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LOYOLA SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY

AS A PRIEST LOVING THE CHURCH

BY
MATTHIAS PHAN ANH LINH, CMC

PROFESSOR : JEFFREY CHANG, S.J.

COURSE: ECCLESIOLOGY

QUEZON CITY
15 MARCH 2012
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In these days, the Roman Catholic Church, a well-organized religion with over one

billion followers in all over the world, usually appears in the mass media. Unfortunately, the

Church is there to be ridiculed as an old-fashioned, backward and even demoralized bulwark.

The Church today is much more miserable than ever before. As the face of Jesus in the Passion

was covered with phlegm of his adversaries, so the face of the Church, His Spouse, is full of bad

words of her adversaries and even of her children.

Father Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. cap., the current preacher of the Papal Household,

tells us: “We cannot read St. Paul’s words in the letter to the Ephesians, ‘Christ has loved the

Church’ (5:25), without examining ourselves, ‘How about me, do I love the Church?’” 1 As alter

Christus, every priest must ask himself, “Why and in what ways, do I realize my love for the

Church?” “Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for the Church” (Eph. 5:25), and He

even identified himself with the Church (cf. Act 9:4), so priests cannot but love the Church.

Relying on the biblical teaching, the documents of Vatican II, the ecclesiological insights of the

recent Popes and famous theologians, let us discuss why the Church is worthy of our love and

and how we, as priests, must love the Church.

I. THE THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS

Many people are leaving the Church every day because they feel disappointed. They give

vent to all sorts of scandals caused by high-ranking members of the Church, and point out that

the Church’s directions are opposite to the current trend of life. However, we are convinced that

God does not love us in our own merits, but in our entirety. 2 We must follow the way God does,

loving the Church not because of her own merits, but her sublime entirety.

1
Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M.cap. Love the Church (Rome: Ancora, 2010), v.

2
James F. Keenan, Moral Wisdom – Lessons and Texts from the Catholic Tradition (Maryland: A Sheed & Ward
Book, 2004), 21.
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1. The Church has Close Relationships with the Trinity

The Church deserves our love because she has a sublime nature. “The Church is at her

deepest level a communion (koinonia) rooted in the life of the Trinity, and thus in her essential

reality a sacrament (mysterium et sacramentum) of the loving self-communication of God and

the graced response of redeemed mankind in faith, hope, and love.” 3 In eternity, God already saw

'the whole Christ' (totus Christus), the Church. She is the masterpiece of His mercy. If all things

were "created for Christ" (cf. Col 1:16), then it is also true that all things were created for the

Church, his Body.4

The Church has a close relationship with God the Father: “Before time began, the Father

‘foreknew and predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He should be the

firstborn among many brethren’ (Rom 8:29). God the Father planned to assemble in the holy

Church all those who would believe in Christ” (LC 2). This doctrine is confirmed in The

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 760), therefore, we can say that the Father himself is the

architect of the Church, the house of God (1 Cor 3:9; 1 Pet 2:5) (LG 2).

Concerning the intimate relationship between the Church and Christ, the Council tells us

that Christ, in order to carry out the will of the Father, inaugurated the Kingdom of heaven on

earth and revealed to us the mystery of that kingdom. By his perfect obedience, He brought about

redemption. The Church, or, in other words, the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery,

grows visibly through the power of God in the world. This inauguration and this growth are both

symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of a crucified Jesus (cf. LG

3). The founder of the Church is Jesus Christ, who sacrificed himself for the Church.

3
FABC III Statement 7.1, in FAPA 1:56 (emphasis in original) in Jeffrey G.L. Chang, Communion and Spiritual
Leadership in Asia (Rome: Editrice Pontificia Università Gregroriana, 2008), 104.

