THE "APOSTOLIC CATHOLIC CHURCH". HOW MANY WORDS WE USE AND RECIT WITHOUT KNOWING THEIR MEANING? AT THE ROOTS OF THE CONCEPT OF "APOSTOLIC"

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It is undoubtedly a mnemonic phrase, that stamped in the part of I believe in which we recite «I believe the one Church, santa, catholic and apostolic ". How many, however, know the true and profound meaning of "apostolic"? This part is explicitly recited in the I believe last, but this does not mean that it has a last place in theological reflection, therefore in the practice of the life of faith.

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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It is undoubtedly a mnemonic phrase, that stamped in the part of I believe in which we recite «I believe the one Church, santa, catholic and apostolic ". How many, however, know the true and profound meaning of "apostolic"? This part is explicitly recited in the I believe last, but this does not mean that it has a last place in theological reflection, therefore in the practice of the life of faith. So last, but not for this last in importance, the note of ecclesial apostolicity builds a bridge between the personal and community aspect of faith. This connotation, indeed, describes the foundation of the community of believers, in a threefold sense:

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1. The Church is built on the foundation of the apostles [Ef 2,20], the witnesses chosen and sent on mission directly by Christ,
2. It guards and transmits, with the help of the Holy Spirit who inhabits it from within, the teaching of Christ, the good deposit of faith and the sound words heard by the Apostles;
3. «Until the return of Christ, the Church continues to be educated, sanctified and guided by the Apostles thanks to their successors in the pastoral mission: the College of Bishops, assisted by priests and united with the Successor of Peter and Supreme Pastor of the Church " [ CCC n. 857].

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In a nutshell these three points they offer an overview of the apostolicity of the Catholic Church. Now we will see them analytically, starting from Sacred Scripture where we find clear references to the presence and choice of Jesus of the Twelve Apostles:

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"Then, called to himself his twelve disciples, gave them the power to drive out unclean spirits and to heal any disease and any infirmity " [Mt 10, 1-4]. The names of the Twelve Apostles are these: the first, Simone called Pietro and Andrea his brother; James of Zebedee and John his brother; Filippo and Bartolomeo; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; Giacomo d’Alfeo and Taddeo; Simon the Canaanite and Judas the Iscariot, the same one who then betrayed him.

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The Evangelist continues:

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«He then went up the mountain, he called to himself those whom he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed Twelve to be with him and also to send them to preach and to have the power to cast out demons [MC 3, 13].

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It's still:

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«In those days he went to the mountain to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When it was day, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve, to whom he also gave the name of apostles " [LC 6, 12].

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The Twelve Disciples are called apostles, the greek ἀπόστολοι (apostles), in Hebrew Messengers (shelichim, plural of delivery person, shaliach, which in both of these languages ​​means literally: sent, because through their ministry Jesus continues his mission. In welcoming the twelve, the whole person of Christ is welcomed, as we read in «Who welcomes you, welcomes me " [Mt 10, 40]. Christ chooses Twelve Apostles precisely. The number of twelve symbolizes universality and refers to the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The greatest novelty in the following of Christ, it consists not so much in the number, as in the fact that it is the teacher who chooses the disciples: while generally in ancient times it was the disciples who chose the teacher from which to draw teachings for the spiritual life. After choosing them, Jesus sends them to preach first throughout the land of Israel and then later to the pagans (defined peoples or gentiles). In this way they begin to pass on and transmit the authentic teaching of Christ. In this way Jesus then forms a college, that is, a stable group of envoys with the permanent mission of transmitting his message and headed by the Apostle Peter. In carrying out this mission, the Holy Spirit gives the apostles all the means and the necessary strength that he needs, through a very special grace: they therefore have the same powers as Christ: the envoys are therefore able to announce and propagate the divine mysteries, to forgive and remit sins and to heal and cast out demons. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit gives him the intelligence to deepen, meditating and announcing the mystery of Christ better.

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Within the group of apostles, we have seen that the presence of the figure of Simon Peter. He is invested with a special role: he is commissioned by Christ as the principle of unity and communion of faith; he is therefore the visible head of the Church; the apostles are to be in communion with him and below him as regards the doctrine of Christ: this, as we shall see, will also apply to the successor of Peter, dad, and to the bishops who are in obedience to him: cum Petro e sub Petro (with Peter and under Peter)

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Let us then deepen the figure of Peter: he is commissioned by Christ to a special mission. It is described in a very important passage of the Gospel:

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«Simon Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God ". And Jesus: "Lucky you, Simon son of Jonah, because neither flesh nor blood have revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it "". [Mt 16, 16-18].

