First Friday
Hosea,
Chapter 10, Verse 3
For now, they will say, “We have no king! Since we do not FEAR the LORD, the king—what could he do for us?”
This verse speaks to the instability of political leadership; whether it be called a King, President or Lord Potentate who have sold their own people to other world leaders (United Nations, New World Order) thus rendering justice ineffectual. The next verse (4) talks about the administration of justice which often due to lawsuits are like poisonous weeds which choke the system and deprive the people of God the rights of life, liberty, and happiness. The law has become another instrument of oppression that is exercised by corrupt and immoral, Godless memes.
However, now we unlike Hosea have the fulness of Christ, who is the strength of the weak and the humble confidence of those who trust in him. Christ says to us, “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me. (Jn. 10:27)
Christ taught us to seek justice by saying and living the Lord’s Prayer.
Short Explanation of the Lord’s Prayer[1]
Why does God wish us to pray to Him?
To remind us:
1. that all good things
come from Him, and that without Him we have nothing.
2. That we may confide
in Him and try to make ourselves worthy of His divine grace, by thoughts
pleasing to Him, and valuing more, and using better, the graces we receive.
It is because we often ask for something that would be more hurtful than profitable to us.
When ought we to pray?
We should pray at all times,
but especially at,
1, morning, noon, and night.
2, in time of great temptation.
3, when receiving the sacraments.
4, when about to undertake anything important.
5, at the hour of death.
Which is the best of all prayers?
The Lord’s Prayer; but though we say it a hundred times, it will fail to produce its beneficial effects if we repeat it thoughtlessly, without thinking of its meaning or purpose.
Why does this prayer commence with “Our Father?”
To encourage us thereby to a child-like confidence in God. As our Father, Who loves all men, and is ever ready to help them.
Why do we say, “Who art in heaven,” since God is everywhere?
We say this to admonish us to lift up our hearts to heaven, our true home, where God has set up the throne of His kingdom.
What do we ask of God in this prayer?
In the first petition, “hallowed be Thy name,”
we pray that God may be known and loved by all men, and that His name may be
glorified by a Christian life.
In the second petition, “Thy kingdom come,” we
pray God to enter and rule in our hearts by His grace, to spread His Church
throughout the whole world, and after our death to award us eternal happiness.
In the third petition, “Thy will be done on
earth, as it is in heaven,” we offer ourselves entirely to God, and declare
ourselves ready to be subject to the dispositions of His holy will, as are the
angels in heaven, and pray to Him for grace to do this.
In the fourth petition, “give us this day our
daily bread,” we ask for all things which we need for the body, as food and
clothing, and for the soul, as grace and the divine word.
In the fifth petition, “forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us,” we pray to God for
forgiveness, but only as far as we forgive those that injure us. We must
therefore remember that we shall not obtain forgiveness from God so long as we
have in our heart’s hatred against anyone.
In the sixth petition, “and lead us not into
temptation,” we acknowledge our frailty, and ask God to remove temptations from
us, or, if He permit us to fall into those which the world, the flesh, and the
devil prepare for us, to give us grace not to consent to them, but, by
combating and overcoming them, to gain the merit and the crown of justice.
In the seventh petition, “but deliver us from
evil,” we pray to God to preserve us from sin, and the occasions of sin; an evil
death and hell also from all temporal evils, so far as may be for the salvation
of our souls.
America is now at the threshold of history
Like Israel in Hosea’s time America has drifted into serious sin. According to John Maxwell Israel while in captivity had no real leadership (much like America) and had broken the “Law of Solid Ground.” The 6th irrefutable laws of leadership—The Law of Solid Ground states that “trust is the foundation of leadership.” Israel’s leadership made false promises that had eroded the people’s confidence in their leaders and people follow only in proportion to their trust in the leader.
Americans are a just people and fair people and our hearts go out to the world. Yet what are we to do?
Many years ago, while reviewing the
CIA handbook I noticed that economically all of the nations that have been
giving us the most trouble militarily were also on the list of those countries
with the worst per capita income: people who make less than 200 dollars a year.
