I.

NATURE OF THE CHURCH

1355. Ekklesia. This “more” of the Church can be shown first of all from
its long history. Our Catholic Church traces its origin back to the Old
Testament qahal and the New Testament ekklesia (CCC 751f). Both
terms mean “the people of God called together,” or an “assembly
convoked by God.” Thus, they stress the action of God in calling the
people together. The Church thus claims to be a faith-assembly whose
root cause is God’s free call to all to share His divine goodness and love
in Christ. The Church therefore is not just a social grouping of people
drawn together by cultural values and attitudes. This faith-conviction
that God is the ever-present source and ground for the Church is the
reason for explaining the Church as “mystery” and “sacrament.”
A. The Church as Mystery
1356. In the Christian Faith there are mysteries or divine truths proposed
to our belief “that are hidden in God and which can never be known
unless they are revealed by God himself” (DS, 3015) and which we will
never be able to understand fully because of the limitation of our
intelligence (cf. DS 3016). Such is the case of the mystery of the Blessed
Trinity. There are also created salvific realities which can partly be
known by our human intelligence, but which have also a transcendent
dimension which can be perceived only through faith. These salvific
realities are also called “mysteries” because of their inexhaustible
richness. It is in this sense that we speak of the Church as “mystery.” By
this term, then, we mean not something we cannot know nor understand,
but rather a reality we can never fully grasp because there is always
more to learn (cf. NCDP 200). As mystery, the Church is a God-given
reality we believe in and love __ like a friend or a loved one __ not only
something we observe and critically analyze (cf. NCDP 230; CCC 770-
73). To affirm the Church is a mystery simply means, first, that it is “a
reality imbued with the hidden presence of God . . . always open to new
and greater exploration” (Paul VI at the Opening of the Second Session
of Vatican II). Second, it has a unique relation to God Himself, and
therefore also with all of us who are called to salvation precisely as a
people. But what precisely is this “unique relationship with God?”
1357. The Church is related to each Person of the Blessed Trinity. First,
to the eternal Father who “resolved to assemble all those who believe in
Christ in the holy Church.” In the Father’s plan, the Church was: •
prefigured from the beginning of the world; • prepared wonderfully in
the history of Israel, • instituted finally in these last times, • manifested
in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, • to be brought to completion at the
end of time (cf. LG 2; CCC 760-69).
1358. Second, to the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. “Christ, the one
Mediator, established and ceaselessly sustains here on earth his holy
Church” (LG 8; cf. CCC 763-66). The Church originated and grew from
Christ. “From the side of Christ as He slept the sleep of death upon the
Cross came forth the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church” (SC 5).
Our life in the Church is completely Christ-centered: “All men are called
to this union with Christ who is the light of the world, from whom we go
forth, through whom we live, and toward whom our whole life leads us”
(LG 3).
1359. Like the Incarnate Son, the Church is both visible and invisible,
human and divine. As the Son of God “became flesh” to save us from
our sins, so the spiritual community of the Church takes on visible social
structure to serve its mission (cf. LG 8; CCC 771-73).
1360. Third, to the Holy Spirit who dwells in the Church and in the
hearts of the faithful as in a temple (cf. 1 Cor 3:16), and bears witness to
their adoptive sonship (cf. Gal 4:6). The Spirit guides the Church into
the fullness of truth (cf. Jn 16:13), gives her a unity of fellowship and
service, and constantly renews and leads her to perfect union with her
Spouse, Christ (cf. CCC 767).
1361. Hence, the Church is mystery by reason of: • its origin in the
Father’s plan of salvation, • its ongoing life in the Risen Christ and the
Spirit, and • its ultimate goal in the fully achieved Kingdom of God.
1362. But “most Filipino Catholics approach the Church concretely and
pragmatically, not in terms of ‘mystery.’ Yet there is deep respect,
loyalty, and love for the Church which this insight into the Church as
mystery can develop and confirm” (NCDP 231), for the Church is
basically a mystery of communion. Perhaps a more Filipino approach to
the Church as “mystery” would focus on this personal communion that
binds us together with the Lord and with one another. It is this living and
life-giving communion that makes us belong not to ourselves but to
Christ and to his Church, the community of the disciples of Christ (cf.
PCP II 87, 402). “I am the vine, you are the branches,” Christ told his
disciples (cf. Jn 15:5). This “strong sense of personal belonging, of self-
identity and security which Filipino ‘folk Catholicism’ has been able to
consistently engender, is perhaps its greatest asset” (NCDP 86).
1363. Moreover, this communion is the ‘integrating aspect,’ indeed the
central content of the Church as mystery (cf. CL 19). But it is not a
communion created by merely sociological and cultural factors. Rather,
the model and source of our communion as Christians with Jesus and
with one another is God’s own Trinitarian communion __ of the Son
with the Father in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Only such a source could
explain how “united to the Son in the Spirit’s bond of love, we
Christians are united to the Father” (CL 18).
1364. Icon* of the Trinity. Basically, the Church is mystery because of
its relationship to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It manifests the Blessed
Trinity by both its nature and mission. First, by its origin the Church
arose from the saving design of the Father, the redemptive mission of the
Son and the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Second, in structure: just as
the Trinity is a community, the communion of love of Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, so too the Church is a community, a communion of
believers drawn together by Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Third, the mission of the Church originates “from the mission of the Son
and the mission of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the decree of God
the Father” (PCP II 103; cf. AG 2). Fourth, the destiny of the Church is
the full realization of this communion in the Kingdom of God. We are
pilgrims, because “joined with Christ in the Church and signed with the
Holy Spirit ‘who is the pledge of our inheritance’, we have not yet
appeared with Christ in the state of glory in which we shall be like God
since we shall see Him as He is” (LG 48).
1365. This Trinitarian view of the Church is actually quite close to the
ordinary religious experience of Catholic Filipinos. For it is in the
Church, especially in communal worship at Mass, when we most often: •
experience God as “our Father” and feel ourselves as children in His
divine hands; • come to know Christ as our personal Savior, and what it
means to be His disciples in service of others; and
* “Icon” is a sacred image, painted on wood or formed by a mosaic, that
presents persons and scenes symbolically, fostering public and private
prayer and worship. Reverence shown to icons does not refer to the
images themselves, but to the sacred persons represented: the living
God, Christ the Savior, the Virgin, the angels and saints.
• judge true, authentic experiences of the Holy Spirit, among our fellow
disciples of Christ, and under the guidance and leadership of Church
authorities.
PCP II expressed this briefly in noting that “in the Liturgy we assemble
and pray in the name of our Lord through whom ‘we have access in one
Spirit to the Father’ ” (Eph 2:18; PCP II 77).
B. The Church as Sacrament
1366. The Church as mystery is further clarified and developed by the
notion of sacrament. “By her relationship with Christ, the Church is both
a sacramental sign and an instrument of intimate union with God, and of
the unity of all mankind” (GS 42; cf. LG 1). Christ then has made the
Church the effective sign and symbol of: 1) our union with God; 2) the
unity among men; and 3) of salvation.
For the Risen Christ, continually active in the world, “sent his life-giving
Spirit to establish his Body, the Church as the universal sacrament of
salvation” (LG 48; cf. CCC 774-76).
1367. The idea that the Church is “sacrament” may sound strange at first
to many Filipinos. We have been used to thinking of “sacrament” solely
as the “seven sacraments,” individual liturgical rituals such as Baptism,
the Mass, Confession, etc. But if we focus on the essentials of
“sacrament,” we find both Christ himself as well as the Church fulfill the
notion perfectly. A sacrament is a material sign which gives grace,
effecting what it symbolizes; it causes grace by symbolizing grace. So
Christ, the eternal Word made flesh, is the visible sign, the sacrament of
God. So too the Church, with her visible, institutional structure, is for us
the sacrament of Christ, representing him, making him present. The
Church signifies in a visible, historical, and tangible form the presence
and redeeming activity of Christ, offered to all persons of every age,
race and condition.
1368. Thinking of the Church as “sacrament” has many advantages.
First, it unites inseparably the visible and invisible dimensions of the
Church. “Sacrament” by definition is a visible sign making present an
invisible reality. So the Church is a visible, hierarchically structured
society making present a spiritual community. The two aspects form but
one complex reality which comprises both a human and a divine
element.
