The Church’s Origin, Foundation, And Mission

By DON FIER

Sacred Scripture reveals a rich and diverse tapestry of images to describe the Church. Each of these symbols enables one with faith to gain additional insights into the various complementary aspects which are present in this great mystery which the Fathers of Vatican Council II refer to as the “universal sacrament of salvation” (Lumen Gentium, n. 48 § 2).
As we saw last week, these biblical images “are drawn from pastoral life (sheepfold, flock, sheep), from agriculture (field, olive grove, vineyard), from construction (dwelling place, stone, temple), and from family life (spouse, mother, family)” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 149).
New Testament symbols of the Church most often link her in some way to the image of the Body of Christ, where Christ is the Head and the faithful are members of His Body. The Old Testament, on the other hand, “favors those images which are bound to the people of God” (Compendium, n. 149), an image that is prominent in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.
The close linkage of these two images is evident, for “the laity are gathered together in the People of God and make up the Body of Christ under one head” (LG, n. 33 § 1).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) now examines the origin, foundation, and mission of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, a task it begins “by meditating on her origin in the Holy Trinity’s plan and her progressive realization in history” (CCC, n. 758). It is significant that the “Holy Trinity’s plan” is the first thing mentioned in this 12-paragraph section of the Catechism.
Pope St. John Paul II speaks profoundly of this during the course of a series of 137 catecheses that he gave on article 9 of the Creed from July 10, 1991 to August 30, 1995.
“The mystery of the Church,” says St. John Paul, “is rooted in God the Trinity, and therefore has this trinitarian dimension as its first and fundamental dimension, inasmuch as the Church depends on and lives in the Trinity from her origins to her historical conclusion and eternal destination” (general audience, October 9, 1991).
Similarly, Lumen Gentium closes the opening part of its exposition on the Church with the words: “The Church has been seen as ‘a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’ (St. Cyprian, De Oratione Dominica, n. 23)” (LG, n. 4 § 2). Indeed, as the council’s Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church teaches: “It is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she [the Church] draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father” (Ad Gentes, n. 2).
The trinitarian dimension of the Church and her mission has a clear biblical basis. The final instructions of Jesus to the apostles before returning to His Father were: “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” (Matt. 28:19). Thus, by means of the Sacrament of Baptism, all people are invited and called to enter into the mystery of the divine life of the Holy Trinity through the Church of the apostles and their successors.
Likewise, St. Paul’s final greeting in his Second Letter to the Corinthians invokes the blessing of the Most Holy Trinity: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God [the Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14).
The celebrant at the Sacred Liturgy of the Mass greets the congregation with words similar to those of St. Paul. As John Paul II explains, “It expresses the wish that Christians may all become sharers in the gifts which are ascribed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: the love of the Creator Father, the grace of the Redeemer Son, the unity in communion of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity’s bond of love, in which the Church shares.” The faithful are also sent forth after Mass with a blessing in the name of the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity.
The Catechism goes on to explain that the Father’s plan for the Church was born in His heart from all eternity. “The eternal Father,” teach the Vatican II Fathers, “by a free and hidden plan of His own wisdom and goodness, created the whole world. His plan [from all eternity] was to raise men to a participation of the divine life. . . . He planned to assemble in the holy Church all those who would believe in Christ” (LG, n. 2).
Biblical evidence of this can be seen in a Pauline text cited by St. John Paul, one that refers to the Church as part of “the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:9-11).
The Church, whose growth throughout the whole world began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, “is gradually formed and takes shape during the stages of human history, in keeping with the Father’s plan” (CCC, n. 759). In fact, “already from the beginning of the world the foreshadowing of the Church took place” (LG, n. 2).
This can be seen in God’s response to the sin of our first parents in the Garden of Eden. Rather than abandoning Adam and Eve, who rejected His love after being clothed “with resplendent grace and justice,…[the all-loving Father] buoyed them up with the hope of salvation” (CCC, nn. 54, 55).
As expressed by Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, “His promise of redemption aroused in them the hope of being saved (see Gen. 3:15) and from that time on He ceaselessly kept the human race in His care, to give eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation (see Romans 2:6-7)” (Dei Verbum, n. 3).
The Catechism makes reference at this point to a remarkable pair of texts from early in the Church’s history. Christians of the first centuries and St. Epiphanius of Salamis, a fourth-century bishop and Church Father, respectively, are cited as saying: “The world was created for the sake of the Church,” and “the Church is the goal of all things.” St. Clement of Alexandria, a Greek theologian and Church Father who died in the early third century, is also cited: “Just as God’s will is creation and is called ‘the world,’ so his intention is the salvation of men, and it is called ‘the Church’” (Paedagogus 1, 6, 27).
One can conclude that “God permitted such painful upheavals as the angels’ fall and man’s sin only as occasions and means for displaying all the power of his arm and the whole measure of the love he wanted to give the world” (CCC, n. 760).

Remote And
Immediate Preparation

Following the creation of our first parents and the fall, then, God’s preparation for the Church manifests itself in the writings of the Old Testament. In fact, as we just saw, “the gathering together of the People of God began at the moment when sin destroyed the communion of men with God, and that of men among themselves. The gathering together of the Church is, as it were, God’s reaction to the chaos provoked by sin” (CCC, n. 761).
The Church “was prepared in a remarkable way throughout the history of the people of Israel and by means of the Old Covenant” (LG, n. 2). Her remote preparation can be especially seen in the Book of Genesis when the Lord called Abraham and said: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation” (Gen. 12:1-2).
Abraham’s descendants, in the divine plan, “would be the trustees of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church. They would be the root onto which the Gentiles would be grafted, once they came to believe” (CCC, n. 60).
Later in the Old Testament, the Church’s immediate preparation “begins with Israel’s election as the People of God,…the sign of the future gathering of all nations” (CCC, n. 762). The Lord promised the Israelites that if they would obey His voice and keep His covenant, they would become “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). However, as attested to by the prophets, the people rebelled against God and broke His covenant, “behaving like a prostitute” (CCC, n. 762). As the Israelites progressively became aware of God’s plan “through the revelations of the prophets and the facts of history, the concept of the kingdom of God gradually became clearer” (John Paul II, general audience, September 4, 1991). They announced a new and eternal covenant to be instituted by Christ (cf. CCC, n. 762).

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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)