De Ecclesia Christi

« The whole Church, both in the state of warfare and in the state of triumph, is ordered intrinsically, from her essence, to the glory of Jesus Christ as to her end; whence there is understood both the exaltation of the Church herself and the innermost bond of the Church of the Old Testament with the Church of Christ on earth, and of this with the Church finally consummated in heaven. »

As from the incarnate Word as institutor and efficient cause, as head and in a certain way formal cause, and as exemplar cause (of which we have treated so far), so from the same Christ as final cause the nature, life, and exaltation of the Church itself is determined in itself and can be understood by us.

The Church of the Old Testament was a preparation and a pedagogy to Christ (Gal. III. 24; Heb. VII. 19). Hence, first indeed, all the graces and the whole value of the institutions in her depended on Christ, still to come, as on their end: « for the end of the law is Christ » (Rom. X. 4; III. 25; Heb. IX. 15). Then indeed the whole history, the institutions, sacrifices, and sacraments received their form from Christ to come as from their end, since they were shadows and types prefiguring and foretelling Christ himself and the works and institutions of Christ: « which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ »; they stand to Christ as a shadow to the body (Col. II. 17; 1 Cor. X. II; Heb. X. 1).

Much more sublimely, therefore, the Church of the New Testament, to which that old one was an « introduction », and which is the sum of all the works and charisms of Christ the founder, is understood, essentially, in herself, in her form, in her gifts, in her institutions, priesthood, kingdom, magisterium, sacraments, laws, and doctrine, and finally in her whole internal and external life, to have as her end the glorification of Jesus Christ, her redeemer, acquirer, and institutor through his own blood, her head and exemplar. The Church has this end, the glory of Jesus Christ, both in the present stage of warfare and in the future state of full triumph; and from this unity of end, though not from this alone, there arises the mutual relation and connection between the Church of wayfarers tending to the end and the blessed resting at the end, which is the glory of Christ and of God. « He dwells in Sion, which is interpreted as speculation ¹, and Sion bears the image of the Church that now is, just as Jerusalem bears the image of the Church that is to be, that is, of the city of the saints already enjoying angelic life, because Jerusalem is interpreted as vision of peace. Speculation indeed precedes vision, as this Church precedes that which is promised, the immortal and eternal city... But unless the Lord dwelt in this very Church which now is, speculation, however most studious, would go astray. And to this Church it has been said: for the temple of God is holy, which you are; and that Christ dwells in the inner man through faith in your hearts. Therefore we are commanded to sing psalms to the Lord who dwells in Sion, so that we praise in harmony the Lord, the inhabitant of the Church, announcing among the nations his wonders. And it has been done, and it will not cease to be done » St. Aug., on Ps. IX, or. 12.

I. We understand the glory of Jesus Christ as the end of the Church in the present stage of mortal life from what is said of the redeemer himself, of the redeemed faithful, and of the Church as the objective manifestation of Jesus Christ.

1°. Christ the redeemer shed his blood to sanctify the Church: « that he himself might present to himself (αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ) a glorious Church » (Eph. V. 27). Hence the Apostles, in propagating the Church, betroth her as paranymphs, « to present a chaste virgin to Christ » (2 Cor. XI. 2). Still more expressly, the same Apostles, by gathering the nations into the Church through the gospel, offer the nations themselves in the Church, and indeed the Church gathered from the nations, as priests to Jesus Christ, « an oblation accepted and sanctified in the Holy Spirit » ² (Rom. XV. 16; cf. Phil. II. 17).

2°. Proceeding from the other term, which is the faithful in the Church, the Apostle says that the faithful themselves are the proximate end of the whole natural order and of the institutions of the supernatural order; and that the end of the faithful, and so of the Church, is Jesus Christ, to whom they owe themselves wholly and to whom they are fully consecrated; Christ, the man, finally, together with his body the Church, is wholly God's. « All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's » (1 Cor. III. 22). The faithful are therefore dedicated and consecrated entirely to Christ, also formally as redeemer: « for whether we live, we live to the Lord (τῷ κυρίῳ); or whether we die, we die to the Lord; whether therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's; for to this end (εἰς τοῦτο) Christ died and rose again, that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living » (Rom. XIV. 7–9; 1 Cor. VI. 19, 20; 2 Cor. V. 15; 1 Pet. I. 18, 19). Hence, just as all the good things of the Church are from him as from an exemplar, meritorious, and efficient cause, so they are also to him as to a final cause: Christ Jesus « was made to us wisdom from God, and justice and sanctification and redemption, that... he who glories, let him glory in the Lord » (1 Cor. I. 30, 31).³

3°. The supreme manifestation of the manifold wisdom of God, and of the counsels which were hidden from eternity in God, is in the incarnation of the Word, in the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, in the economy of salvation of all nations. Now the effect of the incarnate Word, indeed the sum of his supernatural works, the « rich depository » of the riches of Jesus Christ ⁴, the concrete reality of the economy of salvation, is the Church. Hence the Church is, even to the heavenly spirits themselves, the objective manifestation of all these riches of Jesus Christ, and consequently of the manifold wisdom and counsels of God; so that, just as the end of the work in the created world is the manifestation of the invisible things of God, which are known naturally (Rom. I. 20), so in the sanctified world, that is in the Church, the end of the work is the manifestation of the invisible things of God, which in Christ have been made visible and are known supernaturally. « To me this grace has been given, says the Apostle, to evangelize among the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ ⁵ and to enlighten all, what is the dispensation of the mystery hidden from the ages in God ⁶, who created all things, that there may be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places ⁷ through the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the predetermination of the ages, which he made in Christ Jesus our Lord » ⁸ (Eph. III. 9–11).

