Dear St. Rita Families,
It is always important for us as Catholics to understand the role of Christ’s Church in our salvation. There are many doctrines which the Church defines and to which we willingly assent, and it is good to be reminded that they are not arbitrary. The Church is given to us as a Divine and human institution, as the new People of God. The Church is the community or Communion to which God calls all mankind so that they can receive the gifts that God has for those who believe in Him. He has established Her in the same way that He established the People of Israel.
On Mount Sinai, Moses sacrifices oxen to the Lord and sprinkles the blood all over the people and the altar that he had built there, and he says, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words” (Ex 24:8). Those ‘words’ are the words of the law which Moses had just spoken to the people. God’s plan in choosing Israel in this way was not to push away all other peoples, but rather that Israel would be the means by which all other peoples would come to know the Lord. Moses tells the people in Deuteronomy, “Keep [these statutes and ordinances] and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?” (4:6-8). The Old Testament is replete with similar statements indicating the blessings that all peoples would receive through Israel.
Thus, when Israel found itself unable to keep the covenant which they promised to keep and which God had established with them, God begins to make statements that indicate a new direction: For example, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah…” (Jer 31:31). Remember that God had been working from the beginning to invite mankind into perfect relationship with Himself. He created mankind in right relationship with Himself, and man threw it away through sin. God established covenant after covenant with mankind afterwards, and man continued to throw it away through sin. So, what to do?
God, of course, knew what He would do from the beginning, though it is only gradually revealed to us as history unfolds. God Himself becomes man and establishes the final covenant – the New and Eternal Covenant – in a way that only He can. Every other human would have failed, but not Christ, the Son of God. Christ completes, then, the human side of the Covenant, because no one else was able to do so. This is why the New Covenant is eternal and unchangeable.
Just like there was blood in the Old Covenant, so there is also in the New. But the Blood of the New Covenant is the Blood of Christ Himself, not the blood of oxen like at Sinai. It is God’s Blood, by which our sin is forgiven, and we are able to enter into Communion with Him. His Blood enables us to become members of the New People of God. In other words, when we were baptized, we entered into something utterly Divine. Therefore, what is necessary is a total and complete conversion of life, of turning away from sin, of perfect purity and goodness. The smallest sin is unworthy of a member of the People of God. It is an offense against the Goodness of Christ who went to death because of His fidelity to His Father and our Father.
In this context, all the dogmas and beliefs that the Church proclaims as necessary to adhere to are given a different flavor. The beliefs simply explicate how this above dynamic is possible and how it has played out in the lives of those who were closest to it. They put meat on the bones of what I have just laid out in this little note. For example, the Church as the People of God is also the Bride of Christ, which allows us to use the analog of human marriage to understand the depth of intimacy with Himself to which God calls us. From that truth flows many others (e.g. that men alone can be priests, since a priest is to care for Christ’s Bride as his own).
This short note cannot do justice to such a large topic, but I hope it helps to clarify why we believe the way that we do. It is all tied up in who God is, who we are, and what God has done – gratuitously – for our salvation.
In Christ,
Fr. Christensen