De Ecclesia Christi

« Christ the Lord, in the very form of his preaching, displayed as in a model the form of his Church; and this form, constituted in a visible and living authority on the one hand and in obedience of faith toward that same authority on the other, he transmitted into the Church, when he began its institution by calling faithful disciples, and from all of them by the choice of the twelve Apostles, to whom, constituted into one body under himself as one head, he communicated authority to claim the obedience of faith, while at the same time preparing a perennial participation in fuller power and a hierarchical unity under one visible head, for the time when his visible presence would be withdrawn. »

I. Christ the Lord, as is manifest from the whole Gospel, from the beginning of his preaching showed himself above all to be the divine legate and the Messiah promised, and expected by the Jews at that very time according to the oracles of the prophets (cf. P. Patrizi, In Evangel., diss. 26, n. 7, and diss. 27, c. 4, p. 4), who therefore was to complete in doctrine, in worship, and in the kingdom of God what had been foretold and prefigured about the Messiah and his kingdom throughout the whole patriarchal, Mosaic, and prophetic economy. After the supernatural manifestations of the promised Messiah at his very birth (Luke II. 8–19, 25–38; Matt. II. 1 ff.), John was sent, in the spirit of Elias and more than a prophet, to show that he was now present and to prepare the way of the Lord (Matt. III. 1–14; Mark I. 1–8; Luke I. 15–17, 68–79; III. 1–17; John I. 15, 36; III. 27 ff.). In the very solemn initiation of his preaching, the visible appearance of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father declaring him to the whole people « his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased » (Matt. III. 16, 17; cf. XVII. 5; John XII. 28, 30); miracles, continuous throughout his whole public life and wrought with a manifest direction and even an express declaration to the same end, of winning faith in a divine mission ¹; prophecies fulfilled in his birth, life, and teaching ²; the divine holiness of his life, repugnant to falsehood of doctrine and to the grasping or usurpation of divinity (cf. Phil. II. 6); the very doctrine and manner of teaching, in which the light of truth shone in the holiness and sublimity of the mystery, majesty in ineffable sweetness, divinity in humanity ³; all these things (subsequently completed and confirmed through the passion and death foretold in each of its circumstances, through the resurrection, through the mission of the Holy Spirit and the building of the Church) were so many rays of external light illuminating the divinity of the doctrine and of the person, by which, with the inner light of grace added, Jesus of Nazareth was shown to be evidently credible and to be believed, as the Messiah promised and sent by the Father according to the prophecies of the Scriptures: king of Israel, savior and one shepherd of the people of God, sponsor of the new and eternal covenant, father of the age to come, desired by all nations, in whom all generations were to be blessed, the Son of God begotten in the eternal day, whose going forth was both from the beginning, from the days of eternity, and last of all from Bethlehem; God himself coming to save, Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Christ, by his mission from the Father and by the supreme authority thus demonstrated, demands full « obedience of faith » to his doctrine of truth and to his precepts and institutions of holiness, under the sanction of eternal life or eternal death. « For God so loved the world, as to give his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. He who believes in him is not judged; but he who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God » (John III. 16, 18, 36). « If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love » (John XIV. 15, 21, 24; XV. 10, 14; 1 John II. 3, etc.).

II. This form of authority divinely given in teaching and in sacred rule, on the one hand, and of the « obedience of faith » answering to it, on the other, Christ willed not only for the time of his visible presence, in his divine person, in whom the divine authority of truth and of lawgiving in teaching and commanding was inherent originally and essentially « (the way, the truth, and the life); » but he willed the same form to be the inner and proper form of his whole kingdom on earth. He made this manifest at the very first initiation of his kingdom, both by preparing that form in deeds as it was to be, and by promising it in words.

1°. Indeed, when Christ the Lord first began to preach the kingdom of God to be established by him on earth, he at once called disciples and joined them in one society, by a lasting sharing of life, to himself as their « Lord and Master » (John XIII. 14), and from these he chose twelve, whom he constituted as one special college, distinguished by many prerogatives from his other faithful; and this with a solemnity expressly noted in the Gospel. « And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and he continued all night in the prayer of God. And when day was come, he called to him his disciples, and chose twelve of them, whom also he named Apostles: Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother » etc. (Luke VI. 12 ff.) ⁴ (cf. John VI. 67–69; Acts I. 21, 22).

