On the Unity of the Catholic Church 5

This unity we ought firmly to hold and defend, especially we bishops who preside in the church, so that we may prove the episcopate itself also to be one and undivided. Let no one deceive the brotherhood by a lie; let no one corrupt the faith of the truth by faithless betrayal. The episcopate is one, of which a part is held by each one in full. The church is one, which is extended more widely into a multitude by the increase of its fruitfulness; just as the sun has many rays but one light, and a tree many branches but one strength founded on its tenacious root; and when many streams flow down from one spring, though their number seems spread out by the lavishness of an overflowing abundance, yet unity is preserved in the source. Tear a ray of the sun from its body: the unity does not admit a division of the light. Break a branch from the tree: once broken, it cannot sprout. Cut off a stream from its spring: once cut off, it dries up. So too the church of the Lord, bathed in light, stretches its rays through the whole world; yet it is one light that is spread everywhere, and the unity of the body is not separated. She extends her branches over the whole earth in rich abundance; she spreads wider her abundantly flowing streams; yet there is one head and one source, and one mother, rich in the results of her fruitfulness. From her womb we are born, by her milk we are nourished, by her spirit we are given life.