On the Eyes of the Church

St. Gregory the Theologian ca. 329-389

For the light of the body is the eye, (Mat. 6:22) as we have heard; not only the bodily eye which sees and is seen, but that which contemplates and is contemplated spiritually. But the light of the Church is the Bishop, as is evident to you even without our writing it. As then the straightness or crookedness of the course of the body depends upon the clearness or dulness of the eye, so must the Church necessarily share the peril or safety incurred by the conduct of its Chief. (Epistle 41)