Vatican Council II affirms that: “This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic” (Lumen Gentium # 8).

These are the essential and characteristic features of the Church and Her Mission: the Christ Himself wanted Her to be so. There is no Church of Christ without these four attributes, for Jesus Himself bestowed them on His Church. These four fundamental features have guaranteed the credibility and the certainty of the Divine Mission of the Church all along the last two thousand years.

The intrinsic unity of the Church is an echo of the intrinsic unity of the Holy Trinity. The one and only people of God in the Old Testament (Israel) find their extension in the one and only people of God in the New Testament (the Church). Christ has one and only Body and one and only Wife. That is also the origin of the Christian monogamist matrimony as an outcome of the union between the Christ and His one and only Wife.

“In this mystery, the Supreme Model and Principle is the unity of One Only God inside the Trinity of People, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit” (Unitatis Redintegratio # 2).

Jesus reconciled mankind to God through the Cross and re-established the union between mankind and God in one single “family of God” (The Letter to the Ephesians 2, 20). The Holy Spirit creates this unity because It dwells in each person who has been baptized: the Holy Spirit intimately bonds baptized people to the Christ in one only Body, thus creating one only People of God.

Saint Clemens of Alexandria (deceased 215 A.D.) expressed that mystery in these words: “What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her “Church” (CCC # 813).

Saint Paul also refers to the unity of the Church in many passages of his Letters. He affirms to the Corinthians: “If (one) part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy”(The First Letter to the Corinthians 12, 26).

Therefore there is no place inside the Church for jealousy, envy, competition and rivalry, because we are one single Body in the Christ.

“Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (The First Letter to the Corinthians 12, 27).

The Apostle also affirms this unity to the Galatians; he tells them that this unit must overcome all human divisions, for human misunderstandings represent the worst wounds of the Church:

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (The Letter to the Galatians 3, 27-28).

Prof Felipe Aquino

Professor Felipe Aquino is a widower, father of five children. On TV Canção Nova he presents the program “Escola da Fé” [School of faith] and “Pergunte e Responderemos” [Ask and respond], on Radio he presents the program “in the heart of the Church”. On weekends he preaches deepening meetings throughout Brazil and abroad. He wrote 73 books of Catholic background by publishers, Loyola and Cleopas and Canção Nova. His teacher’s page:www.cleofas.com.br Twitter: @pfelipeaquino