4
Marie-Eugène de l'Enfant Jésus, Je veux voir Jésus (Paris: Venasque, 1988), 657.
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Lumen Gentium determines the inserapable relationship between the Church and the

Holy Spirit, “When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished,

the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the

Church, and thus, all those who believe would have access through Christ in one Spirit to the

Father… The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful, as in a temple”

(LG 4). The Church is not only the first of the works of the sanctifying Spirit, but also which

includes, conditions and absorbs all the rest. The entire process of salvation is worked out in her;

indeed, it is identified with her.5

Saint Irenaeus declares, “Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God, and where the

Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace, and the Spirit is truth; to sever ourselves form

the Church is to reject the Spirit, and in virtue of that, to shut ourselves out of life.”6

2. Loving Christ Leading to Loving the Church

In the New Testament, Jesus usually identifies Himself with his disciples and considers

whatever people do for them as for himself. Let us recall the story of Saul as one example. “As

he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the

ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ He said, ‘Who are

you, sir?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’” (Act 9:3-4). Saul was

persecuting Jesus’ followers, but Jesus said that Saul was persecuting himself. The Church is

Jesus’ Body, living from him, in him, and for him (CCC 807). The more we contemplate this

mystery, the more we come to recognize the great things that, despite all human weakness, God

works in the Church. The Church is the “Body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27). To love the Church is to

love Christ. The more we serve Christ, the more we serve the Church.

5
Yves Congar, O.P., This Church I Love (Jew Jersey: Dimension Books, 1969), 24.
6
St. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, bk, iii, ch. xxiv, no. 1.
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The Church is the sacrament of Christ. The Head and the members make one single

Christ. The Bridegroom and the Bride are one flesh. The Church is the temple in which Christ

teaches. The Church is the paradise, and Christ its tree and well of life. If we profane the

tabernacle, we are deprived of the sacred presence. Practically speaking, Christ is His Church.7

We cannot say yes to Christ and say no to the Church because “The one who listens to you

listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One

who sent Me" (Luke 10:16).

3. The Church is Christ’s Heritage and the Communion of Saints

Whenever seeing some heritage left by our beloved ones, we recall the love they used to

give us. Heritages are not measured by monetary value, but by intimate relationships between

beloved ones. The Church is the heritage Jesus left for us. As Adam said to Eve, “This one is

bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh!” (Gen 2:23), Jesus could say so to the Church. He

established, suffered and died for the Church. Whatever Jesus has, He gives to the Church

without any reservation: His Father, His Holy Spirit, His life, His Virgin Mother and treasure of

graces. We may borrow the words of Saint Augustine about the Holy Eucharist to apply to the

love Jesus gives to the Church: “Although He is all powerful, He is unable to give more; though

supremely wise, He knows not how to give more; though vastly rich, He has nothing more to

give."

The Church is the communion of saints. In Interroge le Cantique des Cantiques, Paul

Claudel, a famous poet, lets us know that when we have entered this holy dwelling and become

members of this Mystical Body, we have at our disposal for loving, understanding and serving

God not only our own powers but everything from the Blessed Virgin in the heaven down… All

7
Henri de Lubac, S.J. The Splendor of the Church (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1956), 153.
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the saints and the angels belong to us. All that is one with us. 8 The Church is the preserver of all

sacraments (cf. LG 11). She is a locus of proper scriptural interpretation and a prayerful

community, through celebrations, teaching and missions, supplies us with many benchmarks and

norms that are helpful for our formation. 9 She is a necessary means for our salvation. Why do we

not love such a precious treasure?

4. Mater Ecclesia

Saint Cyprian gives us an oft-quoted dictum, “One cannot have God for a Father who

does not have the church for a mother.” The Church is our mother, but in what way? According

to Blessed John XXIII, Christ entrusts to the Church the twofold task of giving life to her

children and guiding them with maternal care. The Catholic Church holds all of us in an embrace

of love that every people should find in her their own completeness and also their salvation. 10

The entire Christian community is our mother, but not in human way. "In carnal marriage," Saint

Augustine explains, "mother and child are distinct; in the Church, on the contrary, mother and

child are one."

Henri de Lubac composes a litany of the merits the Church gives us. She is the paradise

in which the Divine Word wells up like a spring and spreads out into our life. This chaste mother

communicates to us a faith which is always whole and which neither human decadence nor

spiritual lassitude can touch…. This fruitful mother continually presents us with new brothers

and sisters in a family of God. This venerable mother makes sure the inheritance of the ages and

brings forth for us from her treasure things new and old. This caring mother protects us against

the enemies who prowl around us seeking their prey. This loving mother does not hold us back to
8
Ibid., 176.