1369. Second, “sacrament” directly relates the Church to non-Catholics.
Without neglecting the necessity of the visible Church, it helps explain
how the grace of Christ can be operative beyond the limits of the
institutional Church. The Church as sacrament is “used by Christ as an
instrument for the redemption of all, and sent forth into the whole world
as the light of the world and the salt of the earth” (LG 9). The Church,
then, is the tangible sign of Christ’s presence in the world, a beacon of
light visible to all and drawing them in the power of the Spirit to
communion with God and with one another in Christ (cf. Acts 13:47; Mt
5:14-16).
1370. Third, it unites the Church closely with the Eucharist. The many
similarities are striking: • As the Eucharist is composed of bread and
wine “which earth has given and human hands have made,” so the
Church is composed of men and women called together. • As the
Eucharist makes sacramentally present the body and blood of the Risen
Christ, so the Church is the visible sign of the presence of the Risen
Christ in His Spirit.
• As the Eucharist’s bread and wine have no meaning outside of Christ’s
words, so the Church cannot be understood except through Christ’s
promise “I am with you always until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). •
And as Christ’s presence in the Eucharistic bread and wine is not
effected by any human holiness or fidelity, but by the Risen Christ’s
own saving activity in the Spirit, so too is his inseparable union with the
Church effected.
1371. “Sacrament” can also foster a strong loyalty and personal sense of
belonging to the Church, even while recognizing our human limitations.
This implies our constant need for renewal and purification. We come to
love the Church as our spiritual mother and home. Yet we know that we
are a pilgrim people, already on our journey but not yet arrived.
Therefore, we can appreciate the counsel that “guided by the Holy Spirit,
the Church ceaselessly ‘exhorts her sons and daughters to purification
and renewal so that the sign of Christ may shine more brightly over the
face of the Church’ ” (GS 43; LG 8; PCP II, 141).
1372. PCP II openly averred that the Church in the Philippines is not,
and will never be on this earth, the perfect bride of Christ. Ours is an
imperfect Church living amidst and ministering to a very imperfect
society. Both in her internal renewal, therefore, and in her service to
society, the Church as the community of the Lord’s disciples is destined
to share in His passion and death so that she may also share in his risen
life (PCP II 142, 246-49).
C. Scriptural Images of the Church
1373. If by its very nature the Church is mystery and sacrament, we
come to better understand it more through prayerful reflection on key
biblical images than by some abstract definition (cf. CCC 753-57). The
New Testament, drawing on major Old Testament themes, contains
more than 80 comparisons depicting the Church as a “communion of
life, love and truth” established by Christ between God and His human
children (cf. LG 9). Vatican II gathers them into four groups. The
Church is: • the Flock of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who lays down his
life for his sheep; • the Vineyard of God, cultivated by the heavenly
Vinedresser. Christ is the true vine who gives life and fruitfulness to us,
the branches; • the Temple of God, with Christ as the cornerstone and
the apostles as foundation; and • our Mother, the spotless Spouse of the
spotless Lamb, “whom Christ loved and for whom he gave himself up
that he might sanctify her” (LG 6). (Cf. Is 40:11; Ez 34:11-16; Jn 10:1-
16; 1 Pt 5:4; Mt 21:33-43; Is 5:1f; Jn 15:1-5; Mt 21:42; Ps 117:22; 1 Cor
3:1; Gal 4:26; Rev 19:7;21:2,9; Eph 5:26).
1374. But since these are images drawn from the specific, concrete
culture and times of the biblical people, they have to be carefully
explained if they are to enlighten the Filipino Catholic of today on the
nature of the Church. Most Filipinos have little or no contact with
shepherds, flocks, vinedressers, and the like. These images, therefore,
must be brought to life by showing how they manifest basic human
values and religious meaning that are relevant to our own Filipino
culture and spirituality.
1375. PCP II offers one example of adapting a biblical image of the
Church to Filipino culture. Many biblical images revolve about the basic
theme of the “household or family of God.” PCP II developed the image
of the Church as “a community of families.” The family is “the Church
in the home.” Jesus began his earthly mission within a family; the family
is where faith-life begins, is nurtured, grows to maturity. It is where
Christian conscience is formed, and Christian prayer and worship is
nurtured and integrated. In fact the family is “a true foundation for Basic
Ecclesial Communities . . . a model of relationships in the Church. For
the plan of God is that all should form one family, and the Church is
the household of God where all call upon and obey the will of the same
Father through the Holy Spirit” (PCP II 21-22).
