Catholicity of The Church

Catholicity of The Church

Catholicity is the third mark by which the true Church can be known. The Church Christ founded should be Catholic, that is universal. It should embrace all nations and all men of all races and colors. "Go forth and teach all nations," said Christ, and the Apostles and their successors in the Catholic Church have gone forth to all nations and men of all nations have embraced the faith. This is the Church that is as much at home in England as it is in Italy, in France as well as in China, in Japan, in Germany, in the United States, in the most remote regions of Africa and Alaska. The hearts of all men, savage and civilized, throb to the beauty of its worship as their minds submit to the truth of its doctrine. The beauty of the Catholic faith has been compared to the beauty of the rainbow. In the rainbow all the colors of the spectrum blend perfectly. In the Catholic faith men of all races and colors and conditions in life kneel as one before the altar of God and find the inner-most yearnings of their soul satisfied. The Catholic Church is humanity caught up and made one in Christ.

I remember the colored porter on a train on a certain occasion telling me of his religious experience. He said he had been a Baptist once, but later on had changed his religion and had become a Presbyterian. I asked him to recite the Nicene Creed. Now the Nicene creed is that profession of faith drawn up by the Bishops of the Catholic Church far back in the fourth century of the Christian era. When the porter recited it for me, he came to the words: 'I believe in the Catholic Church.' "So," I said, "you are a Catholic."
"Oh, no," he hastened to reply. "I'm a Presbyterian."
"But," I pointed out, "you said, 'I believe in the Holy Catholic Church'. "
"Yes, I did," he admitted. "It is queer how that never occured to me before."

Nor does it occur to most Protestants. And yet every time they say the Nicene creed, they are uttering the very profession of faith the Catholics formulated in the fourth century. The words, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church" meant then just what they mean now, the universal Church founded by Jesus Christ, which is the Church that still glories in the name Catholic.