9
William C. Spohn, “Jesus and Moral Theology.” Moral Theology – New Direction and Fundamental Issue, ed.
James Keating (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2004), 40.

10
John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, 1.
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herself, but urges us on to the encounter with God. This strong mother exhorts us to bear witness

to Christ… The Catholic Church gives us Him who is the Way and the Truth, and it is through

her that we have hope of life in him. The memory of her is sweeter than honey, and those who

hear her shall never be put to confusion because she is the holy mother, the great mother, the true

Eve, sole true mother of all the living.11

Therefore, we can say that the Church is our spiritual mother who gives birth to us in the

life of grace and accompanies us in the journey of faith. She leads us into the communion with

God and all our brothers and sisters.

II. PRIESTS’ LOVE FOR THE CHURCH

1. Priests are for the Church and in the Church

Pope Benedict XVI states, “Whoever loves Christ loves the Church and desires the

Church to be increasingly the image and instrument of the love which flows from Christ.”12

This statement is more logical if applied to priests whose identity is in the Church and for

the Church. Decree on Priestly Life and Ministry defines the relationship between the Church

and priests: "By the sacrament of orders, priests are configured to Christ so that as ministers of

the head and coworkers with the episcopal order they may build up and establish his whole body

which is the Church” (PO 12). Indeed, priests, by virtue of the consecration which they receive

in the sacrament of orders, are sent forth by the Father through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ,

to whom they are configured in a special way as head and shepherd of his people, in order to live

and work by the power of the Holy Spirit in service of the Church and for the salvation of the

world.

11
Henri de Lubac, 206-7.

12
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 33.
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Priests’s fundamental relationship is to Christ, but intimately linked to this relationship is

priest’s relationship with the Church such that the "sacramental representation" to Christ serves

as the basis and inspiration for the relation of the priests to the Church. 13 Nobody can imagine a

Church without ordained priesthood, or a true ordained priesthood outside the Church. Without

the Church, how can the ordained priesthood exist and remain? Conversely, without ordained

priesthood, how can the Church fulfill her functions?

In virtue of their participation in the 'anointing' and 'mission' of Christ, the priests can

continue Christ's prayer, word, sacrifice and salvific action in the Church. In this way, the priests

are servants of the Church as mystery because they actuate the Church's sacramental signs of the

presence of the risen Christ.14

2. Understanding the Church

Catholic priests must be representative of Christ in loving the Church. We are supposed

to love God with all mind, all heart and all strength (cf. Luke 10:27), so we are supposed to love

the Church with all mind (in understanding the Church), with all soul (in thinking or feeling with

the Church) and with all strength (in serving the Church).

Love never blossoms from ignorance, but in knowing and understanding. In the sacred

rite of ordination, new priests are admonished that they "be mature in knowledge" and that their

doctrine be "spiritual medicine for the People of God" (PO 19). Priests must be equipped with a

knowledge about the Church so that they may love and serve the Church.

Systematic Ecclesiology is the study of the Church, emerging in the nineteenth century,

considering the connections between the Church and the central doctrinal areas of the Christian

13
John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 16.

14
Ibid., 16.
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faith.15 This subject becomes crucial for us to understand God's purpose for believers in the

world today. It equips us with the knowledge about the nature, history, functions of various

members, spiritual treasures, and other related issues of the Church. In the era of cyberspace,

migration and globalization, the priest not only works with his parishioners or his confreres in his

community, but also with “all the world” in the truest sense. Ecclesiology becomes more

important for any priest, who acts in persona Christi and in persona Ecclesiae16 in an ever-

changing world.17 Without an adequate knowledge of Ecclesiology, how can the priest know how

to cooperate with others to build the kingdom of God in the fields of ecumenism, interreligion

and inculturation? How can he know how to coordinate his contribution with other members of

the Church, such as the Holy See, the episcopate, the religious and the laity? The ecclesiological

resource from the Bible, Vatican II and recent Popes, and many experts… will help the priest to

become a true man of the Church. However, the most important thing is that the priest must be a

person who knows Jesus in person, has met Him and loved Him. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and

the Life not only leading to the Father (John 14:6), but also to his Church.

