Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/214

 UNITY

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UNITY

of any well-ordered society, civil, political, or religious. Many Christians, however, hold that the unity neces- sary for the true Church of Christ need be nothing more than a certain spiritual internal bond, or, if external, it need be only in a general waj', inasmuch as all acknowledge the same God and reverence the same Christ. Thus most Protestants think that the only union necessary for the Church is that which comes from faith, hope, and love toward Christ; in worshipping the same God, obeying the same Lord, and in beUeving the same fundamental truths which are necessary for salvation. This they regard as a unity of doctrine, organization, and cult. A like spiritual unity is all the Greek schismatics require. So long as they profess a common faith, ai-e governed by the same general law of God under a hierarchy, and participate in the same sacraments, they look upon the various churches, Constantinople, Russian, Anti- ochcne etc., as enjoying the union of the one true Church; there is the common head, Christ, and the one Spirit, and that suffices. The Anglicans hkewise teach that the one Church of Christ is made up of three branches: the Greek, the Roman, and the Angh- can, each having a different legitimate hierarchy but all united by a common spiritual bond.

II. True Notion of Unity. — The Catholic conception of the mark of unity, which must characterize the one Church founded by Christ, is far more exacting. Not only must the true Church be one by an internal and spiritual union, but this union must also be exter- nal and visible, consisting in and growing out of a unity of faitli, worship, and government. Hence the Church which has Christ for its foimder is not to be characterized by any merely accidental or internal spiritual imion, but, over and above this, it must unite its members in unity of doctrine, expressed by external, pubhc profession; in unity of worship, mani- fested chiefly in the reception of the same sacraments; and in unity of government, by which all its members are subject to and obey the same authoritj-, which was instituted by Christ Himself. In regard to faith or doctrine it may be here objected that in none of the Christian sects is there strict unity, since all of the members are not at all times aware of the same truths to be believed. Some give assent to certain truths which others know nothing of. Here it is important to note the distinction between the habit and the object of faith. The habit, or the subjective disposition of the believer, though .sjjecifically the same in all, differs numericaUy according to individ- uals, but the objective truth to which assent is given is one and the same for all. There may be as many habits of faith numerically distinct as there are dif- ferent individuals possessing the habit, but it is not possible that there be a diversity in the objective truths of faith. The unity of faith is manifested by all the faithful professing their adhesion to one and the same object of faith. All admit that God, tlie Supreme Truth, is the primary author of then' faith, and from their ex^phcit willingness to submit to the same external authority to whom God has given the power to make known whatever has been revealed, their faith, even in truths explicitly unknown, is implicitly external. All are prepared to believe what- ever God has revealed and the Chiu'ch teaches. Similarly, accidental differences in ceremonial forms do not in the least interfere with essential unity of worship, which is to be regarded primarily and prin- cipally in the celebration of the same sacrifice and in the reception of the same sacraments. All are expressive of the one doctrine and subject to the same authority.

III. The. True Chureh of Christ Is One.— That the Church which Christ instituted for man's salvation must be one in the strict sense of the term just ex- plained, is already evident from its very nature and purpose; truth is one, Christ revealed the truth and gave it to His Church, and men are to be saved by

knowing and following the truth. But the essential unity of the true Christian Church is also expUcitly and repeatedly declared throughout the New Testa- ment. Speaking of His Church, the Saviour called it a kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God (Matt., xiii, 24, 31, 33; Luke, xiii, 18; John, xviii, 3(5); He compared it to a city the keys of which were entrusted to the Apostles (Matt., v, 14; xvi, 19); to a sheepfold to which aU His sheep must come and be united under one shepherd (John, x, 7-17); to a vine and its branches, to a house biiilt upon a rock against which not even the powers of hell should ever prevail (Matt., xvi, 18). Moreover, the Saviour, just before He suffered, prayed for His disciples, for those who were afterwards to beUeve in Him — for Hig Church — that they might be and remain one as He and the Father are one (John, xvii, 20-23); and He had aheady warned them that "every kingdom di- vided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand" (Matt., xii, 25). These words of Christ are expressive of the closest unity.

St. Paul likewise insists on the unity of the Church. Schism and disunion he brands as crimes to be classed with murder and debauchery, and declares that those guilty of "dissensions" and "sects" shall not obtain the kingdom of God (Gal., v, 20, 21). Hearing of the schisms among the Corinthians, he asked impatiently: "Is Christ divided? Was Paul then crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (I Cor., i, 13). And in the same Epistle he describes the Church as one body with many members distinct among themselves, but one with Christ their head: " For in one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free" (I Cor., xii, 13). To show the intimate union of the members of the Church with the one God, he asks: "The chaUce of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord? For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread" (I Cor., X, 16, 17). Again in his Epistle to the Ephe- sians he teaches the same doctrine, and exhorts them to be "careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace", and he reminds them that there is but "one body and one spirit — one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all" (Eph., iv, 3-6). Already, in one of his very first Epistles, he had warned the faithful of Galatia that if anybody, even an angel from heaven, should preach unto them any other Gospel than that which he had preached, "let him be anathema" (Gal., i, S). Such declara- tions as these coming from the great Apostle are clear evidence of the essential unity which must be characteristic of the true Christian Church. The other Apostles also persistently proclaimed this essential and necessary unity of Christ's Church (cf. I John, iv, 1-7; Apoc, ii, 6, 14, 15, 20-29; II Peter, ii, 1-19; Jude, 5-19). And although divisions did arise now and then in the early Church, they were speedily put down and the disturbers rejected, bo that even from the beginning the Christians could boast that they were of "one heart and one soul" (Acts, iv, 32; cL Acts, xi, 22; xiii, 1).

Tradition is unanimous to the same effect. ^\Tien- ever heresy threatened to invade the Church, the Fathers rose up against it as an essential evil. The unity of the Church was the object of nearly all the exhortations of St. Ignatius of .\ntioch ("Ad Ephes.", n. 5, 16-17; "Ad Philadolph.", n. 3). St. Irenseus went even further, and t:uight that the test of the one true Church, in which -.thnw was salvation, was its union with Rome (.>\dv. Ii;eres., Ill, iii). Tertullian likewise compared the Church to an ark outside of which there is no salvation, and he maintained that only he who embraced every doctrine handed down