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The Catholic mystery
We publish the excerpt drawn from the writings of the Russian Orthodox priest Georges Florovsky read during the ecumenical celebration in Saint Paul outside the walls
The Church is one. There is only one Church of Christ. For the Church is his body. And Christ is never divided. In Christ, the Incarnate and Glorified Lord, the unity of the human race, after being endangered by the fall and rent asunder by sin, has now been supremely restored. With the creation of the Christian Church, a completely new form or regime of existence has come into being. A catholic regime, one might say, as opposed to that tragic state of dislocation and fragmentation in which humanity as a whole was imprisoned by original sin. Salvation called for a genuine restoration, a complete recapitulation. The Church is one: this unity is not simply one nota ecclesiae alongside others, but rather her very nature. And indeed the principal work of the Church in the world is to gather individuals who are divided and scattered and to incorporate them into an organic and living unity, into Christ. The unity of the Church is both the beginning and the end of her life, her very foundation and goal, a primordial datum and a problem to resolve. Unity is a dynamic principle, a principle of life and growth. The unity of the Spirit was something given from the beginning. But that unity needs to be preserved and perpetuated by the bond of peace, through an unceasing effort of faith and of charity. A synergism of grace and human fidelity is always present. In this way, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ (Eph 4: 3, 15). One and catholic are two aspects of a single living reality. |