3. Sentire cum Ecclesia

In his The Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius of Loyola describes the proper attitude all of

us should have toward the teachings and practices of the Church:

To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the
Hierarchical Church so decides it, believing that between Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom, and
the Church, His Bride, there is the same Spirit which governs and directs us for the salvation of

15
Michael J. Himes, “The Development of Ecclesioloty: Modernity to the Twentieth Century,” The Gift of the
Church: A Textbook on Ecclesiology in Honor of Patrick Granfield, O.S.B., ed. Peter Phan (Collegeville, MN:
Liturgical Press, 2000), 45-47.

16
Donald J. Goergen and Ann Garrido, ed., The Theology of Priesthood (Quezon city: Claretian Publications, 2007),
29.

17
James Dunlop Crichton, Servants of the People – Today’s Priest in the Light of Second Vatican Council (England:
St. Paul Publications, 1990), iii.
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our souls. Because by the same Spirit and our Lord who gave the ten commandments, our holy
Mother the Church is directed and governed.18

Nowadays many people, including some priests, take a position opposing to the official

teachings of the Church and justify their standpoints by saying that they are following their

conscience. It is true that we must follow our conscience, but it is also true that we must do what

is in our power to be sure that our consciences are rightly formed. For Catholics, especially

priests, this includes our awareness of and ascent to the teaching authority of the Catholic

Church. We believe Jesus Christ is still with the Church: “I am with you always until the end of

the age” (Mark 28:20). The Holy Spirit, the soul of the Church, still remains with and guides the

Church. God gives us intelligence to ask questions and to pursue knowledge, and we should use

it. However, we must be wise enough to know that we, individually, may not always be right and

we need the guidance of the Church to keep us on the right path of salvation. It is true that any

member of the Church, even some of the hierarchy, may not always live up to the official

teachings of the Church. This never means, however, that the doctrine or moral guidance of the

Church becomes invalid or less necessary for our salvation.

Here, we have to mention about the need of obedience in the Church. Origen tells us that

“The Church is “domum obedientiae - a house of obedience.”19 We should never forget that the

salvation was accomplished by an act of total self-abandonment, and that the Author of that

salvation “learned obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). As children of the

Church, we must respect and obey the Magisterium, the hierarchy, the discipline and know how

to explain the past with many faults of the Church.20 With Henri de Lubac, we realize that the

18
St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, 13th rule.

19
Henri de Lubac, 195.

20
Yves Congar, 95.
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Church which we call Mother is not an ideal or unreal Church, but this hierarchical Church

herself; not the Church in our poetical dreams but the Church as she exists in fact, now and here.

Thus, the obedience and respect which the priest has for our Mater Ecclesia cannot be anything

else but a filial attitude.21

4. Serving the Church and Serving the World

As priests, we must think or feel with the Church, having a filial attitude towards Mater

Ecclesia in respecting the Magisterium and the ecclesial discipline, letting ourselves be

enlightened, guided and shaped by the Truth in the Church. However, that is not enough. Our

love for the Church must be realized through our devoted service. Service is an expression of

faith22 and of love. Like Christ, our main function is to serve (Matthew 20:28), not to dominate.

We must be servants first to the people committed to our care. We are not ordained for ourselves

or our own advancement.23 If the Church has its troubles, let us consider this situation an exciting

challenge that should be a stimulus for us to proclaim the Good News and as servants of Christ

the Servant to make him better known.24 We can apply what St. Paul said of the human organism

to the Mystical Body: "The head cannot say to the feet: I have no need of you" (1 Cor. 12:21).

Christ has need of His members. 25 He needs priests. Everything that a priest does can contribute

to deepening the faith and Christian life of believers 26 and influencing the whole world. Christ

21
Henri de Lubac, 197.

22
Jeffrey G.L. Chang, S.J., Communion and Spiritual Leadership in Asia (Rome: Editrice Pontificia Università
Gregroriana, 2008), 147.

23
James Dunlop Crichton, 5.

24
Ibid., 24.

25
Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi, 44.

