The Church is one. There is but one Church of Christ. For the Church is his body and Christ is never divided. Unity is not one note of the Church among the others. It denotes rather the very nature of the Church: one Head and one body. "The unity of the Spirit" has been given from the beginning in the mystery of Pentecost. But this unity must be maintained and strengthened by "the bond of peace," by an ever-increasing effort of faith and charity in order that "speaking the truth in love, we grow up in all things toward him who is the head, the Christ" (Ephesians 4: 3,15). "Unity" and "catholicity" are two aspects of the same living reality. One Church is intrinsically Church Catholic.
The term "catholic" is used in the ancient creeds. The origin of the term is uncertain. By its etymology the word denotes primarily "togetherness" or "entirety" in opposition to any "particularity". In early documents the term "catholic" was never used in the quantitative sense to denote the geographical expansion or territorial universality of the Church. It was used rather to emphasize the integrity of her faith and doctrine, the loyalty of the Great Church to the original and primitive tradition, in opposition to heretics and sectarians who separated themselves from this original wholeness each to follow a particular and particularist line. "Catholic" at that time meant "orthodox" rather than 'universal." It is in this sense that the term was used for the first time in the Epistle of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Church of Smyrna and in the Martyrium of St. Polycarp. In his Catechnical Orations St. Cyril of Jerusalem later gave a synthetic description of the term in which the original meaning was well stressed:
The Church is called "Catholic" because she exists on the whole surface of the earth, from one end to the other; because she teaches integrally and without omission (kathotikos kai anelleipos] all dogmas which must be brought to the knowledge of men, both on things visible and invisible, on things celestial and on things earthly; because it brings to the same worship all categories of people, rulers and subjects, learned and ignorant; finally, because she nurses and cures integrally (katholikos) all kinds of sins, carnal as well as those of the soul; again because she possesses all kinds of virtues, in deeds, in words, in spiritual gifts of all sorts.
The original stress on integrity and qualitative comprehensiveness is obvious in this description. The universal expansion in the whole world is rather a manifestation of this internal integrity, of the spiritual plenitude of the Church. It was only in the West that the word "catholic" was given a quantitative meaning, especially by St. Augustine to counteract the geographical provincialism of the Donatists. St. Augustine knew well, however, that the word "catholic" meant secunditm totum, quia per totum est. Since that time the two words "catholic" and "universal" have come to be regarded as synonyms, first in the West and finally in the Orthodox East also. This was a regrettable reduction of the great catholic conception, a mutilation of the original idea. It transferred the accent from the primary meaning to the secondary and derivative. Essential catholicity is not a topographical conception. The Church of Christ was not less "catholic" on the day of Pentecost when she was no more than a small company at Jerusalem, nor later when Christian communities were like islands scattered in the ocean of paganism. Moreover, no territorial reduction can affect her catholic nature. In brief, in the phrase of a contemporary Roman theologian, "catholicity is not a matter of geography or of numbers."
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Moreover, "catholic" is not just a collective term. The Church is catholic not only as an ensemble of all local churches, not only as a world-wide community. The Church is catholic in all her elements and branches, in all her acts and in all the moments of her life. Each member of the Church also is and must be "catholic," not only in so far as he is a member of a catholic body, but primarily in that his personality is spiritually integrated and in this sense "catholicized." "Catholic" denotes a spiritual state or attitude, exclusive of all "particularism" or "sectarianism". The goal and the criterion of this internal catholicity is "that the multitude of the believers were of one heart and one soul" (Acts 4:32).
Catholicity is both an initial gift of grace — in the integrity of the apostolic faith and in comprehensive charity — and a task or problem to be solved again and again. Objectively the Church is catholic in her sacraments. Sacramental grace is always a grace of unity. The Holy Spirit unites us to the Lord by incorporating us into his body. The spirit unites us together to form "one body," the catholic Church. And in each faithful soul the Spirit is the living source of peace and inner concord, of that peace that "the world cannot give". In Christ and "in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit," the catholicity of the Church is already given and grounded. On the other hand, it is still a task and a goal, to be achieved by every new generation, in every local community, by every faithful person. Internal catholicity implies the total transformation or transfiguration of life and behavior which can be achieved only by constant spiritual effort, by the constant practice of renunciation and charity. There is no room for selfishness and exclusiveness, or for any individualistic self-sufficiency, in the catholic structure of the Church.
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The Orthodox Church claims to be the Church. There is no pride and no arrogance in this tremendous claim. On the contrary, it implies a heavy responsibility. It is a constant reminder of inadequacy, a call to repentance and humility. In no way is it a claim to "perfection". The Church is still in pilgrimage, in travail, in via. She has her historic failures and losses; she has her unfinished tasks and problems. Nor is it just a claim. It is rather an expression of deepest conviction, of deepest spiritual self-knowledge, humble and grateful. The Orthodox Church is conscious of her identity through the ages, in spite of all historic trials and tribulations. She believes that she has kept intact and immaculate the sacred heritage of the early Church, of the Apostles and the Fathers, "the faith which was once delivered to the saints." She is aware of the identity of her teaching with the apostolic preaching and the tradition of the ancient Church, even though she may have failed occasionally and probably too often to convey this message and this tradition to particular generations in their full splendor and in a way which carries conviction. In a sense, the Orthodox Church is a continuation, a "survival," of ancient Christianity as it was shaped in the age of the Ecumenical Councils. She stands for the tradition of the Fathers, which is embodied also in her liturgical structure and in her spiritual practice. This is a living tradition, giving the Orthodox Church her identity. Nor is it just a human tradition, maintained by human memory and imitation. The ultimate identity of the Church is grounded in her sacramental structure, in the organic continuity of the body. The Orthodox Church finds herself in an unbroken succession of sacramental life and faith. She is aware of having been ever the same since the beginning. And for that very reason the Orthodox Church recognizes herself, in our divided Christendom, as the true guardian of the ancient faith and order; that is, as being the Church. The whole program of ecumenical action is implied in this Orthodox ecclesiology.
From the essay "The Historical Problem of a Definition of the Church" in the book "Ecumenism II: A Historical Approach" (Vol. 14 in the collected works)
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In one sense, the Eastern Church is a survival of ancient Christianity as it has been shaped in the age of the Ecumenical Councils and of the Holy Fathers. The Eastern Church stands exactly for the Patristic tradition. Surely it was, and must be, the common tradition both of the East and the West, and here resides its primary importance and its uniting power. But in the West, in the Middle Ages, this Patristic tradition was reduced or impoverished (for a considerable period of time "Patristic" meant in the West simply "Augustinian," and everything else was ignored or forgotten,) and again it has been obscured and over burdened with a later scholastic superstructure. Thus in the West it became a sort of an historical reminiscence, just a piece of the past that had passed away and must be rediscovered by an effort of memory. Only in the East has it been kept alive for centuries up to the present time. By no means is it simply an archaic relic, a shadowy remnant of ages gone. It is living tradition. It is what gives to the East its Christian identity. It is what has kept its identity through ages of strife and temptation. I am not speaking now of Patristic opinions, but precisely of the Patristic mentality and attitude.
From the essay "The Greek and Latin Mind in the Early Ages of the Church" in the book "Ecumenism II: A Historical Approach" (Vol. 14 in the collected works)
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