De Ecclesia Christi

« Although the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are not always taken in one and the same sense in the Scriptures, in the Gospels, nevertheless, 1°, by this name is announced the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth, as a society standing in itself and through itself in its own proper form, distinct and different from other societies: of an order, namely, not earthly but supernatural, although constituted on earth out of men; which same unity, constituted in itself and in the proper form of the kingdom, 2°, is described and announced by Christ the Founder under other names and symbols of parables. »

I. The kingdom of God is indeed also the kingdom of the Creator in the natural order. « The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and all that dwell therein; for he has founded it upon the seas » (Ps. XXIII. 1; XLIX. 12). « The Lord has prepared his throne in heaven, and his kingdom shall rule over all... bless the Lord, all his works, in every place of his dominion » (Ps. CII. 19, 22; CXLIV. 11, 12; 1 Par. XXIV. 11, 12; Tob. XIII. 1; Dan. III. 100; IV. 31). But the compound phrase kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, and kingdom simply in relation to God, in the New Testament is applied only to the supernatural kingdom, which Christ the Redeemer acquired with his blood and procured for men, and which, insofar as it is on earth, he himself formed by his own laws, institutions, and gifts, and « presented to himself as glorious. » This supernatural kingdom of Jesus Christ is considered under a threefold aspect.

1°. Directly regarded are the graces, virtues, gifts, and internal spiritual adornments; while their manifestation in the conspicuous institutions of the kingdom and in its external visible form is signified or presupposed only indirectly. To the Pharisees, who imagined the Messiah's kingdom as external, in prosperity and worldly glory, the Lord Christ replies: « The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor shall they say, Behold here, or behold there; for behold, the kingdom of God is within you » (ἐντὸς ὑμῶν ἐστιν) (Luke XVII. 20, 21; cf. XII. 31). « For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost » (Rom. XIV. 17¹; 1 Cor. IV. 20; cf. Matt. XIX. 12).

2°. Often the kingdom consummated in eternal life is directly signified, where God reigns in all the saints and all the saints reign with him; yet in very many passages the kingdom on earth is also included at the same time, as the preparation for the consummated kingdom itself. « Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom (the Jews, called first to the kingdom on earth) shall be cast into exterior darkness » (Matt. VIII. 11; Luke XIII. 28); « who has called you to his kingdom and glory » (1 Thess. II. 12); « that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which (ὑπὲρ ἧς) you also suffer » (2 Thess. I. 5); « he will save into his heavenly kingdom » (2 Tim. IV. 18; cf. Matt. V. 3, 10; VII. 21; XXVI. 29; Mark IX. 46; X. 23–25; Luke XXII. 16, 18, 29, 30; XXIII. 42; John III. 3, 5; Acts XIV. 21; 1 Cor. VI. 9, 10; XV. 50; Gal. V. 21; Eph. V. 5; Jas. II. 6; 2 Pet. I. 11; Apoc. V. 10).

Sometimes this kingdom is celebrated insofar as, with the number of the saints now complete and with bodies also glorified, the city of God will be perfect in all its parts. After describing his second coming « with great power and majesty », and enumerating its signs, the Lord adds: « When you see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near » (Luke XXI. 31). « Then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father... but he must reign (in the kingdom on earth), until he has put all his enemies under his feet » (1 Cor. XV. 23–28). « I charge you before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming and his kingdom » (2 Tim. IV. 1; Matt. XIII. 43; XXV. 34; Apoc. XXII. 5).

If the interpretation of several Fathers were true, of Matt. XVI. 28; Mark VIII. 39; Luke IX. 27, the bodily glorification of Christ himself in his still mortal life would be called the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God. « Properly and significantly he had promised that some of the disciples standing by would not taste death before they saw the Son of man coming in his kingdom, that is, in royal splendour, which he willed to be seen by those three men (Apostles), belonging specially to the nature of the man he had assumed » (St. Leo the Great, sermon 51, c. 2; Chrysostom, in Matt. hom. 56, al. 57, n. 1, and others). But the meaning of the kingdom of God is to be preferred (as Mark and Luke have it), of which we shall speak immediately; so that it is understood, with St. Gregory the Great and others, that the kingdom of God is this Church of Christ, established and widely propagated on earth (St. Gregory, in Evang. hom. 32, n. 6).

