Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
6th July 2014

Francisco Suarez S.J. - The Holy Ghost and The Holy Catholic Church

The promise of the Holy Spirit was made to the Church, that he should remain with it for ever, as Christ himself said; therefore the Church always has the Holy Spirit as guide and teacher, by whom it is specially guided and illumined, and hence it cannot happen that the same Church should err about the truth, and therefore Cyril, bk.10, on John, last chapter, said: "When he predicted that the Paraclete would come to them, he named him the Spirit of truth (for he himself is truth), so that the disciples might understand that he would send a virtue not foreign to himself." And later: "This Spirit of truth therefore will lead into all truth, for he knows the truth exactly, whose Spirit he is, and reveals it not in part but completely. For although we know in part in this life, as Paul says, yet it is not a truth mutilated but a truth complete that shines on in this limited knowledge." Which last words are much to be noted, for from them is understood the necessity of this Spirit of truth in the Church, as I will immediately make plain. Next Tertullian, (bk. De Praescriptionibus, ch.28) as if mocking those who attribute to the Universal Church error about the faith, says for the same reason: "Will the Holy Spirit not have regard for the Church, he who was sent for this purpose by Christ to lead it into truth, who was for this purpose asked for from the Father, that he might be Teacher of truth?"

Thus One must hold that the Catholic Church cannot fall into heresy or err, whether by ignorance or in any other way, in any dogma wherein, as in a truth revealed by God and to be believed by all the faithful, the Universal Church is united and which it teaches and proposes. For this too is contained in the promises made to the Church, and therefore no Catholic can be in doubt about the truth of this dogma. The fact is made plain, in the first place, by the words of Paul, 1 Timothy, 3.15: "That thou mayest know how thou ought to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." For the Church is compared to a column as to something that, by stability and firmness, preserves the truth sincere and pure and secures all the faithful in the truth against all oppressors of it whatever. But if the Church could err, how, I ask, could the faith of believers, or the truth of things to be believed, depend on it? But that this is the opinion and sense of Paul seems so clear from the words that it scarce needs any exposition or persuasion, but only the reading of an unperturbed mind. Hence all authors, ancient as well as more recent, declare that the Church is said to be the pillar of truth on account of its being immoveable in the truth. But it is called the ground, either because it has the truth made firm by prodigies and virtues which could be done by no other than by God himself, as Ambrose expounds, or because by it all believers are made firm in the truth, as is rightly taught by St. Thomas, and as is indicated by Chrysostom when he says: "The pillar of the world is the Church, which contains the faith to be preached; indeed the truth of the Church is the pillar and ground." And Jerome also adds on the same place: "The Church is called the pillar, on which now alone the truth stands firm, which alone holds up the building".

'O Holy Ghost, grant that I may never be separated from the sacred bonds of your spouse!'