Marks of the Church – Catholic

It’s All Greek To Me

Ordinarily, when we get into the etymological origins of words and we turn to Greek, I’d include the Greek alphabet with the translation. Not so this time. To be honest, my Greek is worse than my Latin, and I can’t figure out which form of the words is correct.

The word katholikos is the origin of our word “catholic”. Katholikos means “throughout the whole”, or “embracing the whole”. I’ve seen it translated several different ways from the Greek. A typical way of saying it in English is “universal”.

Now, the idea of universality is important, but we have to look at it in two different ways. The common way is to say that the Catholic Church is universal in a geographical sense. This is true – the Church spans the globe and her members are everywhere. There is, however, a second meaning here. The Church is universal in its doctrine and worship as well (in theory at least). The Church’s teachings are the same regardless of where in the world you look at them from. The same Mass occurs in the US as in Europe, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Africa. De Lubac would present a third angle of the catholicity of the Church as well. This universal dimension has to do with the brotherhood of all mankind, and the Churches’ role therein. Here the idea is that all men are, by their common creation in God’s image (Genesis 1:26).

The idea of catholicity, in a Catholic sense, is a geographic, doctrinal and human universality.

Biblical Foundations

We start very nearly at the beginning – back in Genesis – specifically to chapter 22, verses 16 through 18. Now, before we look at the quote, let’s look at some background. Abraham has just offered his only son as a sacrifice to God. God relented and spared Abraham and before the knife fell and says:

By my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake, I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore, thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.

This is actually deep stuff. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham chose God over his own flesh and blood. This is actually the birth of the catholic nature of God’s Church. Notice, “all the nations of the earth”…it doesn’t say “all the Hebrews” or “all the Israelites”. God takes this beyond Israel and extends his covenant to everyone.

Now, skip forward to the very first line of the New Testament in Matthew 1:1.

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham…

Here we see the fulfillment of God’s blessing of Abraham. All the earth is indeed blessed by the seed of Abraham. This blessing is spread universally to all humanity. Who is the spiritual head of the Catholic Church? Christ himself is the answer. Thus Abraham laid the groundwork for the catholicity of the Church, founded on Peter in Matthew 16:18 – the one Church, not churches, against which the gates of Hell will not prevail – Christ’s own Church.

Next, let’s have a look at Daniel 7. I’m not going to quote the entire thing here for the sake of brevity, but I will try to summarize. Daniel has a vision of four great beasts. The first is a lion with wings like an eagle. This beast represents the Babylonian empire, and its wings are eventually plucked off and it falls. The second beast is a bear, powerful with ribs in its mouth set to “devour much flesh.” This represents the Persian empire and it too is eventually set aside. The third beast then comes and takes the form of a leopard with the wings of a bird. Fast and deadly, this beast represents the Greece of Alexander the Great and his successors. The speed of the creature represents the speed with which Alexander conquered the known world. Finally, the beast of Alexander was replaced by a most fearsome creature that isn’t even described as an animal. It’s “terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong.” This one has iron teeth and trampled everything in its path. This represents the empire of Rome, and is eventually slain, it’s body burned with fire. What replaced these empires that lived “for a season and a time”?

”…behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man … And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” – Daniel 7:13-14

Now, I ask you, who refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” in the New Testament? Christ himself. In fact, Christ calls Himself the Son of Man, but no one else ever uses that name. Jesus was tapping into deep theology and going way back in time. It’s Christ’s dominion that is everlasting. It’s Christ’s dominion that will embrace “all peoples, nations and languages”, and come to serve Him. Again, we get the universal nature – the catholicity – of the Catholic Church. How can this be the Catholic Church, and not the entirety of Christianity? Easy – go back to Matthew 16:18 again. How many churches did Jesus mention? How many churches recognize Peter as the rock upon which that Church is founded? Does it fit well to expand this to all Christianity? Not according to the Catholic interpretation.

There is one more point to make on Daniel 7. In the first part, the dominion, kingdom and glory are given to the Son of Man. By the end, Daniels vision has changed a bit. He says that the kingdom will be given to the saints of the Most High, and it’s their kingdom that will be everlasting. Saints aren’t just dead guys – at least, not in theory. We’re all potential saints. We’re all called – in this life – to be saints by the time we die. Paul says so in several places. The letter to the Ephesians is written to “the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus”. A few chapters later he calls himself, “the least of all the saints”. The letter to the Philippians is written “to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons…” (The cynic in me notes that the bishops aren’t automatically considered saints, but perhaps I shouldn’t go there…) Hebrews 6:13 “For God is not unjust, that he should forget your work, and the love which you have shewn in his name, you who have ministered, and do minister to the saints.” Notice the past and present tense in the line from Hebrews?

Now, there are a few other scriptural quotes I could tie in for the universal nature – the catholic nature – of Christ’s church, but for the sake of brevity I’ll relent and we’ll move on.

So, we have a basis for Christian catholicity that comes from scripture itself. How did the early Church see this subject?

The Patristic View

The word “Catholic” was first used in relation to the Church back in 107 A.D. by St Ignatius of Antioch (epistle to the Church in Smyrna). By 140 it was a common term, used in the description of St. Polycarp’s martyrdom. By the year 200, it was almost universally used to describe the Church as Catholic, or to call it simply the “Catholic Church”. The term also appears in the Apostle’s Creed. Some researchers set the origin of this particular creed in the first century.

This covers the form of language, but what did the early church actually believe?

In the second century, St. Irenaeus writes:

For the churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor do those in the East, nor do those in Egypt, nor do those in Libya, nor do those which have been established in the central regions of the world.”

I could string out quotes from each of the earliest centuries of the Church, but that would only prolong the end of this already lengthy post. Allow me to skip to St. Augustine to sum up and give us the last word on this subject:

The Church is hidden from no one for it is the Catholic Church itself which is therefore called universal in Greek because it is spread throughout the entire world. … There are many other things which keep me in the bosom of the Catholic Church – the unanimity of peoples and nations keeps me here, her authority, inaugurated in miracles, nourished by hope, augmented by love and confirmed by her age, keeps me here. The succession of priests from the very seat of the Apostle Peter up to the present episcopate keeps me here and last, the very name of Catholic, which not without reason belongs to this Church alone in the face of so many heretics, so much so that although all heretics want to be called Catholic, when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets, not one of the heretics would dare point out his own basilica or meeting place. The name of he Catholic Church is peculiar to the true church.”