustrate this social character. The kingdom of heaven is likened to a field in which, together with the wheat, weeds also grow,³ to a net gathering fish of every kind, good and bad,⁴ to a wedding feast,⁵ to which are gathered both chosen guests and those collected from the highways and hedges, and utterly unworthy ones as well: indeed, every kind of men, good and bad, is united in the Church.

The kingdom of heaven is likened to a flock and to the sheepfold to which not only Jews but also Gentiles are to be called, so that they may form one flock under one shepherd, Christ, and His vicar Peter.⁶ The kingdom of heaven is compared to a house to be built by Christ upon the Petrine foundation: "Upon this rock I will build (οἰκοδομήσω) "my" Church⁷: just as individual stones laid upon the foundation coalesce into a physical house harmoniously constructed, so all the faithful, united with Peter and subject to him, form that spiritual house, i. e., that family or society which we call the Church of Christ. Therefore the whole gospel of the kingdom of God shows the ecclesiastical society as instituted by Christ and to be instituted by Him.

2. Christ established social authority. We shall show this fact expressly in the chapter on the constitution of the Church. Therefore it suffices at this point to have indicated what follows.

From the very beginning of His public ministry Christ called the apostles. These He instructed and trained in a special way, so that they might become "fishers of men".⁸ And after He had sent them, as it were, by way of trial, to announce the kingdom of God, He finally solemnly handed over to them His authority to teach, sanctify, and govern men: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you... Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain, they are retained ...⁹ All power is given to me in heaven and on earth: going therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you..."¹⁰

"I dispose to you, as my Father has disposed to me, a kingdom."¹¹

Peter He specially chose as the foundation of the Church and as the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven¹² and made him the supreme shepherd of all the faithful: "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep..."¹³

By instituting this ecclesiastical authority, Christ manifestly instituted the ecclesiastical society. For where there is authority, there is society.

3. Christ wove the social bond. Since a society is a union of several persons entered into for the attainment of a common end, he is to be said to found a society who brings about this union. But Christ united His worshippers with a threefold bond: symbolic, liturgical, and hierarchical.

By a symbolic bond: by requiring the profession of one faith. "Preach the gospel to every creature; he who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned."¹⁴ An internal assent of faith does not suffice, but an external manifestation of the same is required. For since baptism is to be conferred upon believers, it must first be established through external confession that the faith has been embraced.

By a liturgical bond: by instituting communion in the same rites or sacraments, especially of baptism and of the Eucharist. Of baptism: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved."¹⁵ "Unless a man is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."¹⁶ Of the Eucharist: "The bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world … Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you."¹⁷

By a hierarchical bond: by commanding obedience toward superiors. This is evident from the institution of authority or hierarchy. For the authority of the apostles and the obedience of the faithful are correlative. Hence Christ, speaking of fraternal correction, says: "And if he will not hear them [the witnesses brought in], tell the Church [the ecclesiastical superiors]. But if he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican."¹⁸ Likewise, on another occasion, He said to the disciples: "He who hears you hears me, and he who despises you despises me. But he who despises me despises Him who sent me."¹⁹

Hence Christ bound His faithful together by the threefold symbolic, liturgical, and hierarchical bond into an ecclesiastical society in the true sense of the word.

1. The apostles proclaim the Church of Christ in deed. Putting the power and office of disseminating the Gospel into effect and practice, the apostles not only convert men to Christ, but gather them into ecclesiastical assemblies.

Of the Jews, who on the very day of Pentecost received the faith through the word of Peter, we read: "They therefore that received his word were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls. And they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayers … And all they that believed were together, and had all things in common … And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their food with exultation … And the Lord added daily those who were being saved, together (ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό) … But of the rest no man durst join himself to them."¹ From which it is clear that the first Christians at Jerusalem after the departure of Christ neither remained isolated individuals nor adhered to the synagogue, but through the teaching office and ministry of the apostles were gathered into an assembly of their own by the communion of faith, baptism, the bread [eucharistic: 1 Cor 10, 16] and prayer.²