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Simone, whose name Jesus changed to Peter, he is the first and only to recognize that Christ is the son of God, of the living God. He therefore "anticipated" the other apostles in this act of faith: therefore he is placed by Jesus as head of the apostolic college. Three very special powers are bestowed on Peter, that the other apostles do not possess: first of all he will never fail, because Peter is the visible and stable stone of the community of believers; secondly, he has the power of the keys of the kingdom e, third, the power to untie and bind. By this we mean:

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"The power of the keys designates the authority to govern the house of God, which it is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd [GV 10, 11], confirmed this post after the resurrection: "Feed my sheep" [GV 21, 15-17]. The power to bind and loose indicates the authority to absolve from sins, to pronounce judgments in matters of doctrine and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus gave this authority to the Church through the ministry of the Apostles [cf.. Mt 18,18] and particularly of Pietro, the only one to whom he explicitly entrusted the keys of the Kingdom " [cf.. CCC n. 553].

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We traditionally know that Peter was martyred in Rome in 64 after Christ on the Vatican Hill. Previously, he had been imprisoned at the Mamertine prison, very close to the Capitol. Peter therefore, being head of the apostles, in his martyrdom near Rome he also testifies to the primacy of the Roman see over other communities of believers. A primacy that is not one of domination and despotism, but of service and coordination of all the other dioceses and churches around the world. We anticipate an important concept from now on: the Petrine primacy does not want to diminish collegiality, synodality and common and community work: indeed, Peter and his successors are called to guarantee and confer the dignity and authority of all the apostles and their successors, the bishops. In fact, as we will see shortly, the bishops are the successors of the Apostles. Let us then clarify that the successors of Peter are those placed at the head of the Diocese of Rome, or precisely the bishops of Rome. Historically, the bishop of Rome, it is called by a series of names: Pontiff Maximus, Augustus Pontiff, his Holiness, holy Father, Most Holy Father, or with the more famous one of Papa, which according to a historical theory would be the abbreviation of shepherd of the shepherds, shepherd of all shepherds, O father of the poor, father of the poor.

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Returning to the analysis of the figures of the apostles, we know all the apostles, except for Giovanni, died at a very old age, they will be martyred during their missions in the East and in the territory of the Roman Empire. Even from the martyrdom of the apostles, we find confirmation that the purpose of the foundation and the apostolic presence is to bring the whole community to an eschatological and holiness goal; all apostolic work has the purpose of leading everyone to the kingdom of God.

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Whereas the apostles and their first successors (apostolic fathers) martyrs were dying, it was necessary that the message of Jesus be transmitted in any case: for this they chose successors to perpetuate the mission of Christ. Then they conferred the Holy Order of the Episcopate, what kind of consecrated bishops (bishops), with mandate to continue the apostolic mission as successors of the Apostles. In this sense we will also say that the Church receives the profession of faith from the apostles through the successors of those who were the first adherents to the Jesuit movement..

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Now let's try to understand why the bishops, receiving the Holy Order, they become the official successors of the Apostles. If we read in Acts of the Apostles [cf.. 6, 26] we find that the apostles themselves first gave themselves successors with the task of continuing and consolidating the work of evangelization begun by the Apostles. This work is called the Traditio by two ancient writers of Christianity, Tertullian and Irenaeus of Lyons. The Traditio from the Latin it comes from the verb deliver and it implies the action of handing down and transmitting the faith preached by the Apostles; therefore the bishops by divine institution took the place of the apostles as pastors and guides of the ecclesial community. This handover takes place in a very specific act. So, apostolic transmission, it is conferred through the reception of the Sacrament of Orders, through episcopal consecration.

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Let's clarify this passage of the ordination of bishops. Christ instituted the Sacraments, that were not born of human creativity, they are all enclosed in the Revelation and in the Gospels. This is in order to clarify incidentally that certain currents of non-Catholic Christianity, teaching that the Seven Sacraments, or part of them, they are only a human creation that took place after the Emperor Constantine, starting from the 4th century to follow, I am in blatant error, because all the sacraments are of divine institution. Among the Seven Sacraments is the Sacrament of Holy Orders, which is unique, but internally divided into three degrees: episcopate (or fullness of the apostolic priesthood), presbyterate and diaconate. Those who receive this sacrament, in their individual and personal ministry they are called to the mission of leading the whole Church to the common good and to holiness. It is therefore a task, at the same time singular and at the same time communal. The action of conferring Holy Order is called ordination: in it it is Jesus who, acting in person Christi through a bishop, he orders a priest and consecrates him bishop: therefore it confers on the priest the fullness of the apostolic priesthood to carry out this mission. The episcopate is therefore the fullness of the sacrament of Orders because it contains the very source from which the three degrees of the Sacrament of Orders derive. In fact, the bishop is also the one who ordains deacons and priests, and precisely as mentioned above, orders a priest to become a bishop.

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Briefly we will say that the line of succession provides that an apostle, received full powers from Christ to transmit his teaching and to administer all the sacraments, ordained an apostolic father, giving it the same powers and mission; in turn the apostolic father ordained a bishop, for the same purposes. This bishop, around you, ordained another bishop and throughout history, in ordering all the bishops in succession, it has come down to today. Everything is defined: apostolic succession.