It is most worth noting that from then on they are constantly called, by a collegial name proper to them, as one moral body: those twelve, with the article, οἱ δώδεκα (Matt. X. 1; XI. 1; XX. 17, 24; XXVI. 14, 20, 47; Mark III. 14; IV. 10; VI. 7; IX. 34; X. 32; XI. 11; XIV. 10, 17, 20, 47; Acts VI. 2). Indeed they retain the same name twelve as their proper name even after the death of the traitor and before the election of Matthias (John XX. 24; 1 Cor. XV. 5, in the Greek text), when elsewhere they are called eleven, οἱ ἕνδεκα (Matt. XXVIII. 16; Mark XVI. 14; Luke XXIV. 9; Acts I. 26). By this same name, οἱ ἕνδεκα, the college is called even when only ten are present (Luke XXIV. 33; cf. John XX. 24). Conversely the name twelve is kept to designate the whole college even at a time when, with Matthias and Paul assumed, there are already thirteen Apostles in the true sense (Matt. XIX. 28; Apoc. XXI. 14).

That these twelve were already distinguished from all the other disciples by a higher office is clear from the very fact and manner of their election; from the name given them, Apostles, that is, legates of Christ in his kingdom; from expressions that set this distinct college over against the other disciples and faithful of Christ, e.g. « the eleven and those who were with them » (οἱ ἕνδεκα καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτοῖς), cf. Luke XXIV. 9, 33; and from the way in which the office of the Apostles is explicitly marked off, as authentic testimony, even before the coming of the Holy Spirit, in opposition to any other witnesses however fit by faith and knowledge: « It is necessary that of these men who have been with us all the time ... one become a witness with us of his resurrection ... show whom you have chosen to take this ministry and apostleship (κλῆρον τῆς οἰκονομίας ταύτης καὶ ἀποστολῆς) ... and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles » (Acts I. 21 f.). But of all this there is no need, for the whole economy of Christ clearly shows the special relation the Apostles have in the kingdom of God, both to the Lord by whom they are sent, and to all the other disciples, whether united or to be united, for whom they are sent.

2°. Considering therefore the Apostles in this earlier stage of preformation, of which we are now speaking, we see first of all the Lord instructing these chosen twelve, beyond the rest of the multitude of disciples, in the mysteries of the kingdom of God for their ministry as legates, expressed by the very name apostleship. The whole Gospel story bears witness to this. « Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them in parables ... But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear » (Matt. XIII. 11, 16). « I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father (to be revealed to men), I have made known to you » (ἐγνώρισα ὑμῖν, either explicitly in itself or at least implicitly in the promise of the Holy Spirit) (John XV. 15; cf. XVI. 12). The purpose of this special institution is declared in the precept that what they heard apart, and as if in darkness, they should « speak in the light and preach upon the housetops » (Matt. X. 27).

Hence first of all we see them in the intimate company of Jesus as he goes through cities and villages preaching and proclaiming the kingdom of God: « he went about ... preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God, and the twelve with him » (Luke VIII. 1). Then indeed the Lord sends the twelve themselves to « preach the kingdom of God, » enjoining on them the same form he used himself, namely that, the divine mission having been shown by signs and powers, to the authority of preaching and teaching there should correspond, on the other side, the duty of obedience of faith under the sanction of eternal damnation on the day of judgment. The form, the demonstration, the authority, and the sanction of the Apostles' preaching are the same as in the preaching of Christ himself; except that in Christ, as the only-begotten sent by the Father, the power and authority are as it were in the fountain, while in the Apostles they are the same but derived from Christ, since they are men sent by him. Of Christ's preaching it was said: « Then he began to upbraid the cities in which most of his mighty works were done, because they had not done penance ... It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you; and you, Capharnaum ... I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom at the day of judgment than for you » (Matt. XI. 20 ff.). Of the Apostles: « These twelve Jesus sent, commanding them ... go, preach, saying: the kingdom of heaven is at hand; heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils ... and whoever shall not receive you nor hear your words (ἀκούσῃ – ἀκοὴ τῆς πίστεως?) ... amen I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah at the day of judgment than for that city » (Matt. X. 5–15; Luke IX. 1–6).

