433. Why is the Christian moral life indispensable for the proclamation of the Gospel?
(Comp 433) Because their lives are
conformed to the Lord Jesus, Christians draw others to faith in the true God,
build up the Church, inform the world with the spirit of the Gospel, and hasten
the coming of the Kingdom of God.
“In brief”
(CCC 2047) The moral life is a
spiritual worship. Christian activity finds its nourishment in the liturgy and
the celebration of the sacraments.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 2044) The fidelity of the baptized is a primordial
condition for the proclamation of the Gospel and for the Church's mission in the world. In order that the message of
salvation can show the power of its truth and radiance before men, it must be
authenticated by the witness of the life of Christians. "The witness of a
Christian life and good works done in a supernatural spirit have great power to
draw men to the faith and to God" (AA 6 § 2). (CCC 2045) Because they are
members of the Body whose Head is Christ
(Cf. Eph 1:22), Christians contribute to building up the Church by the constancy of their convictions and
their moral lives. The Church increases, grows, and develops through the
holiness of her faithful, until "we all attain to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13; cf. LG 39).
Reflection
(CCC 2046) By living with the mind of Christ, Christians hasten the coming of the Reign of God,
"a kingdom of justice, love, and peace" (Roman Missal, Preface of Christ the King). They do not, for all
that, abandon their earthly tasks; faithful to their master, they fulfill them
with uprightness, patience, and love. (CCC 2820) By a discernment according to
the Spirit, Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the Reign of
God and the progress of the culture and society in which they are involved.
This distinction is not a separation. Man's vocation to eternal life does not
suppress, but actually reinforces, his duty to put into action in this world
the energies and means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace
(Cf. GS 22; 32; 39; 45; EN 31).
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