3°. This meaning of kingdom of God, kingdom of Christ, kingdom of heaven is very frequent in the New Testament: it is used to designate directly by these names the visible kingdom of its own proper name and proper form, to be established by Christ among men and from men on earth, where the discourse is of the announcing promise, or established, where it is of a fact already accomplished. In this visible kingdom there is certainly included, as dowry and inner property, that which we saw designated in the first place by the name kingdom of God; and there is connected, as term and end, what we said was signified in the second place, namely the consummated kingdom of God. Yet the kingdom directly signified in this third sense is distinguished (by an inadequate distinction) from the former, as the whole from its formal part; while toward the other it stands as the begun toward the perfect, or as the means toward its end. Here we treat of the institution of the kingdom so considered, not as already accomplished but as announced in the Gospels.

II. Just as in the prophetic announcements of the coming Messiah we saw a universal and incorruptible kingdom designated as his work together with himself, so in the announcement of the execution and fulfilment is declared the end and work of the coming of Christ: the constitution of his kingdom, which is to endure perennially among men. This constitution of the kingdom of Christ therefore comprises in summary the whole work and end of the great mystery of the incarnation: the redemption of the world, the expiation of sin, the sanctification and salvation of the human race, and the supreme glorification of God in this kingdom, in the world redeemed, sanctified, and saved, which is the Church united to its head, Christ the Redeemer and Saviour.

1°. Indeed, in the angel's announcement of the incarnation, these three things are declared as the sum of the whole mystery: the person, who is the Son of the Most High, and the Son born at once of the Virgin Mother, and therefore God and man, Emmanuel, God with us, according to the prophecy of Isaiah declared in this very announcement in words and fulfilled in fact (see de Incarnat. th. XV.); then the name of Jesus, and in it, implicitly, the end and office of the Redeemer; finally, this office and this end, described explicitly in the eternal kingdom of the Redeemer, to be established among the redeemed and from the redeemed, according to the preceding types and prophecies in the old economy of preparation. « Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son (the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you); and you shall call his name Jesus; he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High (the Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God); and the Lord God shall give him the throne (τὸν θρόνον) of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end » (Luke I. 31–35). In the angel's declaration to St. Joseph, the very name Jesus, Saviour comprises all those things which are explicitly preached in the announcement to the most blessed Mother. Both announcements of the angel are further illuminated by the holy Evangelist, who expressly attests in them the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning Emmanuel: « That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost; and she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that the word might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us » (Matt. I. 20–23).

That the throne of David and the kingdom in the house of Jacob directly signify the visible kingdom on earth as the completion of the preceding types in the people of Israel is clear from the very words, although the connection with the consummated kingdom in heaven is at the same time indicated. Hence also the duration for ever (εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας) for each form of the kingdom is to be taken according to the subject matter: in the one form it lasts until the consummation of the age and without end of corruption (Dan. II. 44; VII. 14), though not without end of perfection; in the other, simply without end, for ever.

The supernatural character of this eternal kingdom, and therefore its diversity and eminence over the kingdoms and societies of the natural order, and by this very fact its proper form and its standing in itself, is evident from the person of its founder and king, who is the Son of the Most High and the Son of man, God with us; and from its end and innermost reason, which is salvation from sins, so that it is the kingdom of sanctification in the fulness of time, and of holiness in eternity.

2°. The preaching of the forerunner to prepare the way of the Lord was this: « Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand » (Matt. III. 2). By the testimony of Christ himself, after the economy of preparation in the law and the prophets, from John onward begins the Gospel of the economy of fulfilment, which is called and is the kingdom of God. « The law and the prophets until John; from that time the kingdom of God is evangelized » (Luke XVI. 16; cf. Matt. XI. 12, 13). Hence the Gospel of Jesus Christ himself and of his disciples is comprised in this summary, that it is the Gospel, or the word of the kingdom. « Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying: the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand »; « Jesus went about preaching the Gospel² of the kingdom »; « he who hears the word of the kingdom »; « this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations »; « and I must evangelize the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this (εἰς τοῦτο) I was sent »; To the Jews who rejected the Messiah promised and sent, he himself said: « The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation (one nation, because one kingdom) that shall bring forth its fruit » (Matt. IV. 23; IX. 35; XIII. 11, 19; XXI. 43; XXIV. 14; Mark I. 14; Luke IV. 43; VIII. 1; IX. 2, 11, 60; XVIII. 17; Acts I. 3; VIII. 12; XIX. 8; XX. 25; XXVIII. 23, 31).

