Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/381



THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 375

fore,jwith the needful authority; since the right to rule is absolutely required by him who has to guard human society really and effectively. This, furthei-more, Christ gave: "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." And He is clearly still speaking of the Church, which a short time before He had called His own, and vv'hich He declared He wished to build on Peter as on a foundation. ThejChUEch is typified not only as an edif.ce but as a kingdovi, and every one knows that the keys conslitute the usual sign of governing authority. Where- fore when Christ promised to give to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Hg^pjomisedjto give hinrpaffier and_a uthority, jjyeÂ£_thg_^Church. "The Son committed to Peter the office of spreading the knowledge of His Father and HhnseK over the whole world. He who in- creased the Church in all the earth, and proclaimed it to be stronger than the heavens, ^gaye_to_a^ mortal man

^U powe r in heaven when _He handed^ him the keys." * In this same sense He says: "Whatsoever thou shall bind upon earth it shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed also in heaven." This metaphorical expression of bind- ing and loosing indicates the gower of making laws, of

judging and of punish ing: and the power^TsTaiH toTDe'of such amplitude and force that God will ratify whatever is decreed by it. Thus it is supiemfi^nd, J^bsolutelyiin-

^dep endent, so that, having ho other power on earth as its superior, it embraces the whole Church and all things committed to the Church.

The promise is carried out when Christ the Lord after His Resurrection, having thrice asked Peter whether he loved Him more than the rest, lays on him the injunction: "Feed My lambs â€” feed My sheep." That is He confides to him, without exception, all those who were to belong to His fold, "The Lord does not hesitate. He interrogates, not to learn but to teach. When He was about to ascend


 * S. Johannes Chrysostomus, Horn, liv., in Matt, v- 2