I thought rather than do battle with a number of these people in some way if we
were to bring the economic power of America to these populaces and help them to
improve their lives and rid themselves of the gangs and dictators. Thus,
bringing up their per capita income; what would the effect be on those who we
may have to embattle? I questioned would improving their lives in their own
country decrease our need to do battle? I decided to do an experiment. With a
little research I invested in one of the stocks from one of the poorest
countries: Zimbabwe. After three months I sold my stock after doubling my
money. My point is perhaps we as America’s can do more by helping the
downtrodden in building up their own countries.
Apostolic
Exhortation[2]
Veneremur
Cernui – Down in Adoration Falling
of The Most
Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix,
to Priests, Deacons, Religious and the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix
on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
My
beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Part II
II. Faith perceives what our
senses fail to grasp
52. Our Catholic faith passed on to us
from the Apostles affirms that after the words of consecration, what seems to
our senses to remain just simple unleavened bread and wine really become the
Son of God and Savior of the world. For this reason, Saint Thomas Aquinas
through his beautiful Eucharistic hymn “Adoro Te Devote” invites
us to have a greater trust in Jesus’ words about His Body and Blood, even if
the reality may seem too good to be true: “Sight, touch, taste fail
with regard to Thee, but only by hearing does one believe surely; I believe
whatever God’s Son said: nothing is truer than the word of Truth.” And
in the hymn of “Tantum Ergo,” he invites us to beg the Lord
for this needed faith: “May faith supplement what our senses fail to
grasp.”
53. Faith makes all the difference in
how we experience God’s saving and transforming grace in the Eucharist. Faith
is the key we hold in our hands to open the treasures of God’s love and grace
entirely at our disposal for our sanctification. Beg the Lord to strengthen
your faith: “Make me always believe in you more and more” (Hymn Adoro
Te Devote).
54. The Lord Jesus invites us to
respond with faith like Peter, “To whom shall we go, you have the words
of everlasting life” and make a commitment not just to believe His
words that He is the Bread from heaven, but to build our lives according to
that belief. Jesus is asking us to make Him the “source and summit” of all
Christian life (Lumen Gentium, no. 11). He is asking us to choose him
who has chosen to dwell among us and has made the promise and commitment to
always be with us.
To be continued…
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART
ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION
TWO I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER
THREE-I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
Article 9-"I BELIEVE IN
THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH"
Paragraph 3. THE CHURCH IS
ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, AND APOSTOLIC
811 "This is the sole
Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and
apostolic." These four characteristics, inseparably linked with each
other, indicate essential features of the Church and her mission. the
Church does not possess them of herself; it is Christ who, through the Holy
Spirit, makes his Church one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, and it is he who
calls her to realize each of these qualities.
812 Only faith can recognize
that the Church possesses these properties from her divine source. But their
historical manifestations are signs that also speak clearly to human reason. As
the First Vatican Council noted, the "Church herself, with her marvellous propagation,
eminent holiness, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in everything good, her
catholic unity and invincible stability, is a great and perpetual motive of
credibility and an irrefutable witness of her divine mission."
I.
THE CHURCH IS ONE
"The
sacred mystery of the Church's unity" (UR 2)
813 The Church is one because
of her source: "the highest exemplar and source of this mystery is the
unity, in the Trinity of Persons, of one God, the Father and the Son in the
Holy Spirit." The Church is one because of her founder: for "the
Word made flesh, the prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross, .
. . restoring the unity of all in one people and one body." The
Church is one because of her "soul": "It is the Holy Spirit,
dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the entire Church,
who brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful and joins them
together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of the Church's
unity." Unity is of the essence of the Church:
What an astonishing
mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos of the universe, and
also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin
become mother, and I should like to call her "Church."
814 From the beginning, this
one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the
variety of God's gifts and the diversity of those who receive them. Within the
unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and cultures is gathered
together. Among the Church's members, there are different gifts, offices,
conditions, and ways of life. "Holding a rightful place in the communion
of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own
traditions." The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to
the Church's unity. Yet sin and the burden of its consequences constantly
threaten the gift of unity. and so the Apostle has to exhort Christians to
"maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
815 What are these bonds of
unity? Above all, charity "binds everything together in perfect
harmony." But the unity of the pilgrim Church is also assured by
visible bonds of communion:
- profession of one faith received from the Apostles;
-common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments;
- apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining the
fraternal concord of God's family.
816 "The sole Church of
Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter's
pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule
it.... This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present
world, subsists in (subsistit in) in) the Catholic Church, which is governed by
the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him."