1376. Against the above background of these general Biblical images of
the Church, and one PCP II adaptation, we shall take up four particular
biblical images which are especially helpful for grasping the reality of
the Catholic Church today: the “Kingdom of God,” the “People of God,”
the “Body of Christ,” and “Temple of the Holy Spirit.”
1. Kingdom of God
1377. This is the major theme of Christ’s own teaching in the Synoptic
Gospels. But what exactly is this “kingdom”? PCP II sketches it in
biblical images: the Kingdom of God is the Good News preached to the
poor, the gift of God, our “Abba,” (Father) who is sensitive to the needs
and sufferings of every human being. It is the seed quietly sown, the
offer of pardon to sinners, the banquet of table-fellowship and joyful
communion with the Lord and our fellow men and women, the gift of
salvation, eternal life. But it is a gift we must seek, demanding vigilance
and active use of talents — a task and project as well as a gift (PCP II
39-47).
1378. Christ “inaugurated his Church by preaching the coming of God’s
Kingdom” (cf. LG 5). His parables about the Kingdom of God employed
many specific images: • a treasure hidden in a field, • the leaven raising
the dough, • the tiny mustard seed growing into a tall tree, • a fish net
catching the good and the bad. These can help us see how the Church,
on the one hand, is not simply identified with the Kingdom of God. On
the other hand, the Church does serve the Kingdom as the leaven in the
dough of humanity, in sowing the seed and casting of the net (cf. NCDP
230). As such, the Church includes both the good and the bad fish, the
wheat and the weeds. In brief, the Church represents the coming of the
Kingdom, the Kingdom in process.
1379. The petition “Your Kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer clearly
indicates that God’s Kingdom is something already here, but not yet in
its fulfillment in glory. Like the Kingdom, the pilgrim Church stands
between the already and the not yet, constantly striving to prepare the
way for, and witness to, the kingdom in glory, “the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, . . . the assembly of the firstborn . . . in
heaven” (Heb 12:22f).
2. People of God
1380. Vatican II’s favorite image of the Church is “the new People of
God.” “God has willed to make men holy and save them, not merely as
individuals without any mutual bonds, but by making them into a single
people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in
holiness” (LG 9). Prefigured in the Old Covenant which Yahweh set up
with the people of Israel, “Christ instituted the New Covenant in his
blood, by calling together a people, making them one, not according to
the flesh but in the Spirit” (LG 9).
1381. The Church as the “People of God” has clear distinguishing
characteristics: • its cause is GOD: “You are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people God claims for his own” (1 Pt 2:9f);
• its Head is Christ “who was handed over to death for our sins and
raised up for our justification” (Rom 4:25); • its members are “those who
believe in Christ, who are reborn through the Word of the living God,
‘of water and the Spirit’ in baptism” (cf. Jn 3:3,5); • its condition is that
of the dignity and freedom of the sons/daughters of God, in whose hearts
the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple; • its law is Christ’s new
Commandment of love (cf. Jn 13:34), and the new Law of the Spirit (cf.
Rom 8:2); • its mission is to be the salt of the earth, the light of the
world, its salvation (cf. Mt 5:134-16); • its destiny is the final Kingdom
of God, brought to perfection at the end of time (cf. LG 9; CCC 782).
1382. This new People of God is a “Priestly, Prophetic and Kingly
People” ( cf. PCP II 116-21; CCC 78386, 901-13; LG 10-12; RH 18-21).
As a priestly people by reason of our Baptism, strengthened by
Confirmation and nourished by the Eucharist, we Christians offer
spiritual worship for the glory of God and the salvation of men (cf. LG
34). As a prophetic people, we give witness to Christ by our
understanding of the faith (sensus fidei) and the grace of speech (cf. Acts
2:17f), “so that the power of the Gospel may shine out in daily family
and social life” (LG 35). As a kingly people we share in the power of
Christ the King who came “to serve and give his life as a ransom for the
many” (Mt 20:28). Thus we serve others, especially the poor and the
suffering in whom we recognize “the likeness of our poor and suffering
Founder” (LG 8). By sharing in the Spirit’s power “to renew the face of
the earth”, we work to overcome sin and to permeate all with the values
of Christ. “To be king is to minister, to serve” (PCP II 121).
