How would you teach third-graders about the Church?

In two weeks' time I will be a catechist for third-graders at my parish, St. Hedwig's in Trenton.  The curriculum for the year (using the Sadlier series) is "We are the Church".  So I get to teach these third-graders about the Catholic Church: the who, the what, the how, the why.

On the first day, I'm going to ask them a few easy questions to get their brains working: what is the Church, who started it, who belongs to it?  But then I'm going to step back and ask them a more basic question: what does the word "church" mean?

How would you talk to the third-graders about the Church?  What language would you use (or avoid)?  What points of history and theology would you make (or pass over)?  And, most importantly, how would you relate it to them so that it's not a bunch of head-knowledge, but helps them grow as individual Catholics in that Church?

Wisdom from Fr. Cantalamessa

Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her so that she would be 'without stain.'  And the Church would be without stain if we were not a part of it!  The Church would have one less wrinkle if I committed one less sin.  Martin Luther criticized Erasmus of Rotterdam for remaining in the Catholic Church despite its corruption, but Erasmus answered him: 'I put up with this Church, in the hope that one day it will become better, just as it is constrained to put up with me in the hope that one day I will become better.'

(H/T: Fr. Jay @ Young Fogeys)

Vatican II and the Church that Jesus Founded: Peter and his successors

What did Vatican II teach about the Church which Jesus Christ founded? This series is meant to show what elements of the Church Vatican II teaches as being ordained by God rather than invented by man. This installment looks at the Petrine office: the Pope.


Peter was specially chosen by Christ
"This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as 'the pillar and mainstay of the truth'." (Lumen Gentium 8)

"And in order that the episcopate itself might be one and undivided, [Jesus Christ] placed Blessed Peter over the other apostles, and instituted in him a permanent and visible source and foundation of unity of faith and communion." (Lumen Gentium 18)

"[T]hese apostles [Jesus Christ] formed after the manner of a college or a stable group, over which He placed Peter chosen from among them." (Lumen Gentium 19)

"In order to establish this His holy Church everywhere in the world till the end of time, Christ entrusted to the College of the Twelve the task of teaching, ruling and sanctifying. Among their number He selected Peter, and after his confession of faith determined that on him He would build His Church." (Unitatis Redintegratio 2)


Peter's office is permanent
"And just as the office granted individually to Peter, the first among the apostles, is permanent and is to be transmitted to his successors, so also the apostles' office of nurturing the Church is permanent, and is to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of bishops." (Lumen Gentium 20)


Peter's office enjoys a certain infallibility
"And this infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine of faith and morals, extends as far as the deposit of Revelation extends, which must be religiously guarded and faithfully expounded. And this is the infallibility which the Roman Pontiff, the head of the college of bishops, enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith, by a definitive act he proclaims a doctrine of faith or morals. And therefore his definitions, of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, are justly styled irreformable, since they are pronounced with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, promised to him in blessed Peter, and therefore they need no approval of others, nor do they allow an appeal to any other judgment." (Lumen Gentium 25)


Peter and his successors have primacy over the whole Church
"In this Church of Christ the Roman pontiff, as the successor of Peter, to whom Christ entrusted the feeding of His sheep and lambs, enjoys supreme, full, immediate, and universal authority over the care of souls by divine institution." (Christus Dominus 2)

"This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him..." (Lumen Gentium 8)

"And in order that the episcopate itself might be one and undivided, He placed Blessed Peter over the other apostles, and instituted in him a permanent and visible source and foundation of unity of faith and communion." (Lumen Gentium 18)

"[T]hese apostles [Jesus Christ] formed after the manner of a college or a stable group, over which He placed Peter chosen from among them. " (Lumen Gentium 19)

"For our Lord placed Simon alone as the rock and the bearer of the keys of the Church, and made him shepherd of the whole flock; it is evident, however, that the power of binding and loosing, which was given to Peter, was granted also to the college of apostles, joined with their head." (Lumen Gentium 22)

"These individual Churches, whether of the East or the West, although they differ somewhat among themselves in rite (to use the current phrase), that is, in liturgy, ecclesiastical discipline, and spiritual heritage, are, nevertheless, each as much as the others, entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman Pontiff, the divinely appointed successor of St. Peter in primacy over the universal Church." (Orientalium Ecclesiarum 3)