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The transmission of the mandate to transmit and administer the Sacraments to multiple bishops around the world, how many were the apostles originally, it shows that the Church has an apostolic nature, therefore collegial and community. The collegiality and apostolicity of the Bishops implies on the one hand the unity between the Pope and the Bishops because the College of Bishops is linked to its visible head. The Supreme Pontiff is not a tyrant but a guarantor of the very ministry of the Bishops. In fact, he is the guarantor of the unity of the ecclesial body and is the visible material concrete foundation of ecclesial unity (Collegiality = element of Union in the distinction).

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On the other side, the collegiality of the Bishops it implies that this college has a high degree of authority over the whole Church. The individual dioceses collaborate with each other, each bishop can make decisions about the faithful entrusted to him without always asking for authorization from the See of Rome. Moreover, the bishops, they actively collaborate with each other and with the Roman Pontiff in some special moments: nei synodi o, eg, in an ecumenical council. A synod or council convened by the bishops is accepted and confirmed by the Roman Pontiff, but collegially guided: therefore even these ecclesial meetings are never carried out by the Roman Pontiff alone, to which, however, it is only up to, in the end, to decide.

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Now we have understood how the Bishop of Rome and the Bishops of the world, as successors of the Apostles they received the mandate of Christ. We will say that in this mandate they have specifically committed themselves to three specific tasks with respect to the people of God: these tasks are called gifts (from Latin duty, task and also gift) and I'm the the task of teaching, the the task of sanctifying and the governing office / steersmanship.

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The task of teaching it is the duty to teach, transmit the teaching of Christ; it is also called the ordinary magisterium of the bishop. This magisterium / teaching is concretized by the bishop when he teaches with authority, which comes from Christ, and takes place when the bishop teaches concretely in matters of doctrine and morals and these teachings are in communion with the Supreme Pontiff and the Universal Church. This is a teaching of divine origin; then the the task of teaching it is the bishop's first task and concretely with it is meant to preach and teach these truths to the faithful. The faithfuls, from them, they are called to listen in active obedience with sincere filial adherence to their bishop even by asking questions, doubts and clarifications to better understand these teachings, to deepen the doctrine and live it better.

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With the task of sanctifying: the duty to lead all the people of God to holiness is indicated. The bishop is the bursar, that is, the one who distributes the grace of Christ and the Holy Spirit in equal parts in the Church; this happens in the administration of the sacraments and even more particularly in the Eucharistic celebration, where it is the Eucharist that makes the Church, it sanctifies it and unites it in catholicity; therefore the true presence, real, substance of Christ in the species of bread and wine unites all the faithful (clergy and faithful); at the same time it is the Church that makes the Eucharist, therefore the Church that administers and celebrates it.

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With the office of governing/governing the duty of the bishops to govern and govern the individual Churches is indicated local or dioceses; they have their own jurisdiction which is exercised for himself by each bishop in an ordinary way. By this we mean that the Divine power that every bishop immediately possesses does not provide for the mandatory delegation to other people: on a concrete level, But, the bishops can however decide to appoint mediators and delegates to better manage the territory, for example priests who perform the role of episcopal vicars, foranei, judicial and who therefore exercise various duties in the name of the bishop.

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In conclusion these three gifts /Duties they are implemented with the help of presbyters or priests, that despite not having the fullness of the sacred order like the bishop, they too participate and are jointly responsible for the three gifts. The the task of teaching afor example when they preach, they teach and govern God's people, especially in the parish. Here the parish priest is also the one who accompanies and therefore governs the People of God to holiness (exercise of office of government); finally the priest celebrates worship then administers the sacraments and prays for the needs of the people and at the same time administers the sacrament of confession (exercise of the task of sanctifying).

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Also wanting to synthetically analyze the first degree of the order, we can quickly describe the activity of deacons. They too fall within the ecclesial hierarchy because they are called to service: deacons is a Greek word that can be translated as servant. They still fall within the apostolicity of the Church, because they are assistants to the liturgy, they can have catechetical and para-liturgical duties, although their main task, their vocation is not the call to administer the sacraments in the same way as priests. Deacons participate in apostolicity as they are called to service, especially works of charity, the management of administrative activities of the Church. In some cases, however, the deacon can give the sacrament of baptism and bless the wedding. in some cases, however, the deacon can give the sacrament of baptism and bless the wedding.

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Rome, 18 January 2022

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For those wishing to learn more about the topic, I recommend reading these books:

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 553; 857 – 865.

Vatican Council II, (C)dogmatic institution Lumen gentium,18 – 23.

2016. McDowell, The fate of the apostles. Examining the martyrdom accounts of the closesest followers of Jesus, Routledge, 2016.
2017. Virgil, The resurrection of Jesus, Crossroads, Amazon publishing, 2020.

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