Catechism For Adults: X. ‘The Holy Catholic Church’

Extract

In Christ all things are reconciled to the Father for he makes peace ‘through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven’ (Col. I, 20). As the second Adam he brings to mankind the forgiveness of God. The work of redemption is accomplished in that the redemptive deed has taken place. In order that the deed may be brought to bear on human beings who live a time-conditioned existence the saving rule of God, established in Christ, is given a temporal character. So that human souls may become ‘holy’ Christ is constituted as the ‘head of the body the church’, for God ‘hath subjected all things under his feet and hath made him head over all the church, which is his body, and the fulness of him who is filled all in all’ (Ephesians I, 22-23). Christ is thus present to men in and by the Church.

The Church is the assembly of those, who believing by faith in Christ, live under the rule of Christ. Christ is ‘in’ the Church in that the Church teaches in obedience to his command. Christ, the head of the body, rules as King and the directive work of the Church, her leadership of man towards God, is a sharing, in the Spirit, of Christ’s supreme governance. Her voice as she represents in each age the teaching of Christ, is the voice of Christ speaking to man. The Church does not only bring teaching and direction, she also brings life to the soul.