by Saint Josemaria Escriva
A homily given on 28 May 1972
Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity
Let me begin by reminding you of something Saint Cyprian tells us: The
universal Church is a people which derives its unity from the unity of
the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. [1]
It is not out of place therefore to preach about the Church on this feast
of the most Blessed Trinity. The Church is rooted in this fundamental mystery
of our catholic faith: the mystery of God who is one in essence and three
in persons.
The Fathers all see the Church as centred in the Trinity. Look how clearly
Saint Augustine puts it: God then dwells in his temple. Not only the
Holy Spirit but also the Father and the Son ... Therefore, the holy Church
is the temple of God, the temple of the entire Trinity. [2]
Next Sunday when we gather again, we will consider another marvellous
aspect of the Church. We will fix our attention on the marks of the Church
that we will recite in a few moments in the Creed after singing our belief
in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit: Et in Spiritum Sanctum,
we say, and in unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam [3]
We confess that there is only one Church which is holy, catholic and apostolic.
All those who have truly loved the Church have known how to relate these
four marks to the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, which is the most ineffable
mystery of our faith. We believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic
Church of God, in which we receive the faith In her we know the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit and are baptised in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit [4]
We need to meditate frequently on the fact that the Church is a deep,
great mystery, so that we never forget it. We cannot fully understand the
Church on this earth. If men, using only their reason, were to analyse
it, they would see only a group of people who abide by certain precepts
and think in a similar way. But that would not be the Church.
In the Church we Catholics find our faith, our norms of conduct, our
prayer, our sense of fraternity. Through it we are united with all our
brothers who have already left this life and are being cleansed in Purgatory
- the Church suffering - and with those who already enjoy the beatific
vision and love forever the thrice holy God - the Church triumphant. The
Church is in our midst and at the same time transcends history. It was
born under the mantle of our Lady and continues to praise her on earth
and in heaven as its mother.
Let us strengthen our faith in the supernatural character of the Church.
Let us profess it with shouts, if necessary, for there are many, physically
within the Church and even in high places, who have forgotten these capital
truths. They try to propose an image of the Church which is neither holy
nor one. Neither would it be apostolic since it is not founded on the rock
of Peter. Their substitute is not catholic, because it is riddled with
unwarranted irregularities which are mere human caprices.
This is nothing new. Since Jesus Christ Our Lord founded the Church,
this Mother of ours has suffered constant persecution. In times past the
attacks were delivered openly. Now, in many cases, persecution is disguised.
But today, as yesterday, the Church continues to be buffeted from many
sides.
Let me say once again that I am not a pessimist by habit or by temperament.
How can we be pessimistic if Our Lord has promised that he will be with
us until the end of the world? [5]
The effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles gathered together
in the Cenacle provided the first public manifestation of the Church. [6]
Our Father God is a loving Father. To help us understand this, Scripture
graphically tells us that he takes care of us like the apple of his
eye . [7] He never ceases to sanctify,
through the Holy Spirit, the Church founded by his beloved Son. But the
Church is going through difficult moments. Confused shouting is heard on
all sides, and all the errors which have occurred in the course of the
centuries are reappearing with great fanfare.
Faith. We need faith. If we look with the eyes of faith, we will see
that the Church carries within herself the explanation for her existence
and purpose. Anyone who contemplates her with eyes filled with love for
the truth, must recognise that, quite independently of those who are her
members and the ways in which the reality that is the Church is expressed
in the materialworld, she carries within herself a unique and universal
message of light, which is liberating, necessary and divine. [8]
We cannot but help feel sadness invade our soul when we hear heretical
voices around us. And that is what they are, for I have never liked euphemisms.
We see that the sanctity of marriage and of the priesthood is attacked
without fear of rebuke. We see people deny the immaculate conception and
the perpetual virginity of our holy mother Mary, along with all the other
privileges and gifts with which God adorned her. We see the perpetual miracle
of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, the primacy
of Peter and even the resurrection of Our Lord put in doubt. How can anyone
not feel tempted to sadness? Have confidence, for the Church is incorruptible.
The Church will shake if her foundation shifts; but can Christ be moved?
