Manual of Catholic Theology on the Holiness of the Church

 ON THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH

A thing is said to be holy, either because it is itself dedicated to God, e.g. a temple, an altar; or because it has the power of producing personal holiness (i.e. moral righteousness in the sight of God), e.g. sacraments (see § 89). We shall here show that the Church is herself a holy object, and that she contains the means of making her members holy: she is the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints.

I. The Church is Christ’s Mystical Body: “The Church, which is His body, and the fulness of Him Who is filled all in all” (Eph. 1:22; cf. 1 Cor. 12:27). She is His Bride: “The husband is the head of the wife; as Christ is the Head of the Church.… Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life: that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish,” etc. (Eph. 5:23–32); “the House, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15); “the Temple of God is holy, which you are” (1 Cor. 3:17; cf. 6:19); the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 21:43; 25:1, etc.). It is hardly necessary to quote the Fathers on a doctrine so clearly taught in Scripture. The difficulty about evil members of the Church will be dealt with presently.

II. The object for which Christ founded His Church is the salvation of mankind. Hence He endowed her with all the means necessary for the accomplishment of this purpose. Her ministry, her doctrine, her laws (“He that heareth you, heareth Me, etc.”), her sacraments (“He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved”)—all are means for sanctifying her members. “He gave … other some pastors and doctors for the perfecting of the saints (τῶν ἁγίων) … for the edifying of the body of Christ … unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11 sqq.).

“It is of her (the Church) that we are born; with her milk are we nourished; her breath is our life. The spouse of Christ cannot become adulterate; she is undefiled and chaste. She owns but one home; with spotless purity she guards the sanctity of one chamber. She keeps us for God; she appoints unto a kingdom the sons that she has borne. Whosoever, having separated from the Church, is joined to an adulteress, he is cut from the promises of the Church. Neither shall he come into the rewards of Christ who leaves the Church of Christ. He is an alien, he is profane, he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for a Father who has not the Church for a mother” (St. Cyprian, De Unitate, nn. 5, 6).

III. Because the Church is holy, and possesses the means of sanctifying her members, we must not thence conclude that as a fact all her members are holy, and that mortal sin shuts them out of her pale. Holy Scripture speaks of the Church as a field in which the cockle grows along with the wheat (Matt. 13:24 sqq.); as a barn containing chaff as well as wheat (ibid. 3:12); as a draw-net cast into the sea and gathering together all kinds of fishes, both bad and good (ibid. 13:47); it tells us that in the Church the goats are mingled with the sheep (ibid. 25:32), foolish virgins with the wise (ibid. 25:1–13), the wicked servants with the good, and that vessels to dishonour are found in the same great house as vessels to honour (2 Tim. 2:20). Hence the Apostles, although they did their utmost for the sanctification of the faithful, nevertheless looked upon sinners as still members of the Church. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). This was the doctrine which St. Augustine and St. Optatus of Milevis urged against the Donatists.1

 Wilhelm, Joseph & Thomas B. Scannell. 1908. A Manual of Catholic Theology: Based on Scheeben’s “Dogmatik.” Third Edition, Revised. Vol. II. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd.