The answer
St. John Chrysostom says, “Do not distance yourself from the Church; for nothing is stronger than the Church. The Church is your hope, your salvation, your refuge. It is higher than heaven, it is wider than earth. It never waxes old but is always in full vigor. Wherefore as significant of its solidity and stability Holy Scripture calls it a mountain: or of its purity a virgin, or of its magnificence a queen; or of its relationship to God a daughter; and to express its productiveness it calls her barren who has borne seven: in fact it employs countless names to represent its nobleness. For as the Master of the Church has many names: being called the Father, the way, the life (John 14:6), the light, the arm, the propitiation (1 John 2:2), the foundation (1 Cor. 3:11), the door (John 10:7), the sinless one, and the treasure … so is it with the Church itself, does one name suffice to present the whole truth? By no means.”1028
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
1028 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Eutropius (NPNF I/9:256).