3°. The Jews, not only the carnal but all also the pious and spiritual, expected the kingdom of the Messiah on earth according to the predictions of the prophets; indeed this expectation of the kingdom coincided with the expectation of the coming of the Messiah. For one of the solemn names for designating the properties and marks of the Messiah was Son of David, or Israel (John I. 49; Matt. II. 2; XXVII. 11; John XIX. 19–22). Hence, to celebrate the prophecies fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, these acclamations are held as synonymous: « blessed is he who comes, the king of Israel » (John XII. 13–16; Luke XIX. 38); « who comes, the Son of David » (Matt. XXI. 9); and « blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes » (Mark XI. 10).

This expectation of the Messianic kingdom, although it was erroneous in men of carnal mind as to its character, nonetheless as to the thing itself, namely of a visible kingdom and of its own constitution and form to be founded among men, by which the typical kingdom of the Old Testament would be perfected and transferred into the prefigured kingdom of the New Testament, is most manifestly approved and confirmed by Christ himself and by the sacred writers: both in the manner in which we saw Christ and the Apostles declaring their whole preaching to be the Gospel of the kingdom expected by the people; and in the manner in which they presented this kingdom, prefigured and promised in the Old Testament, as the throne of David, the eternal kingdom of the Son of David, the kingdom of Emmanuel; and in the manner in which they approve and describe the expectation of the Israelites. « Joseph of Arimathea himself also (like the other disciples, cf. Matt. XXVIII. 57) was waiting for the kingdom of God » (Mark XV. 43; Luke XXIII. 51); « that these two sons of mine may sit in your kingdom... he said to them: it is not mine to give, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father » (Matt. XX. 21); « will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them: it is not for you to know the times or the moments (of this restoration, certainly of a supernatural and universal kingdom); but you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me... even to the uttermost part of the earth » (Acts I. 6).

4°. In the immediate preparation for the sacrifice of the cross, by which he was to acquire the kingdom, Christ the Redeemer professed himself a king, and a kingdom to himself, his kingdom, truly in this world; for the whole question, both of the Jews and of Pilate, was about the visible kingdom in this world; and this kingdom, which they denied, he claimed to be his own, but of another order than they imagined, namely of the supernatural order. « My kingdom is not of this world... but now my kingdom is not from hence. » Augustine comments on these words, which are sufficiently clear in themselves: « He did not say, My kingdom is not in this world, but is not of this world... he did not say, now my kingdom is not here, but is not from here; for here is his kingdom until the end of the age » (Augustine, in Ioan. tract. 115, n. 2). Of himself, the acquirer and founder of the kingdom, Christ said: « You are from beneath, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world » (John VIII. 23; XVII. 13–16). He was a true man in this world, but a man who, being a divine person, is God through his other, divine, nature; so also his kingdom, a radiant splendour and an expressed image of the God-man, is a true visible kingdom in this world, yet by all its causes and gifts a kingdom of the supernatural order; and in this sense, though visible, it is spiritual, constituted out of men and in men, a divine-human kingdom not of this world. And that the disciples, the citizens of the kingdom, should each reproduce in themselves this very image of the kingdom, expressed after the model of Christ, he himself commanded, and asked of the Father, in that testamentary prayer after the last supper: « When he had loved his own who were in the world... and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world » (John XIII. 1; XV. 19; XVI. 11, 12, 16).