26
Daniel Donavan, What are They Saying about the Ministerial Priesthood? (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press,
1992), 37.
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needs the priest as his representative to show his love for his Spouse. Christ needs the priest’s

life to continue his caring presence amidst the Church. Christ needs the priest to attract other lost

sheep outside to return to his Church. Whenever reciting the words of consecrating in the Mass,

“This is my Body… This is my Blood,” the priest should remind himself that “I must identify

myself with Jesus in sacrificing my life for the universal and local Church, and for those who are

under or not under my charge.” No one can choose the situation of his own life as he likes it.

Today, the priest in the Church has many great tasks and intolerable burdens to go through this

transitional period in faith and hope. It is the uncertainty that oppresses us today leads us to

confess our weakness and to rely on God, and to cooperate with our sisters and brothers to work

for the benefits of the Church.27

III. CONCLUSION

As a noble heritage Christ left for the world, the Church, with her sublime nature and

mission, has brought so many great things to human beings and each of us. The Church, Christ’

Spouse, is really our spiritual mother because She has given birth to us in the life of divine

graces. Although committing quite a few mistakes in the past and leaves much to be desired in

the present, the Church is still worthy of our gratitude and love. Christ, her Founder, and the

Holy Spirit, her Soul, are always staying, protecting and guiding her in the heavenly Father’s

eternal plan. As priests, we must love the Church because our priesthood is for and in the

Church. We are ordained not for ourselves, but for God and for others. We must realize our love

for the Church in our daily life through studying and serving the Church. With a burning union

with Christ and an adequate knowledge of Ecclesiology, we hopefully know how to think and

27
Karl Rahner, S.J., ed. Identity of the Priest (New York: Paulist Press), 3.
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feel with the Church, to cooperate with other members of the Church to serve the reign of God in

a changing world. As a human being, we priests are just frail and lowly, but we have a cloud of

witnesses that are the holy priests in heaven or alive on earth, and especially Jesus the Priest.

They will certainly support us in our desire of loving and serving the Church.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benedict XVI. Deus Caritas Est, 2005.

Cantalamessa, Raniero, O.F.M.cap. Love the Church, Rome: Ancora, 2010.

Chang, Jeffrey G.L. Communion and Spiritual Leadership in Asia, Rome: Editrice Pontificia
Università Gregroriana, 2008.

Congar, Yves. This Church I Love, New Jersey: Dimension Books, 1969.

Crichton, James Dunlop. Servants of the People – Today’s Priest in the Light of Second Vatican
Council, England: St. Paul Publications, 1990.

Donavan, Daniel. What are They Saying about the Ministerial Priesthood?, New York/Mahwah:
Paulist Press, 1992.
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FABC III Statement 7.1, in FAPA 1:56 in Jeffrey Chang, G.L. Communion and Spiritual
Leadership in Asia, Rome: Editrice Pontificia Università Gregroriana, 2008.

Goergen, Donald J. and Ann Garrido, eds. The Theology of Priesthood, Quezon city: Claretian
Publications, 2007.

Himes, Michael J. “The Development of Ecclesiology: Modernity to the Twentieth Century,”

The Gift of the Church: A Textbook on Ecclesiology in Honor of Patrick Granfield,
O.S.B., ed. Peter Phan, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000.

Ignatius of Loyola. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, 13th rule.

John XXIII. Mater et Magistra, 1961.

John Paul II. Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992.

Keenan, James, F. Moral Wisdom – Lessons and Texts from the Catholic Tradition, Maryland: A
Sheed & Ward Book, 2004.

Kroeger, James H., ed. Documents of Vatican Council II. Philippines: Pauline Publications,
2011.

Lubac, Henri de. The Splendor of the Church, New York: Sheed and Ward, 1956.

Marie-Eugène de l'Enfant Jésus, Je veux voir Jésus, Paris: Venasque, 1988.

Pius XII. Mystici Corporis Christi, 1943.

Rahner, Karl. ed. Identity of the Priest, New York: Paulist Press, 1969.

Spohn, William C. “Jesus and Moral Theology.” Moral Theology – New Direction and
Fundamental Issue, ed. James Keating, New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2004.
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