As the objective manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ, the Church is constituted in this, that Christ communicates his brightness to her, and from Christ the participated brightness is diffused into her as from the sun into its planet. The Father glorifies the Son by generating him in divinity, and by exalting him in humanity; conversely the Son is the glorification of the Father, in the paternal substance communicated to him, and in the humanity assumed, made obedient unto death and exalted above every name ⁹; and so in both respects, though in a different mode, he is « the splendour (ἀπαύγασμα) of his glory ». The Son, Jesus Christ, glorifies the Church by redeeming her by his death, and by sanctifying and exalting her through participation of his brightness in internal charisms and external offices; and by this very brightness communicated to her, conversely the Church is the splendour of the glory of Jesus Christ. We have all this declared by our Lord himself with divine sublimity, in the last prayer to the Father, offered in the presence of the Apostles: « Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you; as you gave him power over all flesh, that to all that you gave him he may give eternal life... they are yours, and all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them... And for them I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth... And the glory which you gave me I have given to them... I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in one » (Jn XVII. 1 sqq.).

II. Now the glorification of the Church in Christ Jesus, and of Christ in his Church, has not yet reached its end, but is increased by continual increments, according to the measure of the sanctity and brightness advancing in the Church. Finally, when the number of the saints is complete, when we all meet in the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ, the exaltation of the name and the glorification of Jesus Christ will be consummated through the final glorification of the members. This is that « revelation » and « appearing » and « glorious presence » of Jesus Christ the Son of God (ἀποκάλυψις, φανέρωσις, ἐπιφάνεια, παρουσία), which is so often celebrated in the sacred letters. « In the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven... when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be wondered at in all who have believed... so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in us ¹⁰ and you in him, according to the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ » (2 Thess. I. 7 sqq.).

The end, therefore, to which all things are ordered is the Church, to be carried through the state of warfare into the state of the triumphant Church, so that in her and through her the ultimate end of all, which is the glory of God and of the Lamb, may be consummated. All the angels, and those who are « redeemed to God by his blood, from every tribe and tongue and people and nation », and « every creature that is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and that are in the sea », with a loud voice give all glory to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb who was slain (Apoc. V; XXI; XXII).

III. This very ordering and continual progress of the Church of wayfarers toward the Church of the consummated constitutes and contains within itself the same relation of the Church of the New Testament to her Saviour, at the second coming of glorification, which the Church of the Old Testament had to the first coming of redemption. Just as the inner reason and life of the old Church consisted in preparation, hope, and desire for that first coming, as for its end, so the Church of the New Testament, having her redeemer already present and her redemption complete, tends by continual advances toward her end, and is carried with all desire toward « the revelation of the sons of God » and toward the manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ at the second coming, where the last enemy (ἔσχατος ἐχθρός), death, will be destroyed, and when all things shall have been subjected to him, Christ himself, the head with his whole body, now glorified in all the members, will be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. XV. 24 sq.).

In the Old Testament the future one is foreshown to the patriarchs and the prophets: « in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed »; he who is to come, « who is the expectation of the nations »; to arise from Jacob, whom they see, « but not now », they gaze upon, « but not near »; the root of Jesse, who stands as a sign of the peoples, to whom the nations shall supplicate; to be given « for a light of the nations, salvation to the end of the earth »; it is said « to the daughter of Sion: behold your Saviour comes... and his work with him »; « the desired of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory »; « and suddenly the lord whom you seek shall come to his temple, and the angel of the testament whom you desire », etc. (Gen. XII. 3; XXII. 18; XXVI. 4; XLIX. 10; Num. XXIV. 17; Is. XI. 13¹¹; XLIX. 6; LXII. 11; Hag. I. 8¹²; Mal. III. 1).

In the New Testament the possession of these promises is joined with the expectation of their consummation at the second coming. « The grace of God our Saviour has appeared (ἐπεφάνη) to all men... waiting for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory (ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς δόξης) of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ » (1 Cor. I. 7¹³). « Our conversation is in heaven, whence also we await the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will refashion the body of our lowliness, conformed to the body of his glory » (Phil. III. 20, 21). « Your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ shall appear, then you also shall appear with him in glory » (Col. III. 3, 4). ¹⁴ See the rest in the preceding thesis.

Hence, just as the faith and hope of the saints of the Old Testament invoke the first coming as the end of all desires, « drop down dew, you heavens from above, and let the clouds rain the just » (Is. XLV. 8), so the sighs of the Church of the New Testament long for the glorification of Jesus Christ at the second coming. « I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star; and the Spirit and the bride say: come; and let him who hears say: come! » Indeed the final recapitulation and the last words of all that has been written for our teaching, that through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures we may have hope, is the cry of the Spirit and the bride: « Come, Lord Jesus! » (Apoc. XXII. 17, 20).