Lumen Gentium: Chapter 1 Commentary

Read Lumen Gentium

Study Questions for Chapter 1
1. What is God's plan for humanity?
2. Where is the first foreshadowing of the Church found?
3. Is the Church the Kingdom of God? Explain.
4. Who is called to union with Christ?
5. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church?
6. Which metaphor for the inner nature of the Church is most meaningful to you? Explain why.
7. Describe the unity of the Church.
8. Use paragraph 8.2 (section eight, second paragraph) to explain the truth that "salvation is only found within the Catholic Church."

Commentary on Chapter 1: Mystery of the Church
It is no coincidence that the chapter "Mystery of the Church" begins with a reminder of God's loving plan of salvation. From the very creation of mankind, God intended us to raise men to a participation of the divine life, to be His friends. Influenced by the serpent, Adam and Eve saw equality with God something to be grasped at, and so forsook the plans God had for them. However, God did not abandon us because of our sin. He continuously called to humankind and began healing their sundered relationship with Him by establishing increasingly intimate and inclusive covenants. These covenants were fulfilled "in the fullness of time" (Ephesians 1:10) by Jesus Christ, who came to unite us to Himself in a most intimate way and, through Himself, to unite us all to the Father. Christ chose to express this new covenant through the Church, founded on Peter and the apostles. The Church today stands in medias res - in the middle of things. Each covenant in salvation history foreshadowed the Church by bringing mankind into an increasingly intimate relationship with God, and the Church fulfills these covenants by realizing the Kingdom of God on earth. Nonetheless, the Kingdom of God is not completed in human history, as sin and ignorance keep their grip on human nature. So the Church awaits the completion of time when the Kingdom of God will be fully realized in human nature and when all things are subject to God. The Kingdom of God is present within the Church as mystery - in the process of being revealed!
So how do we live that mystery out? After Our Lord ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father, He sent us the Holy Spirit to be our helper and guide. The Holy Spirit guides the Church from error in its understanding of God and our relationship with Him (John 16:3). He offers us His guidance through the Church's hierarchical structure of the Church. Why through a hierarchy? Isn't a hierarchy of power a human construct? The hierarchy is centered on the bishops, the successors of the apostles. Through them, the entire Church is united through history to the historical life and teachings of Christ. The bishops are united around the world by the pope. The hierarchy of the Church is not a hierarchy of power. It is a sign of unity. Lumen Gentium treats the hierarchy of the Church in more detail in chapter 3. The point the Council makes here is that the Holy Spirit unites the Church together through the hierarchy and then unites the Church to Christ in a relationship of intimate love.
Article six is a beautiful survey of the Biblical metaphors for the Church. Each metaphor reveals part of the mystery of the Church. These metaphors are worthy of our meditation. They reveal to us the love and care that Christ has for His Church. They reveal to us the unity the Holy Spirit effects among the people of the Church. They reveal to us the unity the Holy Spirit effects between the Church and Christ. The main theme of these metaphors leads us once again to define the Church in terms of unity to Christ. While this may be an obvious connection on an intellectual level, an honest self-examination of the kind Lumen Gentium calls us to would probably reminds us that we do not always relate to the Church as if it did have its origins in Christ. All too often we think of the Church as a purely human institution. We (and I do include myself in this reference) complain because Mass is not done the way we would prefer, as if the purpose of Mass was to entertain. We complain about the decisions made by our bishops, as if they should put every decision to a vote. We gossip about our priests and about each other. Too many of us have turned the Church into a social club. We pay our "dues" and enjoy our time with our friends as long as the club does not demand too much of our time and as long as it does not demand more money from us than our dues. The metaphors presented to us by Lumen Gentium remind us that there is more to the Church than a merely human institution. The Church is led by human beings, but it is also led and nourished by Christ himself. As members of the Church, we all need Christ as our vine, as our cornerstone and foundation.
My personally favorite metaphor for the Church is the bride of Christ. We are the bride awaiting our bridegroom and being prepared for His coming. The sacraments are the presence of our bridegroom in mystery. They are the engagement. We have union with our future spouse, but it is an incomplete union. Yet, we use this time of incomplete union to prepare ourselves so that when the time comes, our complete union may be even more meaningful. The Church and its individual members need to use this time of engagement to undergo conversion. If we do this, we will be presented to Christ as a bride free of blemish and we will enjoy unity with our beloved. What an exciting way to see the Church! As a body, we are the recipient of all that Christ as to offer. Christ has already showered His betrothed with engagement gifts - grace, vocation, conversion, forgiveness of sins, spiritual gifts, blessings. After we are joined with Him at the end of time, we will be give the even more valuable gifts of the marriage feast. Once again, the metaphor used by the Council calls us to conversion. Are we using the gifts our fiancé has given us, or are we wasting them? Are we preparing ourselves for the wedding? Will we be ready, and will we be worthy recipients of the wedding gifts when the groom finally comes to collect His bride?
The image of the Church as the Bride of Christ brings to mind the one flesh union enjoyed by man and wife. Indeed, it follows that Christ desires a one flesh union with His Bride, the Church. This central metaphor for the Church is found in article seven. The Church is the Body of Christ. Christ the Head nourishes His body, purifies it, and molds it to His image. The soul of the Body is the Holy Spirit, who guides its formation and gives it Divine Life. As members of His Body, we each have our own role to play, directed by the Head. Again, Lumen Gentium focuses on the special role the hierarchy plays, given the gifts of the "grace of the apostles," in uniting the rest of the Body. In chapter four, Lumen Gentium will discuss the unique role the lay members of the Body of Christ play. Another beautiful truth illuminated by this metaphor of the Church is that unity with Christ gives meaning to human suffering. As part of His Body, our sufferings are part of Christ's suffering on the Cross, and can contribute to the salvation of the world. Knowing that we are joined with Christ in our suffering can make our endurance of afflictions meaningful and virtuous. We can suffer for the sake of others. The greatest mystery of being part of the Mystical Body of Christ is that we join with Christ, in one body with Him, as He offers his love and glory to the Father. We join in the Divine Life of the Holy Trinity, as a member of the Trinity in Christ. What would be blasphemous for any individual to claim alone is made real for the Church as a body.
Perhaps the most important point chapter one makes is located in article eight. We must be very careful about how we perceive the Church. As I discussed earlier, the Church is not a completely human institution enslaved to human power struggles and petty concerns. On the other hand, it is not a perfectly divine institution that can do no wrong or that has already reached the fulfillment of conversion. The Church shares with Christ a dual nature. It is both human and divine. The visible social structure, the human aspect of the Church, serves the Spirit of Christ. The hierarchy serves human functions of governance and authority, but it also serves the Divine Nature of the Church by being the instrument of grace through the sacraments. The laity are called to form human society within the Church and through their relationships in the world, but they are also called to transform the world with the power of the Gospel. The Church is made up of sinners, yet it is charged to bring grace and holiness to the entire world. The Church is at the same time holy and in need of constant purification. These realities cannot be separated. To do so would be to miss the totality of the mystery, to oversimplify and to fall into error.
The mystery of the Church is not a puzzle to be solved. It is a mystery to be entered into, to be meditated on, and to be lived out. How well are we living this mystery? How well do we understand it? All of us must seek the grace of conversion so that we may enter more deeply into the mystery of who we are in Christ.