THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

ORIGIN
-Preparation, Covenants

-Christ, founder of the Church

-The Blessed Trinity

 ORIGIN AND FINALITY OF THE CHURCH, 1

The Church is a mystery of faith: at the same time divine and

human, visible and invisible, earthly and heavenly, temporal
and eternal.

It cannot be reduced to a simple NGO.

It is holy and immaculate, in spite of the
sins of its members.

Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit builds,

gives life and sanctifies the Church

John Paul II: “The Church is a Mother,

and we must love our mothers”
(7.November.82).
 Nature

IMAGES of the Church, 1

Lumen gentium 6
Symbols of the Church CONCEPTS TO DESCRIBE THE CHURCH
sheepfold
1 People of God (CCC 781)
cultivated field
2 Mystical Body of Christ (CCC 805-807)
building of God
3 Spouse of Christ (CCC 808)
family of God
4 Temple of the Holy Spirit (CCC 809)
temple
5 Communion
Jerusalem
6 Sacrament of salvation
our Mother
 Nature

IMAGES of the Church

1. THE PEOPLE OF GOD

- Priestly People
- The head is Christ
- The birth happens with Baptism, and makes us children of God
- His Laws are the Commandments of Law
- It is Christ’s instrument for the salvation of People
- Earthly pilgrimage on earth
- The destiny: to make his kingdom grow. KINGDOM OF GOD
“Are you a king?
 Nature

IMAGES of the Church

2. Mystical Body of Christ (CCC 805-807)

- Body and members = the “total Christ”

(St Augustine, About the Unity of the Church, 4, 7).

 Nature

IMAGES of the Church

3. TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

- St Agustin (Enchiridion 56, 15): cf CCC 797-798

“God dwels in his Temple; not only the Holy Spirit, but also
the Father and the Son… so, the Church is Temple of God,
both the pilgrim Church on Earth, and the Church in Heaven”.

- The Trinity is sanctifying the People of God, in a continual

identification with Christ.
 IMAGES of the Church
Nature
4. CHURCH AS COMMUNION

CDF (Letter Communionis notio, 28.V.1992):

The concept ‘communion’ is the most accurate one, when we
explain the Trinity, and his relationship with the Church

Church-Communion: People with Christ, and men with men

(John Paul II, Christifideles laici 19, 30.XII.1988).

Some aspects of that union:

- communion of spiritual goods: faith, sacraments, ...

- communion of the saints: The 3 States of the Church
- organic communion: ministries, vocations, etc
- communion in the mission: responsobility of everyone.
 IMAGES of the Church Nature

The Church, sacrament of Communion:

Sacrament = sign and visible instrument of an invisible
effect => Church, visible sign of the hidden reality of
salvation = Analogy.

Lumen gentium, 1: “Since

the Church is in Christ like a
sacrament or as a sign and
instrument both of a very
closely knit union with God
and of the unity of the whole
human race”.
 ORIGIN

ETYMOLOGY, Church = greek: “ekklesia”, hebrew: “qahal”.

It means “those called out” or “assembly, convocation”. Ex 19.
Kyriake in Greek, means
"what belongs to the Lord (Kyrios)”
 English Church
 German Kirche
3 meanings, therefore: -- -

local community;
whole universal
community of believers
liturgical assembly;
CCC 752: "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the
whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a
liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly.”
 ORIGIN (The Old Covenant)

Preparation of the Church in the Old testament:

After original sin:
promise of a Redemer to Eve
Arsmistice with Noah.
Covenant with Abraham: father of
a numerous people.
Covenant with Moses: Israel becomes
the people of God.
Covenant with David : Kingdom, Jerusalem,
and Temple. Solomon.
BUT Israel was unfaithful:
prophets announce a new a eternal covenant.
New Covenant sealed with the blood of Christ:
definitive and perfect: the “new People of God”.
 ORIGIN (The New Covenant)

The Church is the sacrament of the

Communion of the Blessed Trinity with men
* Proceeds from the
love of the Father. 2000 years of
* Founded by Jesus history.
Christ in time.
* Gathered together “Church history”=
in unity by the Holy from its
Spirit. foundation by
Christ and
MYSTERION: Pentecost, till
-Visible (organic and the end of time
hierarchical)
-Invisible (Trinitarian
mystery)
 ORIGIN AND FINALITY OF THE CHURCH

Christ accomplishes the New Covenant: INTERIOR (Ez

36,27); and DEFINITIVE (Jer 31,31); PERSONAL (Ez 14,12)

CCE 778: “The Church: prefigured in creation, prepared for

in the Old Covenant, founded by the words and actions of
Jesus Christ, fulfilled by his redeeming cross and his
Resurrection, the Church has been manifested as the mystery
of salvation by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. She will be
perfected in the glory of heaven .”

Mt 16, - 18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock
I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
19 "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;

and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
 ORIGIN AND FINALITY OF THE CHURCH

CCC 778: “founded by the words and actions of Jesus Christ”.

