NOVEMBER 23 – ST. CLEMENT OF ROME.

ST. CLEMENT is said to have been a convert of noble birth, and to have been consecrated bishop by St. Peter himself. With the words of the Apostles still ringing in his ears, he began to rule the Church of God; and thus he was among the first, as he was among the most illustrious, in the long line of those who have held the place and power of Peter. He lived at the same time and in the same city with Domitian, the persecutor of the Church; and besides external foes he had to contend with schism and rebellion from within. The Corinthian Church was torn by intestine strife, and its members set the authority of their clergy at defiance. It was then that St. Clement interfered in the plenitude of his apostolic authority, and sent his famous epistle to the Corinthians. He urged the duties of charity, and above all of submission to the clergy. He did not speak in vain; peace and order were restored. St. Clement had done his work on earth, and shortly after sealed with his blood the faith which he had learned from Peter and taught to the nations.

REFLECTION: God rewards a simple spirit of submission to the clergy, for the honor done to them is done to Him. Your virtue is unreal, your faith in danger, if you fail in this.

WORD OF THE DAY

CHRISTIAN CHURCH. The community of believers in Christ. Three approaches to the meaning of the Christian Church are distinguishable in Catholic teaching. Before the Eastern Schism in 1054 the accepted definition of the Church was the whole body of the faithful united under allegiance to the Pope. With the rise of Eastern Orthodoxy, which redefined the Church without obedience to the Pope, Catholicism began to stress the term Roman Catholic Church in order to emphasize the need for allegiance to the Bishop of Rome.

With the rise of Protestantism in the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church sensed the need to bring out the visible nature of the Church, challenged by the Reformers. Accordingly there entered the stream of Catholic theology the definition of the Church based on the words of St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621). “The one and true Church,” he said, “is the assembly of men, bound together by the profession of the same Christian faith, and by the communion of the same sacraments, under the rule of legitimate pastors, and in particular of the one Vicar of Christ on earth, the Roman Pontiff.” In modern times, Pope Pius XII defined the Church on earth as the mystical body of Christ, according to the teaching of St. Paul that the faithful followers of Christ are joined together in a mysterious union, of which Christ himself is the invisible head. The Second Vatican Council added the title “People of God” to describe the Christian world. Without abandoning the earlier definitions the Council offered this one to bring out the fact that all Christians belong by special title to God, who calls them to faith in Christ, and that they form a people, i.e., a chosen community, on whom God confers his special blessings for the benefit of mankind.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

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