The divine Master established, as a general principle, the derivation of authority from Christ to his legates, as we have said. The first and most basic statement of it is found in the choice and mission of the twelve Apostles: « These twelve Jesus sent, commanding them ... go, preach ... he who receives you, receives me; and he who receives me, receives him who sent me » (Matt. X. 5, 7, 40). But so that all power in the kingdom of Christ may be understood as derived by participation from the power that exists originally and as a model in Christ himself, the King, Teacher, and Priest, and so that the distinction of degrees of the hierarchy in the same kingdom may already be shown in outline, the Lord, after the college of the twelve Apostles had already been instituted in that authority of legates ⁵, « appointed also other seventy-two, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come. » These men, though sent by him, he did not create as Apostles, nor did he make them equal to the Apostles; yet the same principle of derivation, and consequently the reference of authority back to its very fountain, Christ, certainly holds for them too: « He who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me; and he who despises me, despises him who sent me » (Luke X. 1, 16).

3°. The college of the twelve Apostles itself, though not yet fully constituted in its final form and perfection, was nevertheless already being prepared by Christ the Lord, during his mortal life, for this full constitution, chiefly as regards the hierarchical order.

a) As long as the visible Lord and Master himself was living with the Apostles, there was neither place nor need for another visible head, or center and bond of unity. But on every occasion Christ himself warns and foretells that for the future time after his departure, one of them is to be set up over them and above them as greater, first, leader (ἡγούμενον) in the kingdom of God on earth. Whenever he speaks of his departure from the Apostles, almost always a question arises among them: « which of them seemed to be the greater? » They therefore did not yet know any « greater » among themselves, but they were quite certain that one would be such for the time of the constituted kingdom of Christ on earth. In the Lord's answers to these questions, three things are usually contained, explicitly or implicitly: that no one as yet is constituted greater among them, and that he alone is their leader and master (ὁ καθηγητής); that, however, someone from among them is to be constituted greater and leader in his place, when he will no longer be visibly with them; and that the ministry he gives, in the exercise of power, is very different from the ambitious domination of princes among the nations, so that the leader, although greater in power, nevertheless in humility feels himself the minister of all, after the example of the Lord and Master himself. That is, he exercises the power of the greater not for his own advantage and ambition, but for the common fruit and salvation in the kingdom of God. « And there was also a strife among them, which of them seemed to be the greater (for that time, namely, when what Christ said was to come to pass: the Son of man goes, according to what is determined; from which prediction this strife arose). And he said to them: the kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have power are called benefactors ⁶. But you not so; but let him that is greater among you become as the younger, and he that is the leader as the minister. For which is greater, he that sits at table, or he that serves? is not it he that sits at table? but I am in the midst of you as he that serves » (Luke XXII. 24 ff.; cf. Matt. XX. 24–28; Mark X. 42–45). « The Lord and Master » (John XIII. 13, 14, 16) sets himself up as the example in both respects, first with regard to true power and authority. There will therefore be in the kingdom of God someone among the Apostles who is greater and leader (ὁ μείζων, ὁ ἡγούμενος), together with power and authority; which also appears from the opposition between leader and minister, greater and lesser, for he who in fact will be greater and leader is to be as the lesser and the minister, not in fact and power but in the manner of his exercise. Lastly, this is clear from the comparison drawn between the greater and the leader in the kingdom of God and the true power with its perverse exercise among the kings of the nations. Therefore the Lord, secondly, sets himself up as the example as regards the exercise of power in his kingdom. The Lord often repeats the same promise and warning about the future primacy of one, and about the manner of its exercise: « If anyone wishes to be first (πρῶτος), he shall be the last of all and the minister of all » (Mark IX. 33, 34). He had spoken of the true authority of the Pharisees and scribes, insofar as « they sat on the chair of Moses »; from this he infers: « all things, therefore, whatsoever they shall say to you (ὅσα ἐὰν εἴπωσιν ὑμῖν τηρεῖν), observe and do. » Then indeed he rebukes their manner of exercising authority and their works: for they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, do all their works that they may be seen by men, love (φιλοῦσι, with ambition and pride) the first places at table, the first seats, greetings in the marketplace, and to be called Rabbi by men (καλεῖσθαι ῥαββί, ῥαββί). From this he passes to authority, and to the manner of exercising it in his own kingdom: « But you, do not be called Rabbi; for one is your Master (ὑμῶν ὁ καθηγητής), and all you are brothers; and call no one father upon earth, for one is your Father, who is in heaven; nor be called masters (καθηγηταί), for one is your Master (ὁ καθηγητής), Christ. He who is greater among you (ὁ δὲ μείζων ὑμῶν) shall be your minister » (Matt. XXIII. 8–11; cf. XVIII. 1; Luke IX. 46 f.). Thus there is one Master, Christ, in a twofold way: one visible Master for the time in which he spoke, of his visible presence on earth; and one Master for all future time, for which he chiefly spoke. For all authentic magisterium and all power (τὸ καθηγεμονικόν) in his kingdom is only a participation derived from him, and this external teaching has no efficacy except from his internal teaching; therefore « all shall be taught by God » (θεοδίδακτοι, cf. Tract. de Trad., ed. 2, p. 107 ff.). Just as there is one Master, Christ, so there is one Father in heaven, in the sense, namely, of eminence (καθ' ὑπεροχήν). This does not exclude but includes, just as in the natural order so in the kingdom of Christ, fatherhood and teaching through participation. Therefore the Lord adds, « He who is greater among you »; yet this very thing is not for pharisaic pride « (do not be called Rabbi) », but for ministry unto salvation « (shall be your minister). »

