Nielsen’s Nook

In this final part of our consideration of catholicity presented by the fourth century bishop Cyril of Jerusalem, we turn from considering geographic ubiquity, theological worldview and discipline to the conception of the church as a universal hospital for sinners. Again, for convenience, I have included the quote from Cyril that we’re considering:

The Church is called ‘catholic’ or ‘universal’ because it has spread throughout the entire world, from one end of the earth to the other. Again, it is called catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which ought to be brought to men’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with the realities of heaven or the things of earth. Another reason for the name ‘catholic’ is that the Church brings under religious obedience all classes of men, rulers and subjects, learned and unlettered. Finally, it deserves the title ‘catholic’ because it heals and cures without restriction every type of sin that can be committed in soul or in body, and because it possesses within itself every kind of virtue that can be named, whether exercised in actions or in words or in some kind of spiritual charism [(i.e., spiritual gift)].^[1]

Hospital for Sinners

When the catholic church is on its mark in any given locale, it serves as a hospital for sinners. It is a place where we may come and expect to be changed with a view towards loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. This requires positive shaping (theological worldview) and negative formation (discipline without distinction). These two elements serve as the Doctor’s instruments that convert and heal.

Conclusion

These aspects of the church expressed locally are all done in concert with the rest of the church catholic. If they are done without this jugular connection, the visible lessening of the reality of the gospel occurs, for Christ did not come only to renew those in your church or mine, but to bring cosmic restoration, catholic renewal of all that is. The local and the catholic are as rain drops in a rainstorm. If one takes the former out of the context of the later it ceases to be rain and is reduced to mere moisture.

 

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^[1] The Catechetical Instructions of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, d. 386, Catechesis 18, 23-5: Patrologia Graeca  33, 1043-50. Tr. The Office of Readings according to the Roman Rite (Slough, 1983), p. 926. As cited in G. R. Evans and J. Robert Wright, The Anglican Tradition : A Handbook of Sources (London: SPCK, 1991), 27.