Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia
Choose a topic from Vol 4:
As the spirit of man is enshrined in a visible body, and man is not only an individual but a social being, so the true spirit of religion adapted to man's own nature should be enshrined in a visible and corporate Church. But apart altogether from our own preconceived ideas of what should or should not be, we have to accept what God has seen fit actually to decree. And He thought a visible and organized Church necessary.
Even whilst you think to show that the Church is invisible only, you are proving that it was meant to be a visible reality in this world. If the unity is to be "that the world may believe," then the world which does not yet believe must be able to see the unity of the visible Church before its eyes. It is that visible unity which is to be the instrument for the conversion of unbelievers. And that visible unity is apparent in the Catholic Church, made up of over 400 millions of all nations.
If the Church were an invisible quality only in the souls of men no one could say where the true Church is to be found. No. Christ established a visible Church and appointed visible Apostles to rule that Church, those belonging to it accepting their teaching and discipline. In Acts, XX, 28, we read: "Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops to rule the Church of God." How could the bishops rule the Church of God if they did not know who belonged to it?
Those expressions are analogical descriptions, not definitions at all. A definition is an adequate and precise statement which gives the essential elements that make a thing what it is and mark it off specifically from everything other than itself so that there is no difficulty in identifying it. It must cover all yet be limited to the thing defined. For example, if you say: "Man is an animal," you've said what is to a certain extent true. But you have not defined a man, for an animal could equally well be a horse or a dog. But if you say: "Man is a rational animal," then you have defined man, for no animal except man is rational. What, therefore, is the definition of the true Church which is adequate and precise enough to enable a man to recognize it when he comes across it, and to avoid mistaking any other Church for it? It is a visible religious society in this world, founded by Christ and preserved intact through all the centuries, whose members of whatever nationality became such by baptism and who are united in professing the same doctrinal beliefs, in the same essential forms of worship, in the reception of the same Sacraments, and in obedience to the same authority of the lawful successors of the Apostles, the Bishops of the Universal Church, amongst whom the Bishop of Rome as the successor of St. Peter is supreme. That is the Church to which your symbolical expressions apply. In that Catholic Church you will find "The Household of God," "The Body of Christ," and "The Temple of the Holy Ghost."
The same need as your foot or your hand or any other living part of your body has to belong to the body. Amputated members are not of much use. Just as your body by means of its members is the instrument by which you accomplish what you want to do, so the Church, with all its various members, is the instrument by which Christ accomplishes His work in this world. It is the Catholic Church which still preaches the message of Christ in all its fulness, sending her missionaries to the ends of the earth; which still offers- the worship to God which Christ offered and prescribed; which unites those who belong to Him and sanctifies them by her Sacraments.
"THAT CATHOLIC CHURCH
A Radio Analysis"
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