The Church

The Creed says:

I believe in One,
Holy,
Catholic,
Apostolic
Church
To believe that the Church is "holy" and
"catholic," and that she is "one" and
"apostolic" (as the Nicene Creed adds), is
inseparable from belief in God, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Recall: (see next slide)

 The Father reveals
Word Kerygma
GOD Koinonia
CHURCH Diakonia
The Son is incarnated Sacrament

The Holy Spirit comes

Trinitarian Dimension
The word "Church"
Latin ecclesia
Greek ek-ka-lein

Literally, to "call out of"

means a convocation or an assembly.
It designates the
assemblies of the people,
usually for a religious purpose.

Ekklesia is
used frequently in the Greek
Old Testament for the
assembly of the
Chosen People before God,
above all for their assembly
on Mount
Sinai where Israel received the
Law and was established by
God as his
holy people.
By calling itself "Church,"
the first community of
Christian believers
recognized itself as heir to
that assembly.

In the
Church, God is "calling
together" his people from
all the ends of the
earth.
The equivalent Greek term Kyriake, from
which the English word Church and the
German Kirche are derived, means
"what belongs to the Lord."
The ORIGIN of the
Church:
The Trinity
We begin our investigation of
the Church's mystery by
meditating
on her origin in the Holy
Trinity's plan and her
progressive realization
in history.
God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

God created humans

to share in his own
divine life.
God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

This "family of God"

is gradually formed
and takes shape
during the stages of
human history, in
keeping with the
Father's plan.
 God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

This Church was (1)

Prepared- beginning at
creation and continues with
the Children of Israel, (2)
then instituted by Jesus and
(3) established in the ‘last
age’ marked by the
outpouring of the Spirit (at
Pentecost). Will finally find
its fulfillment at the vey
end.
 God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

God created the world

for the sake of human
beings-- for their
Communion or
participation with God’s
divine life.
 God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

God’s will: For

everything to be
created.

God’s intention: for us

to become Church.
where

Church = people sharing

the Divine Life.
 God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

The gathering together of

the People of God began at
the moment
when sin destroyed the
communion of men with
God, and that of men
among themselves. the
gathering together of the
Church is, as it were,
God's reaction to the chaos
provoked by sin.
 God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

The gathering of the

People of God begins
when he calls Abraham
and promises that he
will become
the father of a great
people
 God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

Its immediate
preparation begins with
Israel's election as the
People of God. By this
election, Israel is to be
the sign of the future
gathering of All nations.
 God the Father:
Creation as Preparation

But the prophets

accuse Israel of breaking
the covenant. They
announce a new and
eternal covenant.

COVENANT IN CHRIST
 God the Son
Institution

It was the Son's task to

accomplish the Father's
plan of salvation in
the fullness of time. Its
accomplishment was
the reason for his being
sent
 God the Son
Institution

The Lord Jesus

inaugurated his Church
by preaching the
Good News, that is, the
coming of the Reign of
God, promised over
the ages in the
scriptures.
 God the Son
Institution

To fulfill the Father's

will, Christ
ushered in the Kingdom
of heaven on earth. the
Church "is the Reign
of Christ already present
in mystery."
 God the Son
Institution

This Kingdom shines out

before men in the word,
in the works
and in the presence of
Christ. To welcome
Jesus' word is to
welcome "the Kingdom
itself."
 God the Son
Institution

The seed and beginning

of the
Kingdom are the "little
flock" of those whom
Jesus came to gather
around him, the flock
whose shepherd he is.
 God the Son
Institution

The Church is born

primarily of Christ's
total self-giving for our
salvation, anticipated in
the institution of the
Eucharist and fulfilled
on the cross.
 God the Son
Institution

As Eve was formed from

the sleeping Adam's
side, so the Church was
born from the pierced
heart of Christ hanging
dead on the cross.
 God the Son
Institution
For it was from the side
of Christ as he slept the
sleep of
death upon the cross
that there came forth
the 'wondrous
sacrament of
the whole Church.‘ It is
for this Church that he
give his life for.
God the Holy Spirit
Revealed and Perfected
When the work which
the Father gave the Son
to do on earth was
accomplished, the Holy
Spirit was sent on the
day of Pentecost in
order that he might
continually sanctify the
Church
God the Holy Spirit
Revealed and Perfected

So that the Church can

fulfill her mission, the Holy
Spirit bestows upon
the Church varied hierarchic
and charismatic gifts, and in
this way directs and
perfects the Church
towards the final fulfillment
when the Kingdom of God
is fully established
The MYSTERY of
the Church
1. The Church is both Visible and Spiritual

The Church is the visible

community through which God
communicates truth and grace
to all men
The Church is both Visible and Spiritual
Just as the human person is both
body and spirit, the Church is both:

human and divine

visible and endowed
with invisible realities
action and contemplation
visible society and spiritual
community
organizational and mystical
earthly and heavenly
2. The Church: Our Union with God

There is love that

never ends
between Christ
and the Church

The Church is
Christ’s Bride
2. The Church: Our Union with God

It is in the Church that Christ

fulfills and reveals his own
mystery
as the purpose of God's plan:
"to unite all things in him."
2. The Church: Our Union with God
St. Paul calls the nuptial union of
Christ and the Church "a great
mystery.“

Because she is united to Christ as to

her bridegroom, she becomes a
mystery in her turn.
2. The Church: Our Union with God

The sole purpose that ties the

Church with Christ is the union of
love with him, the Church’s Groom.

