471. From what has been disputed thus far we have only this established: that the Church, from Christ’s institution, is a true society, and that it is visible. And in this the Church agrees generically with any other society existing among men. Now we proceed to investigate the specific nature of the Church, or we inquire into that through which it is distinguished from other societies; and this can be known only from its end.
472. For, as Cardinal Tarquini reasons well in Public Ecclesiastical Law, number 7: “To determine the essence of some thing is the same as to assign some note intrinsic and immutable to it, which is uniquely proper to it. But the intrinsic and immutable note which is uniquely proper to each society can be nothing except its end; because, from the four essential elements mentioned in number 392, the two prior elements, that is, the multitude of men and their conjunction, insofar as they are considered in themselves, with abstraction made from the end, are common to the genus. The third, however, that is, the means, is not determined through itself, since means by their nature are ordered to an end, so that they are sought only insofar as they conduce to the end. On the other hand, the fourth, that is, the end, in the genus of societies is plainly indeterminate; but it is determined only in individual societies, so that it is uniquely proper to each. Therefore the essence of societies can be determined only from the end. But societies which are distinct from one another and nevertheless have the same end adequately are so many repetitions of the same society, which are distinguished not in species but in number.”
473. Now then, as we shall immediately prove, the end which Christ intended in instituting the Church was that, in the Church and through the Church, he would make perpetual his visible mission on earth and his visible magisterium. Hence, just as Christ’s magisterium, governance, and ministry of sanctification persevere in the Church teaching and governing, so the faithful, by adhering to the doctrine proposed by him, by obeying him, and by receiving from him the means of sanctification, find in the Church the safe way of salvation.
474. Therefore, in order that the end of the instituted Church may be known adequately, it must be asked what was the end of Christ’s own mission. This was certainly the eternal salvation of men, and the glory of God to be obtained through the salvation of men. Christ himself declares this in John 10.10, saying: “I have come that they may have life [certainly the supernatural life of grace], and may have it more abundantly.” And in 1 John 5.11 it is said: “And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in his Son.” And in John 17.4: “Father… I have glorified you upon earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do.” Hence it is clear that, by the same reason by which the end for which Christ instituted the Church is said to have been the perpetual continuation of his visible mission on earth, that end is also said to be the glory of God to be obtained through the eternal salvation of men.
475. From this it is also clear that this end of obtaining eternal salvation, which belongs to the Church of Christ, is likewise altogether proper to it, since no other society has it as proper to itself. In this matter it must be recalled what we indicated above in numbers 38 and 85, namely, that the other societies which are in the world, if they are legitimate and honorable, must intend eternal salvation in some way; nevertheless that end is in them only general and remote, not, as in the Church, proper and immediate. Therefore they need the Church, as will later be seen better, in order to obtain that remote end, so that they may proceed rightly in the pursuit of their proper and immediate end.
476. With the end of the Church declared in this way, it can immediately be inferred: 1. that the Church is a spiritual and supernatural society. For, as we said in number 472, the nature and essence of a society is determined by the end for which it was instituted; but the glory of God to be obtained through the eternal salvation of men, the end of the Church, is a spiritual end and a supernatural one. Therefore. In reality, once a supernatural end has been established, it is rightly inferred that the Church itself has both supernatural elements and supernatural means; for means have a proportion to the end, just as the end is proportioned to the subject to which it is proposed.
477. But it is vainly objected: if the Church is a spiritual society, it has no right to use material means. For, as Taparelli rightly notes in the Essay, number 1432, if by the name spiritual society they understand a society composed of spirits, the antecedent is false; if a society is understood which tends to a spiritual end, the consequent is false. This will immediately be clear if the two things which are understood beneath the argument are brought into the open. Here is the whole argument: the Church is a society which tends to a spiritual end; therefore it has a right to those means which are necessary for attaining such an end; but a spiritual end requires merely spiritual means; therefore the Church has a right to merely spiritual means; therefore it can claim for itself no right over material things. Now there is no one who does not see that the third proposition is false, since the question is of a human society, namely a society whose members are composed of soul and body, and who therefore, even when they deal among themselves about spiritual things, must necessarily use material means.