The Second Vatican
Council's Decree on Ecumenism explains: "For it is through Christ's
Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the
fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic
college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord
entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth
the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who
belong in any way to the People of God."
Wounds
to unity
817 In fact, "in this one
and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts,
which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries
much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated
from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of
both sides were to blame." The ruptures that wound the unity of
Christ's Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism - do
not occur without human sin:
Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies,
and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity,
from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers.
818 "However, one cannot
charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these
communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in
the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and
affection as brothers .... All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are
incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians,
and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of
the Catholic Church."
819 "Furthermore, many
elements of sanctification and of truth" are found outside the
visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the
life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the
Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements." Christ's Spirit uses these
Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives
from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic
Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in
themselves calls to "Catholic unity."
Toward
unity
820 "Christ bestowed
unity on his Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe, subsists in the
Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that it will
continue to increase until the end of time." Christ always gives his
Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to maintain,
reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her. This is why Jesus
himself prayed at the hour of his Passion, and does not cease praying to his
Father, for the unity of his disciples: "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." The desire to recover the
unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.
821 Certain things are required in order to respond adequately to this
call:
· a permanent renewal of the
Church in greater fidelity to her vocation; such renewal is the driving-force
of the movement toward unity.
· conversion of heart as the
faithful "try to live holier lives according to the Gospel”.
· for it is the
unfaithfulness of the members to Christ's gift which causes divisions.
· prayer in common, because
"change of heart and holiness of life, along with public and private
prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded as the soul of the whole
ecumenical movement, and merits the name 'spiritual ecumenism."'
· fraternal knowledge of
each other.
· ecumenical formation of
the faithful and especially of priests.
· dialogue among theologians
and meetings among Christians of the different churches and communities.
· collaboration among
Christians in various areas of service to mankind. "Human
service" is the idiomatic phrase.
822 Concern for achieving
unity "involves the whole Church, faithful and clergy
alike." But we must realize "that this holy objective - the
reconciliation of all Christians in the unity of the one and only Church of
Christ - transcends human powers and gifts." That is why we place all our
hope "in the prayer of Christ for the Church, in the love of the Father
for us, and in the power of the Holy Spirit."
II
THE CHURCH IS HOLY
823 "The Church . . . is
held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the
Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as 'alone holy,' loved
the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he
joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy
Spirit for the glory of God." The Church, then, is "the holy
People of God," and her members are called "saints."
824 United with Christ, the
Church is sanctified by him; through him and with him she becomes sanctifying.
"All the activities of the Church are directed, as toward their end, to
the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God." It
is in the Church that "the fullness of the means of
salvation" has been deposited. It is in her that "by the grace
of God we acquire holiness."
825 "The Church on earth
is endowed already with a sanctity that is real though imperfect." In
her members perfect holiness is something yet to be acquired:
"Strengthened by so many and such great means of salvation, all the
faithful, whatever their condition or state - though each in his own way - are
called by the Lord to that perfection of sanctity by which the Father himself
is perfect."
826 Charity is the soul of the
holiness to which all are called: it "governs, shapes, and perfects all
the means of sanctification."
If
the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn't lack the
noblest of all; it must have a Heart, and a Heart
BURNING
WITH LOVE.
and I realized that this love alone was the true motive force which enabled the
other members of the Church to act; if it ceased to function, the Apostles
would forget to preach the gospel, the Martyrs would refuse to shed their
blood.
LOVE, IN FACT, IS THE VOCATION WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHERS; IT'S A UNIVERSE OF
ITS OWN, COMPRISING ALL TIME AND SPACE - IT'S ETERNAL!
827 "Christ, 'holy,
innocent, and undefiled,' knew nothing of sin, but came only to expiate the
sins of the people. the Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once
holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance
and renewal." All members of the Church, including her ministers,
must acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will
still be mixed with the good wheat of the Gospel until the end of
time. Hence the Church gathers sinners already caught up in Christ's
salvation but still on the way to holiness:
The Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst,
because she herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her
life, her members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall
into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why
she suffers and does penance for those offenses, of which she has the power to
free her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
828 By canonizing some of the
faithful, i.e., by solemnly pro claiming that they practiced heroic virtue and
lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit
of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the
saints to them as models and intercessors. "The saints have always
been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the
Church's history." Indeed, "holiness is the hidden source and
infallible measure of her apostolic activity and missionary zeal."
