PEOPLE OF GOD

One enters into the People of God by faith and Baptism. "All men are called to belong to the new People of God" [Lumen Gentium 13], so that, in Christ, "men may form one family and one People of God" [AG 1]. 804

The Communion of the Church of Heaven and Earth
In the one family of God. "For if we continue to love one another and to join in praising the Most Holy Trinity - all of us who are sons of God and form one family in Christ - we will be faithful to the deepest vocation of the Church." [Paul  IV, Discourse, Nov. 21, 1964] 959

Sunday, the "Lord's Day," is the principal day for the celebration of the Eucharist because it is the day of the Resurrection. It is the pre-eminent day of the liturgical assembly, the day of the Christian family, and the day of joy and rest from work. Sunday is "the foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year" [Sacrosanctum Concilium 106]. 1193

I Believe In The Holy Spirit
The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit:

• in the Scriptures he inspired;
• in the Tradition, to which the Church Fathers are always timely witnesses;
• in the Church's Magisterium, which he assists;
• in the sacramental liturgy, through its words and symbols, in which the Holy Spirit puts us into communion with Christ;
• in prayer, wherein he intercedes for us;
• in the charisms and ministries by which the Church is built up;
• in the signs of apostolic and missionary life;
• in the witness of saints through whom he manifests his holiness and continues the work of salvation. 688

You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests. [St. john Chrysostom, De incomprehensibili 3, 6: Pg 48, 725] 2179

"This Kingdom shines out before men in the word, in the works and in the presence of Christ." [LG 5] To welcome Jesus' word is to welcome "the Kingdom itself." [LG 5] The seed and beginning of the Kingdom are the "little flock" of those whom Jesus came to gather around him, the flock whose shepherd he is. [Lk 12:32; Mt 10:16; 26:31; Jn 10:1-21] They form Jesus' true family. [Mt 12:49] To those whom he thus gathered around him, he taught a new "way of acting" and a prayer of their own. [Mt 5-6] 764

  The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else there is the choice of the Twelve with Peter as their head. [Mk 3:14-15] Representing the twelve tribes of Israel, they are the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem. [Mt 19:28; Lk 22:30; Rev 21:12-14] The Twelve and the other disciples share in Christ's mission and his power, but also in his lot. [Mk 6:7; Lk 10:1-2; Mt 10:25; Jn 15:20] By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds his Church. 765

The Church – revealed by the Holy Spirit
So that she can fulfill her mission, the Holy Spirit "bestows upon [the Church] varied hierarchic and charismatic gifts, and in this way directs her." [LG 4]  "Henceforward the Church, endowed with the gifts of her founder and faithfully observing his precepts of charity, humility and self-denial, receives the mission of proclaiming and establishing among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ and of God, and she is on earth the seed and the beginning of that kingdom." [LG 5] 768

The Church – perfected in glory
"The Church . . . will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven," [LG 48] at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecutions and God's consolations." [St. Augustine, De civ. Dei, 18, 51: Pl 41, 614; LG 8] Here below she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king." [LG 5, 6; 2 Cor 5:6] The Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,' . . . be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence." [LG 2] 769

Characteristics of the People of God
The People of God is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in history:

• It is the People of God: God is not the property of any one people. But he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a people: "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." [1 Pet 2:9]
• One becomes a member of this people not by a physical birth, but by being "born anew," a birth "of water and the Spirit," [Jn 3:3-5] that is, by faith in Christ, and Baptism.
• This People has for its Head Jesus the Christ (the anointed, the Messiah). Because the same anointing, the Holy Spirit, flows from the head into the body, this is "the messianic people."
• "The status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple."
• "Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us." [Jn 13:34] This is the "new" law of the Holy Spirit. [Rom 8:2; Gal 5:25]
• Its mission is to be salt of the earth and light of the world. [Mt 5:13-16] This people is "a most sure seed of unity, hope, and salvation for the whole human race."
• Its destiny, finally, "is the Kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on earth and which must be further extended until it has been brought to perfection by him at the end of time." [LG 9, 2] 782

A priestly, prophetic, and royal people
On entering the People of God through faith and Baptism, one receives a share in this people's unique, priestly vocation: "Christ the Lord, high priest taken from among men, has made this new people 'a kingdom of priests to God, his Father.' The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood." [LG 10; Heb 5:1-5; Rev 1:6] 784