478. It is inferred: 2. that the Church is a religious society, indeed the Christian religion itself considered, as it were, in the concrete. It is indeed a religious society; for it belongs to religion to offer due worship to God and to promote man toward the attainment of his end, and thus of his happiness, as in numbers 21-23. But the Church was instituted to procure the eternal salvation of man and the glory of God. Therefore. But it is the Christian religion itself; for if the Church is a religious society, since it was instituted by Christ, it cannot be another religion besides the Christian religion itself, whose truth and divine origin we demonstrated in the preceding disputation.
479. Wherefore, as we indicated in number 388, true Christianity does not differ from the Church except as the abstract from the concrete, but in reality they are one and the same. For just as there cannot be a true Church of Christ which does not have the doctrine and institutions of Christ, so neither can true Christianity flourish outside the genuine Church of Christ. Therefore the Christianity which rationalists in our age imagine for themselves, severed from the Church of Christ, and thus released from the duties to be rendered to it, must be judged a pure and mere chimera. For, as we were just saying, our Redeemer willed “his religion to adhere to the society instituted by himself in such a way that it would remain thoroughly joined and, as it were, concreted with that society, and that outside it there would be no true religion of Christ.”
480. This inference is indeed of the greatest moment. For if, for the institution and propagation of his religion, Christ immediately set about the institution of the Church, and deposited in it the doctrine and institutions which he had revealed, to be guarded by it and perpetually disseminated, then certainly Christian revelation never, not even for one instant, remained as if left to itself; rather, what at first remained, as it were, in the hands of Christ, passed from them to the Apostles, and then passed from the hands of the Apostles to their successors. Therefore, just as from the beginning the doctrine and religion of Christ had to be sought from Christ himself, and just as after Christ’s ascension into heaven it had to be sought from the Apostles, so after the times of the Apostles until the consummation of the age it must be sought from the Church, or from its authentic magisterium, in which the magisterium of Christ himself still perseveres and flourishes. Compare what we disputed in the treatise On the Infused Virtues, disputation 4, articles 2, 3, and 5.
481. These things, therefore, having been set forth: Section II The Proposed Question Is Resolved Proposition XX. The end which Christ set before himself in instituting the Church was that, in the Church and through the Church, he would make perpetual his visible mission on earth; and thus that through it, by procuring the eternal salvation of men, he would promote the glory of God. Therefore the Church, especially considered with respect to its end, is a religious, spiritual, and supernatural society; namely, it is the Christian religion itself in the concrete, plainly different from every other society.
482. I. Let us consider Christ’s mission generally. Certainly: 1. Christ communicated to the Apostles his own same mission. For it is read in John 20.21: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you”; and in John 17.17 and following: “Sanctify them in truth; your word is truth: as you have sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world”; and in John 15.16: “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have appointed you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” 2. To discharge this mission Christ communicated his own power to the Apostles. For it is said in Matthew 28.18 and following: “All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age.” Hence also in John 20, after those words “as he sent,” etc., Christ adds: “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive,” etc.; and in Mark 16.15, once the mission of preaching the Gospel has been conferred, he adds: “he who does not believe shall be condemned”; just as in Luke 10.16 it is said: “he who hears you hears me; he who despises you despises me.” 3. But this mission and power did not belong to the Apostles alone, but was to be continued in their successors. For: a. that mission and power, as is clear from the cited testimonies, was communicated to the Apostles for the good of the whole world, of all nations, for every time; and surely all must be saved through Christ and through the means instituted by him. But the Apostles could not by themselves extend the mission they had received to all nations for every time. b. Especially from the text of Matthew 28 it is clear that Christ promised the Apostles that he would be with them as they taught and baptized until the consummation of the age. But these words cannot be understood of the person of the Apostles alone. c. Hence, just as the Apostles after Christ’s ascension into heaven constituted the Church teaching, governing, and administering, which is clear also from the Acts of the Apostles and from the Epistles of Peter and Paul, they then visibly bearing the place of Christ on earth, so bishops succeed the Apostles until the end of the world, so that they visibly bear the place of Christ, and in them the mission of Christ may persevere.