829 "But while in the
most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she
exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful still strive to conquer sin and
increase in holiness. and so they turn their eyes to Mary": in her,
the Church is already the "all-holy."
III.
THE CHURCH IS CATHOLIC
What
does "catholic" mean?
830 The word
"catholic" means "universal," in the sense of
"according to the totality" or "in keeping with the whole."
the Church is catholic in a double sense: First, the Church is catholic because
Christ is present in her. "Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the
Catholic Church." In her subsists the fullness of Christ's body
united with its head; this implies that she receives from him "the
fullness of the means of salvation" which he has willed: correct and
complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in
apostolic succession. the Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the
day of Pentecost and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.
831 Secondly, the Church is
catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of
the human race:
All men are called to belong to the new People of God. This
People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout
the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God's will may be
fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all
his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one....
the character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the
Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks
for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in the
unity of his Spirit.
Each
particular Church is "catholic"
832 "The Church of Christ
is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of the faithful,
which, in so far as they are united to their pastors, are also quite
appropriately called Churches in the New Testament.... In them the faithful are
gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the
mystery of the Lord's Supper is celebrated.... In these communities, though
they may often be small and poor, or existing in the diaspora, Christ is
present, through whose power and influence the One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic Church is constituted."
833 The phrase
"particular church," which is the diocese (or eparchy), refers to a
community of the Christian faithful in communion of faith and sacraments with
their bishop ordained in apostolic succession. These particular Churches
"are constituted after the model of the universal Church; it is in these
and formed out of them that the one and unique Catholic Church exists."
834 Particular Churches are
fully catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church of Rome
"which presides in charity." "For with this church, by
reason of its pre-eminence, the whole Church, that is the faithful everywhere,
must necessarily be in accord." Indeed, "from the incarnate
Word's descent to us, all Christian churches everywhere have held and hold the
great Church that is here [at Rome] to be their only basis and foundation
since, according to the Savior's promise, the gates of hell have never
prevailed against her."
835 "Let us be very
careful not to conceive of the universal Church as the simple sum, or . . . the
more or less anomalous federation of essentially different particular churches.
In the mind of the Lord the Church is universal by vocation and mission, but
when she pub down her roots in a variety of cultural, social, and human
terrains, she takes on different external expressions and appearances in each
part of the world." The rich variety of ecclesiastical disciplines,
liturgical rites, and theological and spiritual heritages proper to the local
churches "unified in a common effort, shows all the more resplendently the
catholicity of the undivided Church."
Who
belongs to the Catholic Church?
836 "All men are called
to this catholic unity of the People of God.... and to it, in different ways,
belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and
finally all mankind, called by God's grace to salvation."
837 "Fully incorporated
into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ,
accept all the means of salvation given to the Church together with her entire
organization, and who - by the bonds constituted by the profession of faith,
the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion - are joined in the
visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme
Pontiff and the bishops. Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does
not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom
of the Church, but 'in body' not 'in heart.'"
838 "The Church knows
that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of
Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not
preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter." Those
"who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a
certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church." With
the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little
to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's
Eucharist."
The
Church and non-Christians
839 "Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to
the People of God in various ways."
The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her
own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her
link with the Jewish People, "the first to hear the Word of
God." The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is
already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews
"belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race,
according to the flesh, is the Christ", "for the gifts and the
call of God are irrevocable."
840 and when one considers the
future, God's People of the Old Covenant and the new People of God tend towards
similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the return) of the Messiah. But
one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is
recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits the coming of a Messiah,
whose features remain hidden till the end of time; and the latter waiting is
accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus.
841 The Church's relationship
with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who
acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these
profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one,
merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."
842 The Church's bond with
non-Christian religions is in the first place the common origin and end of the
human race:
All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem
from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also
because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident
goodness, and saving designs extend to all against the day when the elect are
gathered together in the holy city. . .
843 The Catholic Church
recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the
God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and
wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth
found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him
who enlightens all men that they may at length have life."
844 In their religious
behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the
image of God in them:
Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in
their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the
creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world
without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.
