The Church is
Sacrament
The conviction and
understanding that it is through the Church that we may encounter Christ in our
world today is rooted in Scripture. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus promises
his disciples and, by extension, each of us that he would be with us, “always,
to the end of the age” (Mt 28: 20). In John’s Gospel (14:15-16) and in the Acts
of the Apostles (1:4-5) Jesus promises us that he would send the Holy Spirit to
help build up the Church, and Saint Paul in his letter to the Christian
community at Colossae proclaims that Christ “is the head of the body, the
Church” (Col 1:18).
First Corinthians states
strongly that just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members
of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one
Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free –
and we were all made to drink of one Spirit (1Cor 12: 12-13).
The
Church, which is the Body of Christ, demonstrates that it is filled with the
Holy Spirit of God, just as Jesus was filled with the Spirit. So, if we come to
understand appreciate that Jesus was a sign of the presence of God in the
world, we can also come to understand that the community of believers, the
Church, is also the sign of the presence of God in the world. Hence whenever
the Church, or any individual member of the Body Christ, acts in the Spirit of
Christ, they continue the saving ministry of the Lord in the World[1].
The Second Vatican Council
in Lumen Gentium, §48, recognized that Jesus in sending his life-giving Spirit upon
his disciples and through him set up his Body which is the Church as the
universal Sacrament of salvation. The council perceived that whenever the
saving message of Jesus was proclaimed, whenever people experienced the Truth
and love of God in the myriad number of ways that this has been manifested in
our lives and in our choices, the Church is a Sacrament for them. The Church is
a Sacrament because it is a sign and instrument of the presence of God in the
lives of the Faithful and a sign of the Kingdom that has been promised (CCC
774-776).
[1]
Cf. The Essential Catholic Handbook f the
Sacraments, A Summary of Beliefs, Rites, and Prayers, Bangalore: Asian
Trading
Corporation, 2010, p.4.
THE CHURCH AS MYSTERY
What
then is the mystery of the Church? The word must be understood in the original
sense of Musterion as explained on several occasions by St Paul (1Cor.2. 7-8;
Rom.16. 25-27; Col.1. 24-28; 2. 2-4; Ephes.3.3-12).
Hence
mystery must not be watered down until it becomes only a hidden truth which the
mind finds obscure. Mystery is an event produced by God’s power and revealed by
God in the very act of bringing it about.[1]
The
Church as mystery is almost identical to the theological term “sacrament”, a
visible sign of invisible grace by her relationship with Christ. The church is
a kind of sacrament of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind,
that is a sign and an instrument of such union and unity. “The saving work of
his holy and sanctifying humanity is the sacrament of salvation, which is
revealed and active in the Church’s sacraments. The seven sacraments are the
sign and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the
head throughout the Church which is his Body. The Church then both contains and
communicates the invisible grace she signifies. It is in this analogical sense,
that the Church is called a sacrament.”(CCC,
774)
In
the Eucharistic mystery the foundation of the Church becomes our mystery and
our duty. The building of the Church continues throughout time and presents
itself as a task which is always contemporary, as the work proper to each
generation of Christians. Thus the Church, like a stranger in a foreign land,
presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God,
announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he comes(cf.1Cor.11:26).
The
church is the visible manifestation of the Triune God. She is called by the
Father to the unity with Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit (Lumen Gentium, 8). Yes,
the Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is only
with the eyes of faith that one can see her in her visible reality and at the
same time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life.
The Help that the Church Offers to
Modern World
The
Church is both divine and human; hence, it exists, lives and acts in the world.
Coming, of course, forth from the eternal Father’s love, founded in time by
Christ the Redeemer and made one in the Holy Spirit, the Church has a saving
and an eschatological purpose which can be fully attained only in the future
world. But she is already present in this world and is composed of human
beings, that is, of members of the earthly city who have a call to form the family
of God’s children during the present history of the human race, and to keep
increasing it until the Lord returns.
