Summa de Ecclesia

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So great is the abundance of gifts and graces with which the universal Church herself is endowed in her diverse members, and so disposed wisely with such admirable beauty of order, in sum girt about so beautifully with such variety, that the plenty of her perfection and the excellence of her dignity could not be unfolded by one name alone, but had to be unfolded by many names. Hence divine Scripture, speaking of the Church, is said to have compared her to many things, of which we shall add a few but more excellent examples, that the excellence of her virtues and the depth of her mysteries may be more fully known. But we shall set forth the reasons of the following names from the amplest number of many by which we read her named in Holy Scripture according to the literal or mystical understanding: heaven, earth, field, net, vineyard, garden, fount, well, ship, house, city, kingdom, temple, tabernacle, woman, beloved, dove, perfect one, daughter, bride, spouse, queen, sister of Christ.

In the psalm the Church is called heaven, according to Isa. ult.: heaven is my seat. Treating this word, holy Augustine on psal. 121 says thus: heaven is my seat; who are these but the just, who are heaven, themselves heavens — as the Church, themselves churches, though many, is one? So therefore the just are so heaven as to be heaven; but in them God sits, and from them God judges — thus Aug.

But the Church is called heaven for a twofold reason. First by reason of the divine indwelling; for heaven is so called, as Papias says, as it were the house of helios, that is, of God. Mark 5: heaven is the throne of God; and Matt. 6: our Father who art in the heavens — the Gloss: that is, in the saints. Secondly by reason of adornment: for just as heaven is adorned with the variety of stars and lights, according to Eccl. 43: the beauty of heaven is the glory of the stars, enlightening the world — so the holy universal Church shines with the admirable variety of many virtues and gifts. Hence Isidore: heaven is spiritually called the Church, which in the night of this life gleams with the examples and virtues of the saints as with the brightness of the stars. Here blessed Ambrose on the psalm, Blessed are the undefiled, says: therefore the Church is called heaven, because she has saints to be compared to angels and archangels.

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Moreover, secondly, the Church is called earth, according to psal. 99: sing joyfully to God, all the earth; serve the Lord in gladness — and this for a twofold reason. First by reason of firmness, according to psal. 103: thou hast founded the earth upon its stability; it shall not be moved forever and ever — the Gloss, and it is Aug.'s: the earth, that is, the Church, upon its stability, that is, Christ; and therefore she shall not be moved forever and ever, for nothing is firmer than that foundation. Secondly the Church is called earth by reason of fruitfulness. Hence the Gregorian Gloss on Gen. 1, the earth brought forth the green herb, says thus: for the earth is the Church, which refreshes us with the food of the word and guards us with the shelter of patronage — feeding by speaking, protecting by aiding — so that she brings forth not only the herb of refreshment but also the tree of protection. Likewise the Gloss on psal. 23 says thus: the earth is the Lord's and its fullness, that is, of Christ who is the Lord of lords; the earth is, that is, the fruitful Church. This is the good earth upon which the seed of the Gospel fell and brought forth fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

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Thirdly the Church is called a field, according to Matt. 13: the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field — and this on account of a certain fellowship and mixture, or unity, which the evil have with the good in faith and sacraments. For just as the tares or unclean crops are mingled in the field with the wheat, so in the universal Church in the present state the evil are mingled with the good. Of whom in psal. 54: he shall redeem in peace my soul from those who draw near to me, for among many, that is, in many things, they were with me — where the Gloss, which seems to be Augustine's, says thus: from those who draw near to me, that is, from feigned Christians who deceive more than open idolaters. They draw near therefore in name and not in divinity, in body and not in mind, in number not in merit — and they truly draw near, since they were in many things, namely in the sacraments, with me, namely in faith, in baptism, in the reading of the Gospel, in feasts and the like; and they were not with me in few things: in all the sacraments with me, but not in faith, hope, and charity, without which all things are nothing, as below. And well does he say with me: for the chaff is also near the wheat; from one seed they are born, in one field they are rooted up, by one rain they are nourished, under the same reaper they are gathered, they use the same threshing, they await the same winnowing — but they do not enter into one barn — thus the Gloss.

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Likewise, fourthly, the Church is said to be named a net, Matt. 13: the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea and gathering of every kind of fishes — and this for a twofold reason. For first the net is so called because with apostolic teaching she labors to draw all nations from the waves of the world to heaven. Secondly because after the likeness of a net she will separate, on the shore, that is, at the end of the world, the good and the evil whom she now contains indifferently in the sea of this world. Hence Gregory in his homily: the holy Church is compared to a net cast into the sea and gathering of every kind of fishes, because now she holds in common, as fishes mingled together, the good and the evil by the net of faith; but the shore of the holy Church, that is, the end, shows what the net draws.