"Jesus Christ, then, willed that the apostles and their successors — the bishops with Peter's successor at their head — should preach the Gospel faithfully, administer the sacraments, and rule the Church in love." (Unitatis Redintegratio 2)

"We believe that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, in order to establish the one Body of Christ on earth to which all should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God." (Unitatis Redintegratio 3)

"All bishops, as members of the body of bishops succeeding to the College of Apostles, are consecrated not just for some one diocese, but or the salvation of the entire world. The mandate of Christ to preach the Gospel to every creature primarily and immediately concerns them, with Peter and under Peter." (Ad Gentes 38)

Vatican II and the Church that Jesus Founded: Marriage

What did Vatican II teach about the Church which Jesus Christ founded? This series is meant to show what elements of the Church Vatican II teaches as being ordained by God rather than invented by man. This installment looks at marriage as both an institution and a sacrament.


Marriage was established by God
"The intimate partnership of married life and love has been established by the Creator and qualified by His laws, and is rooted in the [con]jugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent. ... For, God Himself is the author of matrimony, endowed as it is with various benefits and purposes." (Gaudium et Spes 48)

"Firmly established by the Lord, the unity of marriage will radiate from the equal personal dignity of wife and husband, a dignity acknowledged by mutual and total love." (Gaudium et Spes 49)


Marriage was ordered to the begetting of children
"By their very nature, the institution of matrimony itself and conjugal love are ordained for the procreation and education of children, and find in them their ultimate crown." (Gaudium et Spes 48)

"Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the begetting and educating of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of their parents." (Gaudium et Spes 50)


Marriage is not only ordered to the begetting of children
"Marriage to be sure is not instituted solely for procreation; rather, its very nature as an unbreakable compact between persons, and the welfare of the children, both demand that the mutual love of the spouses be embodied in a rightly ordered manner, that it grow and ripen. Therefore, marriage persists as a whole manner and communion of life, and maintains its value and indissolubility, even when despite the often intense desire of the couple, offspring are lacking." (Gaudium et Spes 50)


Marriage is the conjugal union of one man and one woman
"Thus a man and a woman, who by their compact of conjugal love "are no longer two, but one flesh" (Matt. 19:ff), render mutual help and service to each other through an intimate union of their persons and of their actions." (Gaudium et Spes 48)


Marriage is an irrevocable (i.e. permanent) bond
"The intimate partnership of married life and love has been established by the Creator and qualified by His laws, and is rooted in the [con]jugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent. Hence by that human act whereby spouses mutually bestow and accept each other a relationship arises which by divine will and in the eyes of society too is a lasting one." (Gaudium et Spes 48)


Marriage is a sign of the relationship between Christ and his Church
"Christ the Lord abundantly blessed this many-faceted love, welling up as it does from the fountain of divine love and structured as it is on the model of His union with His Church." (Gaudium et Spes 48; cf. Eph. 5:21-33)


Marriage is governed by Christ and his Church
"Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is governed and enriched by Christ's redeeming power and the saving activity of the Church, so that this love may lead the spouses to God with powerful effect and may aid and strengthen them in sublime office of being a father or a mother. For this reason Christian spouses have a special sacrament by which they are fortified and receive a kind of consecration in the duties and dignity of their state." (Gaudium et Spes 48)

Vatican II and the Church that Jesus Founded: The Ministerial Priesthood

What did Vatican II teach about the Church which Jesus Christ founded? This series is meant to show what elements of the Church Vatican II teaches as being ordained by God rather than invented by man. This installment looks at the ministerial priesthood.


