Marks of the Church
About a week ago, Father V. over at Adam’s Ale had a post about the Creeds. It made me reflect on the importance of our most well known prayers; The Lord’s Prayer, The Hail Mary, and The Apostle’s Creed. When St. Thomas Aquinas gave a series of Lenten sermons on these three prayers back in 1273, he recognized that they contain a complete Christian education.
Every Sunday at Mass we stand together and recite the Nicene Creed. We announce to the world what we know to be the unchanging truth professed by the Catholic Church. The Nicene Creed is a summary of the Deposit of Faith as handed on to the Church from Christ Himself through His Apostles. Toward the end are the words, “I believe in the one holy catholic and Apostolic Church.
These words refer to what are traditionally known as the “Four Marks of the Church.” It is these marks that make it possible for us to recognize it as the one true Church, willed by the Father, founded by Jesus Christ, and forever guided and protected by the Holy Spirit.
Because these “marks” of the one true Church are so interrelated, they can be considered inseparable. They form a coherent ideal of what Christ’s Church must be. The unity, or oneness, of the Church is a universal unity of faith and hope; it is apostolic unity and a unity of holiness.
The Church is one whenever we all join together to profess the same faith. We are united through the saving sacrifice of Christ offered during Mass. We celebrate the same sacraments and are joined together under the leadership of the Holy Father.
As the visible sign and sacrament of Christ on earth, The Church is holy because Christ is holy. It teaches what Jesus taught and it calls each of us to holiness. Through the sacraments, instituted by Christ, and celebrated in unity, we receive the graces to live a Christian life.
The Church is “catholic” which means universal. It exists for all people and teaches the same doctrines. Geographical location and local custom do not change the doctrines entrusted to the Church.
Finally, the church is apostolic. The mission of the Church was given to the Apostles. These Apostles in turn appointed successors who appointed more successors and so on, until the present. When we call the Church “apostolic”, we are really saying the teaching of Jesus Christ, given to the apostles who were “sent forth”, is the very same as we teach today.
About a week ago, Father V. over at Adam’s Ale had a post about the Creeds. It made me reflect on the importance of our most well known prayers; The Lord’s Prayer, The Hail Mary, and The Apostle’s Creed. When St. Thomas Aquinas gave a series of Lenten sermons on these three prayers back in 1273, he recognized that they contain a complete Christian education.
Every Sunday at Mass we stand together and recite the Nicene Creed. We announce to the world what we know to be the unchanging truth professed by the Catholic Church. The Nicene Creed is a summary of the Deposit of Faith as handed on to the Church from Christ Himself through His Apostles. Toward the end are the words, “I believe in the one holy catholic and Apostolic Church.
These words refer to what are traditionally known as the “Four Marks of the Church.” It is these marks that make it possible for us to recognize it as the one true Church, willed by the Father, founded by Jesus Christ, and forever guided and protected by the Holy Spirit.
Because these “marks” of the one true Church are so interrelated, they can be considered inseparable. They form a coherent ideal of what Christ’s Church must be. The unity, or oneness, of the Church is a universal unity of faith and hope; it is apostolic unity and a unity of holiness.
The Church is one whenever we all join together to profess the same faith. We are united through the saving sacrifice of Christ offered during Mass. We celebrate the same sacraments and are joined together under the leadership of the Holy Father.
As the visible sign and sacrament of Christ on earth, The Church is holy because Christ is holy. It teaches what Jesus taught and it calls each of us to holiness. Through the sacraments, instituted by Christ, and celebrated in unity, we receive the graces to live a Christian life.
The Church is “catholic” which means universal. It exists for all people and teaches the same doctrines. Geographical location and local custom do not change the doctrines entrusted to the Church.
Finally, the church is apostolic. The mission of the Church was given to the Apostles. These Apostles in turn appointed successors who appointed more successors and so on, until the present. When we call the Church “apostolic”, we are really saying the teaching of Jesus Christ, given to the apostles who were “sent forth”, is the very same as we teach today.
When reflected upon, these marks of the true Church strengthen our faith and give us hope. Next Sunday, take Father V’s advice and really listen to what you are saying while reciting this profession of our faith, and know that the Holy Spirit is guiding and protecting the Church Christ founded for our salvation.
6 comments:
Just like the Nicene Creed cohesively expresses the Catholic faith and its historicity, there are other assertions that synopsize crucial portions of Catholic worship.
The first one that comes to mind are the two greatest commandments Jesus spoke about: 1) Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength.
2) Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
As I'm sure you've heard, all of scripture is summed up in those two commandments.
The other one comes at the Doxology and the great Amen portion of the mass: "Through him, with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever. Amen."
There is NO literature anywhere that I've come across that more succinctly and beautifully describes the Holy Trinity.
re apostolic: Sometimes people say to me that Jesus didn't mean this or that when he said so and so. My respone is always, perhaps not, but that's the way the apostles understood it and we are a Church built on the apostles (apostolic) .. and so that's the way we understand it. If we accepted your interpretation, Daryl, we would be a Darylic Church.
Hi Adrienne - tag on this book meme.
Good post. In my Presbyterian Church, we say either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed every Sunday. Part of what attracts me about Catholicism is not having to strain to come up with a way to explain why we affirm "one holy catholic and apostolic church" while we are our own relatively small (and shrinking) denomination.
Keep up the good work.
Great information and idea to really listen to each word that we so quickly rattle off. I love Fr. John's explanation with resulting
"Darylic" church. :-)
In the Trent Catechism it very concisely explains the meaning of the affirmation of "I believe [] the Catholic Church" - for one cannot have faith by believing in something that is plain for all to see (that is knowledge, not belief), but there is the merit of faith to believe the Church in what she proclaims, because Jesus said whoever hears you hears me...
Thus, as St. Thomas says, the man who rejects a single article of the faith has not living or dead faith, but no faith at all, because he believes according to his own judgment, not because he trusts the God who reveals through His Church (see Summa IIa IIae, Qq5)
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