De Ecclesia Christi

« The Church of the New Testament, to be established by Christ from all nations as universal and perennial, was foretold in the prophecies of the Old Testament and described as one kingdom: a kingdom of power in its own governance, a kingdom of truth in its own magisterium, a kingdom of sanctification in its own priesthood; which whole power is, originally and as from a fountain, in Christ the Founder, and is communicated by participation to his ministers, to govern, to teach, and to sanctify the Church in its members. »

1°. Just as in the Old Testament types and prophecies have as their chief object the Messiah the Saviour himself, so almost everywhere his work is foreshadowed and foretold together with Christ: « Behold his reward is with him, and his work before him; as a shepherd he will feed his flock, in his arm he will gather the lambs » (Is. XL. 10; LXII. 11). This work of the Messiah in effect, at once the reward and fruit of the work that merits, which the prophets foresaw as intimately joined with the Redeemer of the human race himself and in unity with him, is his universal kingdom among all nations: « All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall adore in his sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he shall rule over the nations » (Ps. XXI. 28, 29). « Give your judgment to the king, O God, and your justice to the son of the king... In his days justice shall spring up, and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away; and he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth¹... and all the kings of the earth shall adore him, all nations shall serve him » (Ps. LXXI. 1 ff.; Zach. IX. 10).

This kingdom to be founded by the Son of God, who is also the Son of man, is foretold as universal of all nations, and likewise as perennial for all times: « And in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and its kingdom shall not be delivered to another people (no other kingdom shall ever be substituted for it or succeed it, as the four worldly kingdoms will be substituted one for another and succeed one another); but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever. In accordance with what you saw, that a stone was cut from the mountain without hands, and it broke the clay, and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold (the four worldly empires are counted, ascending from the clay and iron of the last Romans to the gold of the Assyro-Babylonians), the great God has shown the king what shall come hereafter. » « I beheld therefore in the night vision, and lo, with the clouds of heaven one like the Son of man came, and came even to the Ancient of days, and they presented him before him. And there was given him power and honour and kingdom, and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power, which shall not be taken away, and his kingdom which shall not be corrupted » (Dan. II. 44; VII. 13, 14, 27; Hag. II. 7, 8, 22, 23).

2°. This universal kingdom of all nations and perennial kingdom of all times is promised as one kingdom, so that, in the knowledge, adoration, and worship of the true God, there shall be one people, one holy city, as a new Israel and a new Jerusalem and a new temple on Sion. « Arise, arise, put on your strength, O Sion, put on the garments of your glory, O Jerusalem, holy city... for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem: the Lord has bared his arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God » (Is. LII. 1 ff.). « Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you... and the nations shall walk in your light... and your heart shall be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be turned to you, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to you... and your gates shall be opened continually, day and night they shall not be shut, that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to you, and their kings may be led... and they shall call you the city of the Lord, Sion of the Holy One of Israel »² (Is. LX. 1 f.; XL. 8–23). « And it shall come to pass in the last days,³ the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall hasten, and shall say: come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem... and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Sion from henceforth and for ever » (Mich. IV. 1 ff.; Is. II. 2 ff.; Zach. VIII. 3–8). « And it shall come to pass in that day, living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the hindmost sea (the western); in summer and in winter they shall be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord shall be one, and his name one... And all who remain of all the nations which came against Jerusalem (formerly hostile to the Church) shall go up year by year, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts » (Zach. XIV. 8 ff.).

3°. This new people of Israel, new Jerusalem, city of the Lord, new Sion, as is promised in the prophets, shall be constituted in its own proper form of governance, of magisterium, and of priesthood, which is derived from one supreme king, teacher, and priest, Christ.

a) Christ will be the supreme king in this supernatural kingdom of peace; but since it is a perennial and visible kingdom on earth, other shepherds and princes will be constituted by him as participants in his empire, who in his name and by his power shall govern the people of God over the whole earth. « But I am appointed king by him over Sion, his holy mountain. The Lord said to me: you are my Son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the bounds of the earth for your possession » (Ps. II. 6). « A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Mighty, Father of the world to come⁴, Prince of Peace; his empire shall be multiplied, and of peace there shall be no end; he shall sit upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom (the type transferred to the antitype), to confirm it and strengthen it with judgment and justice, from henceforth and for ever » (Is. IX. 6, 7). « And I will raise up over them (the sheep of the Lord) one shepherd, who shall feed them, my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd; and I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David in the midst of them; I the Lord have spoken » (Ezek. XXXIV. 23 ff.; XXXVII. 24–28). « I will gather the remnant of my flock from all lands... and they shall grow and be multiplied; and I will raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them... Behold the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a branch⁵ of justice, and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall do judgment and justice » (Jer. XXIII. 3–6). In the wondrous Psalm XLIV, after the notable description of Christ the bridegroom and of his bride the Church, the words are addressed to Christ: « in place of your fathers⁶ sons have been born to you; you will make them princes over all the earth » (ib., 17).

