Article: The Marks of the Church

FATHER GEORGE W. RUTLER

Just as it is more than appropriate, even necessary in the classical understanding of piety, to give thanks to parents on one’s own birthday, so the Church worships the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost for giving it birth.

By a united action with the Eternal Father and Eternal Son, the Eternal Love between them gave life to the Church. Of course, like an ungrateful child who thinks only of himself, it is possible, but fatally so, to think of the Church as only a human institution. Christ was not unaware of the frailty of humans, and his crucifixion was not an understated commentary on the defects of this world. He prayed that Peter's faith might not be shaken when Satan would try to "sift" him, and told the Prince of the Apostles that he must then strengthen frail believers.

The divine architecture of the Church is in four dimensions: unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. That holy genius Saint Robert Bellarmine expanded on those marks of the Church.

Catholic: a universal reality.
Antiquity: established by Christ himself.
Durability: perduring in essence through the changes of time.
Extensiveness: encompassing a vast number of loyal members.
Apostolic Succession: an unbroken witness to the Resurrection from the first apostles.
Doctrinal Agreement: consistent teaching from the ancient proclamation of the Resurrection.
Unity: an organic bond of believers with the Roman Pontiff as their visible head.
Holiness: purity of doctrine reflecting the glory of God.
Efficacy: the ability to change lives.
Heroism: virtue lived to a supernatural degree by the saints.
Miracles: outward signs of supernatural encouragement and consolation.
Prophecy: infallible warnings, encouragements and instructions.
Opposition: hostility to the Church today for the same reasons enemies opposed Christ in his time.
Unhappy End: the inevitable sorrow of those who fight against Christ in his Church.
Temporal Peace and Happiness: the serenity of those who love the Church even in the midst of this world's difficulties.

All this was in the Divine Mind before Pentecost: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" (John 16: 12). In the latest chapter of the Church's life, Pope Benedict XVI, confirming the brethren in the Faith, preached on May 13 to half a million pilgrims at Fatima in Portugal, recalling how the same Mother given to us from the Cross helps all the faithful of the Church, as she did when she gave joyful promises and solemn warnings in 1917: "May the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity."

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Father George William Rutler. "The Marks of the Church." From the Pastor (May 22, 2010).

Reprinted with permission of Father George W. Rutler.

THE AUTHOR

Father Rutler received priestly ordination in 1981. Born in 1945 and reared in the Episcopal tradition, Father Rutler was an Episcopal priest for nine years. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1979 and was sent to the North American College in Rome for seminary studies. Father Rutler graduated from Dartmouth, where he was a Rufus Choate Scholar, and took advanced degrees at the Johns Hopkins University and the General Theological Seminary. He holds several degrees from the Gregorian and Angelicum Universities in Rome, including the Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology, and studied at the Institut Catholique in Paris. In England, in 1988, the University of Oxford awarded him the degree Master of Studies. From 1987 to 1989 he was regular preacher to the students, faculty, and townspeople of Oxford. Cardinal Egan appointed him Pastor of theChurch of Our Saviour, effective September 17, 2001.

Since 1988 his weekly television program has been broadcast worldwide on EWTN. Father Rutler has published 17 books, including: Cloud of Witnesses - Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive, Coincidentally: Unserious Reflections on Trivial Connections, A Crisis of Saints: Essays on People and Principles, Brightest and Best, Saint John Vianney: The Cure D'Ars Today, Crisis in Culture, and Adam Danced: The Cross and the Seven Deadly Sins.

Copyright © 2010 Father George W. Rutler