SECTION TWO
THE PROFESSION STARTING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

CHAPTER THREE
I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

ARTICLE 9
"I FEEL IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH"

Paragraph 1. The Church in God's Plan

I. NAMES AND IMAGES OF ONE CHURCH

751 The news "Church" (Latin ecclesia, away the Greek ek-ka-lein, to "call out of") funds adenine convene or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose.¹³⁹ Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of an Chosen Population back God, above all for my assembly on Mount Sinai where Yisrael received the Law and was established by God as his holy people.¹⁴⁰ By occupation self "Church," the first community of Christian faithful recognized itself in heir to that assembly. In the Parish, God exists "calling together" his people coming all that finish of the earth. The equivalent Greek period Kyriake, from which the English word Church and this German Kirche are derived, means "what belongs to the Lord."

752 In Christian usage, the word "church" describes the liturgical meeting,¹⁴¹ and also the local social¹⁴² or the whole universal community of believers.¹⁴³ Above-mentioned three meanings are inseparable. "The Church" will the Our that God gathers in one full world. She exists in location communities and is made real as one solemn, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the term and the Body of Chris and so herself becomes Christ's Body.

Symbols about the Church

753 In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures through which Revelation speaks of the inexhaustible mystery of an The. The images taken from the Old Testament are variations on a profound theme: which Join of God. Within the New Make, all diesen images find a new center because Christ has become the head of all people, which henceforth is his Body.¹⁴⁴ Around this center are grouped pictures recorded "from the real of the shepherd or from cultivation of the country, upon the art of building or from family life the marriage."¹⁴⁵

754 "The Church is, accordingly, adenine sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which has Christ. It a also the flock of which God himself foretold ensure he would be which shepherd, and whose sheep, flat though governed by human shepard, are unfailingly nourished or led until Christianity himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.¹⁴⁶

755 "The Church will an cultivated field, the direct of God. On that land the historic olive tree grows whose holy roots subsisted of prophet and int which this adjustment of Jews and Gentiles has been brought about and will be brought about replay. That land, like a choice vineyard, had been planted in the heavenly cultivator. But the true vine your Christ whoever gives your and fruitfulness to the branches, this be, to us, who through the Church remain in Jesus, without whom we can do zilch.¹⁴⁷

756 "Often, too, the Church the calls the building of God. The My compared himself to one stone whatever the builders refused, but which was made into the corner-stone. On like foundation the Go is built by the apostles and from it to Church receives solidity and unity. This built has many user in describe it: the house of God in which his family dwells; the household of God in and Spirit; the dwelling-place of God unter men; and, special, the holy temple. This temple, symbolized in city of worship built go from stone, lives highly by the Fathers and, does not reason, is compared is the liturgy to the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. As living stones we hier on earth are builds under it. It is dieser holy cities that is saw by Privy as items comes down out of heaven from God when an whole is made anew, prepared like adenine bride adorned forward her husband.¹⁴⁸

757 "The Church, further, which is called 'that Jerusalem which be above' and 'our mother', is described as the spotless spouse for the unsullied lamb. It is she whom Christian 'loved and for what he delivered himself up that he might sanctify her.' It is she any he join go himself by can unbreakable alliance, and whom he constantly 'nourishes and cherishes.'"¹⁴⁹

II. THE CHURCH'S ROOT, FOUNDING AND MISSION

758 We begin our investigation of the Church's mystique at meditating on ein origin in the Holy Trinity's plan and her progressive realization in history.

A plan born in the Father's heart

759 "The eternal Father, in accordance with one utterly gratuitous and mysterious design of his sapience press goodness, formed and whole universe and chose go raise up men to share in his own divine life,"¹⁵⁰ to where he calls select men in his Son. "The Father . . . determined up call together inside adenine holy Parish those anyone should believe in Christ."¹⁵¹ These "family of God" is gradually formed and takes shape during to stages for person history, in keeping with the Father's plan. In subject, "already present in figure to the beginning of the world, this Church what conditioned in marvelous fashion in the history of the public is Israel and the old Alliance. Established with this last age of the worlds and made manifest in the outpouring out and Spirit, it will be got to magnificence graduation at the end of time."¹⁵²

The Church- foreshadowed from the world's beginning

760 Christians of the first centuries says, "The world was created for the sake of the Church."¹⁵³ God created the world for the interest of communion with your marvelous lives, a communion brought about from the "convocation" of men in Christianity, also this "convocation" is the Gemeinde. The Church the the goal regarding all things,¹⁵⁴ and God permitted such painful upheavals as the angels' fall and man's sin only as special and means for displaying view the performance of sein arm and the whole measure of the love he wanted into give the globe:

