OBJECTION II.—In his first Epistle to
the Corinthians St. Paul says: “Other foundation no man can lay, but that which
has been laid, which is Christ Jesus.” (1 Cor. iii, 11) How, then, can St.
Peter be called a foundation?
ANSWER.—In this passage the Apostle
makes no reference to whatever to be the foundation of the Church; he is
speaking of the foundation of doctrine, or faith. Rival parties had
sprung up at Corinth and were causing much strife. Some claimed to be the
followers of Paul; others of Apollo, whom they praised as a more eloquent
preacher and a better teacher of doctrine. St. Paul rebukes them for such
folly; he and Apollo taught them the same doctrine, although he had been unable
to use eloquence of Apollo or to expound the more sublime doctrines of Christ:
“I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but only as carnal,
as to little ones in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you
were not ready for it. Nor are you now ready for it, for you are still carnal,”
(1 Cor. iii, 1 sq.) as your conduct shows. The Corinthians, being babes in
Christ, St. Paul was forced to omit all attempts at eloquence and to teach them
the mere rudiments of doctrine. He taught them nothing “except Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified.” (1 Cor. ii, 2) This is the foundation of all faith and any
one who gives them further instruction must built upon it, for “other
foundation no one can lay.” (E. Sylvester Berry, The Church of Christ: An
Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise [Frederick County, Md.: Mount Saint Mary's
Seminary, 1955; repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2009], 177-78)
OBJECTION III.—St. Paul writes to the
Ephesians: “Therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are
citizens with the saints and members of God’s household; you are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the
cornerstone.” (Eph. ii, 19-20) Here all the Apostles are mentioned equally as
the foundation stones of the Church in dependence upon our Lord as the chief
cornerstone.
ANSWER.—This passage also has
reference to doctrine, as is evident from the context, in which the prophets
are associated with the Apostles as foundation stones of the Church. Yet the
prophets were certainly not foundations of the Church in the same sense that
Christ calls St. Peter the foundation rock. St. Paul teaches that the faithful
are built upon the foundation of the prophets and Apostles by being instructed
concerning Christ crucified, whom the prophets had foretold, and whom the
Apostles now preach to them. Christ Himself is the chief cornerstone, i.e., the
One foretold and now announced to the people.
Although St. Paul does not refer to
the Apostles as the foundation of the Church, he could have done so with
perfect truth; all were in a true sense foundation stones. They were the first
members of the Church and its first ministers; through them Our Lord effected
the actual organization of His Church, and by them it was extended far and wide
to Jew and Gentile. For this reason it is often said that Christ instituted the
Church in and through the Apostles, and St. John describes the Church
triumphant as a city, “and the wall of the city has twelve foundation stones
and on them twelve names on the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” (Apoc. xxi, 14)
The twelve Apostles were the twelve foundation stones; St. Peter was even more
than this. He was also the solid rock upon which stood both foundation and
superstructure. (Ibid., 178)