The catholic Church which we confess in the
Symbol (Creed) of our Faith is not called catholic because it includes all
the Christians of the earth, but because within her everyone of the faithful
finds all the Grace and Gift of God. The meaning of catholicity has
nothing to do with a universal organization, the way Papists and those
who are influenced by the Papist mentality understand it.
Of course, the Church is intended and
extends to the whole world independently of lands, nations, races, and
tongues; and it is not an error for one to name her catholic because of this
also. But just as humanity becomes an abstract idea, there is a danger of
the same thing happening to the Church when we see her as an abstract,
universal idea. In order for one to understand humanity well, it is enough
for him to know only one man, since the nature of that man is common to all
the men of the world.
Similarly, in order to understand what the
catholic Church of Christ is, it suffices to know well only one local
church. And as among men, it is not submission to a hierarchy which unites
them but their common nature, so the local churches are not united by the
Pope and the Papal hierarchy but by their common nature.
A local Orthodox church regardless of her size
or the number of the faithful is by herself alone, independently of all the
others, catholic. And this is so because she lacks nothing of the Grace and
Gift of God. All the local churches of the whole world together do not
contain anything more in divine Grace than that small church with her few
members.
She has her presbyters and bishop; she has the
Holy Mysteries; she has the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Within her any worthy soul can taste of the Holy Spirit’s presence. She has
all the Grace and Truth. What is she lacking therefore in order to be
catholic?
