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

Having discussed these things concerning the Church as a society and as the teacher of the faithful, we bring the Catholic demonstration to a close.

Jesus Christ truly founded an ecclesiastical society, which was to contain all the faithful, and in this society He established an ecclesiastical magisterium, which was to teach all the faithful. But this Church of Christ is none other than the Catholic Church. Therefore the Catholic Church is the religion of Christ in the concrete, the person of Christ mystically ever living and acting on earth, the house of God built upon "the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone."¹

It remains to say briefly what manner of conduct befits us in the house of God, that is, what piety toward the Church. The Apostle of the Gentiles himself already admonishes Timothy: "These things I write to you, that you may know how you ought to behave in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."² Applying this text of Paul, St. Bonaventure observes as learnedly as piously: "Whoever wishes to behave rightly in the house of the Church ought to dwell in it with voluntary subjection, with mutual love, with holy zeal, with devout prayer."³

1. With voluntary subjection. The Church rules and teaches the faithful in the name, in the place, and with the authority of Christ. In all things, therefore, that pertain either directly or indirectly to the worship of religion and to the ordering of life in the Christian manner, let us be subject to the Church in deed and in affection. Let us never neglect those solemn words of the Lord: "If he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as the heathen and the publican. ... He who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me; but he who despises me, despises Him who sent me."⁴ Wherefore let the supreme law of the faithful, and especially of clerics, be this: to live, to speak, to believe, to feel with the Catholic Church. "Laying aside all private judgment, the soul [be] always ready and prompt to obey the true spouse of Christ and our holy mother ... Let us be wholly of one mind and conformed with the Catholic Church; if she shall have defined that something which appears white to our eyes is black, we ought likewise to pronounce that it is black. For without doubt it must be believed that the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the orthodox Church, His spouse, is one and the same, by which we are governed and directed unto salvation."⁵ Whoever, therefore, has the spirit of the Church has the Spirit of Christ; and whoever does not have the spirit of the Church does not have the Spirit of Christ. "But if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His."⁶

2. With mutual love. "If by the law of nature we are bidden to love and protect especially the city in which we were born and brought into this light, even to the point that the good citizen does not hesitate to meet death for his fatherland, it is the duty of Christians to be disposed toward the Church in a like manner, and by far a greater one. For the Church is the holy city of the living God, born of God Himself and established by the same author: she sojourns indeed on earth, but she calls men, instructs them, and leads them to everlasting happiness in heaven. The fatherland, therefore, from which we have received the enjoyment of mortal life, must be loved; but the Church must be preferred in charity, to which we owe the life of the soul that shall endure forever."⁷ As Christ "loved the Church, His spouse, and delivered Himself up for her,"⁸ so let us also love the Church, our mother, with the tenderest charity, and devote our whole life to her. Nay, let us pursue Christ and the Church with one and the same love, because "Christ with His whole Church, whether that which still sojourns on earth or that which already reigns with Him in heaven, is one person."⁹

3. With holy zeal. For since the Church is the kingdom of God; since Christ renders the work of His redemption perpetual through the Church; and since no one can be saved "unless he shall have remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church",¹⁰ all Catholics must labor with the greatest effort for the propagation, preservation, and defense of the Church. By word, therefore, by example, and by assistance let us strive to make the Church known to unbelievers, to lead heretics and schismatics back to the Church, and finally to vindicate the rights of the Church from the snares of her enemies. Above all, "the ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God"¹¹ ought to promote whatever redounds to the advantage of the Church. Let the clergy always hold the cause of the Church, that true city of God, in their desires, so that they may be able to say with the psalmist: "Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem in the beginning of my joy."¹²

4. With devout prayer. By devout prayer the faithful ought to, and can, greatly assist the Church, shaken as she is by so many storms. Let us therefore follow the example of Christ praying for the rulers and the subjects of the Church: "Holy Father, keep them in Your name, whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We also are ... that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves ... that You keep them from evil ... that they also may be sanctified in truth. And not for them only do I pray, but for those also who through their word shall believe in Me: that they all may be one ... that they may be made perfect in one ... that where I am, they also may be with Me, that they may see My glory ... that the love wherewith You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them."¹³ Whether rulers of the Church or subjects, let us all pray daily for the supreme pastor and father of all, namely the Roman pontiff. For Christ Himself also prayed for him in particular: "I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not."¹⁴ To him Christ entrusted the whole flock of the faithful to be kept: "Feed My lambs ... Feed My sheep."¹⁵ Lastly, in him He foretold that the whole Church would remain unharmed: "Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."¹⁶