THE CHURCH - IX

BOTH-AND
The Second Vatican Council teaches, "By her relationship with Christ, the Church is a kind of sacrament of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind, that is, she is a sign and an instrument of such union and unity." A sacrament, we know, is first of all "an outward sign" indicating and causing spiritual and invisible reality. As an outward sign then, the Catholic Church which Jesus founded certainly has an aspect that is perceptible to the senses, while yet "signifying" interior and spiritual things.

Pope Leo XIII proclaimed what Catholic doctrine has always said, namely, "It is an aberration from divine truth to represent the Church as something only intangible and invisible, as a mere pneumatic entity joining together by an invisible link a number of communities of Christians despite their differences in faith."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "The Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is only with the eyes of faith that one can see her in her visible reality and at the same time in her spiritual reality as the bearer of divine life." The Second Vatican Council notes, "The Church is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world, but as a pilgrim, and so constituted that in her the human is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city that is yet to come, the object of our quest. (Hebrews 13:14)."

SACRAMENT
We are instructed by the Catechism: "The Greek word "mysterion" was translated into Latin by two terms, mystery and sacrament. In later usage the term sacrament emphasizes the visible sign of the hidden reality of salvation which was indicated by the word mystery. In this sense Christ Himself is the Mystery of salvation, for there is no other Mystery of God except Christ, said Saint Augustine. The saving work of Christ's holy and sanctifying humanity is the sacrament of salvation, which is revealed and active in the Church's sacraments, which in the Eastern Rites are also called the holy mysteries. The seven sacraments are the signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ, the Head, throughout the Church, Which is His Body. The Church then both contains and communicates the invisible grace that she signifies. It is in this analogical sense that the Church is called a sacrament."

As a sacrament, the Catholic Church "is Christ's instrument. She is taken up by Him also as the instrument for the salvation of all, the universal sacrament of salvation by which Christ is at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God's love for men. The Church is the visible plan of God's love for humanity, because God desires that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one Temple of the Holy Spirit."

PROJECTING CHRIST
The twofold reality of the Church, this-worldly and other-worldly, institutional and mystical, charismatic and hierarchical, spiritual and authoritative, holy but composed of sinners, must never be dissociated in our hearts and thoughts. Whenever in history such dissociation between the visible and invisible has occurred, inevitably schism, heresy, and spiritual anarchy followed, to the detriment of the eternal salvation of many souls.

The Catholic Church extends Jesus and His salvation down the centuries until He comes again in glory. Like her Master and Founder, she participates in the incarnational economy or divine plan for human redemption. When Christ walked on earth as a carpenter and chose to be supposed to be a carpenter's son, there was in Him much of what was unseen, namely, His human soul and His divine Nature and divine Personhood, while there also was that which was "perceptible to the senses", His human Body, His words, gestures, actions, etc. So the Church is a social reality, a visible and highly organized community, much of whose organization is unchangeable because it derives directly from and by the will of Jesus and from the continuous action of the Holy Spirit. However, at the same time the Church is profoundly spiritual, much more than anything that can be perceived or measured by any physical or material system or means.

Pope John Paul II notes that "the Holy Spirit's action in the Church, beginning with the day of Pentecost, is an interior saving work which is also expressed externally in the birth of a community which is the institution of salvation."

DICHOTOMIES
Pope Pius XII remarked, "One must not think that the ordered or organic structure of the Body of the Church contains only hierarchical elements and with them is complete, or, as an opposite opinion holds, that she is composed only of those who enjoy charismatic gifts....It is certainly true that those who hold sacred power in this Body are her first and chief members. It is through them, in accordance with the plan of the divine Redeemer Himself, that Christ's functions as Teacher, King, and Priest endure forever. However, when the Fathers of the Church mention the ministries of this Body, their grades, professions, states, orders, and offices, they rightly have in mind not only persons in sacred Orders, but also all of those who have embraced the evangelical counsels and lead either an active life among men or a hidden life in the cloister or else contrive to combine the two, and those also who, though living in the world, actively devote themselves to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, as well as those persons joined in chaste wedlock."

Our present Holy Father said, "The Church, a priestly, sacramental, and prophetic community, was instituted by Jesus Christ as a structured, hierarchical, and ministerial society, to provide pastoral governance for the continual formation and growth of the community." The Catechism says, "The Church is both visible and spiritual, a hierarchical society and the Mystical Body of Christ. She is one, yet formed of two components, human and divine. That is her mystery, which only faith can accept."