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It would take too long to investigate here or even to enumerate all the existing doctrines and theories about the Church and its constitution. But anyone who is concerned to discover the plain truth about this fundamental problem of positive religion must be struck by the ease with which Providence has ordained that the truth may be learned. All Christians are in complete agreement on one point, namely that the Church was founded by Christ; the question is how and in what terms He founded it. Now, there is in the Gospels only one solitary text which mentions the founding of the Church in a direct, explicit and formal manner. This fundamental text becomes more and more clear as the Church itself grows and develops the permanent features of its organic structure; and nowadays the opponents of the truth can generally find no other way out but that of mutilating Christ’s creative word in order to adapt it to their own sectarian standpoint.1
“Jesus Christ, having come into the district of Cæsarea Philippi, asked His disciples: Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they answered Him: Some say, John the Baptist; others, Elijah; others again, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them: And who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art the Christ, Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for it is not flesh and blood which have revealed it to thee, but My Father Who is in Heaven. And I say to thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven” (Matt. xvi. 13-19).
The union of the Divine and the human, which is the goal of creation, was accomplished individually (or hypostatically) in the unique person of Jesus Christ, “perfect God and perfect Man, uniting the two natures in a perfect manner without confusion and without division.” 2 The historic work of God enters henceforward upon a new stage. It is no longer a matter of a physical and individual unity, but of a moral and social union. The God-Man desires to unite humanity with Himself in a perfect union. The human race is steeped in error and sin. How shall He set about it? Is He to approach each human soul separately and unite it to Himself by a purely interior and subjective bond? He answers, No: Οικοδοµήσω την εκκλησίαν µου. “I will build My Church.” It is a real objective work of which we are here told. But will He allow this work to be subject to all the divisions natural to the human race? Will He unite Himself to individual nations as such by giving them independent national Churches? No, He does not say: I will build My Churches, but: My Church, την εκκλησίαν µου. Mankind united to God must form a single social structure and for this unity a solid basis must be found.
Any genuine union is based on the mutual interaction of those who are united. The act of absolute truth which is revealed in the God-Man (or the perfect Man) must meet with the response of imperfect humanity in an act of irrevocable adherence which links us to the divine principle. God incarnate does not desire that His truth should be accepted in a passive and servile spirit. In His new dispensation He asks of mankind a free act of recognition. But at the same time this free act must be absolutely true and infallible. Therefore, there must be established in the midst of fallen humanity a single, fixed and impregnable point on which the constructive activity of God may be directly based, a point at which human freedom shall coincide with divine Truth in a composite act absolutely human in its outward form, but divinely infallible in its fundamental character.
In the creation of the individual physical humanity of Christ the act of the divine Omnipotence required for its realization only the supremely passive and receptive self-surrender of feminine nature in the person of the Immaculate Virgin. The building up of the social or collective humanity of Christ, of His universal body, the Church, demands less and at the same time more than that: less, because the human foundation of the Church need not be represented by an absolutely pure and sinless individual, since there is no question in this case of creating a substantial and individual relation, or a hypostatic and complete union, between two natures, but simply of forging a living moral bond. If, however, this new link (the link between Christ and the Church) is less intimate and fundamental than the previous link (that between the Word of God and human nature in the womb of the Immaculate Virgin), it is humanly speaking more positive, and of more far-reaching influence: more positive, because this new bond between the Spirit and the Truth demands a virile will to respond to God’s revelation and a virile intelligence to give a definite form to the truth which it accepts; moreover, this new link is of wider scope because, forming as it does the creative foundation of a collective entity, it cannot be confined to a personal relationship but must be extended through time as a permanent function of the society so formed.
It was necessary, therefore, to find in mankind as it is such a center of active coherence between the Divine and the human, which might form the base or rockfoundation of the Christian Church. Jesus in His supernatural foreknowledge had already pointed out this rock. But in order to show us that His choice was free from all suspicion of arbitrariness, He begins by seeking elsewhere the human response to revealed truth. He turns first of all to general public opinion; He wishes to see whether He cannot be recognized, accepted and acclaimed by the opinion of the mob, the voice of the people: Quem dicunt homines esse Filium Hominis? For whom do men take Me? But Truth is ever one and the same, whereas the opinions of men are many and conflicting. The voice of the people, which some claim to be the voice of God, only answered the question of the God-Man with its own erroneous and discordant opinions. There is no bond possible between Truth and such errors; mankind cannot enter into relation with God by the way of popular opinion; the Church of Christ cannot be founded on democracy.
Having questioned popular opinion and failed to find there man’s response to divine truth, Jesus Christ turns to His chosen, the college of the Apostles, that first of all œcumenical councils: Vos autem quem me esse dicitis? And for whom do you take Me? But the Apostles are silent. The moment before, when asked for the opinions of men, the twelve all spoke together: why do they leave the word to one of their number when it is a question of asserting divine truth? Possibly they are not quite agreed among themselves; possibly Philip does not perceive the essential relation of Jesus to the heavenly Father; possibly Thomas is doubtful of the Messianic power of his Master. The last chapter of St. Matthew tells us that even on the Galilean mountain, whither they were summoned by Jesus after His resurrection, the Apostles did not show themselves unanimous and firm in their faith: quidam autem dubitaverunt (Matt. xxviii. 17).
