Lesson #2 The Mystery of the Church - The Divine/human concept!

My Self study Lesson#2 

    http://ierardibr.blogspot.in/2012/10/constituicao-dogmatica-lumen-gentium_20.html      

         "When His Majesty desires to give us understanding of the words, without worry or work on our part, we shall surely find it." - St.Teresa of Avila             

THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH

From Lumen Gentium: 

8. The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men. But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ, the visible society and the spiritual community, the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two realities. On the contrary, they form one complete reality which comes together from a human and a divine element. For this reason the Church is compared, not without significance, to the mystery of the incarnate Word. As the assumed nature, inseparably united to him, serves the divine Word as a living organ of salvation, so, in a somewhat similar way, does the social structure of the Church serve the Spirit of Christ who vivifies it, in the building up of the body (cf. Eph. 4:15).

The Second Vatican Council summed up the Church in these words: "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 object of our quest" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 2).

From CCC 

770 The Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is only "with the eyes of faith"¹⁸³ that one can see her in her visible reality and at the same time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life.

The Church - both visible and spiritual

771 "The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope, and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men."¹⁸⁴ The Church is at the same time:

- a "society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ;

- the visible society and the spiritual community;

- the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches."¹⁸⁵

These dimensions together constitute "one complex reality which comes together from a human and a divine element":¹⁸⁶

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 object of our quest.¹⁸⁷

O humility! O sublimity! Both tabernacle of cedar and sanctuary of God; earthly dwelling and celestial palace; house of clay and royal hall; body of death and temple of light; and at last both object of scorn to the proud and bride of Christ! She is black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, for even if the labor and pain of her long exile may have discolored her, yet heaven's beauty has adorned her.(St. Bernard of Clairvaux, In Cant. Sermo27:14 PL 183:920D).

http://www.catholicchapterhouse.com/st-bernard-of-clairvaux-oracle-of-the-twelfth-century

St Bernard of Clairvaux is called "the last of the Fathers" of the Church because once again in the 12th century he renewed and brought to the fore the important theology of the Fathers.

Known as “Doctor Mellifluus” (the “honey-mouthed doctor”), Bernard was a monk of the Cistercian order and one of the most eloquent preachers in twelfth-century France. He was instrumental in setting up Cistercian monasteries all over his country and achieved great influence in ecclesiastical circles all over Europe. In his writings, the most important of which is the theological treatise Sermones in canticum canticorum(Sermons on the Song of Songs, c. 1136), he presents a creed of mystical contemplation, meditation, and personal union with God. TheSermons and other works develop the metaphor of the church as the bride of Christ, stressing the importance of human love in understanding service to God.