b) This greater, first, leader among and over the Apostles the Lord, in this stage of his mortal and bodily presence, had not yet constituted, but he clearly designated Simon, and prepared the very reality of this primacy, and declared its ground and manner.

This preparation is already contained in Simon's very first calling, when Jesus gave him the name Peter, or foundation: « Jesus, looking upon him, said: You are Simon the son of Jona; you shall be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter » (John I. 42). In the choice, and again in the mission of the twelve Apostles, this name Peter is noted more expressly; and by reason of this name and of the thing signified, Peter is not only everywhere placed first in order, but is also explicitly declared first among the Apostles. « He chose twelve of them, whom also he named Apostles: Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, James, and John » etc. (Luke VI. 14). « And calling together his twelve disciples he gave them power over unclean spirits ... Now the names of the twelve Apostles are these: the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James ... These twelve Jesus sent » (Matt. X. 2 ff.; Mark III. 16). By the facts themselves the Lord set him apart from the other Apostles as leader. Not only among those whom he admitted to a special confidence is Peter everywhere noted as first, but the divine Master seems to act almost always with him alone, above the rest. At the raising of Jairus's daughter, « he did not allow anyone to enter with him but Peter, and James, and John »; at the transfiguration, « he took with him Peter, and James, and John ... But Peter and those who were with him (Πέτρος καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ) ⁷ were heavy with sleep; and waking they saw his majesty ... Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here »; at the agony on the Mount of Olives, « he took with him Peter, and James, and John ... and he came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter: Simon, are you sleeping? could you not watch one hour with me? watch and pray » (Luke VIII. 51; IX. 28 ff.; Mark XIV. 33 ff.). He bids Peter let down the nets for a catch of fishes, and when « astonishment had seized him, and all who were with him (πάντας τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ), and likewise James and John ... Jesus said to Simon: Fear not; from now on you shall be a catcher of men » ⁸ (Luke V. 10). When the Apostles, seeing Jesus walking on the sea, were troubled and said it was a phantom, « Peter, answering (to the word of the Lord, It is I, fear not), said: Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you upon the waters; and he said: Come ... and immediately Jesus, stretching out his hand, took hold of him » (Matt. XIV. 28). When those collecting the didrachma (the temple tax) ask, « Does not your master pay the didrachma? », the Son of God works a miracle to pay it for himself and for Peter at once, as one juridical person together with him: take the fish, « and when you have opened its mouth you will find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and for you » ⁹ (Matt. XVII. 27).

These first outlines, as it were, of the greater, first, leader among the Apostles are not to be considered singly but all together, so that they may finally be understood as converging on the explicit declaration of this primacy. For the Lord Christ, in the last year of his preaching, when he first began to foretell to the disciples his departure, his passion and death (Mark VIII. 31–33), and a few days before he displayed his glorification in the transfiguration on the mountain, and again at the last supper, when he was about to pass from this world, promised in plain words and with solemn testimony that he would build his Church upon Peter alone, chosen from all the Apostles, a name then first used in the Gospels for the Church; and that in this one city of God, to be built so upon the rock that the gates of hell would never prevail against it, since it is an eternal kingdom which will not be given to another nation, and Christ himself will reign in the house of Jacob for ever, he would give to this same Peter the supreme power of the keys, to loose and to bind whatever pertains to that visible kingdom of heaven on earth, so that just as this kingdom itself, begun on earth, looks to the consummated kingdom in heaven, so also the power looks to that end and has force and value in relation to it (Matt. XVI. 18). The reason for the rock and for the promised power of the keys in the kingdom of heaven is explained according to one¹⁰ inner element at the last supper, when Christ, the corner stone and foundation, promises of himself that he will so strengthen Peter's faith that through Peter he will confirm the brethren, that is, the whole brotherhood in the world that is to be strengthened in faith (1 Pet. V. 9), that is, the whole Church; and thus the Church, founded upon the rock, will be the pillar and firmament of truth (Luke XXII. 32). But since these things are already a declaration of the inner reason of the kingdom of God on earth, according to its monarchical form, we must treat of them elsewhere, in the explanation of the very constitution¹¹ of the Church.