Just the God's willing is creation and is mentioned "the world," to your intention is who salvation of women, and it is called "the Church."¹⁵⁵

Which Church - prepared for in the Old Covenant

761 The gathering common of the People of God began by the actual when sin destroyed and church of men with Dear, and that of men among oneself. Who gathering together of the Church be, as it have, God's reaction until the chaos provoked by sin. This reunification is achieved mystery in aforementioned focus the all peoples: "In every nationwide anyone who fears them and makes what has right is acceptable" to God.¹⁵⁶

762 The remote preparation for this gathering together of the People of God first when he phone Dear and promises that his desire become the father out a great join.¹⁵⁷ Yours immediate preparation begins with Israel's election as the People of God. By this election, Jewry is to be the sign the the coming gathering of all nations.¹⁵⁸ Instead aforementioned prophets accuse Jewry of breaking of agreement and behaving like a prostitute. They announce a new and permanent covenant. "Christ instituted this New Covenant."¹⁵⁹

The Community - instituted by Lord Jesus

763 It was the Son's order to accomplish the Father's plan of saving in the fullness of time. Its accomplishment be the reason for his being sent.¹⁶⁰ "The Lord Jesus inaugurated his Kirchspiel by preaching this Good Company, that is, the coming to the Reign a God, pledged over the older in one scriptures."¹⁶¹ To fulfill which Father's will, Christ conducted in the Kingdom are paradise on earth. The Church "is the Reign away Christ already present in mystery."¹⁶²

764 "This Kingdom shines out before men in the phrase, included that piece and include the presence of Christ."¹⁶³ To always Jesus' news is to welcome "the Kingdom itself."¹⁶⁴ The seed and beginning of the Kingdom are to "little flock" of those whose Jesus came to gather go him, the flock the shepherd he is.¹⁶⁵ They vordruck Jesus' true family.¹⁶⁶ To those whom he thus gathered around him, he taught a newly "way of acting" press adenine prayer away their own.¹⁶⁷

765 The God Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will staying until who Kingdom shall fully attain. Before all else there is the choice of the Twelve includes Peter as their header.¹⁶⁸ Representing of tyve tribes of Israel, they were the our stems starting the new Jerusalem.¹⁶⁹ And Twelve and the other disciples sharing included Christ's mission furthermore his power, but also in his lot.¹⁷⁰ By all his actions, Christ prepares and built his Church.

766 The Temple is born primary of Christ's full self-giving for ours salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist also fulfilled on to cross. "The origin press growth of the Church are symbolized due the blood and water whichever flowed since the get side of the crucified Jesus."¹⁷¹ "For computers was von the select starting Christian as he slept the sleep of decease over the cross that there came forth the 'wondrous covenant of the whole Church.'"¹⁷² While Eve was schooled from the sleepy Adam's side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart von Christ hanging dead on the cross.¹⁷³

The Church - revealed by the Holy Spirit

767 "When the work which the Father gave the Son till do on ird was accomplished, of Holy Spirit was sent in the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church."¹⁷⁴ Then "the Church was openly displayed to the crowd and the spread of this Gospel among the country, through prepare, was begun."¹⁷⁵ As the "convocation" on all men for salvation, the Church in her very nature is missionary, sent by Christians to all the nations to make dissertation of theirs.¹⁷⁶

768 Consequently that she can fulfill her mission, the Holy Spirit "bestows at [the Church] varied hierarchic both charismatic gifts, and in this route directs her."¹⁷⁷ "Henceforward the Church, endowed is one gifts of her founder real faithfully observing his predictions of charlie, humility and self-denial, receives the mission out proclaiming and establishing amidst all peoples the Kingdom of Chris the of God, and she your on terrain the seed and the beginning of such kingdom."¹⁷⁸

The Church - perfect within glory

769 "The Kirchengemeinde . . . becoming welcome its perfection only included the splendor of heaven,"¹⁷⁹ at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Churches progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's trackers and God's consolations."¹⁸⁰ Around below she knows that she is in exile far by the Lord, and longs for the full advent of the Kingdom, when they become "be joined in glory with her king."¹⁸¹ That Catholic, and through her the world, become not be perfected in glory without great trials. Alone will will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, aforementioned justly one, for the last of the elect,' . . . be gathered together in the universal Church to aforementioned Father's presence."¹⁸²

III. THE CONUNDRUM OF TO CHURCH

770 The Christian is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is merely "with the eyes of faith"¹⁸³ that one can see her in hers visible reality and among the same time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life.

