Definition: Church: “Ekklesia”, “Ecclesia”
- Gk: Ek-ka-lein → “To call out of”
- The assembly of those chosen by God, the chosen people of God.
- Gk: kyriake → Church, Gr: Kirche → what belongs to God.
- CCC 752 In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly, but also the local community or the whole universal community of believers. These three meanings are inseparable. "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. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body.
- The Bride of Christ, the Mystical Body of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the sheepfold.
The Church’s Origin and Purpose
- Originates in the Father’s heart as part of his plan for creation → bring all creation to share in his divine life in his Son.
- CCC 760 "The world was created for the sake of the Church." God created the world for the sake of communion with his divine life, a communion brought about by the "convocation" of men in Christ, and this "convocation" is the Church. The Church is the goal of all things”
- CCC 761 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. This reunification is achieved secretly in the heart of all peoples: "In every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable" to God.
- City of God/Heavenly City vs. City of Man/Earthly City
- Distinguished by the type of love
- Cain and Abel, Wicked and Righteous
- CCC 762 The remote preparation for this gathering together of the People of God begins when he calls Abraham and promises that he will become the father of a great people. 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. But the prophets accuse Israel of breaking the covenant and behaving like a prostitute. They announce a new and eternal covenant. "Christ instituted this New Covenant."
The Church’s Founding
- The Kingdom of God that Jesus preaches about.
- Invites special followers, gives instruction, institutes sacraments.
- CCC 765 The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else there is the choice of the Twelve with Peter as their head. Representing the twelve tribes of Israel, they are the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem. The Twelve and the other disciples share in Christ's mission and his power, but also in his lot. By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds his Church.
- CCC 766 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. "The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus." "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.'" 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.
- At the Last Supper → new covenant in His blood, completed through his Passover, on the cross → New Passover, new law.
- Mystici Corporis Christi #26, 28
- Pentecost and the Sending of the Spirit.
- CCC 767 "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." Then "the Church was openly displayed to the crowds and the spread of the Gospel among the nations, through preaching, was begun." As the "convocation" of all men for salvation, the Church in her very nature is missionary, sent by Christ to all the nations to make disciples of them.
The Church – Both Visible and Invisible
- CCC 771 "The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope, and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men." The Church is at the same time:
- a "society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ;
- the visible society and the spiritual community;
- the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches."
- Human and divine, visible and invisible, action dedicated to contemplation, present in the world but as a pilgrim, human directed/subordinated to divine.
- Requires faith to see the Church’s spiritual reality.
Characteristics/Marks of the Church (according to reason, according to faith)
- One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic
- One
- One source → Unity of the Trinity,
- One founder → Jesus reconciled all men to God on the cross
- One Soul → The Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe, pervading and ruling over the entire Church, brings about the communion of the faithful and joins them to Christ that he is the principle of the Church’s unity.
- Multiplicity of cultures and peoples, yet unified as one. Many gifts, offices, conditions, ways of life → all unified by/in the one Church.
- The bond or principle of unity is love/charity
- Also assured by the visible bonds of communion
- Profession of one faith received from the Apostles (faith/creed)
- Common celebration of divine worship → sacraments (baptism)
- Apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders (Pope)
- Unity is given top-down, from above, by Christ → Jesus prays to his Father: “That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us… so that the world may know that you have sent me.” Unity is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.