The Church of Christ is on a pilgrimage to full union with God in eternity
The Church founded by Christ has gone through different paths over the centuries. He was persecuted and had to live in hiding. Then he gained freedom, and even a privileged position in the state. Finally, an ecclesiastical state was established, whose rulers became the Roman bishops. After many centuries, the ecclesiastical state ceased to exist. The Church lost nothing in this.
Changes in the Church are taking place in our time as well, e.g.. to, that we are experiencing today, after the Second Vatican Council.
What remains constant in the Church despite these changes ? Why are these changes happening in the Church ?
And after the wind, Christ established the Church, to sanctify people and make people better. Meanwhile, in the history of the Church, good was intertwined with evil. There were people in the Church next to the great saints, even the clergy, who have done a lot of wrong. Not everyone, Although, they did it consciously.
How long will this evil last in the Church? ? When it will finally disappear, and the Church will become fully holy ?
The Church in God's salvific plan
God decided, that the Church will journey to her final destination through the long centuries of human history, like the Israelites, they journeyed through the wilderness to the Promised Land. During this pilgrimage to the Fatherland in heaven, the Church resembles many other human communities, but it should reveal itself to the world as "the seed and the beginning of God's kingdom on earth" (KK 5). The kingdom of God was proclaimed and founded by Jesus Christ. This renewal of the world has already begun in him, which we expect. It continues after Pentecost and continues in the Church, and will be fully revealed at the end of this world. This is what St.. John in the book of Revelation : “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. And the Holy City, New Jerusalem, I saw descending from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride adorned with jewels for her husband. And I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne : «Here is God's tabernacle with men : and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and he will be GOD WITH HIM. And he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more. Not mourning, no scream, no trouble anymore (henceforth) it will not, because the first things have passed »" (Ap 21, 1-4).
Jesus announced this future glory of the Church to his disciples before his passion and resurrection. He said: ,,There are many apartments in my Father's house… I'm going to prepare a place for you. And when I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you home, that you may also be there, where am I" (J 14, 2-3). Also on the day Christ left the Father, that is, on the day of ascension, the students found out, that Christ taken to heaven will come the same, how they saw him ascend (by. Dz 1, 11).
From that day on, the community of Christ's disciples, that is, the Church, he lives in the hope of his Lord's return and prays constantly. "Come, Lord Jesus - Maran atha " ( By. 1 Disease 16, 22). He wants to be united with Him forever and participate in His glory. The Church longs for this day in every Eucharistic Congregation, especially during Advent.
The most important tasks of the pilgrim Church
The Church is the beginning and the seed of the Kingdom of God. So it should be a community of saints, who died to sin, and they live only for God, in constant union with Christ. However, there are also sinners within the Church. Therefore, it is the Church that calls to conversion and is renewed through the proclamation of the word of God and the administration of the sacraments, especially by celebrating the Eucharist. For the Church wants, that all people may believe in Christ crucified and risen, that each person may accept his cross and walk in the footsteps of Christ. In the sacraments of St.. The Church is ever closer to her Savior. He participates in the holiness and power of God, which will not be fully revealed until Christ returns to earth.
You will also be perfect in getting to know the word of God, until the complete truth comes to the day of the Lord's coming. Preserving his divine mission to mediate in the salvation of the world, The Church of Christ adjusts the ways of its operation to the needs of time and place. For the Church is to serve people of all ages in their journey to God. Together with all human elements, all of this will one day disappear, which throughout history was wrong and imperfect in the Church. This will remain, what was Christ's. The wheat will be separated from the tares and collected in God's storehouse, and the tares will be burned with unquenchable fire (by. Mt 13, 24-30). Future reality, which will be revealed in us, there will be the glory of the risen Christ.
How will I answer God ?
Christ calls you to holiness. So you are responsible for it, whether the Church will appear to the world as the holy People of God, as the beginning and seed of God's kingdom on earth. Can you wait passively for the coming of Christ? ? Shouldn't you join the hard work?, to fight evil in himself and in the world, to build a better one, just world ?
■ Think:
1. Dlaczego Kościół możemy nazwać Ludem Bożym pielgrzymującym ?
2. Jaka jest przyszłość Kościoła i całej ludzkości ? - Who's talking about her ?
3. Dlaczego Kościół musi nieustannie wpatrywać się w przyszłość i przypominać o niej wszystkim ludziom ?
4. W jakim okresie roku liturgicznego Kościół przeżywa oczekiwanie na przyjście Chrystusa ?
5. Jak Kościół prowadzi dalej Chrystusową walkę ze złem ?
6. Co w Kościele jest stałe, and what is changing ?
■ Remember:
88. Kiedy Kościół osiągnie pełnię swego zjednoczenia z Bogiem ?
The fullness of her union with God will be achieved by the Church in the second visible coming of Jesus Christ.
89. Co jest najważniejszym i ostatecznym celem Kościoła Chrystusowego ? The most important and ultimate goal of the Church of Christ is to build the Kingdom of God on earth and lead all people to unity with God in eternity..
■ Task :
Idea, how you will build God's kingdom during the holidays.