Moreover, the supernatural order of his kingdom Christ declares in that answer to Pilate not only negatively, that it is not of this world, but also positively, as from the first and essential property of the kingdom: that it is a kingdom of truth; for he founds his kingdom on the truth, which he himself, the King of truth, brings from above to men in the world and reveals. « You say (that is, you say what is true, cf. Matt. XXVI. 64) that I am a king: for this I was born, and for this I came into the world (cf. John XVI. 28, etc.), that I should give testimony to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears my voice » (John XVIII. 36, 37). As Jerusalem was foretold as the city of truth and Sion as the mountain of holiness (th. VI.), so this foundation of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, who is the truth and the life itself (ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή) (John XIV. 6), is preached above all in the New Testament, as we shall see in its place. « Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ »; « he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of truth »; « the Spirit of truth shall teach you all truth »; « the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth » (John I. 17; XIV. 16; XVI. 13; 1 Tim. III. 15). This truth is what sanctifies the citizens in the kingdom of truth. « You shall be truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free »; « sanctify them in the truth » (ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ); « he begot us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creature » (ἀπαρχήν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων) (John VIII. 32; XVII. 17, 19; Jas. I. 18).

Thus, in the very beginnings of the Gospel and in the immediate preparation, the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of Jesus Christ, or even simply the kingdom, is declared to be established by the Redeemer himself from men and for men on earth, to be substituted for the imperfect kingdom of Israel which prefigured this kingdom of the New Testament; and thus a visible kingdom, subsisting in its own proper form and unity, to endure perpetually (« he shall reign for ever »); universal, from all nations (« the Gospel of the kingdom in the whole world »); a supernatural kingdom of truth and holiness, whose citizens are disciples and sons of the truth, just as the kingdom itself and its king and founder are: in this world but not of this world.

III. This same kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth is exhibited under another figure, of one flock to be constituted by Christ himself, the good shepherd, out of all nations, as his sheep to be redeemed by his blood and to be fed by himself, the great shepherd, also through shepherds as ministers, for the eternal salvation of Christ's sheep. Also by manifold parables the Lord himself wished to illustrate the Gospel of the kingdom, in which, as we saw, the summary of evangelical preaching and of the immediate preparation is comprised, and to set it as before the eyes, of what kind this kingdom of God on earth, one and universal, is to be.

1°. In the Old Testament the people of Israel, the peculiar people of the true God, is often described as the flock of sheep of the Lord. « He is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand » (Ps. LXXIII. 1; LXXVIII. 13; XCIV. 7; XCIX. 3; Jer. XXIII; Ezek. XXXIV; Mic. VII. 14, and often elsewhere). The Lord reproves the shepherds of Israel, namely the priests and princes of the theocracy of the Old Testament, who scattered the flock; and, having rejected them, he foretells that a new Israel, the flock of God from all nations, shall be substituted, over which the Lord of the sheep will raise up « one shepherd, his servant David, who shall feed them, and he himself shall be their shepherd. » « And my servant David shall be king over them, and there shall be one shepherd of them all... and I will make with them a covenant of peace, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them » (Ezek. XXXIV. 23; XXXVII. 24, 26; Zech. XI. 7). Under this one shepherd, who is « the branch of David », God promises: « I will raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them; they shall not fear any more, nor be dismayed » (Jer. XXIII. 4, 5). These shepherds are promised for the new Jerusalem, not of one people but of all nations. « And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine... In that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord (not the ark of the old covenant, but the new city of God shall be wholly the throne of the Lord), and all nations shall be gathered to it in the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem » (Jer. III. 15, 17). (See th. VI.).

Now Christ the Lord declares this one flock, this promised one fold from all nations, under one shepherd, to be his flock of sheep, and himself to be the one shepherd.

a) He announces himself as the good shepherd, because by the shedding of his blood for the salvation of his sheep he gathers them, indeed he makes them his own sheep. « I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd gives his life for his sheep »; « and I lay down my life for my sheep »; « and I give them eternal life » (John X. 10, 11, 15, 28).

He gathers the sheep and feeds them by the doctrine of his magisterium, and rules them by the power of his empire; and thus men become the sheep of Christ, following his magisterium by the hearing of faith and his empire by the holiness of morals. « You do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; and I know them, and they follow me »; « I am the good shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me » (John X. 14, 26, 27).