b) The same king and shepherd, promised upon the throne and the everlasting kingdom of David, is also promised as the faithful prophet, whence his kingdom is as much a kingdom of peace as of truth and of justice. Already in the institution of the ancient and typical people of Israel, God promised to Moses, the legislator and prophet of the people: « I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brethren, like to you (by the likeness of the principal thing prefigured to the figure and the image shadowing it forth — the son in his house to the faithful servant in the house of God), and I will put my words in his mouth »; and Moses announced the promise to the people: « The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet of your nation and of your brethren, like to me; him you shall hear » (Deut. XVIII. 15–19; cf. Matt. XVII. 5; John VI. 14; Acts III. 22, 23; VII. 36). This prophet, promised to Moses and through Moses, is in view when, in the last stage of the old economy, the people committed the kingdom and the supreme priesthood to the family of the Asmoneans, « until there arise a faithful prophet »⁷ (1 Macc. XIV. 41).

« Sons of Sion, exult and rejoice in the Lord your God, because he will give you a teacher of justice, and will make to come down upon you the early and the latter rain (the autumn and the spring rain), as in the beginning » ⁸ (Joel II. 23). Hence « out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem » (Mich. loc. cit.⁹); and God promises the same Jerusalem: « I will make all your sons taught by the Lord, and a multitude of peace to your sons; and you shall be established in justice » (Is. LIV. 13; Jer. XXXI. 33, 34; XXXII. 38–40). Moreover, since this divine magisterium must be perennial, « I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed them with knowledge and doctrine... and all nations shall be gathered together to it in the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall not walk any more after the perverseness of their most wicked heart » (Jer. III. 15 ff.).

Wherefore the name of this new Jerusalem shall be city of truth, and Sion shall be called mountain of holiness. « I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the sanctified mountain (in the Hebrew text mountain of holiness)... Behold I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the setting of the sun... and they shall be to me a people, and I will be to them God, in truth and in justice » (Zach. VIII. 3, 7, 8).

c) As the Church is foretold as the kingdom of peace and the kingdom of truth in Christ and under Christ the supreme king and teacher, from whom men appointed by him shall perennially share in the power of the kingdom and of the magisterium, so the same kingdom has been announced as to be sacerdotal, through Christ the supreme priest and sanctifier, from whom a ministerial priesthood is derived to the men taken up by him.

α) From the visions of the prophets, in Christ the diadem of the king and the diadem of the priest are intimately united for his perennial kingdom; and therefore the union of both holds continually in this kingdom, so that it is sacerdotal. Jesus, son of Josedech, the high priest, is expressly called a type foreshadowing the Messiah: « Hear, Jesus, great priest, you and your friends... men that foreshadow: for behold I will bring my servant the East » (צֶמַח, branch, an undoubted name of the Messiah) (Zach. III. 8). Now in this man foreshadowing, the prophet is commanded to join the priestly diadem to the royal one, so that there may be continually « the counsel of peace », that is, of unity between the two powers. « You shall take gold and silver, and make crowns (cf. Apoc. XIX. 12), and put them on the head of Jesus, son of Josedech, the great priest; and you shall speak to him, saying: thus says the Lord of hosts: behold a man, the East is his name... and he shall build a temple to the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and he shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between those two¹⁰... and those who are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord » (Zach. VI. 11 ff.). St. Epiphanius, Heresy XXIX, nn. 2–4, discourses at length on the union of royal and priestly dignity in Christ, and through Christ in the Church.

β) Christ is foretold, in the proper sense, as priest, who by his bloody sacrifice was to acquire for himself the Church of all nations. « He was offered because he himself willed it, and did not open his mouth; he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter... if he shall lay down his life for sin¹¹, he shall see a long-lived seed... by his knowledge shall my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities; therefore I will divide to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he delivered his soul unto death » (Is. LIII). By this sacrifice of Christ all the ancient typical sacrifices are to be abolished. « Sacrifice and oblation you did not desire; but ears you have perfected for me. Holocausts and sin offerings you did not ask: then I said, Behold, I come... I have declared your justice in the great Church... I have not hidden your mercy and your truth from the great assembly »¹² (Ps. XXXIX. 7 ff.)

γ) The priesthood of Christ is foretold as « eternal according to the order of Melchisedech », who as priest of the Most High offered bread and wine in a type (Ps. CIX. 4; Gen. XIV. 18). According to this order of Christ's priesthood there is foretold, in his Church, a future perpetual unbloody sacrifice « from the rising of the sun to its setting », for the glorifying of God's name « among the nations » (Mal. I. 11), a prophecy of which we treated in the Tract. de Euch. sacrif. th. X.

