“And there will be one flock, one shepherd”. These are the words that Jesus speaks to his disciples during his Good Shepherd discourse. One flock and one shepherd. What does this phrase mean? “One flock” is a metaphor for a phrase that we repeat in the Creed: “I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”. Throughout the history of the Church, there has always been schism – those who willingly break away from the true Flock of Christ. We can think of the Arians in the 4th century, the Orthodox in the 11th century and the various Protestant sects from the 16th century. All of these groups are not equal. Arians, for example, cannot even be considered Christians since they denied Christ’s divinity; on the other hand, the Orthodox retain valid apostolic succession and sacraments. Nonetheless, none of these groups are in full communion with the One Flock of Christ, that is, the Catholic Church.
Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, states that “the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church”. The word subsist – drawn from philosophy – needs to be understood properly. To say that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church, is to say that the Catholic Church is the actual Church of Christ. Other separated churches (such as Orthodox churches), while they possess some elements of the Church, are not the fully actualized Church of Christ. Rather, they lack the perfect unity of the Catholic Church and can only achieve this perfect unity by entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. Of course, the perfect unity of the Church is not guaranteed by her members (ie. us), but by the One Shepherd – that is, by Christ. Christ, who is the king of the Church, has appointed the Pope to be his ‘prime minister’. This means that the Pope, when he governs the Church, is not acting in his own right, but is acting on behalf of Christ. For our part, when we obey the Pope, we are not obeying him per se; rather, we are obeying Christ who acts through him.
Let us therefore prayer for the Catholic Church and for Pope Francis, that Jesus Christ would act through Francis, his minister, and enable him to rule the One Church of Christ in righteousness and unity.
Ian Mahood – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta
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