The Formation of Christendom, Volume IIAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
The Formation of Christendom, Volume II
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Christianity; Christianity -- Miscellanea
“This sacrament of unity, this bond of concord inseparably cohering, is
signified in the place in the Gospel where the coat of our Lord Jesus
Christ is in nowise parted or cut, but is received a whole garment, by
them who cast lots who should rather wear it, and is possessed as an
inviolate and individual robe. The divine scripture thus speaks: But for
the coat, because it was not sewed, but woven from the top throughout,
they said one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots whose it shall
be. It has with it a unity descending from above, as coming, that is, from
heaven and from the Father; which it was not for the receiver and owner in
anywise to sunder, but which he received once for all and indivisibly as
one unbroken whole. He cannot own Christ’s garment who splits and divides
Christ’s Church. On the other hand, when on Solomon’s death his kingdom
and people were split in parts, Ahijah the prophet, meeting King Jeroboam
in the field, rent his garment into twelve pieces, saying: Take thee ten
pieces; for thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of
the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee; and two tribes
shall be to him for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem, the city
which I have chosen, to place my name there. When the twelve tribes of
Israel were torn asunder, the prophet Ahijah rent his garment. But because
Christ’s people cannot be rent, His coat, woven and conjoined throughout,
was not divided by those to whom it fell. Individual, conjoined,
coentwined, it shows the coherent concord of our people who put on Christ.
In the sacrament and sign of His garment, He has declared the unity of His
Church.
“Who, then, is the criminal and traitor, who so inflamed by the madness of
discord, as to think aught can rend, or to venture on rending God’s unity,
the Lord’s garment, Christ’s Church? He Himself warns us in His Gospel and
teaches, saying: And there shall be one Fold and one Shepherd.... Think
you that any can stand and live who withdraws from the Church, and forms
for himself new homes and different domiciles?... Believers have no house
but the Church only. This house, this hostelry of unanimity, the Holy
Spirit designs and betokens in the Psalms, thus speaking: God who makes
men to dwell with one mind in a house. In the house of God, in the Church
of Christ, men dwell with one mind, and persevere in concord and
simplicity.” To this he adds: “There is one God, and one Christ, and His
Church one, and the Faith one, and one the people joined into the solid
unity of a body by the cement of concord. Unity cannot be sundered, nor
can one body be divided by a dissolution of its structure, nor be severed
into pieces with torn and lacerated vitals. Parted from the womb nothing
can live and breathe in its separated state: it loses its principle of
health;” for “charity will ever exist in the kingdom; she will abide
evermore in the unity of a brotherhood which entwines itself around her.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account