Fr. Otto Semmelroth, S.J.," The Church Does Not Originate From An Arbitrary And Self-willed Congregation Of Men"

Fr. Otto Semmelroth, S.J., on the One Holy Roman Catholic Church

The Church as institution and structure is the sign that the Church does not originate from an arbitrary and self-willed congregation of men, as if all those individuals who as such had been spoken to by God had subsequently formed themselves into a union called Church. No, the Church is institution because it is from above. It is the recipient, established by Jesus, of the word of God?s revelation, which is directed to it as the ?bride of Christ,? whose children, individual men and women, then experience this revelation as ?children? of this bride. The Church does not exist because men believe and associate with one another as believers. Rather, because there is such a thing as the structured Church founded by Christ, men know where they can encounter the God who reveals Him self in Jesus Christ. Only that man is a true believer who accepts this Church of Jesus Christ and is willing to accept in it and through its preaching that which God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ (In Toward a Theology of Christian Faith ? Readings in Theology, P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York, 1968. p. 124).

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