Section 4
COMMUNITY IN THE CHURCH
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! (Psalm 133:1).
The context of salvation is communal. St. Jude refers to this in passing:
Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation . . . (Jude 3).
Although the experience of conversion to Christ is an intensely personal one, it does not come about in isolation, but in the company of others who also have turned their backs on the world and embraced Jesus. Indeed, before we are able to make a decision to give our lives to the Lord, we must have heard of Him:
How can they believe unless they have heard of him? And how can they hear unless there is someone to preach? (Romans 10:14 NAB).
Normally some other believer has to tell us the good news, whether individually, in an assembly, or through writing or another means of communication. Once we believe, we are received into the community of believers through Baptism:
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13).
We need other Christians to support us in our new-found faith, for we have turned away from the world and no longer have any support from the world:
“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own; the reason it hates you is that you do not belong to the world. But I chose you out of the world” (John 15:19 NAB).
Hopefully, we, in turn, will desire to bring God’s word to others and support others in the community, whether through prayer, fellowship or hands-on help:
All who believed were together and had all things in common; and they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. . . . And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:44-46,47).
The community of believers were of one heart and one mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather everything was held in common (Acts 4:32 NAB).
It is just good common sense that two will succeed where one will fail:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they are warm; but how can one be warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
So we see that salvation takes place in a communal setting and that the community provides support. But is the community of the Church necessary for salvation? To answer this we must reflect on the very heart of God, the mystery of the Holy Trinity:
God is love (1 John 4:8).
God’s very nature is to love. The mutual love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is complete in every way. Nor can God help loving us and all the creatures He has made. In addition, he has created us with the capacity to love as He loves. Our sins severely damage or even destroy our capacity to love. This is why God hates sin—because it is an obstacle to love, directly opposed to His very nature. Jesus restored our capacity to love by His sacrificial Passion and Death on the cross, the ultimate expression of love.
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).
Our salvation depends on our response to this incredible love; on how we love God and neighbor in return:
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered right; do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:25- 28).
St. John clarifies this love of God further:
One who has no love for the brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen (1 John 4:20 NAB).
So the first point, then, is that our salvation depends on our love of God and our love of our brothers and sisters in the human family. This is because God is love and has made us like Himself.
The second point is that love tends toward union:
When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. . . . Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul (1 Samuel 18:1,3).
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:31- 32).
We cannot draw close to God without drawing close to each other. If two or three people were to come to meet you at the center of a room, they would at the same time have come close to each other. Similarly, when our loving Father draws His children to Himself, they are by that action drawn together with each other.
The argument, in brief, is as follows:
- If we must love God and one another to be saved;
- and if love always draws us together in union with the beloved;
then it follows that we must be united with our Christian brothers and sisters in order to be saved.
That is to say, “common unity” or community is necessary for salvation.
But the Body of Christ is much more than a support group. There is a deep oneness among Christians which springs from the unity of the Most Holy Trinity.
There are many kinds of unity. We have all experienced limited “oneness” with others, perhaps agreement in some particular interest. Two people can be united in their politics, or in their temperament, or in a project they are working on.
God is a “community” or “family” of three Persons, united so totally in love, in mind, heart, spirit and in every other way as to be One God. Trinity means “Tri-unity” or “unity of the Three.” Since we have been created in the image and likeness of God, we also have “community-ness” built into us.
Because of sin, we have become divided, isolated from one another and from God. This shattering of community is so great a tragedy that Jesus died to repair it. Only hours before His Passion, Jesus prayed:
“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20-21).
Jesus hates division, anything that breaks the unity of love.
St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, ranks discord or dissension within the Body of Christ among the worst of sins:
I beg you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree in what you say. Let there be no factions; rather, be united in mind and judgment. I have been informed, my brothers, by certain members of Chloe’s household that you are quarreling among yourselves (1 Corinthians 1:10-11 NAB).
While there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? (1 Corinthians 3:3).
It is obvious what proceeds from the flesh: lewd conduct, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, bickering, jealousy, outbursts of rage, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I have warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! (Galatians 5:19-21 NAB).
Unity, like the unity of the Holy Trinity, is brought about only by the Holy Spirit:
Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the Spirit as its origin and peace as its binding force. There is but one body and one Spirit (Ephesians 4:3 NAB).
What is the unity of believers like? One of the best comparisons we can make is to the human body.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12).
The members of the Body are equal in dignity, value and worth:
Even those members of the body which seem less important are in fact indispensable. . . . God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to the lowly members, that there may be no dissension in the body, but that all the members may be concerned for one another. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members share its joy. You, then, are the body of Christ. Every one of you is a member of it (1 Corinthians 12:22,24-27 NAB).
The members differ, however in their function or position in the Body.
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all the members have the same function, so too we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another (Romans 12:4-5 NAB).
Different members may have very different gifts according to their place in the Body:
And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12).
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles or have the gift of healing? Do all speak in tongues, all have the gift of interpretation of tongues? (1 Corinthians 12:29-30 NAB).
