And in point of fact that is what happened.  For whenever the enemies of the Gospel have persecuted Our Lord’s Church they have really been persecuting him and it is he who has resisted them and in the end defeated them.

“Saul, Saul,” said Our Lord to the future Apostle, “why do you persecute me?” (NRSV, Acts 9:4, our emphasis).  And because Our Lord and his Church are one, the Church has always been supported in her hour of need by his Holy Spirit who is her life.  So when Our Lord warned his Apostles how they would be arrested and put on trial, he told them not to worry beforehand about their defence but “…say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (NRSV, Mark 13:11).

That is why the very gates of Hell itself have been unable to prevail against the Catholic and Apostolic Church.  During the first three centuries which followed that first Pentecost, a series of attempts, carefully planned and most ruthlessly executed were made in an all-out effort to stamp out the Church and her Faith.  All the resources of the world were brought to bear against her – imprisonment, torture, death – those three things over and over again with every variety that human cruelty and ingenuity could devise.