The office of Bishop was ordained by God
"For the nurturing and constant growth of the People of God, Christ the Lord instituted in His Church a variety of ministries, which work for the good of the whole body. For those ministers, who are endowed with sacred power, serve their brethren, so that all who are of the People of God, and therefore enjoy a true Christian dignity, working toward a common goal freely and in an orderly way, may arrive at salvation. This Sacred Council, following closely in the footsteps of the First Vatican Council, with that Council teaches and declares that Jesus Christ, the eternal Shepherd, established His holy Church, having sent forth the apostles as He Himself had been sent by the Father; and He willed that their successors, namely the bishops, should be shepherds in His Church even to the consummation of the world." (Lumen Gentium 18)

"Christ, whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, has through His apostles, made their successors, the bishops, partakers of His consecration and His mission. They have legitimately handed on to different individuals in the Church various degrees of participation in this ministry. Thus the divinely established ecclesiastical ministry is exercised on different levels by those who from antiquity have been called bishops, priests and deacons." (Lumen Gentium 28)

"Since the apostolic office of bishops was instituted by Christ the Lord and pursues a spiritual and supernatural purpose, this sacred ecumenical synod declares that the right of nominating and appointing bishops belongs properly, peculiarly, and per se exclusively to the competent ecclesiastical authority." (Christus Dominus 20)


The office of Priest was ordained by God
"Thus the divinely established ecclesiastical ministry is exercised on different levels by those who from antiquity have been called bishops, priests and deacons." (Lumen Gentium 28)

"The same Lord, however, has established ministers among his faithful to unite them together in one body in which, 'not all the members have the same function'. ... Christ, through the apostles themselves, made their successors, the bishops, sharers in his consecration and mission. The office of their ministry has been handed down, in a lesser degree indeed, to the priests. Established in the order of the priesthood they can be co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission entrusted to priests by Christ." (Presbyterorum Ordinis 2)

"God, who alone is holy and who alone bestows holiness, willed to take as his companions and helpers men who would humbly dedicate themselves to the work of sanctification. Hence, through the ministry of the bishop, God consecrates priests, that being made sharers by special title in the priesthood of Christ, they might act as his ministers in performing sacred functions." (Presbyterorum Ordinis 5)


The office of Deacon was ordained by God
"For the nurturing and constant growth of the People of God, Christ the Lord instituted in His Church a variety of ministries, which work for the good of the whole body. For those ministers, who are endowed with sacred power, serve their brethren, so that all who are of the People of God, and therefore enjoy a true Christian dignity, working toward a common goal freely and in an orderly way, may arrive at salvation." (Lumen Gentium 18)

"Thus the divinely established ecclesiastical ministry is exercised on different levels by those who from antiquity have been called bishops, priests and deacons." (Lumen Gentium 28)


Men are called to the Priesthood by God
"The effective union of the whole people of God in fostering vocations is the proper response to the action of Divine Providence which confers the fitting gifts on those men divinely chosen to participate in the hierarchical priesthood of Christ and helps them by His grace." (Optatam Totius 2)

Vatican II and the Church that Jesus Founded: Hierarchical Government

What did Vatican II teach about the Church which Jesus Christ founded? This series is meant to show what elements of the Church Vatican II teaches as being ordained by God rather than invented by man. This installment looks at the hierarchical governing of the Church by bishops and priests, led by the Pope.


Christ established his Church to have a visible hierarchical structure
"Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated truth and grace to all. But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, are not to be considered as two realities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things; rather they form one complex reality which coalesces from a divine and a human element. For this reason, by no weak analogy, it is compared to the mystery of the incarnate Word. As the assumed nature inseparably united to Him, serves the divine Word as a living organ of salvation, so, in a similar way, does the visible social structure of the Church serve the Spirit of Christ, who vivifies it, in the building up of the body." (Lumen Gentium 8)


Christ established Bishops as shepherds and rulers in the Church
"For the nurturing and constant growth of the People of God, Christ the Lord instituted in His Church a variety of ministries, which work for the good of the whole body. For those ministers, who are endowed with sacred power, serve their brethren ... Jesus Christ, the eternal Shepherd, established His holy Church, having sent forth the apostles as He Himself had been sent by the Father; and He willed that their successors, namely the bishops, should be shepherds in His Church even to the consummation of the world." (Lumen Gentium 18)

"[T]he apostles, appointed as rulers in this society, took care to appoint successors." (Lumen Gentium 20)

"[T]he Holy Spirit unfailingly preserves the form of government established by Christ the Lord in His Church." (Lumen Gentium 27)