4°. When Christ promised and prepared the supreme power in the city of God, in the kingdom of heaven, to be future in one first and leader, and designated Simon Peter for this, he certainly did not dissolve the college of the twelve Apostles. But just as then it was one under Christ as visible head, so he willed its unity to be firm and to be preserved for all future time, as long as the Church persists against which the gates of hell will not prevail; and therefore also in apostolic succession, under one visible head substituted for himself, with vicarious and participated power. Hence, a short time after the promise of that supreme power of the keys made to Peter alone, before all and over all the Apostles, Christ also declares the power of sacred rule in the Church, insofar as it is to be constituted in the apostolic college, not separately from Peter, but together with Peter and in subordination under him, just as this subordination is already contained in the promise made earlier to Peter alone ¹².

It is manifest that by Christ the Lord, Matt. XVIII. 17, 18, judicial power and power of rule in general for and in the Church is designated as future; but the question is to whom in the Church that power is to be conferred, and what is, as they are wont to say, its determinate subject. The whole discourse of Christ in that chapter of Matthew (compare Mark IX. 34 ff.) is directed to the Apostles. « In that hour the disciples (οἱ μαθηταί) came to Jesus » (Matt.); « sitting down, he called the twelve » (τοὺς δώδεκα) (Mark). To this college of twelve disciples, in the course of his discourse, he announces among other things the matters that now concern us. « If your brother shall offend against you, go and rebuke him ... if he will not hear you, take with you yet one or two more ... And if he will not hear them, tell the Church; and if he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as the heathen and the publican. Amen I say to you, whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven. » In those words, tell the Church; if he will not hear the Church, there is signified a judgment and a juridical sentence to be pronounced by the Church, so that the obstinate may be excluded as heathens and publicans, in contrast to the private correction from the duty of charity, which is treated in the immediately preceding verses. But such juridical power already presupposes, of itself, not the whole Church as subject of power, but certain persons in the Church who are invested with that right and office, and this by no one other than the very author of the Church, who here speaks and announces the institution to come in the Church ¹³. But there is no need for this deduction, since the meaning of the name Church is clearly determined by the words themselves in the immediately following context: amen I say to you (to the Apostles, τοὺς δώδεκα), whatever you bind, whatever you loose upon earth, shall be bound, loosed in heaven. In the preceding verses the Church is indicated less explicitly as binding and loosing; here that power is explicitly promised to those twelve alone, the Apostolic college in the Church, that is, for all future times as long as the Church persists. So the question is about ordinary power, and power to be propagated to the succession of the Apostolic college, as already promised by Christ the founder to be ordained and disposed with Peter and under Peter; for extraordinary power, which was in the individual Apostles and does not pass to successors, must be established not from this and similar passages but from elsewhere. Moreover, the words of Christ, whatever you bind, whatever you loose, certainly refer also to the judicial power indicated in the immediately preceding verses, and include it, but they extend much more widely to the government of the Church, of which we shall speak in their proper places.

Therefore, just as the hierarchy under one visible head was prepared by Christ the Lord, while still living his mortal life with the Apostles, to preserve unity in the Apostolic college itself, as we saw a little while ago, so in the same stage of mortal life the whole Church was predisposed, so that the one Church itself, for the preservation of unity, is distinguished according to that part which has the power of binding and loosing, and according to that part which is not the subject but only the object and end of that same power. The Church that rules and the Church that is ruled are not two Churches but one Church, with members unequal in rights and duties, distinguished by Christ the founder himself.