It is essential to the proper working of the Body that each member accept its niche in the “ecology” of the Body. To attempt to deny one’s true identity and take another’s part only leads to trouble. Let’s say God has created one member to be a hand, and given it all the resources to be a good hand. What if this member decides it wants to be an ear and could place itself where the ear should be? We would call the result grotesque, monstrous, unnatural. It would not be a good ear or a good hand, and the whole body would suffer as a result. And so it is in the Body of Christ.
Our attitude, to be in the spirit of community, in the spirit of love, must be oriented toward others and away from self:
I try to please all in any way I can by seeking, not my own advantage, but that of the many, that they may be saved (1 Corinthians 10:33 NAB).
Since you have set your hearts on spiritual gifts, try to be rich in those that build up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12 NAB).
Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others (Philippians 2:2-4).
* * *
The oneness of the Body of Christ is both invisible and visible. In Jesus Christ, everything, visible and invisible, material and spiritual, is brought into one:
God has given us the wisdom to understand fully the mystery, the plan he was pleased to decree in Christ, to be carried out in the fullness of time: namely, to bring all things in the heavens and on earth into one under Christ’s headship (Ephesians 1:9-10 NAB).
Just as Jesus the Head is both human and divine, so is His Body, the Church a marvelous composite of two realms (see Colossians 1:18).
To say either that the Church is only invisible or only visible would be to miss this fundamental truth. Those who see only a human institution are blind to the underlying union of heart, mind and spirit which is the foundation of the visible structure. Those who believe in a Church that exists only in the realm of the spirit forget that we are whole human beings with bodies as well as souls, that we are meant to dwell for a while in the material world.
All those who are in union with Jesus are also in union with each other. This is why forgiveness is so important. If I am not in union with my brother, I cannot be in union with Christ. It also works the other way: if I am not in union with Jesus, I cannot have real union with my brother.
This union in Christ is a communion in love. It is a union of mind as well, a union of faith and belief. It is a union that encompasses all boundaries; even death is not a barrier to this “communion of the saints”:
For I am sure that neither death . . . nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38,39).
Catholics believe that this union of all the saints becomes deepest during the Mass when we receive Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ. This is the moment when we are closest to Jesus and to those who are one with Him, whether our brother next to us, our sister on the other side of the earth, or our loved one who has died in Christ.
Every act of love benefits the whole Body; every sinful act wounds the whole Body. We can benefit others in the Body of Christ by beseeching God on their behalf; they in turn can intercede to God for us.
We can especially turn to Mary, the mother of Jesus and our mother:
Seeing his mother there with the disciple whom he loved, Jesus said to his mother, “Woman, there is your son.” In turn he said to the disciple, “There is your mother.” From that hour onward, the disciple took her into his care (John 19:26-27 NAB).
Mary’s words in the Bible are few, but they indicate her complete “yes” to God: “And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word’” (Luke 1:38).
Her advice at the wedding feast of Cana is fitting for us today: “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’” (John 2:5).
* * *
The teaching of Jesus is more than just His words. God used Jesus’ whole life to speak to us; what He said, what He did, the love with which He did everything, His character, Who He is. He spent three years, night and day, with the Twelve He had chosen, time for them to get to know Him, time to ask questions, time to watch, time to wonder, time to pray. It would be up to them to pass on His teaching after He had ascended to the right hand of the Father. Despite all of their time with Jesus, however, the apostles proved by their actions during His Passion and death that they were woefully under-prepared to take the Gospel to the whole world. It was not until they received the Holy Spirit that they were fully equipped to step into Jesus’ shoes. The Holy Spirit completed their knowledge of the deep things of God and also was always with them to refresh their memories:
“This much have I told you while I was still with you; the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will instruct you in everything, and remind you of all that I told you” (John 14:25-26 NAB).
“I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12-13).
The Holy Spirit also empowered them to be effective witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus:
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be my witnesses . . . to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
In the very early Church, before the Scriptures were written down, the preaching of the apostles was the only source of divine revelation. But after the death of the apostles, the Lord Jesus did not abandon the Church to drift without direction.
In the Catholic Church, we believe that the apostles appointed successors, who in turn appointed further successors, so that the apostolic witness to the risen Jesus has continued unbroken throughout the ages. We believe that the bishops are the present day successors to the apostles.
We further believe that Peter held a special place among the apostles:
“The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter . . .” (Matthew 10:2).
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).
We believe Peter’s office continues today in the person of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. As Vicar (stand-in) of Christ on earth, we believe that he speaks with the authority of Jesus Himself, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Recall Jesus’ words to Simon Peter:
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19).
In saying this, Jesus very likely had in mind the following verse from the prophet Isaiah:
And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open (Isaiah 22:22).
The context of this verse is the passing on of the dynasty of David from Shebna to Eliakim, suggesting that Jesus expected Peter one day to pass on the keys of the kingdom of heaven to a successor. Even though it is Peter who wields the keys on earth, it is Jesus Christ Who at the same time “‘“has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens
”’” (Revelation 3:7).
