The Holy Bible tells us that “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). Further we can say Jesus loved the world so much that he instituted his only Church (Mt 16:18) so that his mission of teaching, governing and sanctifying may continue in the world. His Church becomes his extension on this earth. We cannot think of Jesus leaving his followers without any future support system. Christ did not leave his children orphans, but rather instituted a Church - his family, his body - where he resides until the second coming. He took to himself another Body. This second Body of Christ is called his Mystical Body. By being baptized into that Body, one true Church of Jesus we are united in the same true faith, the same sacrifice or worship and using the same sacraments under the authority of the successors of Peter, the Pope and bishops in communion with him. This is what St. Paul in his letter to Ephesians writes “you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one Baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all and throughout all, and in us all” (Eph 4:4-6).

This Church becomes the instrument of Jesus to know him. Is it possible to talk about Jesus without the Church?   How will people know about Jesus’ death and resurrection without the Church?  How will anyone receive faith without the mediation of the Church?  It is the Church that believes first and it is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ in Baptism.  To know him and to be saved one needs to be part of his Church.  The Church is   “the universal sacrament of salvation” (L.G 48).

To experience Christ, we have to encounter Church first. This is what we see in Paul’s life that he found the Church before finding Jesus. Jesus while revealing himself to Paul on the way to Damascus identified himself with the Church and made Paul understand that to persecute the Church was to persecute him, the Lord. In fact, the Risen Lord said to Paul, the persecutor of the Church: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). In persecuting the Church he was persecuting Christ. Paul converted then, at the same time, to Christ and to the Church.

The word “Church” in Greek, “ekklesia,” comes from the Old Testament and means “assembly of the people of Israel,” “summoned by God.” In the New Testament Jesus Christ by establishing here on earth one assembly of the people of God ie only one Church, he instituted it as a visible and spiritual community.  This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic is there from its beginning and has always existed throughout the centuries and will always exist. This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him.

This is the only Church in which the promise of Jesus is being fulfilled. Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church (Matt. 16:18), and history records many examples of Satan’s vicious but unsuccessful assaults on the Body of Christ. The Church has withstood numerous heresies and schisms, along with fierce persecutions stretching from the days of Nero and Diocletian down to our own bloody twentieth century. Catholicism has weathered false prophets and anti-popes, wars, civil disturbances, plagues, natural disasters, barbarian invasions, and societal collapse. The Body of Christ, though often wounded, has renewed itself after the attacks of Rationalism and the Enlightenment, the political intrigues of kings and princes, the brute force of mobs and dictators, the meddling of emperors, and even the disastrous rule of sinful or incompetent popes and bishops. No less a persecutor of the Church than Napoleon Bonaparte noted, “The nations of the earth pass away, and thrones fall to the ground; the Church alone remains.” As the great bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch noted, “Christianity shows its greatness when it is hated by the world”.

To this Church, Christ gave his authority to teach, sanctify and govern.  He made sure His Church was worthy to be called the “House of GOD”, and the “Pillar of Truth”, “...how to conduct yourself in the House of GOD, which is the Church of the living GOD, the pillar and mainstay of the truth” (1Tim 3:15). Jesus Christ gave a higher authority to the Church to settle disputes between persons, even when there are two or more witnesses. He told them to appeal to the Church in Mt 18:17, “But if he refuses to hear even the Church, let him be as a heathen and the publican (a tax collector for the Roman Empire)”. The Church is identical to Christ in teaching, governing and sanctifying; “As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (Jn 20:21).   Paul admonishes those who refuse to accept the authority given to the Church (Rom 13:1-2). “He who hears you, hears me” (Lk 10:16). 

To believe in one true Church means to accept and love his Church. Loyalty to his Church is loyalty to Jesus. Then how can anyone think about having another church besides the one and only Church instituted by Jesus?  The number of separate churches in the world is a sorry state of the Christian world.  It is a scandal to the non-believer. Jesus spoke of his Church as his bride and he himself as bridegroom (Mt 9:15 & Eph 5). He spoke of it as his flock, he being the Shepherd (Jn 10:14-16). One cannot think of having more than one Bride for Christ and more than one flock for one Shepherd.

Our Lord wanted one flock so that world might believe that the Father has sent the Son (John 17:21,23), and he prays that it will be as profound as the unity of the Trinity itself (John 17:21-22). The Bible clearly teaches that the Church is the universal kingdom of God divinely commissioned to teach Christ’s Gospel to all - saints and sinners, good and bad, cultured and uncultured, rich and poor.  “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave or free; there is neither male nor female.  For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).  Division in the Church on the basis of anything is against the plan of God i.e. one flock, one shepherd. Nothing justifies our action to break away from the one true Church.