III. The economy in the preaching of Christ the Lord appears manifestly so arranged that, just as hierarchical authority and unity in the Church, of which we have spoken, so also universality, the abolition of the synagogue of the one Jewish people, and the substitution of the Church of all nations, were prepared and preformed in the mortal life of Christ, yet not consummated before the sanction of the new Testament through the death of the testator and the effusion of his blood (cf. Luke XXII. 20; Heb. IX. 15 ff.). Of his own personal preaching the Lord declares: « I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel » (Matt. XV. 24). At the same time he declares, concerning his death: « I lay down my life for my sheep; and I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and them I must bring » (John X. 16). He prefigures this future universality of the fold in the facts and deeds of his mortal life: in the calling of the Magi to adore the King of the Jews, whose star they had seen in the east (Matt. II); in the commendation, confirmation, and hearing of the faith, both of the Samaritans (John IV; Luke XVII. 18), and of the Syrophoenician woman (Matt. XV. 28), and of the centurion asking the healing of his servant (Matt. VIII. 5 ff.), and of other Gentiles (John XII. 20, 23); in the first fruits of the confession of the Gentiles (the centurion and those with him), already in the very death of Christ, according to the symbolic preaching, in the languages of the Gentiles of the Roman world and through it of the whole world, inscribed on the standard of the cross (Matt. XXVII. 54; Luke XXIII. 38).

Moreover, during the time of his mortal life the Lord commends, by word and deed, the sanctity of the Temple at Jerusalem, the observance of the ceremonial law, and the authority of those teaching the law of Moses in the chair of Moses (Matt. XXI. 12, 13; XXIII. 2, 3, 17–21, 23; XXVI. 18; John II. 16; V. 35; XVIII. 20). But at the same time he announces that the time is near when the Temple at Jerusalem will no longer be the sanctuary of public worship and sacrifices; the house of that old economy will be deserted; the city, with its temple as the seat of Mosaic worship, will be destroyed by perpetual desolation; and the kingdom of God is to be taken from the Jews. Hence he declares and promises that a new, universal economy is to be substituted for the particular old one: for public worship will not be restricted to one place, but is to be celebrated everywhere; the kingdom of God will be given to a nation that bears its fruit; the Gospel will be preached as a testimony to all nations; many will come from east and west into the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the kingdom will be cast out into exterior darkness (Matt. VIII. 11, 12; XXI. 43; XXIII. 38; XXIV. 2, 14, 15; John IV. 21–24). What Christ foretells in words, he shows in particular deeds: the transformation of the synagogue. For the judicial Mosaic law he substitutes mercy ready for penitents, in the absolution of the adulteress (John VIII. 8, 11). He takes into his communion among the faithful the one cast out of the synagogue (John IX. 22, 35–38; cf. XVI. 2). He shows the old liturgical and ceremonial law as subject to himself as lawgiver, changeable and to be changed, because he is « greater than the temple, » and « the Lord also of the Sabbath » (Matt. XII. 6, 8).

By the same reasoning by which the preaching of the Savior himself, directed immediately to the sheep of the house of Israel, at the same time preformed the universal Church, the mission of the Apostles, too, though in this earlier stage still particular, contained the preparation of the future universal mission, after the redemption was accomplished, for establishing the kingdom of God among all nations. « These twelve Jesus sent, commanding them, saying: go not into the way of the Gentiles, and enter not into the cities of the Samaritans; but go rather to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. » This preaching is enjoined: « the kingdom of heaven is at hand »; but since this kingdom will be not only among the sheep of the house of Israel, but among the nations, and will be the promised kingdom of the Son of man, the Lord soon adds: « You shall be led before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations ... amen I say to you, you shall not finish the cities of Israel till the Son of man come » (Matt. X. 5–7, 18, 23). When he himself foretells his death for the redemption of the world, he declares that this coming of the Son of man is the coming of his kingdom: « Amen I say to you, there are some of those standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom », or as in Luke, « till they see the kingdom of God », and in Mark, « till they see the kingdom of God coming in power » (Matt. XVI. 28; Mark VIII. 39; Luke IX. 27). « Because some of the disciples were to live so long in the body that they would see the Church of God built and raised against the glory of this world, by a consoling promise it is now said: there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God » (St. Gregory the Great, in Evang., hom. 32, n. 6).

