125. ”The founder of this people is God the Father. Its leader is Jesus Christ. Its source of strength is the Holy Spirit.”

”The founder of this people is God the Father.  Its leader is Jesus Christ.  Its source of strength is the Holy Spirit.”

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 125

Ave Maria series

125  What is unique about the People of God?

The founder of this people is God the Father.  Its leader is Jesus Christ.  Its source of strength is the Holy Spirit.  The entryway to the People of God is Baptism.  Its dignity is the freedom of the children of God.  Its law is love.  If this people remains faithful to God and seeks first the kingdom of God, it changes the world.  [781-786]

Holy Trinity  fresco by Luca Rossetti da Orta, 1738–9 (St. Gaudenzio Church at Ivrea). …..125

In the midst of all the peoples on earth, there is one people that is like no other.  It is subject to no one but God alone.  It is supposed to be like salt, which adds flavor; like yeast, which permeates everything; like light, which drives away the darkness.  Anyone who belongs to the People of God must count on coming into conflict with people who deny God’s existence and disregard his commandments.  In the freedom of the children of God, however, we have nothing to fear, not even death.

“The Church cannot behave like a business that changes its product when the demand for it decreases.”  Karl Cardinal Lehmann (b. 1936)

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.”  
Matthew 6:33

[781-786]

THE CHURCH - PEOPLE OF GOD

781 "At all times and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness. He therefore chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant with it. He gradually instructed this people. . . . All these things, however, happened as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be ratified in Christ . . . the New Covenant in his blood; he called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit."(Lumen gentium 9; compare Acts of the Apostles 10:35; 1 Corinthians 11:25)²⁰¹ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

Characteristics of the People of God

782 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 Peter 2:9)²⁰²

- One becomes a member of this people not by a physical birth, but by being "born anew," a birth "of water and the Spirit,"(John 3:3-5)²⁰³  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."(compare John 13:34)²⁰⁴   This is the "new" law of the Holy Spirit.(Romans 8:2; Galatians 5:25)²⁰⁵

- Its mission is to be salt of the earth and light of the world.(compare Matthew 5:13-16)²⁰⁶   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."(Lumen Gentium 9 § 2)²⁰⁷ –CCC

A priestly, prophetic, and royal people

783 Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them.( Compare John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis 18-21.)²⁰⁸ –CCC

784 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."( Lumen Gentium 10; compare Hebrews 5:1-5; Revelation 1:6.)²⁰⁹ –CCC

785 "The holy People of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office," above all in the supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People, lay and clergy, when it "unfailingly adheres to this faith . . . once for all delivered to the saints,"( Lumen Gentium 12; compare Jude 3.)²¹⁰ and when it deepens its understanding and becomes Christ’s witness in the midst of this world. –CCC

786 Finally, the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ. He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself through his death and Resurrection.( Compare John 12:32.)²¹¹ Christ, King and Lord of the universe, made himself the servant of all, for he came "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."(Matthew 20:28.)²¹² For the Christian, "to reign is to serve him," particularly when serving "the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder."( Lumen Gentium 8; compare LG 36.)²¹³ The People of God fulfills its royal dignity by a life in keeping with its vocation to serve with Christ. –CCC

The sign of the cross makes kings of all those reborn in Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit consecrates them as priests, so that, apart from the particular service of our ministry, all spiritual and rational Christians are recognized as members of this royal race and sharers in Christ's priestly office. What, indeed, is as royal for a soul as to govern the body in obedience to God? And what is as priestly as to dedicate a pure conscience to the Lord and to offer the spotless offerings of devotion on the altar of the heart?CCC

Holy Trinity