Thus,
the Church, at once a visible association and a spiritual community, goes
forward together with humanity and experiences the same earthly lot which the
world does. She serves as a leaven and
as a kind of soul for human society as it is to be renewed in Christ and
transformed into God’s family. And through her individual matters and her whole
community, the Church believes she can contribute greatly toward making the
family of humanity and its history more human.[1]
That
is why in a manner or in another she tries to respond to the basic questions
about the meaning and purpose of human life, about the meaning and purpose of
daily activities and death in the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, which
liberates the dignity of the person from changing opinions and ensures the
freedom of men and woman as no human law can do. Hence the mission of the
Church in the contemporary world consists in helping every human being to
discover in God the ultimate meaning of his existence.
Through
the Gospel, in fact, the Church announces and proclaims the freedom of the sons
of God, it rejects all bondage resulting from sin; it scrupulously respects the
dignity of conscience and its freedom of choice; it never cease to encourage
the employment of human talents in the service of God and of man, and finally,
it commends everyone to the charitable love of all.[2]
[1]
Cf. JOHN PAUL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, De Ecclesia in
Mundo Huius Temporis, Nairobi:
Paulines, 1965
[2]
Cf. Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,
Compedium of the Social doctrine of the Church, Nairobi: Paulines
publications, 2008
Tradition as the Basis of the
Church’s Teaching
In the Catholic Church we believe
that there are two main sources of sacred teachings, Sacred Scripture and
Sacred Tradition. The teaching authority of the Catholic Church, called the
Magisterium, teaches only from Tradition and Scripture. And both are believed
to be entirely infallible in all that they teach on matters of faith and
morals. [1]
What Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their
preaching and writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to all
generations, until Christ returns in glory (CCC. n. 96)
Hence,
Second Vatican Council states in Dei Verbum n. 10 that: “Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up
a single sacred deposit of the word of God, which is entrusted to the Church.
By adhering to it the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always
faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking
of bread and the prayers (cf. Acts 2:42). So, in maintaining, practicing and
professing the faith that has been handed on there should be a remarkable
harmony between the bishops and the faithful.
But
the task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in
its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living
teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised
in the name of Jesus Christ. Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word
of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At
the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this
devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it
proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single
deposit of faith.
It
is clear, therefore, that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred
Tradition, sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected
and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working
together, each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all
contribute effectively to the salvation of souls”.
Thus the two sources, Tradition and Scripture are
viewed and treated as one source of Divine Revelation, which includes both the deeds and words of God.[2]
[1]
Cf. L. CALLISTO, Fundamental Theology:
Revelation and Faith, Nairobi: CUEA Press,p.414 2011
[2]
Cf. L. CALLISTO, Fundamental Theology:
Revelation and Faith, Nairobi: CUEA Press, p. 415 2011
The place of the Laity in the
Church
The
term laity can be understood in signifying all the faithful except those in
Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state approved by the Church.
That is the faithful who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ, are placed in
the people of God, and in their own way share the priestly, prophetic and
kingly office of Christ, and to the best of their ability carry on the mission
of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world.
Hence,
the pastors indeed, know well how much the laity contribute to the welfare of
the whole Church. For they know that they themselves were not established by
Christ to undertake alone the whole salvific mission of the Church to the
world, but that it is their exalted office so to be shepherds of the faithful
and also recognize the latter’s contribution and charism that everyone in his
own way will, with one mind, cooperate in the common task (Lumen Gentium, 30).
Gathered
together in the people of God and established in the one Body of Christ under
one head, the laity – no matter who they are – have, as living members, the
vocation of applying to the building up of the Church and to its continual
sanctification all the powers which they have received from the goodness of the
Creator. The laity, however, are given this special vocation: to make the
Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it is only
through them that she can become the salt of the Earth (Cf. Lumen Gentium, 33). Thus, every lay person,
through his own gifts, is at once the witness and the living instrument of the
mission of the Church itself “according to the measure of Christ’s bestowal” (Eph.4:7).
Lay
men and women, in fact, are “ambassadors of Christ” (2Cor 5:20) in the public
sphere, in the heart of the world. Their Christian witness will be credible
only if they are competent and honest professional people. In a word, it means
bearing witness to Christ in the world by showing, through example, that work
can be a very positive setting for personal development and not primarily a
means of making profit; and to show that work enables somebody to participate
in the work of creation and to serve his brothers and sisters.[1]
[1]
Cf. JOHN PAUL, Post-Synodal Apostolic
Exhortation “Africae Munus” on Africa’s Commitment (2011), Nairobi:
Paulines.
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