Pastor's Corner

                                             THE CHURCH IN HER OWN WORDS
A lot of people have thoughts and ideas about the Catholic Church.  Some are correct and many are misinformed.  The best place to go is to the source, where the Church teaches about herself and her place in God’s plan for salvation.  For this reason I am providing a brief summary about the teaching of the Sacred Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, which was promulgated by Pope St. Paul VI on November 21, 1964.  What you will learn from this holy document is the very reason why the election of a new pope is so consequential to our world and to ourselves.
The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) forms part of the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church.  The Fathers of the Council begin by focusing on “the light of humanity” who is Christ, motivated by a “heart-felt desire of this Sacred Council” to proclaim his Gospel to every person.  For God, “with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design of His wisdom and goodness” created the universe and chose humankind “to share in His own life.”  For this purpose “He determined to call together in a holy Church those who should believe in Christ” and at the end of time all the elect “will be gathered together with the Father in the universal Church.”  The Church is the kingdom of Christ “already present in mystery.”  “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 towards whom our whole life is directed.”
On Pentecost the Holy Spirit is sent to guide the Church “in the way of all truth and, unifying her in communion and in the works of ministry, He bestows upon her various hierarchic and charismatic gifts and in this way He directs her; and He adorns her with his fruits,” so that “the universal Church is seen to be a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (as per St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and St. John Damascene). The Church “slowly grows in maturity” and “longs for the completed kingdom and with all her strength, hopes and desires to be united in glory with her King.”  Lumen Gentium highlights some of the images of the Church which are revealed in the prophetic writings of the Old Testament.  She is a sheepfold and the sole and necessary gateway to Christ.   She is a flock and Christ is her Good Shepherd.  He leads her by human shepherds.  The Church is a vine, and there are many branches.  “Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ without whom we can do nothing.”
The Church is also called the building of God.  The apostles are its foundation.  She is “the house of God in which His family dwells; the household of God in the Spirit; the dwelling place of God among men, and especially, the holy temple.”  The stones with which we build our churches and temples are symbols of the “living stones,” the People of God, about whom St. Peter writes in his first epistle.  The Book of Revelation presents the Church as “that Jerusalem from above…our mother” and “the spotless spouse of the spotless lamb.”
My summary is not complete and I hope to follow up with a future article.  But you can read the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World first-hand.  The Vatican provides all of the Second Vatican’s Council documents on its website.  You can easily find it by typing Lumen gentium in a search engine.