YOUCAT Question n. 122 - Part XI. Why does God want there to be a Church?
(Youcat
answer - repeated) God wills the Church because he wants to redeem us, not
individually, but together. He wants to make all mankind his people.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 775)
"The Church, in Christ, is like a sacrament - a sign and instrument, that
is, of communion with God and of unity among all men" (LG 1). The Church's
first purpose is to be the sacrament of the inner
union of men with God. Because men's communion with one another is rooted
in that union with God, the Church is also the sacrament of the unity of the human race. In her, this
unity is already begun, since she gathers men "from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and tongues" (Rev 7:9); at the same time, the Church is
the "sign and instrument" of the full realization of the unity yet to
come.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment)
No one gets to heaven
by the asocial route. Someone who thinks only about himself and the salvation
of his own soul is living a-socially. That is impossible both in heaven and on earth.
God himself is not a-social; he is not a solitary, self-sufficient being. The
Triune God in himself is “social”, a communion, an eternal exchange of love.
Patterned after God, man also is designed for relationship, exchange, sharing,
and love. We are responsible for one another.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 776)
As sacrament, the Church is Christ's instrument. "She is taken up by him
also as the instrument for the salvation of all," "the universal
sacrament of salvation," by which Christ is "at once manifesting and
actualizing the mystery of God's love for men" (LG 9 § 2, 48 § 2; GS 45 §
1) The Church "is the visible plan of God's love for humanity,"
because God desires "that the whole human race may become one People of
God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy
Spirit" (Paul VI, June 22, 1973; AG 7 § 2; cf. LG 17).
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