This is important because, like both Israel and the Temple, the Church is a visible (as contrasted with invisible) manifestation that God has involved Himself in the world He created for our use, in order to reveal His salvation to mankind. We are invited into His Kingdom, and we are invited to participate in His Sacrifice.

The Temple was the site for the sacrifice to be performed. The High Priest and His associates would handle that function, which was reserved for them. The old covenant sacrifice was limited to the Temple in Jerusalem. The new covenant is universal and there are altars all over the world on which the perfect Sacrifice is offered. The new Sacrifice is a visible Manifestation of God, even as the animals offered on the altar at the Temple in Jerusalem were visible. No invisible animals were sacrificed at the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem. No symbolic animals were sacrificed at the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem. No symbolic blood was sprinkled on the people or the altar.

Peter and his successors have a dual role as both the chamberlain, who is responsible for access to the King (hence the keys); and as the senior member of the priestly caste who is responsible for the maintenance of the Sacrifice (the altar).

Peter and his successors are the symbol of unity within the universal Church, tying all those altars together in unity in a Kingdom Whose Head is also the Head of the Church, and are generally the Church’s most visible member on earth. Peter is not Jesus’ replacement as the Head of the universal Church, but rather His servant. I pray for Peter each and every day. I pray to Jesus each and every day. It is a major difference in focus relating to the ability of each. Should Peter be moved to pray for me, it is most welcome. Should Jesus decide that something needs to be done to my internal or external circumstances, may it be according to His word.

You took the words right out of my mouth…

Because the Word was made flesh and “pitched His tent” in our midst. The Church lives in this Divine Tent of Meeting – a communion of all the saints in heaven and on earth.

Jonathan,

I’m not sure that I wrote that particular quote…at least I cannot find it!

Nevertheless, bear in mind that the Catholic position is that the Church has both invisible and visible, divine and human, heavenly and earthly dimensions to it.

You might consider reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church which identifies the relationship between all of these dimensions.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9.shtml

God bless!

Fr. Deacon Daniel

I concur with your view of Peter Gilbert and his blog. I stop in there regularly, though I rarely comment unless the Orthodox start piling on.

Best,
Mike

I can’t speak for Fr. Deacon, but I’d answer your question thus: “For the same reason God became a man.”

Best,
Mike

Thanks for the post. You said this in the post “Since that Church is indeed one, and since it has to be visible on earth if Christ’s will is to have been efficacious, then you are either in it or you are not.”

Why do you believe a visible Church is Christ’s will?

Thanks,
Jonathan

Christ is Risen!

Yes, I think you are indeed correct. Thank you for making such a helpful distinction.

BTW, you (and Jonathan and other readers) might find this article extremely insightful regarding the 2008 incident where a Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan received communion at a Greek-Catholic Divine Liturgy.

http://bekkos.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/fr-paul-on-the-timisoara-incident/

The blog where this is posted is a wondrous source of insightful dialog on matters pertaining to East-West unity, and the author of the article is known only as an English (Latin) Catholic priest, Fr. Paul, currently studying the thought of Patriarch John Bekkos. (I have my own speculation on this point…it could possibly be Fr. Paul McParltan who authored “The Eucharist Makes the Church” which compares the Eucharistic ecclesiologies of Henri Cardinal de Lubac and Met. John Zizoulas. ) The blog is owned by Orthodox theologian, Dr. Peter Gilbert, who is one of the most lucid and balanced authors on matters pertaining to East-West unity, most especially the “divisive” issue of filioque.

I think that there are some intersting connections here to our discussion on the One Bread, the Church, Christian Unity and Schism and the One Faith in Christ.

Hope you enjoy it!

God bless,

Fr. Deacon Daniel

You said: “It is really unclear to me whether the hierarchical RC Church of today is what Christ intended to establish.”

Stay tuned. We will be publishing a major article arguing for this very thing shortly – probably within the week.

I think we are talking past each other. You are focusing on ‘schism’ in its moral or formal sense which includes the notion of culpable defiance, and I’m talking about schism in its material sense, according to the definition provided in the Catechism. Just as true Christians can be in schism from the Catholic Church in that latter sense of the term, so also true particular Churches can be in schism from the Catholic Church in that sense of the term. And that’s where the Orthodox Churches are. My point is not at all about the attitudes or behaviors that led to (and perpetuated) this schism, but about the present standing of the Orthodox Churches in relation to the visible Church that Christ founded, i.e. that they are not in full communion with the Church Christ founded, but are in schism from her.

In the peace of Christ,

- Bryan

Thank you for the comments. Bryan, I agree with the implications of an invisible Church, which are explained and discussed pretty well in your Ecclesial Deism article. What I am unsure of is whether those implications are better or worse than the concept of a Church structured as a human hierarchy. It is really unclear to me whether the hierarchical RC Church of today is what Christ intended to establish.

As for your suggestion, I have read, out loud, parts of Ignatius’s and Irenaeus’s epistles, as described in Rod Bennett’s book the Four Witnesses. (My wife and I read that book together some months ago).

You wrote:

“I agree that many of the Orthodox Churches are ancient, but the age of particular Churches does not in itself demonstrate anything about the degree of closeness between them and Catholics with respect to faith or governance.”

Yet you completely ignore my second (and more critical) point that these are infact true Churches which have in fact maintained apostolic succession which would include the charism of governance and sactification shared with their Catholic brethren (a claim Cantebury can’t possibly maintain). Orthodox Churches are in fact true Churches, albeit suffering from what the clarification of Dominus Jesus describes as certain defects.

I think your point about Pope John Paul II’s assigning culpability for the break in communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches through the application of the term “schism” or “schismatic” is true. While I certainly do not disagree with the definition of the Catechism as to the “canonical facts” which define schism (drawn from the Code of Canon Law), I would not limit my understanding of “schism” or “schismatic” in its moral sense to this rather one-sided definition.

Sectarianism and schismatic attitudes and behaviors can even be ascribed to the activities of certain Popes in history, and more recently by certain liberal (even heterodox) theological and liturgical elements in contemporary Western Catholicism. Schism is at its heart an attack upon the communion of the Church, and there is plenty of historical guilt to be spread around with hierarchs in East and West in this regard. That we have inherited a history none of us helped to create I think should inspire some reticence on our part to label as “in schism” those who are members of the Orthodox Churches. It is perhaps more accurate to say that we all function as “schismatics” to the extent that we are indifferent to or actively opposed to the reconciliation of our Churches. I certainly would include in that those Orthodox (many monastics) who radically and sometimes violently oppose any effort to dialog with the Catholic Church. But for the average faithful Orthodox Christian in the pew or Orthodox cleric who does not suffer from an explicit anti-Catholicism as referenced by Vladimir Soloviev, I am far more sympathetic to Pope John Paul’s attitude that the term “schism” is not appropriate.

God bless,

Fr. Deacon Daniel