As long as Christ remains her immovable base, the Church will remain strong
until the end of time. [9]
Just as in Christ there are two natures, both a human and a divine one,
so by analogy we can refer to the presence in the Church of human and divine
elements. No one can fail to see the human part. The Church, in this world,
is for men, who are its raw material. And when we speak of men we speak
of freedom, which permits the co-existence of grandeur and meanness, of
heroism and failure.
If we were to focus only on the human side of the Church, we would never
understand her. We would still be distant from the threshold of her central
mystery. Sacred Scripture uses many terms derived from everyday life to
describe God's kingdom and its presence among us in the Church. It compares
her to a sheepfold, to a flock, to a house, to a seed, to a vine, to a
field in which God plants or builds. But one expression stands out and
sums up all the rest: the Church is Christ's body.
And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipment of the saints,
for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. [10]
Saint Paul also writes that all of us, though many, are one body in
Christ, and individually members of one another. [11]
How luminous is our faith! We are all in Christ, for He is the head
of the body, the Church [12]
This is the faith which Christians have always professed. Listen with
me to what Saint Augustine tells us: The whole Christ is made up of
head and body, a truth which I am sure you know well. The head is our Saviour
himself who suffered under Pontius Pilate and now, after his resurrection
from among the dead, is seated at the right hand of the Father. And his
body is the Church Not this or that church, but the Church that is spread
throughout the world. Not only the one which exists among the men now living,
for those who went before us and those who are to come to the end of the
world also belong to it. The entire Church formed by the assembly of all
the faithful since all of them are members of Christ, has Christ as its
head. He governs his body from heaven. And although the head is not visible
to the body, it is united to it by love. [13]
You should understand now why the visible Church cannot be severed from
the invisible. The Church is, at one and the same time, a mystical body
and a juridical body. Pope Leo XIII tells us: By the very fact that
it is a body, the Church is visible to the eyes. [14]
In the visible body of the Church, in the behaviour of men who make it
up here on earth, we find weaknesses, vacillations and acts of treason.
But that is not the whole Church, nor is it to be confused with this unworthy
behaviour. On the other hand, here and now, there is no shortage of generosity,
of heroism, of holy lives that make no noise, that are spent with joy in
the service of their brothers in the faith and of all souls.
I would also like you to consider that even if human failings were to
outnumber acts of valour, the clear undeniable mystical reality of the
Church, though unperceived by the senses, would still remain. The Church
would still be the Body of Christ, Our Lord himself, the action of the
Holy Spirit and the loving presence of the Father.
The Church is, therefore, inseparably human and divine. It is a divine
society in origin, and supernatural in its aim and in the means that are
directly ordered to this end. But in so far as it is made up of men, it
is a human community. [15] It lives
and acts in the world, but its goal and strength are not here but in heaven.
It would be a serious mistake to attempt to separate the charismatic
Church, supposedly the sole follower of Christ's spirit, from the juridical
or institutional Church, the handiwork of men, subject to historical
vicissitudes. There is only one Church. Christ founded only one Church
which is visible and invisible. It has a hierarchical and organized body
and a fundamental structure by divine law, with an intimate supernatural
life that animates, sustains and vivifies it.
We cannot fail to recall that when Christ instituted his Church, he
did not conceive it or form it in such a way that it would contain a number
of generically similar but distinct communities without the bonds that
make the Church indivisible and singular... And thus when Jesus spoke of
this mystical edifice, he mentions only one Church which he calls his own:
'I will build my Church' (Matt 16:18) . Any other one you can imagine outside
of this cannot be his true Church since it was not founded by him. [16]
Faith, I repeat. Let us believe more, asking the Blessed Trinity, whose
feast we celebrate today, for greater faith.
Anything can happen, except for the thrice holy God to abandon his spouse.
In the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul affirms
that the mystery of God, announced by Christ, is carried out in the Church.