Our holiness is measured by the

extent to which we tie ourselves in
love with our God.
3. Universal Sacrament of Salvation
Church as a
sacrament.

sacramentum-
visible
manifestation
of an invisible
reality
3. Universal Sacrament of Salvation
The Church's first purpose is to be
the sacrament of the
inner union of men with God.
Because men's communion with
one another is rooted in that union
with God, the Church is also the
sacrament of the unity of the
human race.
3. Universal Sacrament of Salvation
She is taken up
by him also as the instrument
for the salvation of all
 IMAGES
of the Church
 1. People of God

The People of God is marked by

characteristics that clearly
distinguish it from all other
religious, ethnic, political, or cultural
groups found in history:
 1. People of God

• God is not the property of any

one people. But he acquired a
people for himself from those
who previously were not a
people: "a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation."
 1. People of God

• One becomes a member of this

people not by a physical birth,
but by being "born anew," a birth
"of water and the Spirit," that is,
by faith in Christ, and Baptism.
 1. People of God

• This People has for its Head Jesus

the Christ (the anointed, the
Messiah). Because the same
anointing, the Holy Spirit, flows
from the head into the body, this
is "the messianic people."
 1. People of God

• The status of this people is that

of the dignity and freedom of the
sons of God, in whose hearts the
Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple.
 1. People of God

• Its mission is to be salt of the

earth and light of the world. This
people is "a most sure seed of
unity, hope, and salvation for the
whole human race."
 1. People of God

• Its destiny is UNION WITH GOD

which has been begun by God
himself on earth and which must
be further extended until it has
been brought to perfection by
him at the end of time
 1. People of God

The Church shares in Christ’s

offices as Priest, Prophet and
King
 1. People of God
Priest– Like Jesus, who was the altar of
sacrifice, the sacrifice itself and the
priest. Jesus the priest intercedes for
his people and leads everyone to God.
Prophet– when the Church unfailingly
adheres to faith and when it deepens
its understanding and becomes Christ's
witness in the midst of this world
 1. People of God
King-- For the Christian, to
reign is to serve just as Jesus served,
particularly when attending to the poor
and the suffering, in whom the Church
recognizes the image of her poor and
suffering founder.
 2. Kingdom of God

God as our King - this image calls to mind

that God, the source of all life and
goodness, is the only one who must rule
our lives. We must live under the reign of
love and not of darkness.
 2. Kingdom of God

The kingdom belongs to the humble, to

the poor and oppressed (recall the
Beatitudes). The humble king is our model
of what it is to ‘reign.’
 3. Temple of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the

source of our life as one
Body of Christ. The
Spirit is the source of
our unity in diversity,
and the origin of all our
gifts.
 3. Temple of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is

the pledge of
incorruptibility, the
strengthening of our faith
and the ladder of our ascent to God....

Where the Church is, there also is God's

Spirit; where God's Spirit
is, there is the Church and every grace
 3. Temple of the Holy Spirit
CHARISMS-

Graces of the Holy Spirit which

directly or indirectly benefit
the Church, ordered as they
are to her building up, to the
good of men, and to the
needs of the world.
 4. Body of Christ

Recall:
When his visible presence was
taken from them, Jesus did not
leave his disciples orphans. He
promised to remain with them until
the end of time;
he sent them his Spirit.
 4. Body of Christ

As a result, communion with Jesus

has become, in a way, more
intense:

"By communicating his Spirit,

Christ mystically constitutes as his
body those brothers of his who are
called together from every nation."
4. Body of Christ
This image of the
Church as Christ’s
Body expresses an
intimate bond
between Jesus and us.

Not only is the Church

gathered around him;
the Church is united in
him, in his body
4. Body of Christ

One Body - Believers

who respond to God's
word and become
members of
Christ's Body, become
intimately united with
him.
4. Body of Christ

One Body - The

body's unity
does not do
away with the
diversity of its
Members.
 4. Body of Christ

In the building up of Christ's

Body there is engaged a
diversity of members and
functions. There is only one
Spirit who,
according to his own richness
and the needs of the ministries,
gives his different gifts for the
welfare of the Church
4. Body of Christ
Christ is the Head of
the Body- he is the
head, the leader,
the one we pattern
our lives with. All
his members must
strive to
resemble him, "until
Christ be formed" in
them.
4. Body of Christ

The Church is Christ’s

Bride- indicates an
intimate personal
connection between
Jesus and the Church.
 4. Body of Christ

Christ loved the Church and

gave himself up for her,
that he might sanctify her.
He has joined her with himself
in an everlasting covenant and
never stops caring for
her as for his own body