Cathal BarryThe Church’s whole purpose is to unite humanity with God, writes Cathal Barry
Christ established and sustains the Church as a visible organisation through which he communicates truth and grace to all, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states. It adds, the Church is:
- A society with hierarchical structure
- Christ’s mystical body
- A visible society and a spiritual community
- An earthly Church endowed with heavenly riches
- “One complex reality” with human and divine elements
The Second Vatican Council has taught that “the Church is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world, but as a pilgrim, so constituted that in her the human is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation and this present world to that city yet to come”.
The Church’s whole purpose is to unite men with God. Her structure is totally ordered to holiness and measured by how well the Bride responds to the Bridegroom.
Because Mary precedes all of us in holiness, the Marian dimension of the Church precedes the Petrine dimension (Pope John Paul II).
The Greek word mysterion (mystery) is sometimes translated “sacrament”. Later, “sacrament” emphasised the visible sign of salvation. Christ himself is this sacrament (mystery). “For there is no other mystery of God, except Christ” (St Augustine). Christ’s actions are revealed in the seven sacraments. In an analogical sense, the Church herself is a sacrament, containing and communicating this invisible grace.
The Church is the sacrament of men’s inner union with God.
She is also the sacrament of the unity of the human race because man’s unity is rooted in God.
At the end of time, she will gather men “from all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Rev 7:9). In her present state, according to the Catechism, “she is a sign of a unity yet to come”.
As Pope Paul VI has said, the Church is “the visible plan of the love of God who desires that the whole human race become one People of God”.
