Pentecost: putting the world to the torch!

Pentecost is either setting the world on fire or putting it to the torch! Pentecost is fundamentally about the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, Our Lady and all the disciples gathered in the upper room (Acts 2) and so the gift of the Holy Spirit brings to birth a new Creation: the Church. The Holy Spirit comes like a roaring wind, a shaking force and tongues of fire and so sets the Apostles on fire. They go out and explode on to the world’s satge and begin to speak to all the nations gathered in the holy city of Jerusalem who, though divided by different tongues, discover that they can all hear and understand the one language of Faith that now comes to unite them all. Indeed the Cosmos has been waiting for the revelation of the Sons of God (Rom 8). Today, then, is the Birthday of the Church.

The Holy Spirit descends upon the Church as tongues of fire. A divine Fire that comes to cast down the towers of Babel that oppress the world by seeking to enslave all peoples in selfishness of their own passions. But God has now made visible to the whole world where salvation is to be found – in the Church. The effect of this out-pouring of the Holy Spirit is that it makes a new kind of human being who is brave enough to go out of itself and to live for and witness to Christ before the whole world. For this is what it means to be a Christian and this is why the powers of the World fears and hates the Church as it did Our Lord! The powers that be are afraid of the People as the recent protests of truckers and farmers reveal; but they are even more afraid of the People of Faith who come to witness like fire cast upon the earth the truth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the Church is not a system or a machine! Rather, the Church is a quasi-personal yet supernatural organism that grows in the soil of history. The Church is therefore not an ‘It’ but rather the Church is called ‘She’. Because through the womb of baptism she gives birth to the children of God. This is why the Church is called ‘Mother’. In the words of St Cyprian:

"No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother" (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519).

So we need to ask a question, given that there are thousands of Protestant dominations claiming to be the Church, How can we recognise the Church of Jesus Christ?

The Answer to this question was given by the early Fathers of the Church who said the Church of Christ is recognised by being One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. So now we need to ask the next Question: What do these four marks of the Church of Jesus Christ actually mean?

The Church as One:

This is founded on Christ’s relationship to the Church. St Paul speaks of this in two ways: first, that Christ is the Head and the Church is his Body; second, that Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church is his Bride. As the Bridegroom has only one Bride, so Christ has only one Church. The One Church mirrors the Oneness of God, the Oneness of Christ’s love for his Church and the call to all of us to participate personally as one Body in the Life, death and resurrection of Christ. So there can only be One Church and not many.

The Church therefore distinquishes:

• churches in Schism from Her like the Orthodox Churches;

• from those christian communities who are in heresy and so are not really churches, but rather are called ‘ecclesial communities’, as for instance is the case of our separated Protestant brothers and sisters. But remember that Protestants, where they are validly baptised, are physical members of the Church, although not full members.

The Church is HOLY:

Now only God is holy but anything instituted by God is made Holy. Jesus is God made Man and thus he is sinless and holy. Through the divine technology of the Sacraments, starting with Baptism, Christ makes holy all those who share his Life, Death and Resurrection. But not all of us do this fully. So, the Church is a mixture of sinners who want to be like Christ and sinners who do not.

All, save Jesus and Mary, are born into sin. But only those who do the will of God the Father through Jesus Christ and by the gift of the Holy Spirit will leave this world as Saints. So we can either try to be saints or we can choose to remain sinners. Thus, the Church is holy because it is united to Christ and brings forth saints on earth who live in holy communion with Christ, Our Lady, the Angels and the Saints and who will join the saints in heaven.

The Church is CATHOLIC: the word ‘Catholic’  comes from two Greek words:

KATA = which means ‘according to’;

HOLAS = which means ‘the whole’; the whole of Everything.

Hence CATHOLIC is KATA+HOLAS and refers to what is ‘Universal’. The word ‘Catholic’ however has two meanings:

1. It refers to God’s call to all the nations to enter the one family of God, the Church. So, the Church must be Universal - Catholic. It is the Catholic Church and not the Church of England or of Ireland or of Poland or of Italy!

2. It refers to the Teaching of the Truth about God and mankind revealed by Jesus Christ. It is a Universal Truth and therefore it is the same truth in all places, in all times among all peoples. So, the Truth of Christ must be Universal – it must be Catholic.

The Church is APOSTOLIC means that the Faith we have in Jesus Christ is built on the Faith that the Apostles had in Jesus Christ.

It is a Faith handed down [‘Sacred Tradition’] by the Apostles through their successors, the Bishops, who are in union with St. Peter, and his successors, the Popes.

The Church is founded on the Person of Jesus Christ but built on the foundations of the Twelve Apostles. It is to them that Christ gave both the Petrine and the Apostolic office after he had formed, appointed and then sent them into the World to make disciples of all nations. So that he who sees and hears the Apostles and their successors, the Pope and Bishops, sees and hears Christ. Every Catholic Bishop can trace his line back to one of the Apostles and this is called the Apostolic Succession.

Finally, we come now to how the Holy Spirit leads the Church into the fulness of the Truth [John 14:15-26]. This gift is first given by Jesus to Peter in the form of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven [Matt 16:17-19] and after his resurrection Jesus also gives the power to bind and loose to the college of Apostles and their successors as long as they remain in communion with Peter and his successors, the Popes [John 20:21–23].

The power of the Keys is the authority to Teach, to Sanctify and to Govern the Church. The Church alone is promised the gift of Infallibility that preserves her from error when she teaches on Faith and Morals, and only on Faith and Morals… and not on medical procedures! The reason for this gift is so that mankind in every time and place will be able to know for certain what is necesssary for their salvation.

So the Church is the fruit of both Christ and the Holy Spirit as Christ is the Head of the Church and the Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Church. God the Father has sent his Son for the singular purpose of calling all the peoples of the earth into the communion of truth that saves  them from sin and death - it is a communion of the flesh in and through the Eucharist and a communion of the soul in and through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Church must  be free to do this in every time and in every place. And because she has done this we speak of the Church being on earth, in purgatory and in heaven.

The Church is thus the biggest thing there is in this world as her members are on earth [the living], in purgatory [the holy souls] and in heaven [the saints].

This is also why She is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church who moves the times, critiques the times and challenges the times and also saves all our times and all our yesterdays; but She never follows the times!

Only the Anti-Church follows the times, surrenders to the times and collaborates with the times!