“behold there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was covered by the waves.”


As we face the many storms which now seem to press upon holy Church, we should be consoled to know that the Church can never be destroyed.

We will consider the indestructibility of holy Church.

Of all religious institutions, only the Catholic Church is indestructible.  By divine guarantee, the Church will last until the end of the world, forever containing the means to accomplish her task.

Primarily, this common teaching comes from the words of our blessed Lord, “The gates of hell shall not prevail.” (Mt 16:18); “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”  (Mt 28:20);   “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete that He may be with you always.” (Jn 14:16)

If the Church were defectible, somehow susceptible to destruction, it would mean our Lord lied and the Holy Ghost’s presence is only conditional, not absolute.  Impossible things.

In the Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (TAN) we read,
“In saying that the Church is indefectible we assert both her imperishableness, that is, her constant duration to the end of the world, and the essential immutability of her teaching, her constitution, and her liturgy.  This does not exclude the decay of individual churches i.e., parts of the Church and accidental changes.”  (p. 296)

The Church will always safely teach what we need to know for our salvation.  The Church’s task is to teach faith (what we believe as in the Creed) and morals (what we do as in the Commandments) to get us to heaven.    Such doctrines will never change in their essence.

The Church will forever be governed by a hierarchy.  The pope is the earthly head of the Church, beneath him bishops, beneath them priests, beneath them others.  The Church will never be a democracy.

The Church will forever safely manufacture seven sacraments which confer grace to men.

Again, until the end of time, the Church will teach: creation of the world by God, original sin, God dwelling in a  Trinity, Jesus becoming man to redeem mankind, etc.; homosexuality, abortion, contraception, are grave evils etc.; the proper matter for Baptism is water, for Holy Mass is wine and unleavened bread, etc.  Only in the accidents, in the non essential elements, would such things change i.e., dogmas may develop and the sacraments can be conferred in various languages not just Latin.  We must believe all sacraments as authorized by the Church are valid; we may say some liturgy (the conferring of a sacrament) is more proper than another.

Now it could happen that in some place the faith be lost and in that localized area the Church not exist... at least in any real visible fashion.  And visibility is a necessary condition to observe whether or not the Church is present here or there.

 Vat. I (1870):  “To the Catholic Church alone belong all those many and marvelous things which have been divinely arranged for the evident credibility of the Christian faith.  But even the Church itself by itself, because of its marvelous propagation, its exceptional holiness, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in all good works; because of its catholic unity and invincible stability, is a very great and perpetual motive of credibility, and an incontestible witness of its own divine mission.” (Dz 1794)

The invincible stability of the Church is a “perpetual motive of credibility and an incontestible witness of its own divine mission” ... and witnesses are visible things.

Truly, it should deeply console us to know the Church Christ founded is invincible.  More conservative Protestants say the Catholic Church lost its way 300 years after her founding and the true church was restored only 500 years ago with Martin Luther et al.  Today, however, we encounter all manner of ‘Christian bodies’ teaching all manner of different things.  These are more noticeable on the social spectrum than theologic: divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, abortion in some cases.  The Catholic Church alone is preserved against so gravely misleading her flock.

Let us return to the gospel: A harmony of the Gospels places this account early in our blessed Lord’s ministry.  He has just taught the crowds many parables on various heads.  The day is closing and crowds press.  Our blessed Savior orders, “let us go across the sea.”  St. Mark mentions several boats depart.(Mk 4:36)  Our blessed Lord is very tired and soon falls asleep.  St Mark says our blessed Lord sleeps on a cushion at the stern (steering end) of the boat.  Meanwhile, a great storm stirs the sea.   St. Matthew says waves cover the boat; St. Mark says the waves so beat against the boat that it began filling with water; St. Luke writes that indeed, the boats were filled and were in danger. (Lk 8:23) 

Now, before continuing, recall that while all the disciples were not fisherman, we do know Peter, Andrew, James and John were. (Lk 5)  These were rugged men.  They knew the hardships of boating this lake.  No ordinary storm would have disturbed them.
    
So it is indeed very curious to witness so violent a storm shaking the disciples but not waking the Savior.  Finally, what stirs Him is not the howling wind but the cries of His friends, “Lord, save us, we are perishing!” 

But our Lord is more disturbed at them than the storm, “Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?”

After rebuking His disciples, we read our blessed Lord rises from His place, rebukes the wind and the raging waves, and all at once there is a great calm... the motus magnus becomes a tranquillitas magna simultaneously.    This is a true marvel for as St. Chrysostom points out, “when a storm comes naturally to its end, the waves continue for some time to be disturbed, but here all at once all is made calm.”   And so the gospel ends,  ...And the men marveled.

Now this whole event records the power of Christ over physical forces but also faith growing in the disciples for which marveling is some preparation.

But is there not also something here relating to the life of the Church?  The sea is the world which the Church traverses upon, weathering all manner of stormy conditions... seeming to sink but never sinking... while our blessed Lord appears to be sleeping at the rudder. 

But we should know, “He neither slumbers nor sleeps, He who guards Israel.” (Ps 120:4)   Our Lord is not asleep... He is with us wanting our faith to grow.   In our present crisis, may this verse console us.  Otherwise, our blessed Lord may rebuke us, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith.”