Thursday, August 27, 2020 –
Today we will be discussing the second Mark of the Church: HOLY (AKA SANCTITY). A lot of people confuse this one by thinking that every person is a Saint. Umm…no. This one is about Christ, the source of all holiness, being the Founder of the Catholic Church (as opposed to a guy in a cave somewhere high on peyote) and giving the Church the means to achieve holiness through the Sacraments, holy doctrine, and an abundance of graces and gifts.
Even the Catechism’s In Brief paragraph on this one is a bit head-scratchy:
867 The Church is holy: the Most Holy God is her author; Christ, her bridegroom, gave himself up to make her holy; the Spirit of holiness gives her life. Since she still includes sinners, she is “the sinless one made up of sinners.” Her holiness shines in the saints; in Mary she is already all-holy.
So, of course, we will go to our other sources…
We will start with the Baltimore Catechism because it has a single Q&A on the matter. Well, truthfully the Baltimore Catechism has a lot around this question about Sacred Scripture, Revealed Tradition, and the infallibility of the Pope, but this is the important part regarding Sanctity:
Q. 563. How is the Church Holy?
A. The Church is Holy because its founder, Jesus Christ, is holy; because it teaches a holy doctrine; invites all to a holy life; and because of the eminent holiness of so many thousands of its children. (Baltimore Catechism, #3)
I fell like we need a tad more than that. Good news! Bishop Morrow has almost a whole page on the matter:
50. Marks of the True Church
2. Christ intended His Church to be Holy; therefore the True Church must be Holy. It must teach a holy doctrine in faith and morals, because its Founder is holy. It must provide the means for its members to lead a holy life (Bishop Morrow, My Catholic Faith, p. 101)…
52. The Catholic Church: Unity and Holiness
Why is the Catholic Church holy? –The Catholic Church is holy because it was founded by Jesus Christ, who is all-holy, and because it teaches, according to the will of Christ, holy doctrines, and provides the means of leading a holy life, thereby giving holy members to every age.
1. The Founder of the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ, is holy. The Church exhorts its children to imitate its Divine Founder.
No founder of any other church is as holy as Jesus Christ, Son of God. And among the children of the Church we may mention as examples of holiness the canonized Saints.
2. The Catholic Church teaches the highest and holiest doctrine ever presented to any people, a standard of perfection. The same precepts delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai, the same warnings uttered by the prophets in Judea, the same sublime lessons taught by Our Lord: these the Church teaches from year to year.
The Church teaches its children to know, love, and serve God, and thus to become saints. It urges on them the truth: “What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26). It exhorts them to imitate Christ.
3. The Catholic Church provides powerful means for holiness, in prayer and the Sacraments. By the Sacraments a Catholic receives abundant graces. One who is faithful in the reception of the Sacraments will never fail to live a righteous life and die a happy death.
Every Catholic is obliged to my his morning and night prayers, and to resort to prayer in every necessity and temptation, as well as to prayer of thanksgiving. He is required under pain of sin to hear Mass on Sundays and holydays of obligation.
4. The Catholic Church produces holy members in its saints and martyrs. In every age and country the Church is the Mother of saints, martyrs, confessors, and holy men and women who live in Christ. We do not, however, maintain that all Catholics are holy. Unfortunately, some do not live up to the teachings of the Church; that will be their condemnation.
We must remember that even among the Apostles there was one Judas. Our Lord Himself taught in the parable of the wheat and the cockle that the good and the bad will grow up side by side in His Church.
5. The Catholic Church still has the gift of miracles. Christ promised His Church the gift of miracles, a sign of holiness. “He who believes in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these he shall do” (John 14:12).
Each holy soul proposed for canonization must have worked two miracles before beatification, and two more before canonization. We constantly read of miracles at Lourdes and other shrines. The cures at Lourdes are declared genuine by a board of physicians, many of whom are non-Catholic.
6. The Catholic Church carries on numberless works of holiness. It is the great Mother of Mercy and Charity to the helpless.
It instructs children in school, cares for the poor, the sick, the lepers, the deaf, blind, dumb, the old, the orphaned and abandoned. It engages in all kinds of missionary and charitable activity. (Bishop Morrow, My Catholic Faith, p. 105)…
Whew! That was a lot to quote. But let’s break it down. The Catholic Church is HOLY because:
- Christ, the Founder, is holy. He is all-holy and the source of holiness because HE…IS…GOD!
- The Church teaches holy doctrine. We are taught to know God, to love God, and serve God. Our doctrine is the standard of perfection because we are taught to imitate Christ, the all-holy!
- The Church provides the means—AKA the “stuff”—needed to achieve holiness, mainly the Sacraments (instituted by Christ) and prayer.
- The Church produces Saints: holy people we can look to for an example of how to live in Christ.
- We have miracles, and we don’t mean no snake-handling weirdness. Real…solid…miracles!
- The Church carries out works of mercy, and we are called to do works of mercy, which help us lead holy lives.
As someone who finds herself in the Confession line more times than she would like to admit, I find this particular mark of the Church a great comfort. Thank goodness the Church is there to help me along the path of holiness, but isn’t depending on little ‘ole me to not fall flat on my face. When we fall, we can turn to Christ to pick us up, dust us off, and set us back on the road.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us!