As there is one shepherd, so there shall be one fold, not only from the sons of Israel but equally also from the Gentiles, under one shepherd. « And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; and them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd » (John X. 16).

b) This one shepherd (ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός, with the article) is Christ himself. But since he willed that his fold on earth, and one fold, should perpetually exist, for he promised that no one would snatch the sheep, at least as they are collectively one flock and one fold, out of his hand, which is the very hand or power of the Father (John X. 28–30); therefore by himself, by his own authority as the one shepherd, other shepherds are to be instituted for his ministry, who in relation to his fold feed in his name and by his authority, and in relation to Christ are fed as his sheep. There will therefore be other shepherds, but none by any authority other than his, who is the one divine shepherd. But what the form of the flock and of the shepherds will be, after the Lord and good shepherd has himself ceased to feed his own sheep visibly on earth, is to be treated much more fully and distinctly in the declaration of the execution itself, which does not belong to this place. We shall then understand how the divine shepherd committed his whole fold, which we have just seen announced by him as sanctified by the sacrifice of his life, governed by his doctrine and power, gathered from all nations so as to be one under one shepherd, with power communicated by himself, to one supreme shepherd, his vicar, so that by visible ministry the unity of the visible fold might be preserved perpetually: « feed my lambs, feed my sheep » (John XXI. 15–17). But just as for unity he instituted one supreme and universal shepherd of the whole flock, so, by reason of the unity and at the same time the universality of the flock, he willed that under that one shepherd there should be many shepherds, each of whom, indeed, does not feed the whole flock, but « feed the flock of God which is among them, providing for it » (ἐπισκοποῦντες) (1 Pet. V. 2). All the shepherds³ in the earth ministering to the one Christ are members, as St. Augustine speaks, of the divine shepherd whose sheep are his own; and thus one shepherd and one fold. « Let the fold of the Lord have prelates, both sons and hirelings. But the prelates who are sons are shepherds. If they are shepherds, how is there one shepherd, unless because they are all members of one shepherd, whose own sheep they are? » (Augustine, in Ioan. tract. 46, n. 5).

2°. While Christ the Lord announces the kingdom of God that he is to found on earth, he often describes in parables of what kind it will be; in these he either explicitly declares, or implicitly indicates by the very universality of his kingdom, that this kingdom of his is to be substituted for the old typical kingdom, conspicuous in its own proper form and constitution. In it not one peculiar people, as that typical economy instituted by God was, but all nations, the transformed world, without distinction of nation and race, are embraced.

The kingdom of God of the Old Testament is described by the prophets among a peculiar people under the symbol of a vineyard planted by the Lord God, which, separated from the forests and the wild deserts, or from all nations alien to it, constituted the kingdom of God, certainly visible in its own name and proper form. « You have brought a vine out of Egypt; you have cast out the nations, and planted it... you planted its roots, and it filled the land » (Ps. LXXIX. 9 ff.; Is. V. 1 ff.; Jer. II. 21; XII. 10; Ezek. XIX. 10 ff.). Now Christ the Lord takes up the same parable for his kingdom on earth, and to declare the transference of the kingdom of God to the nations, who will be one nation because one kingdom; and at the same time he describes the cause of this transference, or rather the removal of the kingdom from the Jewish people, foretold by the prophets: because « Christ shall be slain, and the people that shall deny him shall not be his... and he shall confirm the covenant with many » (Dan. IX. 26, 27). The Saviour's description is this: « There was a man, a householder (οἰκοδεσπότης), who planted a vineyard, and put a hedge round about it, and dug in it a winepress, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen. » Almost in the same words the founding of the kingdom of God among the people of Israel is described in Is. V. 2, concluding: « for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. » The master of the house, the Lord of the vineyard, which he had abundantly furnished with all defences and supports, sent his servants in a continuous succession (prophets and other faithful ministers), that he might receive fruit from the husbandmen. But they struck one, killed another, stoned another. « And last of all he sent to them his Son (having one most beloved Son, in Mark; his beloved Son, in Luke), saying: they will reverence my Son. But the husbandmen... seized him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him »⁴. What will the Lord of the vineyard now do to those husbandmen? « He will destroy those evil men miserably, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen (he will give it to others, in Mark and Luke), who shall render him fruit in due season... Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation that brings forth its fruit » (Matt. XXI. 33 ff.; Mark XII; Luke XX).