IV. Just as the external form of authority and of hierarchical distinction, of the visible unity and universality of the Church, such as was to be constituted for all future time, was still contained in promise and preparation, so also the internal charisms and gifts of the Holy Spirit, whether considered in the individual Apostles or in all of them in unity, had not yet in this earlier stage been conferred in their fullness. They were still promised as the price of Christ's blood, and before the redemption was complete were only partly tasted in advance, as it were by way of a pledge. « For the Spirit was not yet given (in the promised fullness), because Jesus was not yet glorified » (John VII. 39). « It is expedient for you that I go; for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you ... I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now; but when that Spirit of truth comes, he will teach you all truth » (ibid. XVI. 7 ff.). St. Gregory Nazianzen declares this donation of the Holy Spirit, by certain stages, as follows: « The Spirit was given to the disciples in three ways, and as much as they could receive, according to three times: before Christ was glorified by the passion; after he was glorified by the resurrection; after his ascension into heaven. » The first donation, as Gregory continues there, was more hidden, for the expulsion of diseases and demons (Matt. X); the second more manifest, by insufflation for the remission and retention of sins (John XX); the third in a certain way substantial (οὐσιωδῶς, as one might say), namely in visible form, in tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost, and with the effect of the fullness of gifts (Gregory Naz., Orat. 41, al. 44, n. 11).

In the economy of redemption, then, Christ the Savior first merited, by the price of his blood, the very sanctification of the world and therefore the full constitution of his Church, which is the sanctified world; and therefore he reserved it to the work of the Holy Spirit, whose mission, as the proximate cause of the full building of the Church, is thereby understood as the principal effect of the merits of Christ, containing in itself, as in a beginning, all the other effects for the kingdom of grace and of truth. « As the Savior, coming, became the fulfilment of the law and the prophets, so the fulfilment of the Gospel is the Holy Spirit. Christ coming established what is from the Father, namely the things said in the law and the prophets; therefore Paul says, Christ is the fulfilment of the law. The Holy Spirit coming fulfilled the things of the Gospel. Whatever is in the law, Christ fulfils; whatever is in the teaching of Christ, the Spirit fulfils ... The Son fulfils the things of the Father, and does not speak of himself; the Spirit fulfils the things of the Son, and does not speak of himself » ¹⁴ (Serm. de Spir. S., among the works of Chrysostom, ed. Maurin., T. III, pp. 808, 809). Atonement for the world comes first, in the work of mercy through the death of the incarnate Son of God; the sanctification of the redeemed world, through the full constitution of the Church in all graces and gifts, follows from that death as a work of love, and is therefore appropriated to the Spirit of holiness and sanctification. « Why did the Spirit not come before he departed? Because the curse was not yet removed, sin not yet loosed, but all were still liable to punishment; for that reason he did not come. He himself (Christ) could do these things, but he allows him (the Spirit) to work miracles, so that they may learn his dignity ... For this reason he himself was made flesh, reserving the operation for the Spirit » ¹⁵ (Chrysostom, in John, hom. 78, al. 77, n. 3).

Thus from Christ himself as head, in his still mortal life and before his blood was poured out as the price of acquisition (Acts XX. 28), we see the institution of the Church begun and preformed, both according to its external and conspicuous form and according to its internal and spiritual form, or, as Paul says (Eph. IV. 4), according to the unity of body and spirit. The visible form is established by Christ himself in visible authority, which living men are to exercise, on the one hand, and thereby the obedience of faith (which is founded in faith and exercised by faith) toward that same authority, on the other, by which the whole body and society of the faithful is contained and ruled. For those who exercise the authority communicated to them by Christ are themselves, constituted together into one body, bound in turn to obedience of faith toward a higher authority. While Christ himself was still visible on earth, the one leader and master (εἷς ὁ καθηγητής) teaches, rules, and holds together the whole body of teachers and of the obedient by his supreme authority, and comprises all of it in himself, communicating to the Apostles only for particular ends and as it were at intervals. But by these very acts of communication, and by explicit promises, he prepares the Apostles and the whole Church for a fuller and perennial communication of his authority, by which, since he would no longer visibly converse with men, he would substitute both one vicar in the supreme power and, in hierarchically arranged power, all the Apostles and the Apostolic college joined in unity. By this substitution and communication it comes about that the one Master, Christ, through the visible authority instituted in his legates (2 Cor. V. 20), himself perennially teaches, rules, and holds together his Church. To this full institution of the Church of Christ, whose preparation we have considered so far, we are now led by the very order of doctrine.