How we can receive more from the Mass - 17 (Creed - catholic and apostolic)

“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” 

Have you noticed that the word catholic in the Creed does not have a capital letter?  Have you wondered why not?

It’s because ‘catholic’ is being used as an adjective, not a proper noun.  From the early to mid-2^nd Century, when the Church was still in its infancy, the Church Fathers described the church as catholic in the sense of ‘throughout the whole’ or ‘universal.’  So, the Church and the Good News that it teaches is not for a select few from certain countries or demographics, but for every single person in the world. 

Our Lord said, “I will build my church” – not ‘churches’ (Mt 16:18).  His vision is that all are in communion in one faith; that we are united in faith with fellow believers that we will never meet.  

The next mark of the Church articulates one way in which we are to be united – apostolic.  The birthday of the Church is Pentecost, the day when, filled with the Holy Spirit, the apostles stopped cowering away and began to do the very thing that Jesus had instructed them to do – preach the Gospel to the whole world.  This was dangerous stuff, and a great many lost their lives as a result.  But successors were chosen and appointed through the laying on of hands by the other apostles.  And, for nearly 2,000 years, there has been an unbroken line of successors to Peter and the other apostles; today, we call them the Pope and bishops.

We can get caught up in our own little world, our own direct sphere of influence, the here and now.  But as we say the Creed this weekend, let’s be particularly aware that we are united in faith with people throughout the world, and with a people who have been preaching the Good News since the very early Church, on Pentecost, in Jerusalem.