Chapter Four - The Church

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

 Opening Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and

enkindle in them the fire of Your love.
V. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray. O God, by the light of the Holy Spirit, You

have taught the hearts of Your faithful. In the same
Spirit help us to know what is truly right and always to
rejoice in Your consolation. We ask this through
Christ, our Lord. Amen.
 The Fourth Luminous Mystery—The Transfiguration

And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James,
and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high
mountain apart: And he was transfigured before them.
And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments
became white as snow. And behold there appeared to
them Moses and Elias talking with him.

And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my

beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.
Mt 17:1-3, 5
“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’
Simon Peter said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the
Living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are
you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is in
heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell
shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of
the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:15-19
 We Live in Between-time
“Our current age is the ‘between-time,’ a period between the ‘shadowy’
typology that prefigured Christ in the Old Testament and the time of
ultimate ‘reality’ [at the end of time] when ‘God is all in all’ and the
world is completely transformed and fully divinized. This between-time
is the time of the ‘image,’ an ‘already-but-not-yet’ period in which we
have real, genuine access to things of heaven but in the mode of
sacrament. The heavenly realities are ours motivated through material
things in the liturgy of the Church. The heavenly future becomes the
subject of our present day participation in images. In liturgical time,
we make present the events of the past and anticipate the realities of
the future. So the term ‘image’ used in this context really means
sacrament, a participation in invisible spiritual realities, through the
medium of earthly matter. Today, our contact with God comes through
the sacramental veil in the time of the image, the time between
Pentecost and the Second Coming.”
Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy
Dr. Denis R. McNamara
 Seen and Unseen
The interplay of visible and invisible realities occurs throughout our
faith. This seeming paradox is rooted in the Incarnation, the Word
made flesh.

In the seven sacraments, God sends us salvific graces through the

medium of sense-perceptible, earthly matter. Because man is fallen,
we need the physical, visible realities to build up our faith in the
invisible, toward which everything points.
 The Church as Sacrament
The pattern of visibility and invisibility is repeated. The Second
Vatican Council called the Church the “universal sacrament of
salvation.”

Just as we receive invisible, salvific graces through the physical,

visible matter used in the seven sacraments, so too does Christ
communicate spiritual Truth to all through His Body, the Church.
 The Four Marks
We believe in unam sanctum catholicum et apostolicum ecclesium.

The Church is one because of her founder. There is only one God,
one Savior, one Truth, one Baptism, and there is only Church. Our
Lord died that we might be incorporated into His Body. Just as there
was only one Savior, Jesus, so too there is but one Mystical Body.

So too, the Church is one because of her soul, the Holy Spirit. Just as
a human being is one with body and soul, so too the Church is body
(Christ) and soul (Holy Spirit).

Yet, there is legitimate diversity in unity. A variety of different peoples

and cultures is gathered together within the Church
 The Ties that Bind
What is it that binds us together, specifically?

First, we profess the same faith. There is one faith handed down by
the apostles!

Secondly, we are bound by sacramental practice. Although there may

be some variation in form, the seven sacraments are the same no
matter which Catholic Church you enter, anywhere on earth.

Finally, we are bound together through apostolic succession. The

Holy Father is the great visible unifier of the Church.
 Body Blows
Over time, there have been certain rifts and wounds to the unity of the
Church. Often, men on both sides were to blame. Reformation of the
Church starts with greater fidelity to doctrine, not scrapping or
changing doctrine. Reformation must happen one heart at a time!

Despite the grave seriousness of disunity, we do not indict with the sin
of separation those who are at present born into Protestant
communities.
 We are Called to Work for Unity
But as Catholics, we are called to make disciples and work to restore
unity. Authentic ecumenism does not entail watering down what you
believe or compromising a difficult truth!

We should be so full of Love that others want what we have. This

restored Charity will only come through striving to be a holier people
with greater fidelity.
 The Church is Holy
The Church is only holy because of her Head! Jesus is the head of
the Church. He is the Head of the Mystical Body. He is the 2nd
person of the Trinity, so He is all holy. Because the Church is His
Body, the Church, too, is holy.

As members of Christ’s Body, we are called to “be perfect, just as the

heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) We are called to be filled with
Love, a self-sacrificing Love.
 The Church is Catholic
The Church is ‘catholic’ in a double sense.

The first sense is that of totality. The fullness of Christ’s Body subsists
in the Catholic Church. We have received and adhered to the
complete fullness of the faith. We have the totality of faith.

Secondly, the Church is ‘catholic’ in the sense of being everywhere.

Through the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20), the Church has been
sent on a mission to the whole human race.
 Who is in the Catholic Church?
All people are called to ‘catholic’ unity, but there are different ways of
being ordered to it. First, those who are fully incorporated into the
Church. Secondly, those who are baptized Christians but do not
profess the fullness of the Catholic faith. Thirdly, those who have not
yet received the Gospel are related to the Church in various ways.

What about the Jewish?

What about the Muslims?

What about other non-Christians?

 Who can Achieve Salvation?
The Church has taught consistently that outside the Church there is no
salvation. (CCC #846) Let’s restate it in a slightly different way: All
salvation comes from Jesus Christ, the Head, through His Church, the
Body. The Church in its fullness is the Catholic Church, but as we’ve
already seen there are ways of belonging to it, even imperfectly.

This teaching is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own,
do not know Christ or His Church. It is a further elaboration on the
totality and universality of the Church.
 The Church is Apostolic
The Church is apostolic, because she is founded on the apostles in
three ways:

1) The Church is built on the foundation of the apostles.

2) The Church keeps, guards, and hands on the faith.

3) The Church continues to be taught by the apostles’ successors.

Questions?