Some time after giving this authority to Peter, Jesus extended it to the other apostles:
“I assure you, whatever you declare bound on earth shall be held bound in heaven, and whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be held loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18 NAB).
Jesus desires a very complete unity for us. He died on the cross that we might be of one heart, one mind, one Spirit, professing one faith, one hope, one love:
Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul (Acts 4:32).
Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind (Philippians 2:2).
Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the Spirit as its origin and peace as its binding force. There is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope given all of you by your call. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and works through all, and is in all (Ephesians 4:3-6 NAB).
In the real world, it is not possible to have such a total unity without a visible unifying agent. The sheer number of denominations proves that the Sacred Scriptures, in themselves, are not a sufficient means for this unity. Each of these denominations was formed by someone dedicated to Jesus who was convinced that his interpretation of Scripture was the correct one. And yet there is only one faith, only one truth. Certainly Jesus would have provided the means for achieving the unity He so longed for!
Catholics believe that Peter, at the head of the apostles, and the popes in unbroken succession to this day at the head of the bishops, provide the required visible unifying agent. Catholics believe that the Pope, guided by the Holy Spirit, has supreme authority in the areas of teaching and governing the People of God.
Apostleship is passed on through the sacrament of Holy Orders. The outward sign of Holy Orders is the laying on of hands by the bishop. St. Paul refers to this in his letter of encouragement to Timothy: “I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God bestowed on you when my hands were laid on you” (2 Timothy 1:6 NAB).
There are three “degrees” to Holy Orders: bishops, who receive the fullness of the sacrament (see 1 Timothy 3:1), presbyters or priests, who are the co-workers of the bishops (see Titus 1:5), and deacons, who are not ordained to priesthood but for tasks of service (see Acts 6:1-6).
All of the baptized share in the priesthood of Jesus Who is “high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:10). The ordained priesthood is at the service of the priesthood of all the baptized by building up the Church (see Ephesians 4:11-12). The ordained priesthood acts especially in the person of Christ the Head, as opposed to another part of the Body of Christ.
Holy Orders and the Eucharist are specially interlinked. Catholics believe that only an ordained priest is able to bring the Real Presence of Jesus to the altar during Mass. Holy Thursday, therefore, the commemoration of the Last Supper, has special significance for the ordained priesthood. Just as Jesus fed the five thousand with ordinary bread through the Twelve, so He feeds us with the heavenly bread through the ordained priesthood. When we recall that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Church’s activity, the necessity of the ordained priesthood for salvation becomes apparent.
* * *
Perhaps, at this point, we are in a position to answer the questions brought up in the introduction. Can both Catholics and other Christians be saved? Will our families, though divided on earth, be together in heaven?
To answer these questions, it is useful to ask, “How deeply divided are Christians on earth?” Is there not more that unites us than divides us? Are not all Christians included in the Body of Christ, which is the Church?
According to Catholic teaching, Jesus has only one Church, the one He founded on Peter (see Matthew 16:18).
This Church . . . subsists in the Catholic Church. . . . Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and truth are found outside its visible confines (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 8).
The word “subsist” was selected carefully by the Council Fathers. It stops short of saying that the Church of Jesus is the Catholic Church, but it is much stronger than saying that the Church of Jesus merely exists within the Catholic Church. Rather,
the entirety of revealed truth, of sacraments, and of ministry that Christ gave for the building up of his Church and the carrying out of her mission is found within the Catholic communion of the Church (Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Directory for the Application of the Principles and Norms of Ecumenism, 17).
This Church is necessary for salvation (see Catechism of the Catholic Church #846). But for those who
do not have an opportunity to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church . . . salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace . . . [that] comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit (John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, Redemptoris Missio, 10).
Not all who profess faith in Jesus Christ belong fully to the Catholic Church:
“Fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church together with her entire organization” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #837)
Christians—that is those who profess belief in Christ and are baptized—who do not fully belong to the Catholic Church are accepted by Catholics as brothers in the Lord (see Catechism of the Catholic Church #818). They are joined to the Church in many ways, even though their communion with the Catholic Church is imperfect (see Catechism of the Catholic Church #838).
“Many elements of sanctification and of truth” are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: “the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #819).
Who, then, can be saved according to Catholic teaching?
“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #847).
“They could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #846).
The key word here is “knowing.” If a person “knows as true” that he should enter or remain in the Catholic Church in order to be saved, and refuses to do so, this would amount to acting against one’s conscience.
But if a man eats when his conscience has misgivings about eating, he is already condemned, because he is not acting in accordance with what he believes. Whatever does not accord with one’s belief is sinful (Romans 14:23 NAB).
Just being a member of the Catholic Church, of course, is of itself no guarantee of salvation:
“Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but ‘in body’ not ‘in heart’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #837).
NEXT | HOME | GEOCITIES