132. God is holy and is at work in the Church.

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