God the Father has put all things under his feet and has made him the
head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fulness of
him who fills all in all. [17] The
mystery of God is to set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time,
to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. [18]
It is an inscrutable mystery, of pure gratuitous love. For he chose
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
blameless before him [19] God's love
is limitless. Saint Paul also tells us that our Saviour desires all men
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth [20]
This, and no other, is the aim of the Church: the salvation of souls,
one by one. For this reason the Father sent his Son, and now I am sending
you out in my turn. [21] This is the
origin of the command to teach his doctrine and to baptize, so that the
most Blessed Trinity may live in men's souls in grace. All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you; and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age. [22]
In those simple and sublime words that conclude Saint Matthew's gospel
we find the obligation to preach the truths of faith, the need for sacramental
life, the promise of Christ's continual assistance to his Church. You cannot
be faithful to Our Lord if you neglect these supernatural demands: to instruct
in Christian faith and morality and to frequent the sacraments. It is with
this mandate that Christ founded his Church. Everything else is secondary.
We cannot forget that the Church is not merely a way of salvation; it
is the only way. This is not a human opinion, but the express will of Christ:
he who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe
will be condemned. [23] This is why
we assert that the Church is a necessary means of salvation. No later than
the second century, Origen wrote: If anyone wants to be saved, let him
come to this house so that he can obtain salvation . . . Let no one deceive
himself: outside of this house, that is outside of the Church, no one will
be saved. [24] Of the deluge, Saint
Cyprian says: If someone had escaped outside of Noah's ark then we would
admit that someone who abandoned the Church might escape condemnation.
[25]
Extra Ecclesiam, nulla salus. That is the continual warning of
the Fathers. Outside the Catholic Church you can find everything except
salvation, Saint Augustine admits. You can have honour and sacraments:
you can sing 'alleluia' and respond 'amen' You can uphold the gospel, have
faith in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, and preach that
faith But never, except in the catholic Church, can you find salvation.
[26]
Nonetheless, as Pius XII lamented little more than twenty years ago,
some reduce to an empty formula the need to pertain to the true Church
in order to obtain eternal salvation. [27]
This dogma of faith is at the root of the Church's co-redemptive activity.
It spells out the Christian's grave apostolic responsibility. Among Christ's
express commandments is the categorical one to incorporate ourselves in
his Mystical Body by Baptism. And our Saviour not only commanded that
everyone enter the Church, but also established that the Church be the
means of salvation, without which no one can reach the kingdom of celestial
glory. [28]
It is a matter of faith that anyone who does not belong to the Church
will not be saved; and anyone who is not baptized does not enter the Church.
Justification cannot take place after the promulgation of the gospel,
without Baptism or its desire, the Council of Trent established. [29]
This is a continual demand of the Church which on the one hand stimulates
us to greater apostolic zeal, and on the other manifests clearly the infinite
mercy of God with his creatures.
This is how Saint Thomas explained it: The sacrament of Baptism may
be wanting to someone in two ways. First, in reality and desire, as is
the case of those who are neither baptized nor wish to be baptized: which
clearly indicates contempt of the sacrament for those who have the use
of reason. Consequently those to whom Baptism is wanting thus, cannot obtain
salvation: since neither sacramentally nor spiritually are they incorporated
in Christ, through whom alone can salvation be obtained. Secondly, the
sacrament of Baptism may be wanting to someone in reality but not in desire:
for instance, when a man wishes to be baptized, but by some misfortune
he is forestalled by death before receiving Baptism. Such a man can obtain
salvation without actually being baptized, on account of desire for Baptism,
a desire which is the outcome of 'faith that works by charity' whereby
God, whose power is not tied to visible sacraments, sanctifies man inwardly.
[30]
God Our Lord denies no one supernatural and eternal happiness, although
it is a completely free gift to which no one has a right, especially after
sin. His generosity is infinite. It is a matter of common knowledge
that those who suffer invincible ignorance of our most holy religion but
carefully observe all the precepts of the Natural Law which are engraved
by God in the hearts of all men, and want to obey God and lead an upright
life, can obtain eternal life through the efficacious action of divine
light and grace. [31]
God alone knows what goes on in the heart of each man, and he does not
deal with souls en masse, but one by one. No one on this earth can
make a judgement about the eternal salvation or condemnation of any individual.
Let us not forget that conscience can be culpably deformed and harden
itself in sin, resisting the saving action of God. That is why it is necessary
to spread Christ's doctrine, the truths of faith and the norms of Christian
morality. That is also why we need the sacraments, all of which were instituted
by Jesus Christ as instrumental causes of his grace [32]
and remedies for the weaknesses that ensue from our fallen nature. [33]
Finally, that is why we need to receive frequently the sacraments of Penance
and the Eucharist.