Hence it further follows, and is foretold by the prophets too, that there is also a perpetual priesthood in the Church, certainly instituted and derived from the supreme priest according to the order of Melchisedech. « I come to gather together with all nations and tongues (Heb. all nations and tongues), and they shall come and see my glory. And I will set in them a sign¹³, and I will send of them who shall have been saved to the nations, to the sea (תרשיש, Tartessus), to Africa, and Lydia drawing the bow, to Italy¹⁴ and Greece, to the far-off islands, to those who have not heard of me, and who have not seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory to the nations... And I will take from them priests and Levites, says the Lord. For as the new heaven and the new earth... so shall your seed and your name stand » (Is. LXVI. 18 ff.; Mal. III. 3, 4). « In those days and at that time I will make David to bud forth a branch of justice (the name of the Messiah; cf. Is. IV. 2; Jer. XXIII. 5; Zach. III. 8; VI. 12)... for thus says the Lord: a man of David shall never fail who shall sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; and of the priests and of the Levites a man shall never fail before my face (ministering before me), who shall offer holocausts and burn sacrifice and slay victims all days... If my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night can be made void, so that there be no day and night¹⁵ in their time, then my covenant may be made void with David my servant, so that there shall not be of him a son who reigns on his throne; and the Levites and priests, my ministers. As the stars of heaven cannot be counted, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David (those who are of Christ, whom he shall make to bud forth as the branch of justice for David), and the Levites my ministers. » (Jer. XXXIII. 15 ff.)

It is manifest that, as the eternal kingdom of Christ, of another and more sublime order than the typical kingdom of David, is here promised as foreshadowed, so in this kingdom there is promised a priesthood of another order, corresponding to the very nature of the kingdom: as there is a new earth and a new heaven, so a new priesthood, more sublime than the Levitical priesthood which was in the type (cf. Heb. VIII, IX; XIII. 10). As Paul (Heb. VII. 11–14) demonstrates, from this among other things, that Christ is not of the tribe of Levi, that his priesthood is of another order and not Levitical, so also the priests and Levites in the kingdom of Christ are promised by the prophets, in the passages cited, as future, not of the Levitical race but to be taken from all nations, to be multiplied, and to offer sacrifices until the consummation of the age, as long as there shall be day and night¹⁶. But since the priesthood is transferred and changed, it is necessary that there be a transfer and change of the law, of external worship, and in particular of sacrifice (Heb. VII. 12), which we have seen foretold elsewhere to be one, unique, according to the order of Melchisedech in the type. Therefore when Jeremiah seems to transfer to the priests in the kingdom of Christ¹⁷ the diverse species of the sacrifices of the old economy, in which the prophet himself and those to whom he was directly prophesying stood, nothing else is to be understood than that one sacrifice, foreshadowed through all those typical sacrifices, will succeed them all. « With the variety of carnal sacrifices ceasing, the one oblation of your body and blood fulfills all the differences of victims... so that as there is one sacrifice for every victim, so there is one kingdom from every nation » (St. Leo, sermon 59, c. 7; cf. sermon 68, c. 3). « The priest himself, the mediator of the New Testament, offers, according to the order of Melchisedech, the table of his body and blood; for this sacrifice has succeeded all those sacrifices of the Old Testament which were immolated in the shadow of the future. Wherefore we understand also that voice of the same mediator speaking by prophecy in Psalm thirty-nine: sacrifice and oblation you did not desire; but a body you have perfected for me; for in place of all those sacrifices and oblations his body is offered, and is ministered to participants » (Augustine, City of God, XVII, c. 20, n. 2). « The one true mediator... is also the priest, himself offering and himself the oblation. Of this reality he willed the sacrifice of the Church to be the daily sacrament; and the Church, since it is the body of that head, learns to offer itself through him¹⁸. Of this true sacrifice the manifold and various signs were the ancient sacrifices of the saints, so that this one thing was figured through many, as one thing is said in many words, so that it might be greatly commended without tedium. To this supreme and true sacrifice all false sacrifices (imperfect, in shadow and figure, cf. Heb. VIII. 7) gave way. » (Ibid., l. X, c. 20.)

The few passages we have cited suffice for us to understand that the indefectible kingdom of Christ on earth, cohering in itself with its own governance, magisterium, and priesthood, to be acquired by Christ the Redeemer himself with his blood, and to be founded from all nations for the eternal salvation of all nations, was most clearly announced in the prophets; so much so that this eternal and universal kingdom constitutes one of the most distinguished characters and most illustrious marks of the promised Messiah. Many other oracles of the prophets pertaining to this could easily be adduced, which shine with no less light: Is. XI. 1, 11, 12; XL. 2, 9; XLII. 6, 10; LI. 3–7; LIV; LXII; LXV. 16 ff.; Hos. II. 16 ff.; III. 5; Joel II. 27–32; III. 16–21; Amos III. 16 ff.; IX. 11; Zeph. III. 14; Zach. II. 10; XIV. 8, 9. A rule for distinguishing the prophecies which are referred, either in the immediate or in the typical sense, to Christ and¹⁹ to his Church, can be deduced from the manner of St. Paul's citation, Rom. XV. 8–12.

The prophecies of the promises and the completion of their execution cast light upon one another, and confirm one another by a manifest seal of divinity; so we must now pass to the consideration of that very completion.