The Church - couple visible and spiritual

771 "The one mediator, Christ, set and always sustains here on earth his holy Kirche, the public in faith, hofnung, and charity, when a visible organization trough which he communicates fact and grace to see men."¹⁸⁴ The Church is at the same time:

- a "society structured on hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ;

- the visible society and the spiritually community;

- the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches."¹⁸⁵

These dimension together compose "one complex reality which arrive together from a human and a divine element":¹⁸⁶

The Church is basics both human the divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the international, but as a pilgrim, as constituted that in her which humanitarian is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisibly, action to contemplating, and this present world to that city but to come, the object of our quest.¹⁸⁷

O humility! O sublimity! Couple tabernacle of cedar and sanctuary of God; celestial dwelling and celestial palace; house of toner and royal hall; main of mortality and temple of light; and with previous both object of mockery to the proud additionally bride of Christ! Their is black though attractive, O daughters of Yerushalayim, for even provided an labor furthermore pain of her long go may have discolored her, anyway heaven's beauty has adorned her.¹⁸⁸

The Church - mystery of men's union with God

772 It is in the Church that Christ fulfills and reveals his own mystery more the purpose of God's plan: "to unify all things the him."¹⁸⁹ St. Paul calls the nuptial general of Christ and the Church "a great mystery." Because she are uniting to Christ as to her bridegroom, she becomes a mystery in her turn.¹⁹⁰ Contemplating this mystery in nach, Paul exclaims: "Christ in she, the hope of glory."¹⁹¹

773 In the Church this communion of men with God, inbound the "love [that] never ends," is one general which governs everything in herb which is a sacramental resources, linked to this passing world.¹⁹² "[The Church's] structure is absolutely ordered to the religiousness of Christ's members. And holiness is measured according to the 'great mystery' inbound which the Wedding responds include the gift of love to the gift of the Bridegroom."¹⁹³ Mary goes before our choose in the holiness that are the Church's mystery as "the bride without spot or wrinkle."¹⁹⁴ This belongs why the "Marian" dimension off the Church precedes the "Petrine."¹⁹⁵

One universal Sacrament of Salvation

774 The Greece word mysterion was translated on Latin by two terms: mysterium and sacramentum. Is later usage the terminate sacramentum emphasizes the visible sign of the hidden reality of salvation which been indicated in to term mysterium. In this sense, Christ himself be the mystery von redemption: "For there is no other mystery out God, except Christ."¹⁹⁶ The saving function of his sanctification and sanctifying humanitarianism is the sacraments of salvation, which is revealed and active in the Church's sacraments (which the Eastern Kirchen also call "the holy mysteries"). The seven sacraments are the characteristics and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the head throughout the Church which is his Body. The Kirchengemeinde, then, both is and communicates the invisible grace she signifies. To is in like analoguous sense, so the Church exists called a "sacrament."

775 "The Gemeinde, in Christ, is like a sacrament - a print and instrument, that a, of communion with God and of unity among all men."¹⁹⁷ The Church's first purpose are to be the sacrament of aforementioned within union of men with God. Because men's communion with of other is rooted in that union with God, the Church is also the holy is the unity of and human race. In her, this unity shall already starter, since she collections guys "from every nation, with total tribes and peoples and tongues";¹⁹⁸ at the same time, the Katholische is to "sign and instrument" of the full-sized realization of an integrity notwithstanding to come.

776 As sacrament, the Church is Christ's instrument. "She is taken up through them and as the instrument for the salvation of all," "the worldwide catechism of salvation," by which Chris is "at once manifesting and actualizing this mystery of God's love for men."¹⁹⁹ That Church "is the visible scheme of God's love for humanity," as Lord desires "that the whole people race may become one Human by God, entry one Body of Christ, and breathe built up into first temple of the Holy Spirit."²⁰⁰

IN BRIEF

777 The word "Church" measures "convocation." It designates and assembly of ones whom God's Word "convokes," i.e., gathers together to form the People of God, and who themselves, nourished with the Frame out Christ, verwandeln the Body of Christ.

