Lesson 8 - The Catholic Church

(Lesson 8)

The Catholic Church

“… The church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” 1 Tim 3:15

Discussion Guide:

The word Church refers to a parish, diocese, universal church, liturgical gathering, or witnessing community as well as the actual church building. The Church is the work of the Trinity. The Father called it into being. The Son founded the Church. The Holy Spirit inspires and sustains the Church. The word Church comes from the Hebrew word qahal, which means a “called community”. It is therefore a divine institution and is not a man-made creation. Its teachings come from God and are not subject to popular vote or societal trends. The Catholic Church must faithfully hand on the deposit of faith that was entrusted to the apostles by Jesus Christ.

The Nicene Creed states: “We believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church”. These are called the four marks of the Church and they distinguish the Catholic Church from all others. We know that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ because no other church has these marks. The Church is a visible community of believers who share the same faith, hierarchy, and sacraments. Jesus Christ is the head, and the members of the Church are his body. Jesus will be with his Church until the end of time. (Matt 28:20)

Discussion Points:

· The Church is a Divine institution and is not man-made

· There are four distinguishing marks of the Catholic Church: One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic

· We belong to “The Mystical Body of Christ” and should function as a united and close-knit community. We are obligated to care of those who are in the Church and people who are outside of the Church.

· There are some similarities and some differences between Catholic and Protestant beliefs.

· It makes a great deal of difference to belong to the Catholic Church. (Valid sacraments, apostolic succession, fullness of the faith)

· The teaching office of the Church is called the Magesterium. It teaches without error in matters of faith and morals.

· The Precepts of the Church should be followed by all members

Mystici Corporis Christi

Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on the Mystical Body of Christ

13. If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ - which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church - we shall find nothing more noble, more sublime, or more divine than the expression "the Mystical Body of Christ" - an expression which springs from and is, as it were, the fair flowering of the repeated teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Fathers.

14. That the Church is a body is frequently asserted in the Sacred Scriptures. "Christ," says the Apostle, "is the Head of the Body of the Church."[13] If the Church is a body, it must be an unbroken unity, according to those words of Paul: "Though many we are one body in Christ."[14] But it is not enough that the Body of the Church should be an unbroken unity; it must also be something definite and perceptible to the senses as Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, in his Encyclical Satis Cognitum asserts: "the Church is visible because she is a body. Hence they err in a matter of divine truth, who imagine the Church to be invisible, intangible, a something merely "pneumatological" as they say, by which many Christian communities, though they differ from each other in their profession of faith, are untied by an invisible bond.

15. But a body calls also for a multiplicity of members, which are linked together in such a way as to help one another. And as in the body when one member suffers, all the other members share its pain, and the healthy members come to the assistance of the ailing, so in the Church the individual members do not live for themselves alone, but also help their fellows, and all work in mutual collaboration for the common comfort and for the more perfect building up of the whole Body.

18. Now we see that the human body is given the proper means to provide for its own life, health and growth, and for that of all its members. Similarly, the Savior of mankind out of His infinite goodness has provided in a wonderful way for His Mystical Body, endowing it with the Sacraments, so that, as though by an uninterrupted series of graces, its members should be sustained from birth to death, and that generous provision might be made for the social needs of the Church. Through the waters of Baptism those who are born into this world dead in sin are not only born again and made members of the Church, but being stamped with a spiritual seal they become able and fit to receive the other Sacraments. By the chrism of Confirmation, the faithful are given added strength to protect and defend the Church, their Mother, and the faith she has given them. In the Sacrament of Penance a saving medicine is offered for the members of the Church who have fallen into sin, not only to provide for their own health, but to remove from other members of the Mystical Body all danger of contagion, or rather to afford them an incentive to virtue, and the example of a virtuous act.

24. Let every one then abhor sin, which defiles the mystical members of our Redeemer; but if anyone unhappily falls and his obstinacy has not made him unworthy of communion with the faithful, let him be received with great love, and let eager charity see in him a weak member of Jesus Christ. For, as the Bishop of Hippo remarks, it is better "to be cured within the Church's community than to be cut off from its body as incurable members." "As long as a member still forms part of the body there is no reason to despair of its cure; once it has been cut off, it can be neither cured nor healed."