The awesome responsibility of all the Church's members and especially
of its shepherds is made dear in Saint Paul's advice: I charge
you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living
and the dead, and in the name of his coming and of his kingdom: Preach
the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and
exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming
when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they
will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and
will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. [34]
I cannot say how often the prophetic words of the Apostle have been
fulfilled, but you would have to be blind not to see how they are being
carried out almost to the letter in our own time. People reject the doctrine
contained in the law of God and of the Church. They twist the content of
the beatitudes, translating them into a socio-political doctrine. They
attack those who try to be humble, meek and pure of heart as ignorant or
outdated partisans of things long ago consigned to the past. They refuse
to bear the yoke of chastity and invent a thousand excuses to evade Christ's
divine precepts.
There is one symptom that sums up this whole situation: the attempt
to change the supernatural aims of the Church. When they speak of justice,
some people no longer understand by it a life of sanctity, but a particular
political struggle, more or less influenced by Marxism, which is incompatible
with the Christian faith. For them, liberation does not imply a
personal battle to flee from sin, but merely a human task which may be
noble and just in itself, but which is meaningless for a Christian, if
it implies losing sight of the one thing necessary [35]
- the eternal salvation of souls, one by one.
With a blindness that comes from separating themselves from God - this
people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me [36]
- some fabricate an image of the Church that has nothing to do with
what Christ founded. Even the holy sacrament of the altar, the renewal
of the sacrifice of Calvary, is profaned or reduced to a mere symbol of
what they call the 'communion of men with each other'. What would have
become of souls if Our Lord had not sacrificed himself for us, to the last
drop of his precious Blood? How can they despise this perpetual miracle
of the real presence of Christ in the tabernacle? He has stayed with us
so that we can talk to him and adore him. He has stayed with us as a foretaste
of our future glory, so that we decide once and for all to follow in his
footsteps.
These are times of trial, and we have to ask the Lord with an unceasing
clamour [37] to shorten them, to look mercifully
on his Church and to grant once again his supernatural light to the souls
of her shepherds and of all the faithful. The Church has no reason to try
to pander to men, since they, individually or in community, cannot save
themselves. The only one who saves is God.
We need to shout out loudly today - time and again those bold words
of Saint Peter to a group of important people in Jerusalem: This is
the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which has become the
head of the corner. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is
no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. [38]
Thus spoke the first Pope, the rock on which Christ built his Church.
He was moved to do so by his filial devotion to the Lord and by his solicitude
for the little flock entrusted to him. From him and from the rest of the
Apostles, the first Christians learned to love the Church tenderly.
Have you seen, in contrast, how people talk heartlessly about our Holy
Mother the Church nowadays? What a great consolation it is to read the
ancient Fathers' ardent and loving phrases about the Church! Let us
love the Lord our God; let us love his Church, Saint Augustine writes.
Let us love Him as our Father, and her as our Mother. Let no one say:
'It is true that I still go to the idols and consult the possessed and
the sorcerers, but I have not abandoned the Church, I am a Catholic. '
You may still be united to your Mother, but you offend your Father. Someone
else might say: 'God forbid. I do not consult sorcerers or the possessed.
I do not practise sacrilegious prophecies nor go to adore demons nor serve
gods of stone. But I belong to the Donatist party. ' What use will it be
to him not to offend his Father if his Father will avenge his Mother whom
he offends? [39] And Saint Cyprian puts
it more briefly: No one can have God as his Father who does not have
the Church as his Mother. [40]
In our days many refuse to listen to the true doctrine about our Mother
the Church. Some want to redesign the institution, trying to introduce
foolishly into the mystical body of Christ a democracy modelled on that
of some civil societies. Or worse yet, they clamour for an ecclesiastical
body whose members would be equal in every respect. They refuse to believe
that by divine institution the Church is made up of the Pope, with the
bishops, priests, deacons and lay people. That is how Christ wanted it
to be.
