I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins,
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Apostles, frightened and in hiding, were "all together in one place" (Acts 2:1). Jesus had just ascended into heaven. They'd drawn lots to chose Matthias as Judas's replacement in the Twelve. They were in recovery, shaken by the tumult of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Their world had just been shattered and they were only beginning to put their lives back together.
And then the world changed forever. The Holy Spirit came down upon them with wind and fire. "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:4). And so began the Church. Instead of the cries of an infant, Mother Church was heralded by fire and wind, elemental majesty.
Atheists like to say that all religions are the same, that they are merely expressions of subjective religious experience, a psychological longing for the divine that is merely primitive instinct. But the Church is not just another religion. It is Truth.
What other creed has spread so far and so wide? What other creed has so radically changed human history? The way we think? The way we live? Unlike Islam and Judaism, Buddhism and Paganism, Christianity easily hurdled geographical, cultural, and ethnic boundaries.
The Church is revolutionary. Why else has the world tried so hard to silence her? The Church is always countercultural. "If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:20). The Church challenged the brutality and hedonism of the Romans just as she challenges our modern brutality and hedonism. Christ's message of love contradicts the hate of our flawed human sinfulness.
The Church is a rock. She is unchanging. The Catholic Church today is the same Church gathered together on Pentecost, despite what the Protestants would have you believe. She does not compromise dogma for whatever happens to be popular. The Commandments were written in stone tablets.
The Church is our foundation. We can cling to her and trust that no matter who is president, no matter what the law says, no matter what the world is screaming at us, we cling to truth. We can trust in the Church.
We enter into the Church through the Sacrament of Baptism. The Roman Catechism says that "by nature we were born from Adam children of wrath, but by Baptism we are regenerated in Christ, children of mercy." Baptism unites us to Christ. We become members of the Church who is the spouse of Christ.
Baptism changes our very nature. Though it does not make us invulnerable to sin, or even remove our sinful nature, Baptism frees us from our inherited bondage to sin and gives us new life. It is a rejection of the ways of the world and the first step on the way to salvation. It is THE first step on the way to salvation. Remember brothers and sisters, the uniqueness of Baptism. It is not merely a human creation. It cannot be imitated. Baptism is not merely the entry into a worldly organization, but rather initiation into the divine body of the Church. St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians: "one Lord, one faith, one Baptism" (Ephesians 4:5). There is but "one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins." There is but one Church.
Through Baptism we become brothers and sisters. Regardless of where we come from, the color of our skin, the language that we speak, or even the sins that we have committed, we are all united in the Church. Baptism makes us greater than the sum of our faults. It gives us new identity. That is why a Baptism is as beautiful as the birth of a child, for we gain a new member in our universal family.
Our family has a lot of enemies. There are those who see the Church as a backwards and antiquated organization. There are those who says that she hates women or homosexuals. There are those who hate her because of the lies they have heard or the darkness within their own hearts. The Islamic State has promised the destruction of the Vatican. Even some Christians have declared themselves enemies of the Church. They decry her "corruption" or say that she has fallen away from the teachings of Jesus when they themselves are the ones who cannot fully accept His Word.
But though every nation on earth were to declare war against the Church and persecute her members, we must not lose our faith. We must stand firm in our conviction. When Rome was falling under the influence of the Arian heresy, a companion of St. Athanasius told him that "The whole world is against you!" The saint responded that "Then it is Athanasius against the world." The Church is against the world too, and she will endure. How can man destroy that which God has made? Some worry that the Church will be destroyed by external aggression or by internal decay. Groups like the Church Militant take this too far and insist upon undermining the authority of those clergy who do not follow their definition of orthodoxy. I will not do so. I will call out heresy where I see it, whether it is inside or outside of the Church, but I will also respect the dignity of the Church and her members. I will trust that Jesus will guard His spouse far more ably than I ever could.
Remember that the Church is hope. The Church is Truth.
DEUS VOLT!
