Camino Neocathecumenal

The “Introduction” contains the thesis of the document, as the Council Fathers explain that since “Christ is the Light of nations,” (which is the English translation of the Latin title, Lumen Gentium) the “sacred synod…eagerly desires…to bring the light of Christ to all men” (LG, 1). Therefore, “since the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of…union with God andof the unity of the whole human race, it desires…to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and to the whole world its own inner nature and universal mission” (LG, 1). This, then, constitutes the purpose and nature of the document.

Chapter One

“The Mystery of the Church”

Chapter One, entitled, “The Mystery of the Church,” provides a summary of the very nature of the Church asboth the visible and invisible reality through which all persons are called to participate in the Trinitarian, divine life of God through, with and in Christ Jesus. “Fallen in Adam, God the Father did not leave men to themselves, but ceaselessly offered helps to salvation, in view of Christ the Redeemer, ‘who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature’” (LG, 2). God “plannedto assemble in the holy Church all those who would believe in Christ” (LG, 2). Thus, God’s plan was to reestablish all of creation in His Son, the Christ, through whom all persons would be enabled to become adopted sons and daughters of the Father, brothers and sisters in Christ. This is accomplished chiefly through the Church’s sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. Baptism grafts and unitesthe elect to Christ’s Mystical Body, and enables them to participate in Christ’s work of Redemption, perpetuated in the Sacred Liturgy. “As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ our Passover was sacrificed (1 Cor 5:7) is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried on, and in the sacrament of the Eucharistic bread, the unity of all believers who form one body inChrist (cf. 1 Cor 10:17) is both expressed and brought about. All men are called to this union with Christ, who is the light of the world, from whom we go forth, through whom we live, and toward whom our whole life strains” (LG, 3).

After Christ had accomplished his sublime work of redemption which, as stated above, is continued and renewed in an unbloody fashion each time the holy sacrifice ofthe Mass is celebrated, the Holy Spirit of God was sent on the day of Pentecost in order to continue and bring to fruition the Church’s work of sanctification. “The Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful, as in a temple (cf. 1 Cor 3:16). In them he prays on their behalf and bears witness to the fact that they are adopted sons” (LG, 4). Christ, in preaching the “good news” ofthe Gospel, established his kingdom on earth, which is the Church. Having endured his passion and death, the risen Christ sent his Spirit in accordance with his promise to the disciples, that they would be led into the fullness of the truth. “From this source the Church, equipped with the gifts of its Founder and faithfully guarding his precepts of charity, humility and self-sacrifice, receives themission to proclaim and to spread among all peoples the kingdom of Christ and of God and to be on earth the initial budding forth of that kingdom” (LG, 5).

The nature of the kingdom of God, or the Church established by Christ, is conveyed and depicted by the Lord via the use of metaphors. For instance, “the Church is a sheepfold whose one and indispensable door is Christ (Jn 10:1-10). It is aflock of which God himself foretold he would be the shepherd (cf. Is 40:11; Ex 34:11), and whose sheep, although ruled by human shepherds, are nevertheless continuously led and nourished by Christ himself, the good shepherd and the prince of the shepherds (cf. Jn 10:11; 1 Pt 5:4), who gave his life for the sheep (cf. Jn 10:11-15)” (LG, 6). The Church is the Building of God, as Christ refers to...