Page:Catechismoftrent.djvu/85

 the real body of Christ; and that her children have not here a permanent dwelling, but look for one above.

We are, therefore, bound to believe that there is one Holy Catholic Church; but, with regard to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we not only believe them, but, also, believe IN them; and hence, when speaking of each dogma, we make use of a different form of expression, professing to believe the holy, not IN the Holy Catholic Church; by this difference of expression, distinguishing God, the author of all things, from his works, and acknowledging ourselves debtors to the divine goodness for all these exalted benefits bestowed on the Church.

THE Evangelist St. John, writing to the faithful on the divine mysteries, tells them, that he undertook to instruct them on the subject; " that you," says he, " may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." This " fellowship" consists in the Communion of Saints, the subject of the present Article. Would, that, in its exposition, pastors imitated the zeal of St. Paul and of the other Apostles! for not only does it serve as an interpretation of the preceding Article, and is a point of doctrine productive of abundant fruit; but it also teaches the use to be made of the mysteries contained in the Creed; because the great end, to which all our researches and knowledge are to be directed, is our admission into this most august and blessed society of the saints, and our steady perseverance therein, " giving thanks, with joy, to God the Father who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light."

The faithful, therefore, in the first place, are to be informed that this Article is, as it were, a sort of explanation of the preceding one, which regards the unity, sanctity, and catholicity of the Church: for the unity of the Spirit, by which she is governed, establishes among all her members a community of spiritual blessings, whereas the fruit of all the Sacraments is common to all the faithful, and these Sacraments, particularly baptism, the door, as it were, by which we are admitted into the Church, are so many connecting links which bind and unite them to Jesus Christ. That this Communion of Saints implies a communion of Sacraments, the Fathers declare in these words of the Creed: " I confess one baptism." After baptism, the Eucharist holds the first place in reference to this communion; and after the Eucharist, the other Sacraments; for, although