1383. Filipino culture, with its more authority-structured relationships,
may seem at first to run counter to this image of the Church which
stresses the dignity of all members of “the new People of God.” But the
political and social revolution of EDSA, 1986, the spontaneous response
of help toward the victims of the natural calamities, and the Church
celebration of its Second Plenary Council (PCP II) in 1990, witness to
the growing sense of solidarity among Filipinos, of being “one people.”
This deepening sense of national unity and national identity will help
Filipino Catholics to realize and assume their full stature, dignity and
responsibility as members in the Christian community, the “family of
God.”
3. Body of Christ
1384. In the Gospels Jesus called men and women to follow him, to be
his disciples and to share his life and mission. He identified them with
himself: “He who hears you, hears me. He who rejects you, rejects me”
(Lk 10:16). This holds true with even the least of his brethren: “I assure
you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did
for me” (Mt 25:40). Jesus spoke of an intimate communion with his
followers: “Live on in me, as I do in you . . . I am the vine, you are the
branches” (Jn 15:4-5). He even provided the means of such communion:
“The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood, remains in me
and I in him” (Jn 6:56). At the Last Supper, Jesus promised not to leave
his disciples orphans (cf. Jn 14:18), but to send them his Spirit through
whom he would be with them till the end of time. The Church is born of
this personal communion between Jesus and his disciples (cf. CCC 787-
95).
1385. “By communicating his Spirit to his brothers and sisters, called
together from all peoples, Christ made them mystically into his own
body” (LG 7). Thus the Church is not just like a body, but IS the
Body of Christ, really made one in him, in his “mystical” Body.
“Mystical” does not mean “unreal” but rather a reality not limited to
sensible appearances. Therefore it is accessible to faith alone because it
belongs to the mystery of God’s salvific plan hidden for endless ages but
revealed in the Gospel.
1386. Christ’s “body,” then, can refer to:
• the physical body of the historical Jesus, assumed at the Incarnation
(cf. Jn 1:14); or • his Eucharistic body, making sacramentally present to
us the Person of the Risen Christ in his saving sacrifice; or • his mystical
body, the Church, the faithful united to Christ as their Head, and united
and vivified by His Spirit.
1387. Unity in Diversity. Within Christ’s Body, the Church, there is a
great variety of members and functions (PCP II 91-94). This means that
the unity of the Body of Christ is not uniformity. Rather, “there are
different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different
ministries, but the same Lord; there are different works but the same
God who accomplishes all of them in everyone” (1 Cor 12:46). It is the
Holy Spirit whom Christ shares with us as the principle of life, the soul
of his Body, who, existing as one and the same in head and members,
gives life to, unifies and moves the whole body” (LG 7). Thus we pray:
Father, you gather your children into your Church, to be ONE as you,
Father, are one with your Son and the Holy Spirit. You call them to be
your PEOPLE, to praise your wisdom in all your works, You make them
the BODY OF CHRIST, and the dwelling place of the HOLY SPIRIT.
(8th Preface for Sundays)
4. Temple of the Holy Spirit
1388. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “You are the temple of God, and
the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Cor 3:16; cf. CCC 797f). Animating
the Church as the “Body of Christ” is the Holy Spirit. Traditional
teaching of the Church declares: “As Christ is the Head of the Church,
so is the Holy Spirit its soul” (ND 852). Vatican II describes it thus:
Christ has shared with us his Spirit who, being one and the same in head
and members, gives life to, unifies and moves the whole body.
Consequently, the Spirit’s work could be compared to the function
which the soul, the principle of life, fulfills in the human body (LG 7).
1389. The Filipino value of close family unity and ties should help
Catholic Filipinos to appreciate the Church as the Body of Christ. “Body
of Christ” actually stresses first, the living unity of all the faithful among
themselves through their union with Christ. Second, under Christ the
Head, the organic relationships between the members through the grace
and charisms of the Spirit. Third, the Church as Spouse of Christ (cf.
Eph 5:27,29; CCC 789-96). All three aspects are actualized through
Baptism and the Eucharist. “The body is one and has many members,
but all the members, many though they are, are one body; and so it is
with Christ. It was in one Spirit that all of us . . . were baptized into one
body” (1 Cor 12:12-13). Moreover, “by really sharing in the body of the
Lord in the breaking of the eucharistic bread, we are taken up into
communion with him and with one another” (LG 7; cf. PCP II 89-90).