God is holy and is at work in the Church.
YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the
Catholic Church Lesson 132
Ave Maria series
132 Why is the Church holy?
The Church is holy, not because all her members are
supposedly holy, but rather because God is holy and is at work in her. All the members of the Church are sanctified
by Baptism. [823-829]
Irma Jenkins Bragg at
home and a Methodist at this point in her life. Irma, my mother, set the
example for her nine children in her often repeated words which expressed ”My
good Methodist upbringing.” Irma
converted the Catholic faith sometime in her fifties. ..…132
Whenever we allow ourselves to be touched by the Triune God,
we grow in love and become holy and whole.
The saints are lovers—not because they are able to love so well, but
because God has touched them. They pass
on the love they have received from God to other people in their own, often
original way. Once God takes them home,
they also sanctify the Church, because they “spend their heaven” supporting us
on our path to holiness. 124
“Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, You
shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Leviticus 19:2
“There is only one tragedy in
the end, not to have been a saint.” Leon
Bloy (1846-1917)
Holiness…The most essential attribute of God. In Latin there is a word, fanum, for what is
divine, pure, and set apart from profane, everyday things. God is the “totally Other”, the Holy One of
Israel (Isaiah 30:15);
Jesus comes into the world as the “Holy One of God” (John 6:69). In him we can see what “holiness” is: to love
unconditionally and mercifully, in a helping and healing way, up to perfection
in the Cross and Resurrection.
[823-829]
“The Church Is One, Holy,
Catholic, and Apostolic”
THE CHURCH IS HOLY
823 "The Church . . . is held, as a matter of
faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with
the Father and the Spirit is hailed as 'alone holy,' loved the Church as his
Bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her; he joined her to
himself as his body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the
glory of God." (Lumen gentium 39;compare Ephesians 5:25-26) 289 The Church, then, is "the holy People of God,"(Lumen gentium 12)290 and her members are called "saints."(Acts of the Apostles 9:13; 1 Corinthians 6:1; 16:1)291 –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
824 United with Christ, the Church is sanctified by him;
through him and with him she becomes sanctifying. "All the activities of
the Church are directed, as toward their end, to the sanctification of men in
Christ and the glorification of God."(Sacrosanctum concilium 10)292 It is in the Church that "the fullness of the means
of salvation"(Unitatis redintegratio 3 § 5)293 has been deposited. It is in her that "by the grace of God we
acquire holiness."(Lumen genium 48)294 –CCC
825 "The Church on earth is endowed already with a
sanctity that is real though imperfect."(Lumen gentium 48 § 3)295 In her members perfect holiness is something
yet to be acquired: "Strengthened by so many and such great means of
salvation, all the faithful, whatever their condition or state - though each in
his own way - are called by the Lord to that perfection of sanctity by which
the Father himself is perfect."(Lumen gentium 11 § 3)296 –CCC
826 Charity is the soul of the holiness to which all are
called: it "governs, shapes, and perfects all the means of sanctification."(Lumen gentium 42)297 –CCC
If
the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn't lack the
noblest of all; it must have a Heart, and a Heart
BURNING WITH LOVE. And I realized
that this love alone was the true motive force which
enabled the other members of the Church to act; if it ceased to function, the
Apostles would forget to preach the gospel, the Martyrs would refuse to shed
their blood. LOVE, IN FACT, IS THE VOCATION WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHERS; IT'S A
UNIVERSE OF ITS OWN, COMPRISING ALL TIME AND SPACE - IT'S ETERNAL! (St. Thérèse Of Lisieux, Autobiography of a Saint, tr.
Ronald Knox (London: Harvill, 1958) 235.)298
–CCC
827 "Christ, 'holy, innocent, and undefiled,' knew
nothing of sin, but came only to expiate the sins of the people. The Church,
however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification,
follows constantly the path of penance and renewal."(Lumen gentium 8 § 3;
compare Unitatis
redintegratio 3; 6; Hebrews 2:17; 7:26; 2 Corinthians 5:21)299 All members of the Church, including her ministers, must
acknowledge that they are sinners.(compare 1 John 1:8-10)300 In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with
the good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time.(compare Matthew 13:24-30)301 Hence the Church gathers sinners already caught up in
Christ's salvation but still on the way to holiness: --CCC
The
Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst, because she
herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, her
members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall into sins
and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she
suffers and does penance for those offenses, of which she has the power to free
her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.(Paul VI, Credo
of the People of God § 19)302
--CCC
828 By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by
solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to
God's grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within
her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as
models and intercessors.(compare Lumen gentium 40; 48-51)303 "The saints have always been the source
and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church's
history."(St. John Paul II, Christifideles
Laice 16,3)304 Indeed,
"holiness is the hidden source and infallible measure of her apostolic
activity and missionary zeal."(Christifidelis
Laici 17, 3)305 --CCC
829 "But while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church
has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle,
the faithful still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they
turn their eyes to Mary"(Lumen gentium 65;
compare Ephesians 5:26-27)306 in her, the Church is already the "all-holy."—CCC
People Irma
