Lumen Fidei - page 65

65
Finally, faith is one because it is shared by
the whole Church, which is one body and one
Spirit. In the communion of the one subject
which is the Church, we receive a common gaze.
By professing the same faith, we stand firm on
the same rock, we are transformed by the same
Spirit of love, we radiate one light and we have a
single insight into reality.
48. Since faith is one, it must be professed in all
its purity and integrity. Precisely because all the
articles of faith are interconnected, to deny one
of them, even of those that seem least import-
ant, is tantamount to distorting the whole. Each
period of history can find this or that point of
faith easier or harder to accept: hence the need
for vigilance in ensuring that the deposit of faith
is passed on in its entirety (cf.
1 Tim
6:20) and that
all aspects of the profession of faith are duly em-
phasized. Indeed, inasmuch as the unity of faith
is the unity of the Church, to subtract something
from the faith is to subtract something from the
veracity of communion. The Fathers described
faith as a body, the body of truth composed of
various members, by analogy with the body of
Christ and its prolongation in the Church.
42
The
integrity of the faith was also tied to the image
of the Church as a virgin and her fidelity in love
for Christ her spouse; harming the faith means
harming communion with the Lord.
43
The unity
42
 Cf.
ibid
., II, 27, 1: SC
294, 264.
43
 Cf. A
ugustine
,
De Sancta Virginitate
, 48, 48: PL 40, 424-
1...,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64 66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,...88
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