The Church is the continuing presence of Christ leading people to the vision of God. The Church shines forth as "a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" (The Church, #4).
The Church shines forth as a people; that is, she is a visible community with a structured ministry.
She is a people made one; that is, the Church has one "soul.'' This is the Holy Spirit given by Christ to make every Christian an adopted child of the Father. The inner life of the visible community is best expressed in her worship.
She is made one with the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; that is, the Church is the community of all those who have been drawn into the life of God himself. The Church is the visible sign of God's presence in the world. The sign of the cross traced on the body reminds us of the life of the Trinity which is ours.
"And I love supremely, solely
for the sake of him alone,
Holy Church as his creation
and her teaching as his own."
(From a hymn by Cardinal Newman)
What do you think of when you hear the word Church? Is it the building down the road where you were baptized and confirmed? Where you went to Mass on Sunday? Or does it bring before your mind's eye Pope John Paul II and all the bishops, priests, and people scattered throughout the world?
The word Church has many different meanings. The few lines from Cardinal Newman's hymn, however, help focus our attention on what we want to consider here: that the Church is the visible presence of Christ in the world.
Recently, theologians have begun to describe the Church as the Sacrament of Christ. Now we learned as children what a sacrament is. It is a visible action that indicates and brings about an invisible effect. In the sacrament of Reconciliation, for example, the visible action of absolution brings about what it suggests, namely, the forgiveness of sins. But these words and actions have such a tremendous effect only because it is Christ who is acting in his Church.
But why call the Church the Sacrament of Christ? Well, it goes without saying that the sacraments are the high points of the Church's life. When we celebrate the sacraments, the Church is doing most clearly what she exists for: worshiping God and bringing Christ to people. But Jesus Christ is the life of the Church. Not only in the seven sacraments, but wherever she is, she worships God and brings grace to us, because Christ is in her.
The phrase Sacrament of Christ, then, helps to bring home very forcefully to us that the whole of the Church's life is to make Christ present in our midst. That is what the Church is, the visible presence of Christ. That is why she exists, that Christ may be heard and known and loved.
In the seven sacraments, Christ needs the voice of the minister of the sacrament. If Jesus Christ is to be heard clearly in our world, he needs a human voice. And so when we turn our attention later in this Catechism to the different functions in the Church, to the bishops, priests, married people, and so on, we should all the time see in our mind's eye Christ calling us to be his voice, to be his witnesses.
What, then, is the Church? The Church, called Mother by Catholics, is the presence of God in our world, the action of God saving us from sin, giving us his life. In this visible community we meet ~not because the Church is the biggest or best or anything else, but because God has given her life. In the Church we find Jesus our Lord. Without her teaching we would not know him. Without her sacraments we would not receive him. In the last analysis, we Catholics are not interested in learning about the Church: We want to learn to be the Church.
From the Bible:
Moses was saved from the murderous edict of Pharaoh who wanted to kill all male Jewish children his mother put him in a basket in the Nile where he was found and adopted by Pharaohıs daughter. As an adult he had to choose between his Egyptian upbringing and his Jewish roots. He fled into Midian after protecting a Jewish slave. Here he received his call to be a liberator of his people when God appeared to him in a burning bush. The ten plagues and the miracle of the parting of the Sea allowed him to lead his people towards the Promised Land. For 40 years he led the exodus, receiving on Mt. Sinai the commandments that should guide the people. He died on Mt. Nebo within sight of the final goal, having served Godıs people as a strong leader.
In the New Testament the Sinai event is the imparting of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire and wind in the Upper Room on Pentecost. Christ fulfilled his promise the Church was born!
How did Jesus establish
his Church?
Jesus established his Church by bringing together a group Of disciples, led by Peter, who witnessed his teaching and miracles. These words and actions of Christ were a sign (or sacrament) of God's presence in the world.
Jesus entrusted these visible signs of God's power to his disciples to be continued among his followers after his return to the Father. His bodily presence was removed, but his life remained. For, by the power of the Spirit who was given at Pentecost, these words and actions of the Church became infallible signs of God's continuing power in the world.
The Church is the Body Of Christ whose words and actions are the same as the words and actions of Jesus. Christ's words are continued principally in the Gospels and in the tradition of the Church.
Christ's actions are continued principally in the sacraments of the Church.
It is a commonplace of Catholic theology to state boldly that Jesus Christ is present in the Church. This teaching of the Church is contained, of course, in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. But in coming to grips with the question "How did Jesus establish his Church?" we will summarize three other important documents: One from the sessions of Vatican I and the other two from Leo XIII and Pius Ill.
The Fathers of the Church and the medieval theologians never actually set out to write a treatise on the Church as a separate subject which could be treated in isolation from the saving work of Jesus Christ. For them the whole of Scripture spoke of Christ and his Church. They taught that the life of the Church is inseparable from the life of the Holy Spirit. Saint Irenaeus puts it rather beautifully: "Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace, and the Spirit is truth."
The Spirit comes to us, of course, only because Jesus Christ sends him to us. In one sense, then, we can answer the question "How did Jesus establish his Church?" by pointing to the moment of Pentecost when Jesus sent his Holy Spirit among us. It is the Holy Spirit, we are told, who "will lead you to the complete truth" (John 16:13) and "remind you of all that I have said to you" (John 14:26). But we have here only the starting point of our journey into the mystery.
We know Jesus wanted a community to grow up because he gathered disciples around him of set purpose. He called them his "little flock" and spoke to them of his mysterious kingdom. He taught them the message they were to proclaim and appointed twelve of them as apostles. The word apostle means "he who is sent," and denotes someone who is sent not just as a messenger but as an envoy with full powers.
It was the Spirit who transformed this little group of apostles at Pentecost from being confused men into courageous witnesses who grasped the meaning of Jesus' teaching. They came to understand that they were much more than just an organized body. "I live now not with my own life," Saint Paul was to write, "but with the life of Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). They came to understand that "all of us, in union with Christ, form one body" (Romans 12:4)
To come to the Catholic faith is to recognize that Christ acts in his Church. His words and actions are really continued in the sacraments, the Gospels, and the tradition of the Church. "We must accustom ourselves," wrote Pope Pius XII, "to see Christ who lives in the Church, who teaches, governs, and sanctifies through her."
Now test your understanding of this lesson. Open the self-correcting quiz #19 .
CRACKER BARREL DISCUSSION
Suggestions for the Sponsor:
1. Show your friend a copy of the Catholic newspaper for the Archdiocese (Catholic Northwest Progress), and samples of Catholic periodicals.
2. You should comment on the variety found within the Catholic experience in terms of unity but not uniformity. Talk about how the church relates to politics, and what weight the church's social teachings have.
3. Check to see if the candidate understands the concepts of parish, diocese, magisterium, the holy see and the relationships between layman, priest, deacon, bishop, cardinal and pope.
10/31/04