The Church is communion with Jesus
From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the mystery of the Kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy, and sufferings. [Mk 1:16-20; 3:13-19; Mt 13:10-17; Lk 10:17-20; 22:28-30] Jesus spoke of a still more intimate communion between him and those who would follow him: "Abide in me, and I in you.... I am the vine, you are the branches." [Jn 15:4-5] And he proclaimed a mysterious and real communion between his own body and ours: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." [Jn 6:56] 787

The aposolate
The whole Church is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St. Peter and the other apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that she is "sent out" into the whole world. All members of the Church share in this mission, though in various ways. "The Christian vocation is, of its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well." Indeed, we call an apostolate "every activity of the Mystical Body" that aims "to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth." [Apostolicam actuositatem 3] 863

The Church is ultimately one, holy, catholic, and apostolic in her deepest and ultimate identity, because it is in her that "the Kingdom of heaven," the "Reign of God," [Rev 19:6] already exists and will be fulfilled at the end of time. The kingdom has come in the person of Christ and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into him, until its full eschatological manifestation. Then all those he has redeemed and made "holy and blameless before him in love," [Eph 1:4] will be gathered together as the one People of God, the "Bride of the Lamb," [Rev 21:9] "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." [Rev 21:10-11] For "the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." [Rev 21:14] 865

The vocation of lay people
"By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will.... It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer." [LG 31, 2] 898

Evangelical counsels, consecrated life
Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God. [LG 42-43; Perfectae caritatis 1] 915

The state of the consecrated life is thus one way of experiencing a "more intimate" consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God. [PC 5] In the consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come. [Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 573] 916

Consecrated virgins
From apostolic times Christian virgins [Mt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:34-36] and widows, [CIC, can. 604, 1] called by the Lord to cling only to him with greater freedom of heart, body, and spirit, have decided with the Church's approval to live in the respective states of virginity or perpetual chastity "for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven." [Ordo Consedrationis Virginum, Praenotanda 1] 922

Consecration and mission: proclaiming the King who is coming
Whether their witness is public, as in the religious state, or less public, or even secret, Christ's coming remains for all those consecrated both the origin and rising sun of their life:
For the People of God has here no lasting city, . . . [and this state] reveals more clearly to all believers the heavenly goods which are already present in this age, witnessing to the new and eternal life which we have acquired through the redemptive work of Christ and preluding our future resurrection and the glory of the heavenly kingdom. [St. Thomas Aquinas, Symb., 10] 933

One baptism for the Forgiveness of Sins
In this battle against our inclination towards evil, who could be brave and watchful enough to escape every wound of sin? "If the Church has the power to forgive sins, then Baptism cannot be her only means of using the keys of the Kingdom of heaven received from Jesus Christ. The Church must be able to forgive all penitents their offenses, even if they should sin until the last moment of their lives." [Lk 24:47] 979

The Power of the Keys
After his Resurrection, Christ sent his apostles "so that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations." [St. Augustine, Sermo 214, 11: PL 38, 1071-1072] The apostles and their successors carry out this "ministry of reconciliation," not only by announcing to men God's forgiveness merited for us by Christ, and calling them to conversion and faith; but also by communicating to them the forgiveness of sins in Baptism, and reconciling them with God and with the Church through the power of the keys, received from Christ: [Roman Catechism I, 11, 5]

[The Church] has received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven so that, in her, sins may be forgiven through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit's action. In this Church, the soul dead through sin comes back to life in order to live with Christ, whose grace has saved us. [Mt 18:21-22] 981

By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when they died, . . . or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death, . . .) already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature. [Rev 2:17] 1023

For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.  [St. Cyprian, Ep. 58, 10,1: CSEL 3/2, 665] 1025

Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory "the beatific vision":

How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and God, . . . to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the righteous and God's friends. [Council of Florence (1439): 1304; Council of Trent (1563): 1820; (1547): 1580 ; see also Benedict XII, Benedictus deus (1336): 1000] 1028

The Hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed:

The Church . . . will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ. [Eph 1:10] 1042

"When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise . . . according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom." [St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. Illum, 18, 29: Pg 33, 1049] God will then be "all in all" in eternal life: [rev 22:21]

True and subsistent life consists in this: the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, pouring out his heavenly gifts on all things without exception. Thanks to his mercy, we too, men that we are, have received the inalienable promise of eternal life. [Isa 65:16] 1050