With this parable of the vineyard there is intimately joined another, in which the kingdom of heaven on earth is represented as the marriage feast of the king's Son. We shall treat in its place of the marriage of the Son of God made flesh with the Church, and of the Church as bride; there we shall also see the espousal already described in the Old Testament with the one peculiar people of God, but so that the unfaithful bride was to be repudiated and replaced by « an everlasting espousal », in which the Lord says: « I will say to what was not my people: you are my people; and he shall say: you are my God » (Hos. II).

Each part of this symbol of the marriage corresponds to each part of the former parable, so that the one signification of both is manifest. « The kingdom of heaven is like to a king who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to call them that were invited (καλέσαι τοὺς κεκλημένους) to the marriage, and they would not come. Again he sent other servants... but they made light of it... and the rest laid hold on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, killed them. » What the husbandmen, to whom the vineyard representing the kingdom of God on earth was first let out, did to the servants sent in succession to demand the fruit, the same thing the invited guests, who were first and before others invited and thus prepared by the king himself for the marriage, did to the king's servants sent in a similar succession. But what in the former parable is the sending of the Son whom they killed, here is the marriage of the Son which they despised. Hence, as there he will destroy those evil men miserably, the vineyard of the kingdom of God is given to others, and this kingdom is transferred to the nations; so all the same things are repeated in the marriage feast of the Son, which are the kingdom of heaven itself on earth. « But the king... destroyed those murderers and burned their city (Jerusalem, the centre of the typical kingdom)... Go therefore into the highways, and whomsoever you shall find, call to the marriage. And the servants going out into the ways gathered together all they found, both bad and good⁵, and the marriage feast was filled with guests. » To this is added that great distinction among the guests: that for the present state of the marriage feast of the kingdom, among those adorned with the wedding garment there are also those who have not the garment of justice; and among the just in one visible kingdom there are also sinners. « But the king went in to see the guests, and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment » (Matt. XXII. 2–14). But concerning this stage of the one, universal, visible kingdom of heaven on earth, in which there are sinners together with the just, the Gospels present another series of parables of Christ the Saviour, which the Bishops of Africa, following Augustine, pressed especially against the Donatists; wherefore those parables are to be reserved for another place, where we shall deliberately treat of the members of the Church.

That the vineyard let out to the nations, and the guests gathered from the streets and lanes who recline at the marriage of the King's Son, signify, this very thing is exhibited through the kingdom of heaven under the symbol of the grain of mustard seed, though shadowed in very few words: « The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed... but when it is grown it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in its branches » (Matt. XIII. 31, 32). The kingdom of heaven, to be founded on earth by Jesus Christ, from beginnings that by human estimation are very small and despised, grows far more sublime than all earthly kingdoms, embracing all nations for their life and salvation. Thus also the transformation of the world in the kingdom and through the kingdom of Jesus Christ is shadowed, while it is said: « the kingdom of heaven is like to leaven », which, though very small in quantity and hidden, pervades and transforms the whole mass of flour: « she hid it in three measures of meal (cf. Gen. XVIII. 6) until the whole was leavened » (Matt. XIII. 33).

Without going further, from what has been said in the thesis it is sufficiently clear in what form the Saviour Christ, from his manifestation in the flesh and from the first beginnings of his preaching and preparation, declared that his divine religion, the truth revealed by him, and the holiness prescribed by him, were to be instituted and founded. Namely, the divine plan was not merely to reveal religion as in the abstract, which individuals would follow privately, each by the persuasion of faith and by the morals of his life left to himself, bound by no bonds of authority, power, obedience, and subjection, as in a philosophical school; but rather, just as we saw it foretold by the prophets, so from the promised and sent Redeemer, at the very beginnings of the execution, it was announced that out of all nations there should be founded the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God on earth, one and universal; and this kingdom itself is to be formed by the faith and profession of the revealed truth, by the discipline and institutions of supernatural holiness; and thus in this kingdom, by social unity through authority and power, both the whole community and each individual by himself are to be preserved and governed in the profession of revealed truth and in the attainment of supernatural holiness. Therefore the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, whose foundation has been announced by him in the way we have seen, is in concreto the very religion of Jesus Christ, which cannot exist without and outside this form of kingdom.