6/5/2019 6:50:31 AM
So that they may be one just as we are
“”
"So that they may be one just as we are"
The Church bears the imprint and image of God since she shares in the same activity as he... God has brought all things into existence by his infinite power; he contains them, gathers them into one and embraces them. In his Providence he binds all things firmly together to each other and to himself... The holy Church will appear as working the same effect in us as God does, whose image she is. Men, women, children are numerous – and practically innumerable – each distinct from the other, infinitely different by birth, characteristics, nationality and language, way of life and age, ability, customs, habits, knowledge, fortune, personality and relations. Yet all are brought to birth in this Church and, through her working, all are reborn to new life, recreated by the Holy Spirit. The Church has given to all... one single form, one single divine name: to be Christ's and to bear his name. And to all, too, she gives a certain kind of oneness that does not allow us to distinguish the numerous differences between them... because of the reuniting of all things in her. It is through them, her members, that absolutely no one is separated from the community since all converge towards each other and all are held together by the working of the indivisible power of grace and faith. It is written: “All were of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32)... To be a single Body formed out of such very different members is something that is really worthy of Christ himself, who is our true Head (Col 1:18). “In him,” says Paul the apostle, “there is neither Jew nor Greek..., neither slave nor free person” but “he is all in all” (Gal 3:28; )... In this way, then, is the holy Church in God's image, since she brings about the same union between believers as God does.