The Third Sunday Of Easter
The Third Sunday Of Easter
O God, whose blessed Son did manifest himself to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open, we pray thee, the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Third Sunday Of Easter
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In the Apostles’ Creed, the statement of belief in “the holy catholic Church” refers to the visible Church on earth. Much as we may love Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in the City and County of New York, our belief here is not merely in one particular congregation, or one grouping or denomination, calling itself a church or even calling itself the Church. Our belief is in the Church Catholic in all times and places.
The Nicene Creed, which is used by both Eastern and Western Churches, by Roman, Reformed, and Orthodox churches, says, “And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church…” So if we put the creeds together, we both believe in the holy catholic Church and we believe the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The Book of Common Prayer Catechism (the Outline of the Faith), says that the Church is described in the Bible as “the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and of which all baptized persons are members.” So we begin with sacramental oneness and visibility: the Church consists of all those who have been baptized, as Jesus commanded, with water in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Church is one, because it is one Body under one Head, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church is holy, because the Holy Spirit dwells in it, consecrates its members, and guides them to do God’s work. The Church is catholic, because it proclaims the whole Faith to all people, to the end of time. And the Church is apostolic, because it continues in the fellowship and teaching of the apostles, and is sent to carry out Christ’s mission to all people. Let us focus now on that important word, catholic. [1]
Catholicity means wholeness and universality. The Church is catholic insofar as she – (we use the feminine pronoun because the Church is Christ’s Bride and is therefore also the Mother of the faithful; indeed she is Mother Nature, Mother Earth, redeemed by God the Son) – she is catholic insofar as she holds and keeps and promotes the whole faith as held and practiced in all times and places. The holy catholic Church is both worldwide and local. A particular congregation, or denomination or communion, possesses or lacks catholicity to the degree that it in fullness preaches, teaches and practices the Gospel of Christ and the Sacraments of the New Covenant, that is, the Catholic Faith; and this degree of catholicity is also related to the degree of communion and fellowship that the particular community has with the rest of the Church.
Sometimes the Churches have regarded themselves as self-sufficient, possessing the fullness of catholicity, regardless of, or even over-against, other Churches. This scandal of disunity is now more and more recognized for what it is: sin, contrary to the prayer of Jesus that his followers may be one, even as the Father and the Son are one, so that the world may know that the Father sent him. So now catholicity is the real issue of what we call ecumenism, the prayer and work on behalf of Christian unity. Christian unity is not an added attraction for the Church; it is a mandate from our Lord.
The holy catholic Church is not the result of a corporate absorption, or of the elimination of the glorious variety of liturgies, languages, music, styles, and aesthetics that we enjoy in our various traditions, even within the Anglican family and the Episcopal Church. Catholicity has to do with the truth, taught and practiced. The rich variety of expressions of the truth shows the splendor of catholicity. It is oneness in faith, not uniformity of culture.
Who belongs to the holy catholic Church? Outwardly and visibly, all baptized people are the members. Given our unhappy divisions, how are we Christians in one Body? Here the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church has some relevant things to say to the rest of us Christians: “The [Roman] Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter [the Bishop of Rome, the Pope]. Those who believe in Christ and are properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect communion with the [Roman] Catholic Church.”[2] In spite of the divisions that beset us, East and West, Roman and Reformed, every genuinely Christian communion, reaches towards the others, its sister churches, and this is an expression of our mandated and as yet unfulfilled catholicity.
But catholicity goes further. Beyond the visible boundaries of baptized Christendom, there are, first, the Jewish People. To them belong the election of sonship, the law, the ancient worship and promises; also the patriarchs, and above all, according to the flesh, comes from the Jews the Messiah, the Christ of God. When one considers the future, the end of time, the Jewish People of the Old Covenant and the Christian People of the New Covenant tend towards similar goals in expectation. One awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits the coming of the Messiah whose features remain hidden until that end-time, and this latter waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus.[3]
The holy catholic Church also has a relationship with the monotheistic Muslims who profess to hold the faith of Abraham and to worship the one, merciful God who will judge mankind on the last day. Furthermore, the holy catholic Church has a bond with other non-Christian believers in that we are all brothers and sisters, one created human race who experiences divine providence and grace until the day when all God’s elect are gathered together upon Jesus Christ’s return. In those religions there may be shadows and images of the Catholic Faith which make for a preparation for the Gospel of Christ. In fact Jesus is
the Truth, the Word made flesh. All truth, wherever it may be found, is connected and ultimately leads to Christ Jesus; this is part of the Church catholicity.
So in the end, as the Church says, Holy Baptism and all it signifies, is “generally necessary for salvation.” The Church herself is the ark of salvation. Yet God’s grace and Christ’s kingdom extend to the ends of the creation, far beyond the visible boundaries of the Church. Jesus Christ is the holiness and catholicity of the whole realm. Either we are moving towards him or away from him. One may be baptized, fully outwardly credentialed, and yet moving away, with his back to Jesus. One may be far out from the institution, yet most certainly moving towards, facing the Lord. This is the mystery of the holy catholic Church, and it points towards the communion of saints. And that is our next sermon in this series.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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[1] The Book of Common Prayer, 1979, pp. 845-855.
[2] The Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 222.
[3] Ibid, p. 223.
