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I r o n S h a r p e n s I r o n
THE WONDER OF THE CHURCH
By CANON FRANCIS J. RIPLEY
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 2
 February 1994 
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THE Catholic Church is the greatest wonder
on earth. It is the only organization founded by God himself. It is
more: a living organism, not merely natural but supernatural. Jesus
Christ, who founded the Church and gave it its constitution is--for
he still lives--not only man but God, the one true God who is
infinite Being and limitless in every perfection. The Church is his
body, an organic society with its own life secret.
Paul repeatedly called the Church the body of Christ, of which Jesus
is the head and we the members. In any body the head is the center
of all the important functions--seeing, hearing, speaking, thinking,
and willing. All the operations of life flow through a man from the
head; so does Christ's headship regulate the life of those joined
to him in that one spiritual personality, the Church. That is why
Augustine called the Church "the whole Christ."
Christ identified
the Church with himself: "He who listens to you listens to me;
he who rejects you rejects me" (Luke 10:16). Thus when the Church
sacrifices, Christ sacrifices; when the Church forgives, Christ forgives;
when the Church teaches, Christ teaches; when the Church is persecuted,
Christ is persecuted. Saul was on the road to Damascus when "suddenly
a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and
heard a voice saying to him, `Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'
He asked, `Who are you, Lord?' The reply came, `I am Jesus, whom you
persecute'" (Acts 9:4).
So the Church lives with life that is divine. At baptism, her members
become living cells of the divine organism. They become "partakers
of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4), receiving supernatural powers
to know God by faith, to trust him with divine hope, to love him with
divine charity. The Church acts as Christ told her to act. She administers
seven sacraments because Christ gave her seven. Her worship is centered
around the Mass, because Christ willed his own life to be centered
around the first Mass, Calvary.
More wonders! The sacraments: Baptism gives us life. Confirmation
strengthens that life through a further giving of the Holy Spirit.
The sacrament of penance restores our supernatural life if we lose
it by grave sin. The anointing of the sick is the same action of Christ
himself toward those who were sick when he cured them and forgave
their sins (Mark 2:5-9). To make these wonders possible Christ gave
us the sacrament by which priests are ordained, holy orders, which
enables those chosen to receive it to act in the person of Christ
by offering the sacrifice of the Mass and by administering the other
sacraments. Yet another of the Church's wonders is the sacrament of
marriage, which forges a lifelong union of man and woman, a union
which reflects Christ's union with the Church.
In the Church we find the hidden life of Christ in the monks and nuns
who give up the world to devote themselves to the cultivation of the
spiritual life. We find too the public life of Christ present in every
detail of the long, stormy history of the Church. Like Christ, the
Church is surrounded by intense love and intense hatred. Like Christ
she attracts men of every rank and condition of society, the most
brilliant and the illiterate, the soldier and the civilian, the rich
and poor, the king and subject. Like Christ she has throughout her
history been consumed with burning zeal for the salvation of men,
seeking new members in the far mission fields and watching with jealous
care the weak and ailing ones within.
Because the Church is the body of Christ, she is a holy body. Her
doctrine is holy. Men are made holy in believing it. She offers the
way to holiness and is distinguished by those who have lived up to
her teaching: They are the saints. What other religious society can
boast of such a variety of men and women who have attained heroic
holiness through the means it has offered them?
The Church is the greatest wonder on earth--living with the life
of Christ, animated by the Spirit of Christ, teaching the truth of
Christ, ruling with the authority of Christ, sanctifying with the
grace of Christ, sacrificing with the flesh and blood of Christ, forgiving
with the mercy of Christ, guiding with the wisdom of Christ, persecuted
for the sake of Christ, praying in union with Christ, obeying with
the loyalty of Christ, infallible through the presence of Christ,
indefectible in fidelity to Christ, honoring the Mother of Christ,
one through the prayer of Christ, holy in imitating Christ, universal
by command of Christ, apostolic by the institution of Christ--and
all this because she is the fullness of the body of Christ.
Canon Francis J. Ripley has been a parish priest and
apologist for more than half a century. He resides in the Archdiocese
of Liverpool.
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