FRIDAY POTPOURRI: WHO AM WE ANYWAY?

Continuing a look at Lumen Gentium

In the fifth paragraph the Church explains more clearly Her identity and Her mission.  The mystery of salvation, the Kingdom of God which has been foretold and promised through the ages is now breaking into history through the birth, life, death, resurrection, and commissioning by Jesus.  The seed had been planted and now it is springing up to life.

 

Jesus, in His death and resurrection, is now more clearly understood not only to be true man, but true God who gives His disciples and subsequently the Church His Spirit, causing the Church to evermore reach for that Kingdom of God for which we were designed and for which we yearn.  (We keep our eyes on the prize.)

 

In paragraph six the Christ is the normative way to the Father, that all are lead to heaven by Christ Who is the only true Sheep Gate without Whom we can do nothing.  While on earth the Church is in exile and so she focuses on “things above” until such time as hope is fulfilled and she appears in glory with her bridegroom.  In other words we are like American citizens trapped in Mexico with the boarders closed and we live our American customs and ideals until such time as we are able to cross over the line and be in our homeland.

 

7)  By Jesus being both God and man, He has redeemed human nature and by sending His Holy Spirit on us, we are united to Him and become one body in Christ.  This uniting comes through the Sacraments of which Jesus is the One, True Priest.  Sometimes I explain it this way:  God the Father and God the Son are one.  During His time here Jesus made Himself one with us (the Church.)  Therefor we become one with the Father and thus have healed the rift between us and our Father.  A = B, B = C, therefore, C = B.  (Perhaps equal isn’t the best sign to use, it is meant hear as representing unity.) 

 

Within this body we all have our parts to perform in some hierarchical fashion beginning with the apostles.  However, all members are necessary for the body to perform well and thus when part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers.  So I pulled a muscle this morning working out (5:30 Insanity work out – ugh) and now it isn’t just my leg that suffers, EVERYTHING (and everyone around me) suffers.

 

Christ is the head of the body and all members strive to be formed in His likeness “until Christ be formed in them.”  To do this we have been given the Holy Spirit who acts in the Church like the soul acts in the individual’s body.

 

Finally in this paragraph (thick aint it?  And we are just scratching the surface) it describes Christ as the Bridegroom loving His bride the Church.  He loves her as Himself and so seeks to purify her with divine gifts.  She is submissive to Him (read: under His mission) “so that (she) may increase and attain to all the fullness of God.”

 

Shew.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: A STRONG CONSTITUTION

In the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church or Lumen Gentium (they really need a marketing person to make their titles more appetizing) the Church attempts to explain to the world who she is.  (If you’ve not caught on, this is the next document we are reviewing as suggested we do during the Year of Faith by our papal emeritus.)  In the first paragraph it states, “she proposes, for the benefit of the faithful and of the whole world to set forth, as clearly as possible . . . her own nature and universal mission.”

 

In deceivingly dense writing, the second paragraph takes us on a quick trip through salvation history pointing out that our creation through the second person of the Blessed Trinity was a totally gratuitous (in the best sense) act of our God, that it was redeemed by Him, and will eventually “return” to Him through the power of the Holy Spirit.  A Christocentric Church, She is caught up in the mystery and mission that God has set forth and hence will, in some sense, always be mysterious.

 

It is God’s power that is making His kingdom grow in the world and we are brought back to that original unity for which we were made primarily through the celebration of the Eucharist through which, “the unity of believers, who form the one body in Christ, is both expressed and brought about.”  So we are also Eucharistically centered.

 

When Jesus’ mission came to completion, the Holy Spirit was sent to “continually sanctify the Church . . .”  We are constantly made new and each given gifts to aid the Church (the Body of Christ) in Her mission.  The Church is bride calling out in the spirit to Her Spouse, the Bridegroom (Jesus) and “hence the universal (read catholic) Church is seen to be ‘a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.’”  (Do you see where John Paul II might have begun getting his idea concerning the Theology of the Body?)  Cool stuff.

 

Gads!  And that’s just the first 4 paragraphs there is a lot more to glean out of it than what was presented here but this give you a taste.