845 To reunite all his
children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole
of humanity together into his Son's Church. the Church is the place where
humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. the Church is "the world
reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's
cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world."
According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by
Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood.
"Outside
the Church there is no salvation"
846 How are we to understand
this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated
positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the
Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that
the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ
is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which
is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and
Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church
which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be
saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God
through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.
847 This affirmation is not
aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his
Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel
of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart,
and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through
the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.
848 "Although in ways
known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are
ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please
him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to
evangelize all men."
Mission
- a requirement of the Church's catholicity
849 The missionary mandate.
"Having been divinely sent to the nations that she might be 'the universal
sacrament of salvation,' the Church, in obedience to the command of her founder
and because it is demanded by her own essential universality, strives to preach
the Gospel to all men": "Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and Lo, I
am with you always, until the close of the age."
850 The origin and purpose of
mission. the Lord's missionary mandate is ultimately grounded in the eternal
love of the Most Holy Trinity: "The Church on earth is by her nature
missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has as her origin
the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit." The ultimate purpose of
mission is none other than to make men share in the communion between the
Father and the Son in their Spirit of love.
851 Missionary motivation. It
is from God's love for all men that the Church in every age receives both the
obligation and the vigor of her missionary dynamism, "for the love of
Christ urges us on." Indeed, God "desires all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth"; that is, God wills the
salvation of everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in
the truth. Those who obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on
the way of salvation. But the Church, to whom this truth has been entrusted,
must go out to meet their desire, so as to bring them the truth. Because she
believes in God's universal plan of salvation, the Church must be missionary.
852 Missionary paths. the Holy
Spirit is the protagonist, "the principal agent of the whole of the
Church's mission." It is he who leads the Church on her missionary
paths. "This mission continues and, in the course of history, unfolds the
mission of Christ, who was sent to evangelize the poor; so the Church, urged on
by the Spirit of Christ, must walk the road Christ himself walked, a way of
poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice even to death, a death
from which he emerged victorious by his resurrection." So it is that
"the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians."
853 On her pilgrimage, the
Church has also experienced the "discrepancy existing between the message
she proclaims and the human weakness of those to whom the Gospel has been
entrusted." Only by taking the "way of penance and
renewal," the "narrow way of the cross," can the People of God
extend Christ's reign. For "just as Christ carried out the work of
redemption in poverty and oppression, so the Church is called to follow the
same path if she is to communicate the fruits of salvation to men."
854 By her very mission,
"the Church . . . travels the same journey as all humanity and shares the
same earthly lot with the world: she is to be a leaven and, as it were, the
soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the
family of God." Missionary endeavor requires patience. It begins with
the proclamation of the Gospel to peoples and groups who do not yet believe in
Christ, continues with the establishment of Christian communities that are
"a sign of God's presence in the world," and leads to the
foundation of local churches. It must involve a process of inculturation
if the Gospel is to take flesh in each people's culture. There will be times
of defeat. "With regard to individuals, groups, and peoples it is only by
degrees that [the Church] touches and penetrates them and so receives them into
a fullness which is Catholic."
855 The Church's mission
stimulates efforts towards Christian unity. Indeed, "divisions among
Christians prevent the Church from realizing in practice the fullness of
catholicity proper to her in those of her sons who, though joined to her by
Baptism, are yet separated from full communion with her. Furthermore, the Church
herself finds it more difficult to express in actual life her full catholicity
in all its aspects."
856 The missionary task
implies a respectful dialogue with those who do not yet accept the
Gospel. Believers can profit from this dialogue by learning to appreciate
better "those elements of truth and grace which are found among peoples,
and which are, as it were, a secret presence of God." They proclaim
the Good News to those who do not know it, in order to consolidate, complete,
and raise up the truth and the goodness that God has distributed among men and
nations, and to purify them from error and evil "for the glory of God, the
confusion of the demon, and the happiness of man."
IV.
THE CHURCH IS APOSTOLIC
857 The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in
three ways:
·
she was and remains built on "the foundation of the
Apostles," The witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ
himself.
·
with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and
hands on the teaching, The "good deposit," the salutary words
she has heard from the apostles.
·
she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles
until Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college
of bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter,
the Church's supreme pastor":
You are the eternal Shepherd
who never leaves his flock untended.
Through
the apostles you watch over us and protect us always.
