Day 109: Mystery of Union With God (772-780)

• It’s Day 109!!

• THE CHURCH-MYSTERY OF MAN’S UNION WITH GOD

• AND

• THE UNIVERSAL SACRAMENT OF SALVATION

• THEY ARE INCREDIBLE!!

• THEY ARE ESSENTIAL!!

• The Church is part of God’s plan

• It is not accidental

• It is not man-made

• It comes from the heart of the Father

• IN FACT…

• Jesus Christ ESTABLISHED the Church

• The Holy Spirit INSPIRES the Church

• BUT…

• To what end?

• Paragraph 776 says, “As sacrament, the Church is Christ’s instrument.”

• So what does that mean?

• What is Christ’s mission?

• Not only to forgive our sins

• To save us

• To reconcile us to the Father

• To give God’s plan of divine life

• To come into contact with Him

• To bring us into communion with God

• THIS is Christ’s instrument to do that

• Paragraph 776 continues “‘She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the salvation of all,’ ‘the universal sacrament of salvation,’ by which Christ is ‘at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God’s love for men.’ The Church ‘is the visible plan of God’s love for humanity.’”

• Our experience of the Church on earth isn’t always that

• AND YET…

• That’s the reason the Church exists

• To accomplish Christ’s plan of salvation

• To bring the love of God to the entire world

• That’s one of the reasons the Church is described as THE UNIVERSAL SACRAMENT OF SALVATION

• Do you remember what a SACRAMENT is?

• It is a VISIBLE SIGN that conveys INVISIBLE GRACE

• The Church itself is a VISIBLE SIGN

• What does it do?

• It brings the very Grace of Jesus Christ to this world

• Every sacrament communicates the very life of God

• A sacrament is a sacred sign that is instituted by Christ that gives grace

• We just described THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

• Jesus Christ instituted the Church

• What is the Church’s role?

• What is the whole point of the Church?

• It is to bring that very grace that comes from God to the ENTIRE WORLD

• Paragraph 775 says, “The Church’s first purpose is to be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God.”

• THAT IS SO SO IMPORTANT!!

• So let’s say a prayer!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we thank you. We thank you for establishing your Church. We thank you for all that you have done in revealing yourself to Abraham so many years ago, to revealing yourself to the People of God through the voices of the Prophets, finally revealing yourself to us fully in your Son. We thank you. We praise you. We thank you that your Son poured out His Holy Spirit on the Apostles at Pentecost, at the birthday of the Church. We thank you that your work in this world, which is the Church, has reached our hearts right now. We give you praise and thanks. Please receive our thanks. Receive our praise. And keep us firmly rooted in your heart and rooted in your Church. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

•  So there we are!!

• Let’s start with Paragraphs 772 and 773

• THE CHURCH-MYSTERY OF MAN’S UNION WITH GOD

• This doesn’t just come from the Church talking about itself and thinking it’s amazing

• It actually comes from Scripture

• Paragraph 773 says, “St. Paul calls the nuptial union of Christ and the Church ‘a great mystery.’ Because she is united to Christ as to her bridegroom…”

• If we don’t love the Church then we don’t love with the heart of Jesus

• What did Jesus do?

• He loved her and gave Himself up for her, cleansing her by His very sacrifice

• Jesus is the BRIDEGROOM

• The Church is the BRIDE

• We sometimes say that we love the bridegroom, but we don’t really love the bride

• In that case, we are falling short

• We are called to not only acknowledge the reality, goodness, and holiness of the Church

• We are called to love and live with the heart of Jesus

• We have to love what HE loves

• HE LOVES HIS BRIDE THE CHURCH!!

• Paragraph 773 says, “In the Church this communion of men with God, in the ‘love that never ends,’ is the purpose which governs everything in her.”

• The Church is not a members only club

• The Church is BRIDE to the BRIDEGROOM

• Paragraph 773 continues, “The Church’s structure is totally ordered to the holiness of Christ’s members. And holiness is measured according to the ‘great mystery’ in which the Bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the Bridegroom.”

• The whole reason the Church exists is totally ordered to the holiness of Christians

• The only reason the Church exists is so that God’s love can get to us AND so that we can respond to God’s love with love

• This is so important to understand

• We might get caught up on the structure and hierarchy of the Church

• BUT…

• At the heart of EVERYTHING is the love that God has for us

• When we respond to Him in love, that is HOLINESS

• Paragraph 773 continues, “Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church’s mystery as ‘the bride without spot or wrinkle.’ This is why the ‘Marian’ dimension of the Church precedes the ‘Petrine.’”

• Mary precedes Peter

• To be able to receive God’s love and give it back to Him is vastly more important than the PAPAL dimension of the Church

• Mary is more important than Peter because Mary most clearly exhibits and demonstrates what it is to receive God’s love and respond with love

• Peter is necessary

• THAT IS SO IMPORTANT!!

• THE UNIVERSAL SACRAMENT OF SALVATION

• Paragraph 774 says, “‘For there is no other mystery of God, except Christ.’ The saving work of his holy and sanctifying humanity is the sacrament of salvation, which is revealed and active in the Church’s sacraments…”

• Everytime we come into contact with the sacraments, we are coming into contact with His mission

• We are coming into contact with the reality of His salvation He has given to us

• IN FACT…

• The sacraments are what communicate salvation to us

• THAT IS SO RADICALLY IMPORTANT!!

• Paragraph 774 continues, “The seven sacraments are the signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the head throughout the Church which is his Body.”

• We don’t just show up for the sacraments because that is what we are supposed to do

• They are a symbol of us responding to God’s love

• THIS IS RADICALLY IMPORTANT!!

• Paragraph 776 says, “As sacrament, the Church is Christ’s instrument. ‘She is taken up by Jesus also as the instrument for the salvation of all,’ ‘the universal sacrament of salvation,’ by which Christ is ‘at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God’s love for men.’”

• We only see what we can see

• We only see what is right in front of us

• Brokenness

• Humanity

• The visible Church

• Because of that we miss out on seeing how God has communicated His love to the world

• Paragraph 776 continues, “The Church ‘is the visible plan of God’s love for humanity,’ because God desires ‘that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit.’”

• THAT IS SO IMPORTANT!!

• If we are going to love like Jesus, we have to love what He loves

• He LOVES His Church

• He LAID DOWN HIS LIFE for His Church

• This is not a recent truth

• This is an ANCIENT TRUTH

• Remember what happened at the Tower of Babel?

• There was division and all humanity got scattered, divided by different languages

• Remember what happened at Pentecost? 

• The Holy Spirit brought all these people who had been divided by language, ethnicity, region, and nation, INTO ONE

• That is what the Church is meant to be

• It is meant to bring EVERY person, EVERY race, etc. INTO ONE BODY

• That is THE UNIVERSAL SACRAMENT OF SALVATION

• God wants EVERY PERSON to know Him fully

• To be in relationship not only with Him

• BUT ALSO WITH EACH OTHER

• That is why we need to pray for each other

• Everytime we pray for each other we are living in the reality of THE UNIVERSAL SACRAMENT OF SALVATION

• THE ONE BODY OF CHRIST!!

• Tomorrow we will talk about some things that Fr. Mike is listing now

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!