483. II. Let us consider the individual offices of Christ’s mission. Furthermore: 1. the office of his mission was to teach men the true and safe way of salvation; for concerning him it is said: “Jesus began to do and to teach”; and he himself says concerning himself that he came “to preach the Gospel to the poor,” that he is “the way and the truth,” and so forth. But he committed the same office to the Apostles, to whom he said: “going, teach all nations.” Through their successors that office must endure “even to the consummation of the age.” The same office is an authentic magisterium, as is clear from Mark 16.16: “he who believes and is baptized… shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned.” Therefore. 2. The office of Christ’s mission was to loose men from the bonds of sins and to sanctify them; since of him St. John the Baptist said: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.” Christ himself said to the paralytic and to Magdalene: “Your sins are forgiven you”; concerning himself he declared that he had come “to save that which had perished.” But it is established that Christ imposed the same office upon the Apostles, in whom he founded the Church. For he addressed the Apostles thus in John 20.21-23: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” And in Matthew 18.18: “Amen I say to you, whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven.” 3. The office of Christ’s mission certainly was that, so long as he was on earth, he himself would rule the Church constituted by him. And Christ committed the same office to the Apostles, in whom he founded the Church. For in John 21.15-17 he enjoins upon Peter: “Feed my sheep, feed my lambs.” Yet since the other Apostles, and their successors the bishops, had to share the same office, it is said to them in 1 Peter 5.2: “Feed the flock of God which is among you”; just as Paul says in Acts 20.28: “Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you to rule the Church of God.” Indeed, lest anyone think that he can with impunity withdraw himself from the authority of such pastors, Christ declared in John 13.20: “Amen, amen I say to you: he who receives anyone whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me.” And he decreed that the one who resists the judgment of the Church is to be held as a heathen and a publican in Matthew 18.17: “If he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican.”
484. III. From these things it is plainly established that the end of the Church instituted by Christ is the continuation of the mission of Christ himself; from which, as we noted, it is rightly inferred that this end is the sanctification of men on earth and eternal salvation in heaven. But it is better to establish this directly. Certainly: 1. The first means of holiness and salvation is faith, which is called “the beginning, root, and foundation of all justice,” and without which, according to the testimony of the Apostle in Hebrews 11.6, “it is impossible to please God.” But, as the Apostle himself reasons in Romans 10.17, with reference to Isaiah 52: “faith is from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” But from whom shall we hear the word of Christ? The Apostle himself had said a little above in verses 14 and following: “How shall they believe him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” And who are sent to preach, except those to whom Christ said, “going, teach”? Hence concerning them the Apostle adds in verse 18: “And indeed their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the earth.” 2. The principal means of communicating sanctity and promoting salvation are the sacraments. But Christ entrusted each and all of the sacraments only to his Church. And indeed, only to the Apostles and their successors did he say in Matthew 28.19: “Going, teach all nations, baptizing them,” etc.; to the same he said: “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them,” etc.; to the same are directed those words in Luke 22.19: “Do this in commemoration of me”; and the remaining things which are customarily weighed concerning the individual sacraments when these are treated. Wherefore the Apostle pronounced generally in 1 Corinthians 4.1: “Let a man so account us, as ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God.” 3. To Peter in John 21.15-17 it was commanded: “Feed my sheep; feed my lambs”; just as it was said to the others: “Feed the flock of God which is among you.” Now the word feeding signifies nothing more than to supply all the spiritual means by which eternal salvation can be attained; for the governance of the Church was instituted for this. Certainly no one will be able to enter eternal life unless the entrance to the kingdom of heaven is opened to him; but to Peter it was said in Matthew 16.19: “And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore only through Peter, the foundation of the Church, and thus also through the Church itself, can the entrance to eternal life lie open. From these things it follows that the work of redemption, with respect to sufficiency and the payment of the price, was consummated by Christ, according to that saying of the Apostle in Hebrews 10.14: “by one oblation [Christ] has perfected forever”; but with respect to application, it was begun by Christ, but is to be consummated by the Church through those whom Christ instituted in Ephesians 4.12 and following “for the consummation of the saints, unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ, until we all meet in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God… unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.”