You
made them shepherds of the flock
to share in the work of
your Son....
The
Apostles' mission
858 Jesus is the Father's
Emissary. From the beginning of his ministry, he "called to him those whom
he desired; .... and he appointed twelve, whom also he named apostles, to be
with him, and to be sent out to preach." From then on, they would
also be his "emissaries" (Greek apostoloi). In them, Christ continues
his own mission: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send
you." The apostles' ministry is the continuation of his mission;
Jesus said to the Twelve: "he who receives you receives me."
859 Jesus unites them to the
mission he received from the Father. As "the Son can do nothing of his own
accord," but receives everything from the Father who sent him, so those
whom Jesus sends can do nothing apart from him, from whom they received
both the mandate for their mission and the power to carry it out. Christ's
apostles knew that they were called by God as "ministers of a new
covenant," "servants of God," "ambassadors for
Christ," "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of
God."
860 In the office of the
apostles there is one aspect that cannot be transmitted: to be the chosen
witnesses of the Lord's Resurrection and so the foundation stones of the
Church. But their office also has a permanent aspect. Christ promised to remain
with them always. the divine mission entrusted by Jesus to them "will
continue to the end of time, since the Gospel they handed on is the lasting
source of all life for the Church. Therefore, . . . the apostles took care to
appoint successors."
The
bishops - successors of the apostles
861 "In order that the
mission entrusted to them might be continued after their death, [the apostles]
consigned, by will and testament, as it were, to their immediate collaborators
the duty of completing and consolidating the work they had begun, urging them
to tend to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit had appointed them to
shepherd the Church of God. They accordingly designated such men and then made
the ruling that likewise on their death other proven men should take over their
ministry."
862 "Just as the office
which the Lord confided to Peter alone, as first of the apostles, destined to
be transmitted to his successors, is a permanent one, so also endures the
office, which the apostles received, of shepherding the Church, a charge destined
to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of
bishops." Hence the Church teaches that "the bishops have by
divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in
such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever
despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ."
The
apostolate
863 The whole Church is
apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St. Peter and the
other apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that she
is "sent out" into the whole world. All members of the Church share
in this mission, though in various ways. "The Christian vocation is, of
its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well." Indeed, we call an
apostolate "every activity of the Mystical Body" that aims "to
spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth."
864 "Christ, sent by the
Father, is the source of the Church's whole apostolate"; thus the
fruitfulness of apostolate for ordained ministers as well as for lay people
clearly depends on their vital union with Christ. In keeping with their
vocations, the demands of the times and the various gifts of the Holy Spirit,
the apostolate assumes the most varied forms. But charity, drawn from the
Eucharist above all, is always "as it were, the soul of the whole
apostolate."
865 The Church is ultimately one, holy, catholic, and apostolic in her
deepest and ultimate identity, because it is in her that "the Kingdom of
heaven," the "Reign of God," already exists and will be
fulfilled at the end of time. the kingdom has come in the person of Christ and
grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into him, until its full
eschatological manifestation. Then all those he has redeemed and made
"holy and blameless before him in love," will be gathered
together as the one People of God, the "Bride of the
Lamb," "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from
God, having the glory of God." For "the wall of the city had
twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the
Lamb."
IN
BRIEF
866 The Church is one: she
acknowledges one Lord, confesses one faith, is born of one Baptism, forms only
one Body, is given life by the one Spirit, for the sake of one hope (cf Eph
4:3-5), at whose fulfillment all divisions will be overcome.
867 The Church is holy: the
Most Holy God is her author; Christ, her bridegroom, gave himself up to make
her holy; the Spirit of holiness gives her life. Since she still includes
sinners, she is "the sinless one made up of sinners." Her holiness
shines in the saints; in Mary she is already all-holy.
868 The Church is catholic:
she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers
the totality of the means of salvation. She is sent out to all peoples. She
speaks to all men. She encompasses all times. She is "missionary of her
very nature" (AG 2).
869 The Church is apostolic.
She is built on a lasting foundation: "the twelve apostles of the
Lamb" (Rev 21:14). She is indestructible (cf Mt 16:18). She is upheld
infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through Peter and the other
apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of
bishops.
870 "The sole Church of
Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic,
. . . subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of
Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of
sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible confines"(LG 8).
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: The
Pope
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
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