Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

Palermo, Sicily is at the very southern end of Italy. For millennia, Palermo has stood as the crossroads of civilizations. Traders, sailors, and invaders have landed on her shores and stayed. In this ancient city on the edge of Europe, baroque churches compete with open air markets to attract attention. Worth the visit is Palermo’s Palatine Chapel. It was built by Norman kings in the 12th century and houses some of the world’s most beautiful mosaics. Among them is a mosaic of Noah’s Ark. In the Palatine Chapel mosaic, Noah’s Ark is depicted in the unmistakable form of a church.

From the very beginning, starting with 1 Peter 3:20-21, Christian theology and iconography have seen Noah’s Ark as a type or image of the Church herself. As early as 196 A.D., the North African apologist Tertullian, “the founder of Western theology,” compared the Church to Noah’s Ark. In his treatise On Idolatry, he teaches that, just as those who were in the ark of Noah were saved from the destruction around, so too those who are gathered together in the Church are saved.

By 250 A.D., the Church in North Africa was in chaos. This was not the first time. Nor would it be the last. The Roman Emperor Decius ordered all citizens to sacrifice to the Roman gods. Some Christians did not stand strong in their faith. Some offered the mandated sacrifice. Others obtained false certificates attesting that they had done so. Fear of torture, exile or death made them waver in their faith. These were grave sins causing much scandal. Immediately, the Church in North Africa became divided. How to deal with those who had failed?

St. Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage in North Africa, opted for mercy. He looked for the way to re-integrate those who had caused scandal by their sins. He viewed “the one ark of Noah [as] a type of the one Church” (Letters, 75:2). From this vantage point, he says, “If someone who was outside of the ark of Noah could escape, so could also someone who is outside the church… (On the Unity of the Church, 6). In other words, belonging to the one Church is the one, unique way God has chosen to save us. Thus, those who had lapsed from the faith and denied that they were Christians should be forgiven and allowed back into the Church.

Against the saintly bishop Cyprian stood the noted Roman priest Novatian. He took a much more rigoristic view of those who had caused scandal. As a scholar and theologian, Novatian was scrupulously concerned with spiritual laxity in the Church. What did justice demand be done towards those who lapsed from the faith? What did mercy allow for such sinners?

Novatian taught that anyone who denied Christ, no matter what the circumstances, might perhaps be forgiven by God, but not by the Church. He even opposed the election of Pope Cornelius on the grounds that Cornelius was too generously forgiving on this question. Then, he had himself set up as the Church’s second antipope between 251 and 258 A.D.

Novatian and his followers demanded a church unsullied by sin. In their minds, there was no place in the church for those who had lapsed into the scandal of apostasy. However, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the more merciful welcome of sinners proposed by St. Cyprian became the accepted practice of the Church.

Sin and scandal have been a part of the Church from her birth. The apostles all fled Jesus. Peter denied him. Jesus did not give up on those who had fallen away. He did not choose another Twelve. And for an important reason. The Church is composed of people. And, all people sin.

God himself established the Church as the sign and instrument of salvation. He has entrusted to the Church the gospel. Not everyone always lives up to it. He has given the Church the sacraments as the means of sanctification. Not all who administer the sacraments nor all who receive them are saints. But Jesus has promised the Holy Spirit to guide, strengthen, sanctify and lead all the members of the Church on the way to salvation.

There are many images used for the Church. It is the Body of Christ, with Christ the Head and all of us his members (1 Cor 12: 12-14). She is the Bride of Christ, for whom Christ sacrificed himself (Eph 5:22-33). The Church is God’s temple filled with the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:5-23). The Church is a sacred community held together by a common faith and sacramental practice (Acts 4:32). No one image can adequately explain the mystery of the Church.

Perhaps, in times of chaos and scandal, the image used by Vatican II offers us some further insight into the mystery of the Church. The Second Vatican Council called the Church “the People of God” (Lumen Gentium, 11). This was not to replace, but to complement the other images. Thus, the Church is both clergy and laity, a pilgrim people on their way to glory. The Church on earth has not yet arrived.

Quite simply, this means that there will always be a need to face sin, forgive sinners, make reparation, heal wounds, overcome dissensions and work for unity. But, the sins of the members of the Church should never be the reason to abandon the sacraments, to no longer attend Sunday Eucharist or, at worst, to leave the Church. The Church is a gift of God’s love and grace for all of us.

Even when our faith may be shaken, we stay within the Church and support her with our own lives of holiness. Christ who himself founded the Church does not abandon her today any more than he did after his Passion. “His act of founding [the Church] is never over but always new. In the Church, Christ never belongs just to the past. He is always and above all the present and the future. The Church is the presence of Christ. He is contemporary with us and we are His contemporaries. The Church lives from this: from the fact that Christ is present in our hearts and it is there that Christ forms His Church” (Cardinal Ratzinger, “The Ecclesiology of Vatican II,” September 15, 2001).

To those tempted to leave the Church, St. Cyprian reminds them that “He cannot have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his Mother” (On the Unity of the Church, 6). Perhaps, the early artists’ and theologians’ use of the image of Noah’s Ark for the Church can help us to be realistic in our faith and not leave the Church. Eight people in the ark. All the animals. All together on the ark for almost a year. A pretty messy thing! But, this was the instrument that God used then, just as he uses the Church today.