Saturday, February 20, 2016

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 122 - Part IX.




YOUCAT Question n. 122 - Part IX. Why does God want there to be a Church?


(Youcat answer - repeated) God wills the Church because he wants to redeem us, not individually, but together. He wants to make all mankind his people.     

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 772) It is in the Church that Christ fulfills and reveals his own mystery as the purpose of God's plan: "to unite all things in him" (Eph 1:10). St. Paul calls the nuptial union of Christ and the Church "a great mystery." Because she is united to Christ as to her bridegroom, she becomes a mystery in her turn (Eph 5:32; 3:9-11; 5:25-27). Contemplating this mystery in her, Paul exclaims: "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) No one gets to heaven by the asocial route. Someone who thinks only about himself and the salvation of his own soul is living a-socially. That is impossible both in heaven and on earth. God himself is not a-social; he is not a solitary, self-sufficient being. The Triune God in himself is “social”, a communion, an eternal exchange of love. Patterned after God, man also is designed for relationship, exchange, sharing, and love. We are responsible for one another.

(CCC Comment)    

(CCC 773) In the Church this communion of men with God, in the "love [that] never ends," is the purpose which governs everything in her that is a sacramental means, tied to this passing world (1 Cor 13:8; cf. LG 48). "[The Church's] structure is totally ordered to the holiness of Christ's members. And holiness is measured according to the 'great mystery' in which the Bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the Bridegroom" (John Paul II, MD 27). Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church's mystery as "the bride without spot or wrinkle" (Eph 5:27). This is why the "Marian" dimension of the Church precedes the "Petrine" (Cf. John Paul II, MD 27).         
 
(This question: Why does God want there to be a Church? is continued)

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