If it is to bear unanimous witness to the pure and simple truth, the council must be in absolute agreement. The decisive act must be an entirely individual act, the act of a single person. It is neither the multitude of the faithful nor the apostolic council, but Simon Bar-Jona alone who answers Jesus. Respondens Simon Petrus dixit: Tu es Filius Dei vivi. He replies for all the Apostles, but he speaks on his own responsibility without consulting them or waiting for their consent. When the Apostles had repeated, a moment before, the opinions of the crowd which followed Jesus, they had only repeated what were errors; if Simon had only wished to voice the opinions of the Apostles, he would possibly not have reached the pure and simple truth. But he followed his own spiritual impulse, the voice of his own conscience; and Jesus, in pronouncing His solemn approval, declared that this impulse, for all its individual character, came nevertheless from His heavenly Father, that it was an act both divine and human, a real co-operation between the absolute Being and the relative subject.
The fixed point, the impregnable rock, has been discovered whereon to base the divine-human activity. The organic foundation of the universal Church is found in a single man who, with the divine assistance, answers for the whole world. It is fixed neither upon the impossible unanimity of all believers, nor upon the inevitably hazardous agreement of a council, but upon the real and living unity of the prince of the Apostles. And henceforward every time that the question of truth is put to Christian humanity, it will not be from the voice of the masses nor from the opinion of the elect that the fixed and final answer will come. The arbitrary opinions of men will only give rise to heresies; and the hierarchy separated from its center and abandoned to the mercy of the secular power will refrain from speaking or will speak through such councils as the robber-council of Ephesus. Only in union with the rock on which it is founded will the Church be able to assemble true councils and define the truth by authoritative formulas. This is no mere opinion; it is a historic fact of such impressiveness that on the most solemn occasions it has been averred by the Eastern bishops themselves for all their jealousy of the successors of St. Peter. Not only was the wonderful dogmatic treatise of Pope St. Leo the Great recognized by the Greek Fathers of the fourth œcumenical Council as a work of Peter, but it was also to Peter that the sixth Council attributed the letter of Pope Agatho, who was far from having the same personal authority that Leo had. “The head and prince of the Apostles,” declared the Eastern Fathers, “fought with us . . . The ink (of the letter) was plain to see and Peter spoke through Agatho (Και µέλαν εφαίνετο, και δι Αγαθνος ό Πέτρος εφθέγετο).3
Otherwise, if apart from Peter the universal Church can expressly declare the truth, how are we to explain the remarkable silence of the Eastern episcopate (notwithstanding that they have kept the apostolic succession) since their separation from the Chair of St. Peter? Can it be merely an accident? An accident lasting for a thousand years! To those anti-Catholics who will not see that their particularism cuts them off from the life of the universal Church, we have only one suggestion to make: Let them summon, without the concurrence of the successor of St. Peter, a council which they themselves can recognize as œcumenical! Then only will there be an opportunity of discovering whether they are right.
Wherever Peter does not speak, it is only the opinions of men that find utterance — and the Apostles are silent. But Jesus Christ did not commend the vague and contradictory opinions of the mob nor the silence of His chosen disciples; it was the unwavering, decisive and authoritative utterance of Simon Bar-Jona upon which He set the seal of His approval. Clearly this utterance, which satisfied our Lord, needed no human ratification; it possessed absolute validity etiam sine consensu Ecclesiae.4 It was not by means of a general consultation but (as Jesus Christ Himself bore witness) with the direct assistance of the heavenly Father that Peter formulated the fundamental dogma of our religion; and his word defined the faith of Christians by its own inherent power, not by the consent of others — ex sese, non autem ex consensu Ecclesiæ.
In contrast to the uncertain opinions of men, the word of Peter represents the stability and unity of the true faith; in contrast to the narrow national ideas of the Messiah to which the Apostles gave utterance, his word expresses the Messianic idea in its absolute and universal form. The idea of the Messiah which had sprung from the soil of Jewish national consciousness is already, in the visions of the postexilic prophets, growing too large for these limits. But the true meaning of these mysterious and enigmatic visions was hardly divined by the inspired writers themselves, while Jewish public opinion remained exclusively nationalistic and could see no more in Christ than a great national prophet such as Elijah, Jeremiah, or John the Baptist, or at the most an all-powerful dictator, liberator and leader of the chosen people, such as Moses or David. This was the highest idea which the mob which followed Jesus held of Him; and we know that even His chosen disciples shared these popular notions up to the end of His earthly life (Luke xxiv. 19-21). Only in Peter’s confession does the Messianic idea emerge freed from all its nationalistic trappings and invested for the first time in its final and universal form. “Thou art the Christ, Son of the living God.” Here is no question of a national king or prophet; the Messiah is not a second Moses or David. Henceforward he bears the unique name of Him Who, though He is the God of Israel, is none the less the God of all the nations.
Peter’s confession transcended Jewish nationalism and inaugurated the Universal Church of the New Covenant. This is yet one more reason why Peter should be the foundation of Christendom and why the supreme hierarchical authority, which of itself has ever maintained the universal or international character of the Church, should be the true heir of Peter and the actual possessor of all those privileges conferred by Christ upon the prince of the Apostles.
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1. Thus the text in question is mutilated even in the Orthodox Catechism of Mgr. Philaret of Moscow.
2. Formula of Pope St. Leo the Great and of the Council of Chalcedon.
3. Mansi, Concil. xi. 658.
4. “Even without the consent of the Church,” the formula of the last Council, that of the Vatican.
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