Christ's Exhortation to Vigilance

21. Now it is true that our Master's warning in this respect referred primarily to the need to be on the watch for the end of the world, which will have to come sooner or later. But precisely because this vigilance must always be present and operative in the mind of the faithful servant, it follows that everything that he sets his hand to, his whole way of life as a Christian in the world, should conform to this rule.

Our Lord's exhortation to vigilance is equally applicable to things which may be of more immediate concern to us, the dangers and temptations which threaten to corrupt men's moral lives and turn men away from the right path of truth. ⁶ Thus it is easy to discover in the Gospel a continuous appeal to right thought and action. Was this not in fact the theme of Our Lord's forerunner, St. John, whose preaching inaugurates in the Gospel the public ministry of Jesus Christ? And did not Jesus Christ Himself call upon men to receive God's kingdom interiorly? ⁷ Was not His whole teaching technique concerned with inculcating and fostering the soul's interior life? As a necessary condition for receiving the supernatural gifts of truth and grace in a way consistent with the dignity of the human person, Christ aimed at developing in men a psychological as well as a moral awareness. This awareness was an awareness of their discipleship, which was later to have the effect of recalling to their minds everything that Jesus had taught them and everything that had happened to Him. ⁸ It would grow to maturity, and then at last men would understand who Jesus was, and the meaning of what He had taught and done.

22. The Church's awareness of its divine mission coincided with its birth. Both events are celebrated at Pentecost. Both will develop together. The Church, that is, will develop as a well-organized, hierarchic and social body, and at the same time its awareness of its vocation, of its inner nature, its doctrine, and its mission, will likewise develop. That is what St. Paul prayed for when he said: "And this I pray, that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding." ⁹