Joseph Hollcraft MA
Theological Foundations CCP 210
Week 6: October 11, 2007

IX. The Church of Christ is made visible through its four characteristics or marks that are inseparably linked: one, holy, catholic and apostolic. They indicate the essential features of the Church and her mission. The Church does not possess them of herself; it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, calls her to realize each of the four qualities (CCC 811).

1. Catholic (not just another denomination): Katholikos (Gk.) meaning “universal”, in the sense of “pertaining to the whole”. The Church is catholic, as it possesses the fullness of Christ's presence and the means to salvation. The church is also catholic as she was sent out by Christ on a mission to evangelize the entire human race (CCC 830). “Jesus conferred an authority that was properly his own and extends it to every place and through every time” (Hahn, 85).

a. Acts 2.42…character of the one true Church of every age.

1. The eternal covenant established by Christ on Calvary is the1sacramental church. To be in communion with the Church and receive our Lord in communion we must be in communion with his Universal Church (note Peter's assent)!

2. Apostolic: “All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…teach them to the end of the age” (Mt.28.18-20). Within the mark of apostolicity, there are three marks linked: the (1) unbroken apostolic pedigree (biblical vision is one of great importance, consider genesis) that (2) teaches with the (3) authority entrusted to Christ to the original twelve (CCC 857).

a. Eph.2.19-20; 1 Tim.3.15; Rev.21.14…We belong to a household of God that has the Apostles as the cornerstone.

1. In his work The Apostles , our current pope notes that before the apostles were sent out they needed to be in relationship with Jesus to communicate how to be in relationship with Jesus (Benedict XVI, 16).

b. The life of the Church Fathers were marked by their obedience to the Deposit of faith and its apostolic pedigree.

1. I note here that the unbroken teaching authority as a social dynamism that has been a mark of the advancement of every culture…so it is with the Church. Paul remarks on the centrality of the apostles teaching mission.

3. Unity: Every family is rooted in this principle and reality that is love. Consider the nature of the Trinity and the words of Christ: “ that they may become perfectly one in us…that the world may know” (Jn.17.20-26). Christ e envisions unity that is not only spiritual, but also visible and organizational. So that even the world can see it clearly (Eph.4.4-13). The indivisible unity has its pattern after the pattern of the triune God.

a. Communion is truly the good news that helps remedy our loneliness and aids the Church in helping her light shine like a beacon of hope raised among the peoples (Benedict, 23).

4: Holiness: Kiddushin (Hb.) “To be set apart” or “reserved for a special purpose.” The life of a saint is married to God's will and the life of the Church. The holiness of Christ is the holiness of the Church; that is to say that the Church witnesses to the saving actions of Christ eternally in time and out of time (analogy of the rain to explain the internal nature of the Church's holiness in Christ). Consider Divine Revelation with respect to the Church's holiness.

1. Lev.19.2… “Be holy because I am holy.”

2. 1 Peter 2.9…The Church is a “holy nation …in which we belong to God.”

3. Acts 9.13; 1 Cor.6.1…Members of the Church are the “holy ones” of God.

1. Holiness is the divine life of God reproduced in the life of a saint and martyr. The people of God advancing the Kingdom of heaven by their own holiness…but it does not convert the Church…Institutions do not convert!

a. Conversion is tied to sacrifice…consider the many examples of the diverse saints and martyrs…weakness is strength!

X. The Mystical Body of Christ: Sheed notes in Theology for Beginners that “The union of Christians with Christ is no mere union of love and obedience though it is indeed that; is a living organic unity. Branches are not simply a society that the vine decides to found and take a kindly interest. The vine lives in the branches and the branches live in the vine, live with the very life of the vine…Our union with Christ is of such a sort that he lives in us, we live in him, live with is very life” (Sheed, 122).

1. Christ is the head and we are its members (Mary is the neck) constantly called to build it up (1 Cor.3.5-9). In other words of Paul: “You are Christ's body, organs of it depending upon each other” (1 Cor.12.27). Christ and his Church are not just an institution and society--it is most importantly a family (1 tim.3.15).

a. There are two orders at work: the natural and the supernatural. The natural family is a reflection of the divine family and the laws of nature must live in the theological virtues to build up the body of Christ.

b. Note that an understanding of apostolic truth comes before unity, in fact, unity is caught up in the obedience of the eternal transmission of divinely revealed truth.

1. It is in fact the Catholic Church that transcends all ethnic, cultural, and political boundaries. The thousands of other Christian denominations have no central head and differ on many core doctrines (Luther to Calvin to Zwingly)

XI. The Kingdom of God : There are many similarities here to what can be said of the visible Church, as it is the kingdom of God here on earth along with the Mystical body of Christ. Let us consider the mind of our current pope to go deeper into how the Holy Spirit accomplishes the task of making present the Kingdom, which Christ makes present. Also consult Word of the Week on House.

1. Pope Benedict XVI highlights that to better understand the Kingdom of God we must cast the light of Scripture upon it. The kingdom of God is noted 122 times in the New Testament and is at the core of the Gospel: “Repent... believe the good news, the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk.1.4-15). Gospel here in the Gk. offers us insight into the nature of what this kingdom is about (Benedict, 47).

a. Evangellion (Gk.) : just not “good news” being reported or a saving message but rather a message that enters into the world—a message that saves and transforms (Benedict, 47). There are three dimensions: Christological, mystical, and ecclesial.

1. Christological in that the Kingdom is not a representation of Christ or an idea of Christ; rather the “Kingdom is Christ, a person, it is he” (Benedict, 49).

2. The mystical Kingdom speaks of the Kingdom living in the heart, the inner being whereby God rests his will in the person's life of prayer and holiness (Benedict, 49).

3. The third dimension is that which speaks to the Church as the Kingdom of Christ made present in history in the life of the Sacraments.

a. A linguistic piece to understanding the significance to this third dimension is found in the Hebrew, whereby we read of the Kingdom being the place in which Christ operates his “regal function in his lordship of his kingdom” (Benedict, 55). God working in the temporal reality to communicate his sovereignty. (Benedict, 55).

b. Peter is the “Prime Minister” to Christ the King functioning as just not the overseer of his Kingdom but also as father (Mt.16.13-21; Is.22).

1. Consult Word of the Week on Peter.

4. The overarching truth to these three dimensions is that they interact with another ultimately drawing us back to the beginning—making the immaterial present to the material!

Homework Assignment: Reflecting upon the CCC, carefully discern in what ways Actual Grace, that gift which helps us to conform our lives to God's will, enables us to live out the Cardinal Virtues. Select one virtue to illustrate this from your personal life.