Every Sunday at Mass we profess before each other, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” That is, of course, part of the Nicene Creed that we recite after the Gospel and the homily. Those words, which Christians have repeated for centuries, have a deep meaning and describe the truth about the Church as Jesus established and wills her to be. 

 

The Church is one because Jesus Himself founded the Church as the revealed way to the Father in the Holy Spirit. No other human creation or invention, no matter how well-intended it might be, can accomplish this divine task.

 

The Church is holy, not because it is nice or gives us good feelings. Holiness is the nature of God Himself. Any person, or object or Church can only be holy if it shares the holiness received from God as His gift. Our task as members of the Church is to seek to share that holiness.

 

The Church is apostolic. This is not simply a mere fact of history. Nor is it a boast about the ancestry of our faith. Jesus deliberately founded the Church on the rock which is Peter and upon 11 other men. While the faith, through prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has deepened or responded to new questions with the advances of history since that time, it is unshakably built upon the testimony of those first witnesses who knew and lived with Jesus at His invitation. From this we cannot waver.

 

Finally, the Church is catholic. That term comes from the Greek word, katholikos, which means “universal.” One meaning of that catholicity, that universality, is that it is the Church which bears the faith intended for all men and women. As St. Paul told us, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:27-28).

 

Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t bear our earthly diversity. Rather, the catholicity of the Church means that for men, women and children of every race, every country on earth, “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

 

Our universality extends yet further. It is a universality in time. We share the faith with the apostles and with all the members of the Church who have gone before us. One day those who come after us will check their faith with us and with all the saints in heaven to be sure it is faithful to Christ.

 

This point is hugely important because at times one hears comments hoping that the Church will in some fashion update the faith, somehow seeking to make it conform to the modern world. Even some cardinals have been quoted as saying that they think the advances of science and human experience call us to change the faith and teaching of the Church, especially in the area of morality. Others have offered the hope that the coming Synod in 2023 called by the Holy Father will serve that purpose.

 

The universality of the Church not only in this moment but throughout time is a guarantee of the presence of the unchanging God who loves us. Every moment of prayer, of study, of discussion, even the Synodal process itself, must be an effort to strengthen what the faithful in every age profess about the Church. Our goal is to join the communion of saints with Jesus and to share with them the truth of the faith revealed to us by God for all times. 

 

In our faith and humility, we must embrace the catholicity of the Church and of our faith.