Prayer Warriors@ St Mary Help Of Christians Church, Aiken, South Carolina at 118 York Street SE, Aiken, SC 29801-4568 US - The Creed and The Church

We continue our homily series on the Apostles Creed and this week I take up the subject of the Church.  In the year 381 in Constantinople, the Church did a very significant thing.  It changed the Creed from "I believe in the holy catholic church" to "I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church."  Why?  To provide marks or signposts by which one could identify the Church founded by Christ?  Why?  Because the things of God are always more than they appear.

In our Gospel we hear, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?"  Just as the Jews tried to reduce Jesus to his parents, so people try to reduce the church to the fallible men and women who make up the Church.  The four marks of the Church remind us of something important -- there is something beyond what we see.  God is present.  Just as the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary at the Annunciation, so the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Apostles at Pentecost.  This is our starting point.  The Church is apostolic.

Why start here?  Because it is in being apostolic that the Church is also able to be catholic, holy, and one.  Apostolic is the starting point.  Jesus founded a church that is apostolic.  It is a historical fact.  It is not open to opinion.  We know that Jesus appointed apostles to lead the Church -- it's in the Bible.  We know that the apostles appointed bishops with their authority to take their place -- it's in the Bible.  We know that there still exist throughout the world bishops whose authority can be traced in an unbroken line back to the apostles.  With the help of the Holy Spirit, the Church protects and hands on the teaching it received from the Apostles.  The Church is apostolic.

The apostles and the bishops who followed them then went out to the whole world and the Church embraced all times and cultures.  This is part of what it means to say that the Church is catholic -- it is universal.  The Church is universal in its mission, and yet the rich variety of traditions in each local church throughout the world shows the splendor of a truly catholic Church.

Being catholic and apostolic gives us assurance with regards to the Church's teachings.  Any single Catholic may be wrong.  Any casual collection of Catholics may be wrong.  But when the bishops of the Catholic Church meet in a council, and sit down to decide what the true notion of the church of Christ is, something different occurs.  The bishops come from all over the world, and each testifies to what the Christian tradition in his part of the world is, and has always been as far as he know.  When that happens, their teachings are protected from being wrong by the Holy Spirit. 

So, when a Protestant friend or family member tries to insist about such things as the Bible being our sole rule of faith or that you are saved by faith alone, ask them which council of the universal church taught that.  If it has not been taught by a universal council, the claim cannot be trusted because in 381 the church taught that the church of Christ is universal or catholic. 

The teaching of a universal council speaks the mind of God to mankind.  This claim sets the catholic and apostolic church apart from other Christian churches, which is what it means to be holy.  Holy literally means "set apart".  Holy means being different even if the world won't like us.  Where is that more prevalent in the world than in the Catholic Church?  Look at the social issues of the day -- abortion, homosexuality, contraception, divorce and remarriage, euthanasia.  We are the thorn in the side of those who place materialism and glorifying themselves ahead of preserving the man's dignity.

Jesus said "woe to those who call evil "good" and good "evil."  The Church continues in the footsteps of the master and the apostles.  Be thankful that when you've lost your courage to defend the truth, that the Church stands up and says, "no, we will not call good things like marriage, children, chastity, and morality "evil," and we will not call evil things "good."

Someone might object, "What about the wicked popes who led the church just before the Reformation?  Don't be led astray.  Even when the Church was governed by people who were not good witnesses, for some reason they did not use their authority to change the teachings of Christ to sanction their poor examples.  They just lived immoral lives. 

While I was recently in England, I faced a contrasting reality.  In the 1500s, King Henry VIII made himself the head of the Church of England so that he could change the rules to justify his immorality.  Today, all across America, there are thousands of small churches each teaching different things while all claiming to speak on behalf of Christ.  How many of these churches fit the description of being one, holy, catholic and apostolic?

What sets the Catholic Church apart?  She is holy in a fascinating way.  Remember, the things of God are always more than they appear.  United with Christ and sanctified by Christ, the Church is both human and divine.  No one member of the Church is holy, but as the Body of Christ the universal Church is holy.  How can the Church maintain this holiness?  Through the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the apostles at Pentecost, and the working of that same Spirit in the life of the Church.  The Church has been entrusted with the sure means of sanctification in the Sacraments.

We see a foreshadowing of this in our first reading.  The angel commands Elijah "Get up and eat, else the journey will be to long for you!"  Elijah got up, ate the bread and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God."  We receive something even greater -- the holiness of God himself in the Eucharist and the other sacraments.  The Church is a wellspring of holiness.

So . . . the Church has a common source of authority received from the apostles through Holy Orders.  She has a catholic or universal profession of faith and morals.  And she has a common celebration of divine worship, especially the sacraments.  To say that we hold all of these things in common in another way of saying the holy catholic and apostolic Church is one.

The Catholic Church is everywhere, and the Catholic Church is the same everywhere -- that is the great mystery of her unity.  Non-Catholics probably figure that either we are brainwashed or there must be some kind of catch.  Why?  Because their experience is that they can't even keep a single congregation together for very long before someone goes off and forms their own church.  So the spectacle of a Church which has over a billion members all over the world, all believing the same doctrines, and not killing each other over their differences, makes the outside world puzzled and suspicious.  How is this possible?  The answer is an easy one.  We don't quarrel about what we believe because we are ONE in accepting the beliefs handed down from the Apostles, the same apostles overshadowed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  The true church of Christ is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.

While I was in England, the difference between following your own way or believing in the Creed was displayed in stone.  In one historic church -- Westminster Abbey -- I saw many political monuments, the tombs of kings, queens, and statesmen.  It is the place where King Henry the Eighth's successors are crowned and become the head of the Church of England.  A few blocks away in the Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral -- with monuments to God and His saints -- in the back there is a plaque that shows an unbroken line of authority from the current bishop to the bishops before the time of King Henry VIII.  It is a monument of loyalty to the successors of Peter, the head of the Church founded by Jesus Christ.  Which Church is that?   That answer was given in the year 381 -- "I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church."  I do.  Do you?