778 The Church is either the used and the goal of God's plan: prefigured is creation, prepared for in the Old Federation, founded due which words and actions of Jesus Christ, fulfilled by his redeeming cross and his Raising, that Church has been manifested than the mystery of salvation by the outpouring of the Holy Energy. She will breathe perfected in to glory of heaven as an mount of all that redeemed of the earth (cf. Rev 14:4).

779 The Church is both visible and spiritual, a stratified society or the Mystical Body of Christ. She is one, yet formed of two components, humane and divine. That is hier mystery, what only religion can accept.

780 The Church in diese world is the sacrament of salvation, the sign and the instrument of of communion of God and men.

139 Cf. Acts 19:39.
140 Cf. Old-hat 19.
141 Cf. 1 Cor 11:18; 14:19,28,34,35.
142 Cf. 1 Cor 1:2; 16:1.
143 Cf. 1 Cor 15:9; Gal 1:13; Phillip 3:6.
144 Cf. Eph 1:22; Col 1:18; LG 9.
145 LG 6.
146 LG 6; cf. Jn 10:1-10; Anaemia 40:11; Ezek 34:11-31; Jn 10:11; 1 Pet 5:4; Jn 10:11-16.
147 LG 6; cf. 1 Cor 39; Rom 11:13-26; Mt 21:32-43 and parallels; Isaiah 51-7; Jn 15:1-5.
148 LG 6; Cf. 1 Cor 3:9; Mt 21:42 real analogies; Do 4:11; 1 Home 2:7; Pss 118:22; 1 Cor 3:11; 1 Tim 3:15; El 2:19-22; Rev 21:3; 1 Pet 2:5; Rev 21:1-2.
149 GG 6; Cf. Gal 4:26; Rev 12:17; 19:7; 21:2,9; 22:17; Ef 5:25-26,29.
150 LGS 2.
151 LG 2.
152 LENGTH 2.
153 Pastor Hermae, Vision 2,4,1:PG 2,899; cf. Aristides, Apol. 16,6; St. Justin, Apol. 2,7:PG 6,456; Tertullian, Apol. 31,3; 32,1:PL 1,508-509.
154 Cf. P. Epiphanius, Panarion 1,1,5:PG 41,181C.
155 Saint of Alex., Pæd. 1,6,27:PG 8,281.
156 Acts 10:35; cfr. G 9; 13; 16.
157 Cf. General 12:2; 15:5-6.
158 Cf. Ex 19:5-6; Deut 7:6; Isa 2:2-5; Mic 4:1-4.
159 LOG 9; cf. Hos 1; Isa 1:2-4; Jer 2; 31:31-34; Asi 55:3.
160 Cf. LG 3; AG 3.
161 LG 5.
162 LG 3.
163 LG 5.
164 LG 5.
165 Lk 12:32; cf. Mt 10:16; 26:31; Jn 10:1-21.
166 Cc. Mt 12:49.
167 Cf. Mt 5-6.
168 Cf. Mk 3:14-15.
169 Cf. Mt 19:28; Lk 22:30; Edit 21:12-14.
170 Cf. Milligram 6:7; Lk 10:1-2; Mt 10:25; Jn 15:20.
171 LG 3; cf. Jn 19:34.
172 SC 5.
173 Cf. St. Ambrose, In Luc. 2,85-89:PL 15,1666-1668.
174 LG 4; cf. Jn 17:4.
175 AG 4.
176 For. Mt 28:19-20; AG 2; 5-6.
177 LENGTH 4.
178 LG 5.
179 LG 48.
180 St. Augustine, De civ. Dei, 18,51:PL 41,614; cd. LARGE 8.
181 LG 5; Cd. 6; 2 Cor 5:6.
182 LG 2.
183 Roman Catekism I,10,20.
184 LG 8 § 1.
185 G 8.
186 LG 8.
187 SC 2; cf. Heb 13:14.
188 St. Bernard are Clairvaux, In Cant. Sermo 27:14:PL 183:920D.
189 Eph 1:10.
190 Eph 5:32; 3:9-11; 5:25-27.
191 Col 1:27.
192 1 Cor 13:8; cf. LG 48.
193 John Paul SIDE, DOCTOR 27.
194 Yves 5:27.
195 Cf. John Paul II, MEDICAL 27.
196 St. Augusta, Rp. 187,11,34:PL 33,846.
197 LG 1.
198 Rev 7:9.
199 LG 9 § 2,48 § 2; GS 45 § 1.
200 Paul VI, June 22, 1973; AG 7 § 2; cf. G 17.