"In order to establish this His holy Church everywhere in the world till the end of time, Christ entrusted to the College of the Twelve the task of teaching, ruling and sanctifying." (Unitatis Redintegratio 2)

"Jesus Christ, then, willed that the apostles and their successors — the bishops with Peter's successor at their head — should preach the Gospel faithfully, administer the sacraments, and rule the Church in love." (Unitatis Redintegratio 2)

"In exercising their office of father and pastor, bishops should stand in the midst of their people as those who serve. Let them be good shepherds who know their sheep and whose sheep know them. Let them be true fathers who excel in the spirit of love and solicitude for all and to whose divinely conferred authority all gratefully submit themselves." (Christus Dominus 16)


Christ ordained the primacy of the Roman Pontiff
"And in order that the episcopate itself might be one and undivided, He placed Blessed Peter over the other apostles, and instituted in him a permanent and visible source and foundation of unity of faith and communion. And all this teaching about the institution, the perpetuity, the meaning and reason for the sacred primacy of the Roman Pontiff and of his infallible magisterium, this Sacred Council again proposes to be firmly believed by all the faithful." (Lumen Gentium 18)

"And the apostles, by preaching the Gospel everywhere, and it being accepted by their hearers under the influence of the Holy Spirit, gather together the universal Church, which the Lord established on the apostles and built upon blessed Peter, their chief, Christ Jesus Himself being the supreme cornerstone." (Lumen Gentium 19)

"These individual Churches, whether of the East or the West , although they differ somewhat among themselves ... in liturgy, ecclesiastical discipline, and spiritual heritage, are, nevertheless, each as much as the others, entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman Pontiff, the divinely appointed successor of St. Peter in primacy over the universal Church." (Orientalium Ecclesiarum 3)

"Among [the Twelve] He selected Peter, and after his confession of faith determined that on him He would build His Church. Also to Peter He promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and after His profession of love, entrusted all His sheep to him to be confirmed in faith and shepherded in perfect unity. Christ Jesus Himself was forever to remain the chief cornerstone and shepherd of our souls." (Unitatis Redintegratio 2)

"Jesus Christ, then, willed that the apostles and their successors — the bishops with Peter's successor at their head — should preach the Gospel faithfully, administer the sacraments, and rule the Church in love." (Unitatis Redintegratio 2)

"We believe that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, in order to establish the one Body of Christ on earth to which all should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God." (Unitatis Redintegratio 3)

"In this Church of Christ the Roman pontiff, as the successor of Peter, to whom Christ entrusted the feeding of His sheep and lambs, enjoys supreme, full, immediate, and universal authority over the care of souls by divine institution." (Christus Dominus 2)

Vatican II and the Church that Jesus Founded

I want to shed some light on what Vatican II taught about the Church which Jesus Christ founded. Did Vatican II teach that the Church of Christ has a hierarchy? Sacraments? Liturgy? A visible structure?

To answer these questions, I'll be providing quotes from the documents themselves which describe the elements of the Church which the Council described as being endowed, entrusted, established, instituted, mandated, or willed (or other such word) by God.

I'll start the series sometime later today.

A thought on Christ's Universal Kingship

I recently read Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quas Primas which established the Feast of the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ. The feast changed location after the Vatican Council II, and the focus changed noticeably, as Father Z pointed out a couple of weeks ago. However, our faith in the universal kingship of Jesus Christ cannot change due to the fact that his kingship simply doesn't manifest itself clearly or fully in our modern world. This kingship is not just personal and spiritual (i.e. confined to an individual's relationship to him through his Church), but it is a social kingship as well. Pope Pius XI made that very clear in his encyclical, and the Catechism still affirms it: "Thus, the Church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies." (CCC 2105)

Christ's universal kingship has two implications: 1) his kingdom is open to all, and 2) all people are subject to him. The first is obvious, the second might not be, but it is just as true: every person is subject to (and a subject of) the Lord Jesus Christ who is King. It is because of this that his kingdom is open to all. What strikes me as interesting is that every person (whether or not they accept Christ) is currently -- i.e., in this present life -- "in" the kingdom: no one is banished from the kingdom in this life (because there is always a chance to repent).

Thus, each person is connected to Jesus Christ, whether through his Church or not, and this because through the Gospel we are taught that in ministering to any person in their need, we are in fact ministering to Christ; thus, as the Catechism explains, even those "who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways" (CCC 839, cf. Lumen Gentium 16). This means that Christ, as the benevolent king he is, relates to every single one of his subjects because he shares our common human nature (although in perfection), and so we encounter Christ in each and every person we minister to, regardless of whether they believe in him.

This does not mean that this simplest connection to Jesus Christ, this minimal relation to the People of God, is sufficient. If if were, Christ would not have charged his Church with preaching the Gospel to all nations and baptizing new members. It does mean that God has prepared all people (cf. CCC 843)for the reception of the Gospel, the "manifesto" as it were of our Lord and King.

Kansas City Bishop on the "Church Militant"

Quote His Excellency Most Rev. Robert Finn, Bishop of Kansas City, MO:

The month of November begins with the two great celebrations: All Saints day (November 1) and the Commemoration of All Souls (November 2). These feasts celebrate our communion with the "Church triumphant" in heaven, and the "Church suffering" in purgatory. Today I would like to share a few brief comments about what we have sometimes called the "Church militant," the Church here on earth. (Source)

[H/T: Fr. Z]

Pope Paul VI - An enigmatic figure

I am continually surprised by Pope Paul VI. On the one hand, he authored encyclicals like Humanae Vitae and Mysterium Fidei, and preached about the Church's understanding of the Nicene Creed (in the speech Solemnia hac liturgia, on the "Credo of the People of God"). On the other hand, he was responsible -- directly or indirectly -- for some of disappointing liturgical changes that took place following the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

For instance, whereas the bishops of the Council affirmed that "the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites" (n. 36/1) and that "steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them" (n. 54) and that "Gregorian chant ... should be given pride of place in liturgical services" (n. 116), five years later Pope Paul VI lamented the loss of Latin (and subsequently Gregorian chant) as practically necessary sacrifices of the liturgical reform:

It is here that the greatest newness is going to be noticed, the newness of language. No longer Latin, but the spoken language will be the principal language of the Mass. The introduction of the vernacular will certainly be a great sacrifice for those who know the beauty, the power and the expressive sacrality of Latin. We are parting with the speech of the Christian centuries; we are becoming like profane intruders in the literary preserve of sacred utterance. We will lose a great part of that stupendous and incomparable artistic and spiritual thing, the Gregorian chant.

We have reason indeed for regret, reason almost for bewilderment. What can we put in the place of that language of the angels? We are giving up something of priceless worth. But why? What is more precious than these loftiest of our Church's values?

[...]

But, let us bear this well in mind, for our counsel and our comfort: the Latin language will not thereby disappear. It will continue to be the noble language of the Holy See's official acts; it will remain as the means of teaching in ecclesiastical studies and as the key to the patrimony of our religious, historical and human culture. If possible, it will reflourish in splendor.

In an effort to reverse the immediate and regrettable obliteration of Latin from the Mass, he presented a gift to the bishops of the Church in 1974 (less than five years since the promulgation of the Pauline Rite): a booklet of a minimum repertoire of Gregorian chant for the faithful to be familiar with, Jubilate Deo. One wonders to whom the bishops "re-gifted" this booklet; it does not appear to have been received well (if at all). His hope that Latin would "reflourish in splendor" did not come to pass within his lifetime.

Anyway, this brings me to the latest gift/surprise from Pope Paul VI: his first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam, promulgated in the midst of the Council (in August of 1964, three months before the promulgation of Lumen Gentium, the Council's Constitution on the Church). The topic is the Church. I've only just started reading it (not like I don't have a hundred other things on my reading list) and already I can tell it will not be a disappointing read.

Pagan Christianity: Preface

(This is the first in a series on the book "Pagan Christianity" by Frank Viola and George Barna. I quote the encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi (1943) of Pope Pius XII a fair amount here, and I expect I will quote it throughout the rest of the series.)

The book's preface presents the current state of Christianity as that of Judaism in the time of Christ: it suffers from additions (like the Pharisees added to Scripture) and subtractions (like the Sadducees removed from Scripture) that cloud and obscure the proper head-ship of Jesus Christ in His body, the Church. Could it be that the majority of practices in our Christian life come, not from the New Testament, but instead from "a pagan philosopher"? (p. xviii) The authors state that Jesus gave birth to the Church, the "body of Christ" in a post-resurrection world, by his Ascension: "That church was Himself in a different form." (ibid.) Catholics would agree: "the Mystical Body of Christ ... is the Church" (Mystici Corporis Christi [MCC], n. 1; cf. Col 1:24).

But the authors disagree that the Church is both "a spiritual organism" and "an institutional organization" (ibid., footnote 4), where as the Catholic Church recognizes both the spiritual (invisible) and institutional (visible) natures of the Church, just as Jesus himself had both a divine and a human nature:

On the contrary, as Christ, Head and Exemplar of the Church "is not complete, if only His visible human nature is considered..., or if only His divine, invisible nature..., but He is one through the union of both and one in both ... so is it with His Mystical Body" {Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum} since the Word of God took unto Himself a human nature liable to sufferings, so that He might consecrate in His blood the visible Society founded by Him and "lead man back to things invisible under a visible rule." {St. Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate, q. 29, a. 4, ad 9} (MCC, n. 64)

Abc... The authors call the first-century Church "an organic entity ... a living, breathing organism" that "revealed Jesus Christ on this planet through His every-member functioning body". (p. xix) Of course the Catholic Church agrees with St. Paul on this, and believes the same thing even today:

Again, as in nature a body is not formed by any haphazard grouping of members but must be constituted of organs, that is of members, that have not the same function and are arranged in due order; so for this reason above all the Church is called a body, that it is constituted by the coalescence of structurally untied parts, and that it has a variety of members reciprocally dependent. It is thus the Apostle describes the Church when he writes: "As in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office: so we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another." {Rom 12:4}

One must not think, however, that this 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 it is composed only of those who enjoy charismatic gifts - though members gifted with miraculous powers will never be lacking in the Church. That those who exercise sacred power in this Body are its chief members must be maintained uncompromisingly. It is through them, by commission of the Divine Redeemer Himself, that Christ's apostolate as Teacher, King and Priest is to endure. At the same time, when the Fathers of the Church sing the praises of this Mystical Body of Christ, with its ministries, its variety of ranks, its officers, it conditions, its orders, its duties, they are thinking not only of those who have received Holy Orders, but of all those too, who, following the evangelical counsels, pass their lives either actively among men, or hidden in the silence of the cloister, or who aim at combining the active and contemplative life according to their Institute; as also of those who, though living in the world, consecrate themselves wholeheartedly to spiritual or corporal works of mercy, and of those in the state of holy matrimony. Indeed, let this be clearly understood, especially in our days, fathers and mothers of families, those who are godparents through Baptism, and in particular those members of the laity who collaborate with the ecclesiastical hierarchy in spreading the Kingdom of the Divine Redeemer occupy an honorable, if often a lowly, place in the Christian community, and even they under the impulse of God and with His help, can reach the heights of supreme holiness, which, Jesus Christ has promised, will never be wanting to the Church. (MCC, nn. 16-17)

The authors then go on to "argue that on theological grounds, historical grounds, and pragmatic grounds, the first-century church best represents the dream of God" (p. xix); but this seems to preclude the idea that an organic Church could mature, could "grow up" as it were: changing from the model of the first-century Church is generally bad. They describe "an organic church [as] a church that is born out of spiritual life ... characterized by Spirit-led, open-participatory meetings and nonhierarchical leadership" (ibid.), which I think is neglecting some New Testament witness (but I'll touch on the specifics as I comment on each chapter). It also neglects the fact that Israel's worship developed (under the direction of God) over time, from Abraham to Moses to David and Solomon to Ezra (although the authors disapprove of the Temple, as I'll cover later).

The core mission of this book is to "remove a great deal of debris in order to make room for the Lord Jesus Christ to be the fully functioning head of His church", where "debris" means those practices which are "foreign elements that God's people picked up from their pagan neighbors as far back as the fourth century". (p. xx) Here is what Pope Pius XII wrote about the functioning of Jesus Christ as the Head of the Church:

But we must not think that He rules only in a hidden {cf. Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum} or extraordinary manner. On the contrary, our Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on earth. You know, Venerable Brethren, that after He had ruled the "little flock" {Luke 12:32} Himself during His mortal pilgrimage, Christ our Lord, when about to leave this world and return to the Father, entrusted to the Chief of the Apostles the visible government of the entire community He had founded. Since He was all wise He could not leave the body of the Church He had founded as a human society without a visible head. Nor against this may one argue that the primacy of jurisdiction established in the Church gives such a Mystical Body two heads. For Peter in view of his primacy is only Christ's Vicar; so that there is only one chief Head of this Body, namely Christ, who never ceases Himself to guide the Church invisibly, though at the same time He rules it visibly, through him who is His representative on earth. After His glorious Ascension into Heaven this Church rested not on Him alone, but on Peter, too, its visible foundation stone. (MMC, n. 40)

Church: Jesus inseparable from the Church

I found a great post by Brian Cross on the blog Principium Unitatis through my friend the Tiber Jumper. The post is titled "Church and Jesus Are Inseparable, Says Pope Benedict". It refers to an article in Zenit (from nearly two years ago) where the Pope explained that "Between Christ and the Church there is no opposition: They are inseparable, despite the sins of the people who make up the Church. ... Therefore, there is no way to reconcile Christ's intentions with the slogan that was fashionable a few years ago, 'Christ yes, the Church no'."

Here's a brief excerpt from Bryan's essay (emphasis mine):

In dialoguing with a person who holds a gnostic conception of the Church, we have to show that Christ founded a visible Church. We can do this by showing that schism is impossible if the Church is not visible, and yet schism is clearly forbidden in Scripture -- cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10. Scripture also enjoins unity among Christians; that would be nonsensical if ecclesial unity were complete merely by all Christians being Christian. (Those holding a gnostic conception of the Church typically have no conception of schism, or any way of showing whether they are or are not in schism.) We can also point to Scripture passages that show the importance of church discipline (e.g. St. Matthew 18:15ff), and obedience to ecclesial authority (e.g. Hebrews 13:17). Those two things do not fit into the gnostic conception of the Church. We can also show that the Church is a living body, and that bodies are material, not invisible.

...

Those persons who agree that Christ founded a visible Church, but deny that any present institution is it, are by that denial saying that the Church which Christ founded ceased to exist, and that Christ's promise regarding the indefectibility of the Church was false. Those persons who agree that Christ founded a visible Church, but deny that apostolicity is through sacramental succession from the Apostles, have not fully removed the gnosticism of early Protestantism from their theology.

I'm going to print out this essay (along with the article from This Rock that he linked to) and read them more closely. If I read something interesting online, often I'll print it out, read it again, highlighting things of interest, and filing it away in a folder on my desk (as opposed to a folder on my desktop... this is paper I'm talking about). I like that better than merely saving a digital copy in Word with highlighted portions.

I'm reading Mystici Corporis Christi right now, in which Pope Pius XII talks about the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ (the Church), and identifies some errors and misconceptions about it. Bryan's essay (and the article from This Rock) seem to be good companions to this encyclical. I'll write about it soon!

Postscript: Bryan also has a more recent post/essay on "The Incarnation and Church Unity". It's also very much worth reading!
Post-postscript: Here's the set of documents I ended up putting together in one Word document (87 K, 13pp) printing out to read:

• Is the Church Visible or Invisible? (John J. Moran for This Rock)
• Church and Jesus Are Inseparable, Says Pope (ZENIT)
• Apostolicity (Bryan Cross)
• Sacramental Apostolic Succession and Ecumenical Unity (Bryan Cross at Principium Unitatis)
• Apostolicity in Acts 15 (Bryan Cross at Principium Unitatis)
• The Incarnation and Church Unity (Bryan Cross at Principium Unitatis)
• Church and Jesus Are Inseparable, Says Pope (Bryan Cross at Principium Unitatis)