The Catholic Church

“… The church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” 1 Tim 3:15

Opening Prayer:

Dear God, we thank You for the gift of our Church and the fellowship of our community. Fill us with faith, hope, and love so that we can be more closely united to Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Theme:

Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church and it is sustained through the Holy Spirit. The Church is a visible community and its members are joined together by the same faith, sacraments, and hierarchy. The Catholic Church contains the fullness of Christianity.

Bible Readings:

Matt 16:13-19 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

1 Timothy 3:14-16 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion.

Matthew 18:15-17 "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Explanation of the Bible readings: In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus confers a special gift of primacy on the apostle Peter and proclaims the establishment of a Church. He makes it clear that this Church has the power to bind and loose with his authority. The apostles have the divine authority to establish a hierarchy and govern the Church. They are guided by the power of the Holy Spirit. This authority has been passed down through apostolic succession and will be valid until Christ returns in glory. Paul also makes it clear that the Church is the guardian of the faith. (1Tim 3:15) Christ never established a faith based solely on independent interpretation of the Bible. That would have been impossible since the New Testament was not completed until 70 years after the ascension of the Lord. Matthew 18:15-17 shows us that the Church has jurisdiction on Earth. “The law of God entrusted to the Church is taught to the faithful as the way of life and truth. The faithful therefore have the right to be instructed in the divine saving precepts that purify judgment and, with grace, heal wounded human reason. They have the duty of observing the constitutions and decrees conveyed by the legitimate authority of the Church. Even if they concern disciplinary matters, these determinations call for docility in charity”. CCC 2037

The Four Marks of the Catholic Church:

One: All of its members profess the same faith, have the same sacraments, and are united under the same visible head, the Pope.

Holy: Jesus Christ founded it and he is the head of his body the Church. It provides the means of attaining holiness of life and its teachings are from Christ himself.

Catholic: The word Catholic means universal. The Church strives to relate to all people in all of the places on Earth. All the means of salvation area found in the Church and it possesses the fullness of the Christian faith.

Apostolic: This means that the apostles founded the faith. The current Pope and Bishops are the successors of the original twelve apostles.

Catechism of the Catholic Church:

751 The word "Church" (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to "call out of") means a convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose. Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God as his holy people. By calling itself "Church," the first community of Christian believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly…

752 …. "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body.

The Church - Instituted by Christ Jesus

763 It was the Son's task to accomplish the Father's plan of salvation in the fullness of time. Its accomplishment was the reason for his being sent. "The Lord Jesus inaugurated his Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the Reign of God, promised over the ages in the scriptures." ….

765 The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved….

771 "The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope, and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men." The Church is at the same time:

- a society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ.

- the visible society and the spiritual community.

- the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches.

796 ….Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her.” He has joined her with himself in an everlasting covenant and never stops caring for her as for his own body:

Explanation of the teaching: Outside the Church there is no salvation

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."

2037 …. The faithful therefore have the right to be instructed in the divine saving precepts that purify judgment and, with grace, heal wounded human reason. They have the duty of observing the constitutions and decrees conveyed by the legitimate authority of the Church. Even if they concern disciplinary matters, these determinations call for docility in charity.

The Precepts of the Church:

The first precept "You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor" …

The second precept "You shall confess your sins at least once a year"…

The third precept "You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season"…

The fourth precept "You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church"…

The fifth precept "You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church" means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability….

Faith words:

Ecclesial: Something pertaining to the church; normally in an official sense.

People of God: An image of the Church highlighted by Vatican II. God calls people to unity with the Blessed Trinity and with one another.

Reflection Questions:

Name a few ways that the laity are to participate actively in the life of the Church?






Why do you believe that Jesus founded a visible Church and gave its members a variety of spiritual callings?





What are some of the features you like in the Church’s architecture and design and how do they help you to lift up your heart to God?