Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/364



358 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.

of concord. This unity cannot be_brokenj nor the one body divided by the separation of its constituent parts.* And to set forth more clearly the unity of the Church, he makes use of the illustration of a living body, the members of which cannot possibly hve unless united to the head and drawing from it their \'ital force. Separated from the head they must of necessity die. "The Church," he says, 'â€¢'cannot be divided into parts by the separation and cut- ting asunder of its members. What is cut away from the mother cannot live or breathe apart.^ What sim- ilarity is there between a dead and a hving body? For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cher- isheth it, as also Christ doth the Church : because we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones?

Another head like to Christ must be invented â€” that is, another Christ â€” if besides the one Church, which is His body, men wish to set up another. "See what you must beware of â€” see what you must avoid â€” see what you must dread. It happens that, as in the human body, some member may be cut off â€” a hand, a finger, a foot. .Does- thesoul follow the amputated mernber? As long as it was in. the body jt lived;. separated, it f orfeits4ts life. So the Christian is a Catholic as long as he lives in the body: cut off from it he becomes a heretic â€” the life of the spirit follows not the amputated member."*

The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same forever; those â€žwho leave it depart from the will and com- mand of_Christ the Lord â€” leaving the path of salvation they enter on that of perdition. "Whosoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress. He has cut himself off from the promises of the Church, and he who leaves the Church of Christ cannot arrive at the rewards of Christ. ... He who observes not this unity observes not

1 S. Cvprianus, De Cath. Eccl. Unitate, n. 23.

2 Ibid^

Â« Eph. V. 29, 30.


 * S. Augustinus, Sermo cclxvii., n. 4.