Published in the bulletin of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Knoxville, TN, on the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
My dear Parishioners,
Peace! The ninth article of the Apostle’s Creed is “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.” There are thirty-five (35) In Brief passages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding this article of the Creed. The following is a reflection on article 778.
Let us consider together nine (9) things about the Church: as God’s way, as the goal of God’s design, as prefigured, as prepared for, as founded by Jesus Christ, as realized by Jesus’ death and resurrection, as manifested, as consumated in Heaven, as the assembly of the redeemed.
What does is mean to say that the Church is the Way of God? Jesus tells us that He is the ‘way the truth and the life’ (cf. John 14:6). Jesus contiunes His saving work through His Church which leads us to Him. His Church is His way. Her teachings are His teachings. Her sacraments are His sacraments.
When considering the Church as the end or goal of God’s design we recall that the Church as God’s people is the grand finale of God’s plan of commuion with His people.
The Church has been prefigured in creation, the beginning. There was order in the creation, so many days and different aspects: light and darkness, dry land and seas, birds and creeping things and finally the human race.
The Church has been prepared for in the Old Covenant which has been fulfilled in the new and everlasting covenant in the blood of Jesus. All of the Old Testament sacrifices find their completion in that of Good Friday. The covenant(s) with Noah and Abraham and Moses and David are all wrapped up and perfected in Christ and His Church.
Jesus Christ founded by His words and deeds His Church. When Jesus gave Peter the Keys of the Kingdom and when the risen Lord speaks to Saul on the road to Damascus we see and hear the Lord Jesus speaking about His one only Church (cf. Matthew 16:19; Acts 9:1-5).
The Church is realized by Jesus’ redemptive Cross and Resurrection, that is, without His Incarnation and the redemption of Good Friday and Easter Sunday made present at each Holy Mass there would be no Church.
The Church is manifested as mystery of salvation by the effusion of the Holy Spirit, which is to say that without the Holy Spirit there would be no Church, as life in Christ depends upon the Holy Spirit.
The Church will be consumated in the glory of Heaven and not until then. When the Lord Jesus said on the Cross “it is finished” (consumatum est) (cf. John 19:30), He was speaking of His one only sacrifice.
The Church is the assembly of all the redeemed of Earth (Revelation 14:4). Those in Heaven already were faithful while on Earth. Now it is our task to be faithful in our own day and age so as to be a part of Christ’s assembly of all the redeemed.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr