God, Man & The Church
We are blessed to belong to the Church that God created at the beginning of time; the Church Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted himself 2,000 years ago. God created his Church to share the truth of his love and his will for us which is found in Jesus Christ Our Lord. Jesus Christ is the truth at the heart and the head of the Church and he is God’s merciful response to man’s need for salvation and redemption.
Man was created of God’s own holiness for holiness.
Before time even began, there was God and the mystery of God’s power, benevolence and divinity. He spoke the universe into existence and breathe divine life into man (Genesis 1-2). Out of his infinite love God created man in his image and man was able to “taste God’s eternal goodness” (St. Catherine of Siena). God created man in his own image, to be holy as he is holy (Catechism 374). Man was created man in an original state of holiness and justice and was in perfect communion with God and all his creation (Catechism 375). Man was imbued with sanctifying grace and free will. God granted man the preternatural gifts of impassibility (freedom from pain), immortality (freedom from death), integrity (freedom from concupiscence, or disordered desires), and infused knowledge (freedom from ignorance in matters essential for happiness).
Man rebelled against God when he rejected God’s divine life.
Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight." Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods," knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to contempt of God." In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation (Catechism 1850).
The struggle of man is against the sin of self.
Disfigured by sin and death, man remains "in the image of God," in the image of the Son, but is deprived "of the glory of God," of his "likeness." The promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that "image" and restore it in the Father's "likeness" by giving it again its Glory, the Spirit who is "the giver of life." (Catechism 705)
God created his Church to return man to God through the sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Church was created as part of God’s merciful plan of salvation and it is the Church that calls all men to God through Christ by The Holy Spirit. The communion of the Holy Spirit in the Church restores to the baptized the divine likeness lost through sin (Catechism 734).
The Catholic Church is the Body of Christ
The Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the family of believers who are baptized in the Church, who profess the faith of Christ, and who are governed by their bishops under the Pope, the Bishop of Rome (Fr. WG Most). The Church is the body, its members, its faith, its doctrine and its liturgy; and Christ is at the head. It is a beautiful way to describe the intimate bond between Christ and the members of His Church. As her head, He loves and gives himself up for her; He nourishes and tenderly cares for her (cf. Eph 5:22-30). His members are “in Him” and He is “in them” (Gal 2:20); they are baptized “into Him” (1 Cor 12:13). They suffer “with Him”, so that they may also be glorified “with Him” (Rom 8:17). He is the source of authority, which the whole body must honour and obey (cf. Col 2:10).
The Catholic Church is the “pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15)
The Church receives divine revelation (all truth) from God. Christ commanded that the Church, through its apostles, announce the saving truth to all the world (Catechism 2032). The Church works in communion with all the baptized to fulfill the vocation of all its members. She confers to all her Christian members the Word of God containing the teachings of "the law of Christ, the grace of the sacraments that sustains them on their path to sanctity, and the example of holiness which the Church recognizes as its model and source the Holy Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary as Mother of Christ and Spouse of The Holy Spirit holds a special place in God’s salvation plan and therefore in the mystery of the Church. Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church (Catechism 963).
The Magisterial Authority of the Catholic Church
"The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ."47 This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome (Catechism 85).