It is confirmed from this, that upon the death of St. Stephen there immediately "was made a great persecution in the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all dispersed through the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles … But Saul was laying waste the church"³ Certainly the Jews would not have persecuted the Church of Christ, if it had not been distinct from the synagogue.⁴

Then the apostles, having left Jerusalem, together with the Gospel spread the Church of Christ also throughout the world. For the Acts and the epistles of the apostles, and above all the Pauline epistles, report: 1°. that Christians everywhere were united into religious assemblies;⁵ 2°. that the Christian assemblies were hierarchically instituted;⁶ 3°. that faith and the sacraments,⁷ gifts and offices⁸ were conferred by the superiors; 4°. that everywhere common worship was celebrated, the elements of which were the preaching of the word of God, prayer and the eucharistic sacrifice;⁹ 5°. that all the particular churches coalesced into one universal Church.¹⁰

Hence the apostles, those most faithful executors of the will of Christ, testify by a unanimous manner of acting that they received from the Lord the mandate of uniting the faithful into an ecclesiastical society. Indeed:

2. The apostles by their doctrine claim the Church for Christ. For they teach that Christ acquired for himself the Church "with his own blood"¹¹ They call Christ the "chief cornerstone" of the Church;¹² head over all the Church (κεφαλὴν ὑπὲρ πάντα τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ)¹³ They call the Church the bride of Christ, whom he "loved" and for whom he "delivered himself up, that he might sanctify her … and present her to himself a glorious Church";¹⁴ "his [Christ's] body and the fullness of him"¹⁵ Paul confesses that he persecuted the Church of God.¹⁶ The apostles set over the Church were persuaded that they were "ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God"¹⁷ that they had received power from Christ,¹⁸ that they "acted as ambassadors for Christ"¹⁹

1. The Church of Christ has always existed. Christians never professed individualism, but at every time they were joined to religious societies denominated from Christ. Innumerable documents of antiquity prove this, e.g. the most ancient temples, in which Christians gathered for the common worship of God; the series of bishops who administered each of the churches from the times of the apostles; the letters of peace (litterae formatae), which were wont to be handed over in testimony of ecclesiastical communion; the responses of the martyrs, by which they everywhere declared themselves to be members of the Church of Christ; the sentences by which, already in the first centuries, unworthy Christians were excluded from the churches; liturgical and penitential books, the acts of councils, the works of the Fathers, of heretics and even of the pagans themselves, the monuments of the catacombs, the most ancient paintings and sculptures, from all and each of which it is clear that Christianity never existed except in the social form of the Church. Unless, therefore, we say that the Christian religion was corrupted by all Christians of the earlier centuries against the will and intention of Christ, we must altogether concede that Christ Himself instituted the ecclesiastical society. Indeed, by the testimony of the whole of antiquity:

2. The Church was always attributed to Christ. For: 1°. All Christian groups, as many as there were, imposed upon themselves the name of the Church of Christ from the most ancient time. So great was the certainty that Christ had in fact instituted some Church. 2°. The individual groups that called themselves the Church of Christ never disputed among themselves whether Christ had founded a Church, i.e. some religious society strictly understood, but only which one of them was the true Church of Christ. 3°. To all religious groups instituted by men the very name of Church was denied.

Thus Tertullian: "That [gospel of Marcion] plainly also has churches, but its own, as much later as adulterous … with Marcion, namely, as founder, or someone from Marcion's swarm. Wasps also make honeycombs; Marcionites also make churches."¹

According to Cyprian, Christ "does not divide men from the Church, He who instituted and made the Church"²; every church not instituted by Christ is "adulterous"; as the figure of an ape is to the figure of a man, so stands the church instituted by men to the Church instituted by Christ.³

It is clear, therefore, that Christian antiquity significantly attributed the institution of the Church to Christ. Moreover, no one can hold this opinion of antiquity to be false without contaminating himself with full historical scepticism.

From the testimony, therefore, of Christ Himself, of the apostles of Christ, and of Christian antiquity, it is established that Christ immediately instituted the ecclesiastical society. He Himself chose not atomism and individualism, but a religious organism.