The Catecheses of St Cyril of Jerusalem
| The Church, the bride of Christ |
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The
Church is called ‘Catholic’: such is the proper name of the holy Church
which is the mother of us all. She is also the bride of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the only-begotten Son of God (for it is written in the
scripture, ‘Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her,’ and so
on). Moreover she fulfils the type and carries out the pattern of the
Jerusalem which is from above, which is free and the mother of us all.
Though she was at first childless, she is now the parent of a mighty
family.
After the former Church had been rejected, in the
second, that is, the Catholic Church, God has appointed, as Paul says,
first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of
miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various
kinds of tongues and every type of virtue: I mean wisdom and
intelligence, self-control and justice, mercy and humanity, and
invincible endurance in persecution.
However, by the armor of righteousness on the right
hand and on the left, through honor and dishonor, first in
persecutions and distress she wreathed her sacred martyrs with crowns of
endurance interwoven with manifold and varied flowers; now in times of
peace, she receives by the grace of God due honor from kings and men of
rank, in a word from every sort and kind of person. And though the
kings of nations spread round the world have limits to their
sovereignty, it is the holy Catholic Church alone which in the whole
earth rejoices in unlimited sovereignty; as it is written, God ‘has
appointed peace as his boundary.’
In this holy Catholic Church, formed by its teaching
and living as we ought, we shall possess the kingdom of heaven and
inherit eternal life. For the sake of this we endure everything, that we
may gain that life from the Lord. We have no modest aim, but the
gaining of eternal life; that is the object of our striving. For this
reason we are taught in the Creed that after ‘And in the resurrection of
the flesh’ that is, of the dead, which we have already discussed, we
affirm our belief ‘in life everlasting’. This is the object of our
efforts as Christians.
Therefore, the Father is life really and truly.
Through the Son he pours forth upon all in the Holy Spirit the gifts of
heaven as from a fountain, and in his kindness to us men he has promised
truly to each the good gift of eternal life.
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