On the Unity of the Catholic Church 8

Who, then, is so wicked and faithless, who so maddened by the fury of discord, as either to believe that the unity of God, the garment of the Lord, the church of Christ, can be torn, or to dare to tear it? He himself warns and teaches in his gospel, saying: "And there shall be one flock and one shepherd." And does anyone think that there can be in one place either many shepherds or several flocks? The apostle Paul likewise, impressing this same unity upon us, beseeches and exhorts and says: "I beseech you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you, but that you be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." And again he says: "Bearing with one another in love, taking pains to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Do you think that one can stand and live who withdraws from the church and builds for himself other seats and different homes? For it was said to Rahab, in whom the church was prefigured: "Your father and your mother and your brothers and the whole house of your father you shall gather to yourself into your house, and everyone who goes out of the door of your house shall be guilty of his own death." Likewise the sacrament of the Passover in the law of Exodus contains nothing else than that the lamb, which is slain as a figure of Christ, be eaten in one house. God speaks, saying: "In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not cast the flesh outside the house." The flesh of Christ and the holy thing of the Lord cannot be cast outside, nor is there any other house for believers except the one church. This house, this dwelling of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designates and proclaims in the psalms, saying: "God, who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house." In the house of God, in the church of Christ, those of one mind dwell; they persevere in concord and simplicity.