The Church is by divine will a hierarchical institution. The Second
Vatican Council describes it as a society structured with hierarchical
organs [41] in which the ministers
are invested with a sacred power. [42]
The hierarchy is not only compatible with freedom; it is at the service
of the freedom of the children of God. [43]
The term democracy is meaningless in the Church which,let me insist,
is hierarchical by divine will. But hierarchy means holy government
and sacred order. In no way does it imply a merely human arbitrary order
or a subhuman despotism. Our Lord established in the Church a hierarchical
order which should not degenerate into tyranny, because authority is as
much a call to serve as is obedience.
In the Church there is equality, because once baptized we are all equal,
all children of the same God, our Father. There is no difference as Christians
between the Pope and someone who has just joined the Church. But this radical
equality does not mean that we can change the constitution of the Church
in those things that were established by Christ. By expressed divine will
there are different functions which imply different capacities, an indelible
character conferred on the sacred ministers by the Sacrament of
Orders. At the summit of this order is Peter's successor and, with him,
and under him, all the bishops with the triple mission of sanctifying,
governing and teaching.
Forgive me for being so insistent, but I must remind you again that
the truths of the faith are not determined by majority vote. They make
up the depositum fidei: the body of truths left by Christ to all
of the faithful and entrusted to the Magisterium of the Church to be authentically
taught and set forth.
It would be an error to think that since men seem to have become more
aware of the bonds of mutual solidarity that unite them, we ought to change
the constitution of the Church as if it needed updating. The times do not
belong to men whether ecclesiastics or not. The times are God's, who is
the Lord of history. And the Church can bring salvation to souls only if
she remains faithful to Christ in her constitution and teaching, both dogmatic
and moral.
Let us reject, therefore, the suggestion that the Church, ignoring the
Sermon on the Mount, seeks a purely human happiness on earth, since we
know that her only task is to bring men to eternal glory in heaven. Let
us reject any purely naturalistic view that fails to value the supernatural
role of divine grace. Let us reject materialistic opinions that exclude
spiritual values from human life. Let us equally reject any secularizing
theory which aims to equate the aims of the Church with those of earthly
states, distorting its essence, institutions and activities into something
similar to those of temporal society.
Remember what Saint Paul told us in the epistle we read today: O
the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! 'For who has known the
mind of the Lord or who has been his counsellor? Or who has given a gift
to him that he might be repaid ?' For from him and through him and to him
are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. [44]
In the light of God's words, how petty seem human designs when they are
used to undermine what Our Lord has established!
But I do not want you to ignore the fact that on all sides we find evidence
of man's warped behaviour. Not being able to get around God, he turns and
takes revenge on other men. Contemporaries of ours become terrible instruments
of evil when they serve as occasion and inducement to sin, sowing confusion
which leads people to commit intrinsically evil actions and flaunt them
as good.
There has always been ignorance. But nowadays the most abysmal ignorance
in matters of faith and morals is disguised at times with high sounding
terms which appear theological. That is why Christ's commandment to his
apostles which we have just heard in the Gospel, Go and teach all nations
[45] takes on, if possible, an even
more pressing urgency. We cannot be indifferent. We cannot fold our arms
and go into seclusion within ourselves. Let us step forward to fight, for
God, a great battle of peace, serenity and doctrine.
We must be understanding, covering everything over with the kind mantle
of charity. But charity must strengthen us in the faith, increase our hope
and make us strong to say loud and clear that the Church is not what some
people pretend. The Church belongs to God and has only one aim, the salvation
of souls. Let us draw near to Our Lord and speak to him face to face in
our prayer. Let us ask him forgiveness for our personal weaknesses and
let us make reparation for our sins and for those of other men who may
not realize in this climate of confusion, how gravely they are offending
God.
In the Holy Mass this Sunday, in the unbloody renewal of the sacrifice
of Calvary, Jesus Christ, priest and victim, will offer himself for the
sins of men. Let us not leave him alone. Let there well up in our heart
an ardent desire to be with him, next to the Cross. May our clamour rise
to the Father, the merciful God, asking him to give back peace to the world,
peace to the Church, peace to consciences.
If we do this, we will find next to the Cross Mary Most Holy, the Mother
of God and our Mother. And guided by her blessed hand, we will come to
Jesus, and through him to the Father and the Holy Spirit.