Mar 4 Wed
Why do we say that the Church is the mystery or sacrament of salvation?
The Church’s universal mission is born from the command of Jesus Christ, and is fulfilled in the course of the centuries in the proclamation of the mystery of God and the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son, as saving event for all humanity.
The Church is what God wanted her to be: the people of God the Father, the Mystical Body of God the Son, and the temple of God the Holy Spirit. She is a “mystery,” the visible sign of the invisible reality of God’s salvation. The Church is not a dark or incomprehensible reality, but the visible manifestation of God’s plan for humanity.
The term “mystery” does not mean something hidden or enigmatic, but a reality that was previously concealed and has now been revealed.
The invisible side of the mystery is the divine plan to unite all creatures in Jesus Christ, accomplished in his death on the cross.
Yet the Church is the mystery made perceptible; this is experienced especially in the liturgical assembly, where diversities are irrelevant and what prevails is unity in the same love of Christ.
In this analogical sense, the Church is also called “a sacrament.” Christ instituted his Church as the universal sacrament of salvation. Through her, He joins all people closer to himself. Nourishing them with his own body and blood, He makes them partakers of his glorious life.
Thus, Christ, our salvation, acts through the seven sacraments of his Church. These are the signs and instruments of the Holy Spirit to distribute the grace of Christ (the Head) onto the Church (his Mystical Body). Thus, the Church contains and distributes the grace that she signifies.
The Church is both invisible and visible at the same time. As an invisible reality, the Church is the communion of each human being with the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit, and with all others, who equally participate in the:
- divine nature,
- Passion of Christ,
- the same faith, and
- the same spirit.
The Church on earth is also a visible reality, a visible communion of faithful who converge in the:
- teaching of the apostles,
- the sacraments, and
- the same hierarchical order.
Just as Christ is one in two natures, the Church is also one single reality with a dual composition. She is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities; present in the world, but as a pilgrim; her human side is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, and in this present world, she looks forward to that celestial city yet to come.
This social organization of the Church is in line with man’s nature and deepest needs as a social being that is essentially dependent on others.
In a world marked by fragmentation and division—where humanity is fractured, and human beings are unable to get together on their own—the Church presents herself as the concrete expression of God’s plan: she unites people with God and with one another through the action of Christ.