Ecclesiology - Church-as-Prophet-Teacher-The-Magisterium-RCIA-2012

references/sources

• Acts 15-22:1
• CCC 888-892, 904-907, 2030-2040
• DV 7-ff
• Pastor aeternus (Vatican I)
• Marmion, Bl. Columba. Christ the Life of the Soul. Bethesda: Zaccheus Press, 2005. pp. 107-130.

Content

(Before beginning, how’s the search for a patron saint going?)

• Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." - Jn. 8:31-32
• Because Jesus himself is the fulfillment of prophecy and of the prophets, so the Church is prophetic and so she has a responsibility to prophecy (i.e. preach) to the nations… for the truth will set us free.
• Recall, people may understand things by reading them, but they believe them by hearing them from those they know. Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. (Rm. 10:17)
• We pass on our faith to others, faith in the PDR of Christ and all that logically follows (i.e. Church teaching)
  • Christianity is nothing else than the acceptance – with all its remotest doctrinal and practical consequences – of the divinity of Christ in the Incarnation (Marmion pg. 181)
  • Everyone’s responsibility: Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, ‘that is the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life.’ For lay people, ‘this evangelization … acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world.’

    This witness of life, however, is not the sole element in the apostolate; the true apostle is one on the lookout for occasions of announcing Christ the word, either to unbelievers … or to the faithful.(CCC, 905 – quoting LG, 35 and AA 6, AG, 15)

• How did it all begin?
  • Begins with the Apostles as fulfillment of the prophets (DV, 7)
  • Starts as personal, oral tradition… then put to paper in the inspired books.
  • Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. (II Thess. 2:15)
  • Submission to the Church -

    This submission to the Church is strictly speaking what distinguishes a Catholic from a protestant. For example, the latter may believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; but if he believes in it, it is because he has found this doctrine in the Scriptures and in Tradition, by his own efforts and his personal lights. The Catholic believes it because the Church, which stands in the place of Christ, teaches it to him. … The protestant does not submit to any authority, he is dependent only on himself. The Catholic receives Christ, with all that he has taught and founded. Christianity is in practice, submission to Christ in the person of the Sovereign Pontiff and the pastors united to him…(Marmion 111)

    I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers. (Lk. 22:32)

  • Preserved today in the bishops and faithful To be publicly defended

    Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ: may mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. Beloved, although I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel a need to write to encourage you to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones. (Jude 1-3)

    • Scripture and Tradition
    • Demands of us both prayer and study.
• To aide in all of this, Christ endows the Church with the Magisterium (teaching office)
  • CCC Definition - The living, teaching office of the Church, whose task it is to give as authentic interpretation of the word of God, whether in its written form (Sacred Scripture), or in the form of Tradition. The Magisterium ensures the Church's fidelity to the teaching of the Apostles in matters of faith and morals (85, 890, 2033).
  • This is part of the Church not only giving the life of Christ to her children, but also nourishing them in it.
    • Nourishing the people of God is always the starting point of the prophetic office (pastorally speaking). Such is the office of the Bishops with input from the pastors, theologians and “spiritual authors” (i.e. saints and mystics)
    • Ordinary vs. Extraordinary
      • Bishops
      • Pope
      • Infallibility (Review construction and content of Pastora Aeternus

[Vatican I]).

Terms

• XX