ACTIONS: 1+ PUBLIC LIFE:

-By choosing his 12 Apostles.
- Vocation of his Apostles: stable group; power
passed on to them, especially, to make the
Eucharist.
- Primacy of Peter. Power to govern Mt 18, 18.
-Last Supper: Eucharist and
Priesthood.

2 + Passion and death: Church is born

from the Cross: “the Eucharist makes
the Church.” (CCE 1396).
- Resurrection: permanent presence.

3+ Holy Spirit.
 ORIGIN AND FINALITY OF THE CHURCH

On the Jewish feast of Pentecost, the

Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit:
the Church started her ministry on earth.

Saint Agustín (Sermon 267): "The

Holy Spirit does in the whole Church
what the soul does in all the members of
one body."

Presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church: unites all the

members to Christ; gives them life.
 ORIGIN AND FINALITY OF THE CHURCH

The Church cannot be understood without Christ,

who founded his Church in order to perpetuate his mission
in history. The Church is “the Church as
the universal sacrament of salvation” (Lumen Gentium,48).
=

Real and Efficacious sign of his Redemption.

Salvific End of the Church:

- Supernatural: over all human possibilities
- Immutable: because God cannot change.
- Indefectible: It will not perish (Mt 28, 20).
- Universal: for all men.
- Perennial: until the end of time.
 ORIGIN AND FINALITY OF THE CHURCH
THE BLESSED TRINITY
AND THE CHURCH Gaudium et spes 40: “Coming 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”.

Christ, the only Mediator and Redemer.

He makes use of the Church as his
Instrument of Universal Redemption.
 ORIGIN AND FINALITY OF THE CHURCH

Lumen gentium 9: God, however,

does not make men holy and save
them merely as individuals, without
bond or link between one another.
Rather has it pleased Him to bring
men together as one people,...

Salvation is sanctity
=
God gives the means for salvation
in the CHURCH.
Mission
God’s family.
 NATURE OF THE CHURCH

Church and Kingdom

Apostolicam Alfred Loisy: “Je-

Actuositatem 2: sus announced the
The Church has as Kingdom, and the
an end, to widespread the Church was born”.
Kingdom of Christ
all over the earth, for the
glory of God the Father, Holy Scripture:
and to make peoples share The Kingdom is
his Salvation. proclaimed, but the
To bring the whole world perfection will be at
to Christ. the end of time.
 NATURE OF THE CHURCH

That Kingdom is a mystery. It’s a Kingdom, not only for the

future life, but also for the earthly life, “Working for the
kingdom means acknowledging and promoting God's activity,
which is present in human history and transforms it. Building
the kingdom means working for liberation from
evil in all its forms. In a word, the kingdom of God is the
manifestation and the realization of God's plan of salvation in
all its fullness. ” (Redemptoris Missio (On the Permanent Validity of the
Church's Missionary Mandate, Encylical Letter 1990, 15)).

“The kingdom cannot be detached either from Christ or from

the Church. ...It is true that the Church is not an end unto
herself, since she is ordered toward the kingdom of God of
which she is the seed, sign and instrument. ” (Redemptoris
Missio 18).
 NATURE OF THE CHURCH

The term mystery applied to the Church: it trascends the

visible reality.

Sacrosanctum Concilium 2: “It is of the essence of the

Church that she be both human and divine, visible and yet
invisibly equipped, eager to act and yet intent on
contemplation, present in this world and yet not at home in it;
and she is all these things in such wise that in her the human
is directed and subordinated to the divine, the visible likewise
to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world
to that city yet to come, which we seek”.

Both the visible and the divine reality are united.

 NATURE OF THE CHURCH

Jesus Christ’s
The mystery of the humanity was the
instrument of
Church can only
universal
be understood by Redemption
accepting the
In the same way,
mystery of Jesus
God uses visible
Christ, the instruments: the
Incarnated Verb. CHURCH, to bring
about the invisible
plan of salvation
for men.
 NATURE OF THE CHURCH

The Trinity is always working:

- In the ORIGIN, the Foundation

- Throughout the whole history of mankind.
- Until the end of time.

The incorporation takes place in the moment

of Baptism, in the name of the FATHER, and
of the SON, and of the HOLY SPIRIT.
 The 3 States of the Church

1. The Church militant (pilgrim)

2. The Church suffereing (still being purified)
3. The Church triumphant (in glory)

Eternal rest grant

unto them O Lord, One and the same Church, one single body.
and let perpetual One head, one spirit, the same aim.
light shine upon
them... The Communion of the saints:
November 2 sharing of spiritual benefits.
- Intercession of the saints.
-Prayers for the dead.
 The 3 States of the Church

Purgatory is not eternal.

Its duration varies according to the sentence
pronounced at each particular judgment.
It may be prolonged for centuries
Eternal rest grant in the case of the more guilty souls
unto them O Lord,
and let perpetual The Suffering Church cannot ripen to its
light shine upon final blessedness by any efforts of its own,
them... but only through the help of others—
November 2 through the intercessory prayers and
sacrifices.
INDULGENCES