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• The Meaning of the Church:

  • "QAHAL" Old Testament Hebrew word which means gathering or assembly
  • it refers to the coming together of the Israelites for the common purpose of worshiping God
• • The word "Church" (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to "call out of") means an assembly convoked by God
  • Faith assembly whose root cause is God's free call to all to share His divine goodness and love in Christ
• "The eternal Father, in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design of his wisdom and goodness, created the whole universe and chosen to raise up men to share in his own divine life," to which he calls all men in his Son
• A plan born in the Father's heart

  The Church is "God's Family", redeemed and reunited in Jesus christ: the Church is God's People. She is "a plan born in the Father's Heart
• The Church - foreshadowed from the world's beginning

  God's Plan

  Creation > Communion > God

  v

  "convocation" of men in Christ

  v

  Church
• Was this plan revealed all at once?

  • God slowly reveals himself and His plan in human history
• The Church was prepared in marvellous fashion in the history of the people of Israel
• Economy of salvation/Salvation History

  Oikos-House Nomos-Law

  God's rule in His household

  
  

  Theos-God Logos-word

  God's revelation
• Through Economy, Theology is Revealed

  • We learned who God is by what he does
• Old Testament

  • It prepares us for who Jesus is and His plan for us
  • Showed how "sin" scatters, then God gathers
• The Church - prepared for in the Old Covenant

  In the call of Abraham we see God's great plan at work: to gather together all mankind to be his family

  After the patriarchs, God formed Israel as his people by freeing them from slavery in Egypt.
• "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex 19:6). Israel is above all an "assembly of people" before God, a qahal- the very reality that the Septuagint translates as ekklesia, the Church
• Salvation History

  Mediators Adam & Eve Noah Abraham Moses

  Covenant Sign Marriage Rainbow Circumcision Decalogue

  Covenant Form Couple Family Tribe Nation

  David Jesus

  Throne Eucharist

  Kingdom Church
• The Church is God's people redeemed and reconciled to Him
• "For those with Faith no evidence is necessary, for those without it no evidence will suffice." - St. Thomas Aquinas
• Jesus Christ is a Palestinian Jew
• Peter was the leader of 12 Apostles
• Many people believed the 12 Apostles because Holy Spirit was with them
• THE CHURCH AS PREPARED BY CHRIST

  1. He gathered his first disciples & associated them with his mission
  2. He put Peter in charge of the community & made him the guardian of the faith within the new people of God
  3. He made the 12 Apostles & the disciples a community of witnesses
  4. Promised them the gift of the Spirit who would help them come to know the fullness of the Light which Jesus came to bring into the world
• The Church as preached by Christ
• KINDOM OF GOD

  • major theme of Christ's own teaching in the synoptic gospels
  • 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 & sufferings of every human being.
  • Jesus proclaimed the kingdom; what came was the Church
• PARABLES ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD

  • 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
  • the Church represents the coming of the Kingdom, the Kingdom in process
• "YOUR KINGDOM COME" in the Lord's prayer

  God's Kingdom is something already here, but not yet in its fulfillment in glory
• INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST

  • the central sacrament of the Church
  • The Eucharist nourishes & sustains the Church, unites believers with Christ & one another, & strengthens them to live as His disciples.
  • Communion of God's people called to faith in Christ, commemorating Jesus' sacrifice on the cross
• INSTITUTION OF THE PRIESTHOOD

  "Do this in memory of me" (Luke 22:19)

  • An empowering of the priests to continue the offering of the Eucharist & to act in His name ensuring the continuation of the Eucharistic sacrifice
  • A sharing of Christ's authority & mission with the apostles laid the foundation for the ministerial priesthood in the Church
  • Through the sacrament of Holy Orders, bishops & priests are ordained to continue the apostolic ministry of teaching, sanctifying, & shepherding the faithful (Pastoral Care of the Faithful
• The Church is born primarily of Christ's total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist & fulfilled on the cross. "The origin & growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood & water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus." "For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the 'wondrous sacrament of the whole Church
• CHRIST PASSION & DEATH

  • celebration of the Eucharist, Christians share in the blood & body of Christ, & thus are nurtured & strengthened to remain the one body of Christ
  • As Christ's passion & death brings about our salvation, it is now the Church role to continue this saving mission of Christ for the world: to be the salt of the earth & the light of the world
• CHRIST'S RESURRECTION & ASCENSION IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

  "If Christ was not raised, your faith is worthless."

  THE RESURRECTION IS THE CENTRAL GOSPEL MESSAGE ITSELF

  • Confirmation of all Christ has done & taught
  • Sharing of Christ's life with us as adopted sons & daughters of the Father
  • The source of that new life for all

  The challenge is not accepting Christ's resurrection, but in living out the Gospel of the Risen Christ
• CHRIST'S RESURRECTION & ASCENSION IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

  • The Ascension is a salvific event for us since Christ's return to the Father was necessary for sending the Spirit among us, & for Christ's continued mediating on our behalf as well as for grounding our hope in our own future resurrection
  • The Church continues to awaits His second coming & its final completion, the union of God & men at the end of time.
• The victory accomplished by Christ's salvific act has its own parallelism with God's act of saving His people Israel from slavery

  1. It was God's initiative but requires a response from the people
  2. The people has to be organized & given a distinctive way of life as God's own people
  3. The victory accomplished by God must be communicated/proclaim
• "Go into all the world & preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes & is baptized will be saved
• Ecclesia: As depicted in the early parts of the Acts of the Apostles

  • The disciples retreat in the cenacle
  • Apostles and the entire small community of believers in Jesus are gathered with Mary & persevere unanimously in prayer
  • Genuine "Qahal", a covenant assembly with diverse orders, united with the Lord
  • Peter appear as one who stood & acts, exercising the responsibility committed to him by Christ
  • The election of Matthias showed an interplay of human actions & divine. The community remains "in prayer" making its every decision distinct from a parliament
• 2. The pentecost - the birth of the Church

  • interplay of plurality & unity - different people, different languages & cultures
  • What first exist is the one Church, the Church that speaks in all tongues (Ecclesia Universalis), which then generates the Church in diverse locales, all embodiment of the one & only Church
  • At the moment of birth, the Church is already Catholic, Universal
• Tower of Babel - Babylonian World Spirit

  Different Languages

  Spirit of man's will to power/Aiming for uniformity

  Domination & subjection

  Hatred & division

  Pentecost - Holy Spirit

  Tongues of Fire

  God's Spirit is love

  Recognition & acceptance

  Communion
• 3. Fourfold Adherence

  1. to the teachings of the Apostles
  2. to the community
  3. to the breaking of the bread
  4. to prayer
• God is connected to MAN/WOMAN & we break that connection of our "sin"
• ex nihilo - creation - logical - world "came to be"
• Church is the medium where God wants to send his message
• We need symbols because God is invisible
• Scriptural Images of the Church

  • the Flock of Christ
  • Vineyard of God
  • Temple of God
  • our Mother, the spotless Spouse of the spotless Lamb