The Church: Sacrament
of Salvation
Unit 1
Christ Establishes the Church
Definitions of the Church
• All persons, individual or corporate, have an inherent right to provide their
own identity. These can be in accord with their own ideals and they can be
critical.
• Secondarily, persons from outside may attribute definitions to entities. These
similarly can be critical or sympathetic with self-identity. These perspectives
can form important contributions to self-identity, but they not as important
initially.
• What is the Church?
What is the Church?
• Self-definition: the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic people whom God has
called from the ends of the earth, drawing its life from the Word and from
sacraments particularly the Eucharist. The Church is the sacramental
presence of Christ.
• Define: The Marks of the Church (one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic)
• Define: sacrament
Definitions: the 4 Marks of the Church
• One: Salvation for all people comes through the Church through Christ, its Head. Despite
ritual and cultural differences, the Church remains essentially united in Christ.
• Holy: The holiness of the Church derives from Christ, superceding the sinfulness of its
members and even the sinfulness of the institution of the Church. The Church is holy
because it belongs to Christ and manifests Him in the world.
• Catholic: universal, wholeness. This indicates that the Church possesses the fullness of the
means of salvation through Word and sacraments. The Church is universal in respect to the
completeness of its doctrine, its mission to the entire world, and its full manifestation in
each local diocese.
• Apostolic: The Church maintains an unbroken line of popes and bishops extending back to
the apostles, and through the Holy Spirit faithfully maintains the teaching of Christ, known
as the Deposit of Faith.
Definition: Sacrament
• Sacrament: efficiacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to
the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by
which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces
proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with
the required dispositions. (CCC 1131)
• In strict sense, the Church defines seven sacraments: Baptism, Penance,
Eucharist, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, Matrimony.
• The Church itself may be understood as a sacrament.
The People of God
• The Church includes the entire people of God: Hierarchy, religious, laity, living and
dead, the saints in heaven and souls in purgatory. This follows from the identity of
the Church as the Body of Christ.
• The Communion of Saints: the union of the People of God to each other in Christ
• Not restricted to the Hierarchy (pope, Cardinals, bishops, deacons)
• Not restricted to the living, but embodies the dead though our fidelity to the
tradition, appeal for the intercession of saints, and prayers for the souls in purgatory
• The Church is not a democracy.
The Church: Secondary Definitions
(not defined by Catholic doctrine)
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A civil legal institution, one of many
The Hierarchy
Inclusive of all denominations
The visible and invisible church of Calvinist doctrine
A building
A. The Origin, Foundation, and Manifestation
of the Church
• The Church was foreshadowed in God’s reaction to the Fall; i.e. to our
sinfulness. The history of covenants with Israel prepared us for the Church.
• Salvation history begins with the history of covenants, sin, and redemption,
continuing today.
• Covenants indicate our adoption by God into His family.
• As members of the Body of Christ, we share in the communion and love
that exists within God’s self; we share in the life of the Trinity.
Christ Founds the Church
• First promised by Jeremiah, the New Covenant replaces the old covenants
and cannot be broken by human infidelity.
• Christ preached that the fulfilment of the New Covenant, the Kingdom of
God, was at hand. He was establishing the Church through His mission,
which was completed in His death and Resurrection.
• The Church carries the tension of being “not yet and already.” We look
forward to the Second Coming while recognizing the presence of Christ
among us today. The Church is both holy and sinful.
B. The Holy Spirit Reveals the Church at
Pentecost
• The Holy Spirit made the Church known at Pentecost through the gifts that
enabled the spread of the gospel and sacraments.
• The Easter season ends with the celebration of Pentecost, known as the
birth of the Church.
• Through the Spirit and by virtue of Pentecost, the Church makes Christ
available to the world.
C. Holy Spirit Present in the Church
• Hierarchic Gifts: Christ established fundamental levels of authority to ensure unity
and fidelity. The basic division of authority is: pope, bishops, priests, deacons.
• By virtue of these gifts, the pope, bishops, priests, deacons, and laity each have the
ability in correct circumstances to administer sacraments and to spread the gospel.
• While the organization of the Church has changed over the centuries, the
fundamental structure and the principle of a hierarchic structure remains consistent.
• Charismatic gifts: 1 Cor 12. Pull the Church outward in ministry
Different Gifts, One Body
• Members of the Hierarchy are not Lords: they are servants and children of
the Church as a whole.
• Even in a democracy, leaders are not subject to the laws that bind others in
certain circumstances: Police can speed, military members can kill or take
prisoner, governments can confiscate property. This is not the case in the
hierarchy.
• The Church is not a democracy in that the essential laws are from God, not
human discretion.
D. The Holy Spirit Inspires the Apostles’
Mission
• Apostolic Succession: Bishops do not merely have the same office of the
Apostles, they partake of the same gifts of the Spirit through their
ordination.
• The Great Commission: Matt. 28:18-20. Promise of Christ’s continual
presence in the Church through the sacraments, by which disciples are made.
Peter Preaches at Pentecost
• The effect of the Holy Spirit was that Peter, as leader of the Apostles, had
the courage and ability to preach to all nations. The people responded by
asking forgiveness and becoming baptized.
• Today, preaching the word to those inside and outside the Church leads to
the sacraments.
• The leadership of Peter at Pentecost confirms the leadership of the Pope
today.
Growth and Persecution of the Church
• After Pentecost, the previously frightened Apostles suddenly had the courage
to preach publicly. Similarly, Paul, after being called by Christ, found the
courage to preach. Paul and most of the Apostles were matryred.
• The efforts of Paul and other missionaries led to the dramatic growth of the
Church among the gentiles, fulfilling the promise that all nations would be
blessed through Abraham.
E. Handing on the Teaching of Jesus
• The Church becomes the Mystical Body of Christ; this means the people are
united with Christ in communion in the same way Christ is present in the
Eucharist. This is particularly true in two ways:
• Christ is present in the Church physically in the sacraments, especially the
Eucharist.
• Christ is also present through Apostolic tradition, which guarantees the
teaching of the Church and in which scripture is rooted.
Sacred Scripture
• The Gospels were formed in three stages: 1) the Life of Christ, 2) the Oral
Tradition, and 3) the written gospels and formation of the canon.
• The New Testament can be understood as a response to the Old Testament,
and a completion of creation (ending with Revelation). The two testaments
are critical to understanding the single story of salvation. Some early
heretics, like Marcion and some Gnostics, attempted to exclude the Old
Testament.
F. Role of the Apostles in the Early Church
• The Apostles saw their role as distinctive and permanent, as evident by the
selection of Matthias as a successor to Judas. More bishops were selected as
the Church grew.
• At the Council of Jerusalem, the Church gathered and decided together that
salvation was through Jesus Christ, not through the Law, so that gentiles who
became Christian did not have to convert to Judaism (become circumcised)
before being accepted in the Church.
• The Hierarchical structure of the Church was evident at this early date.