THE CHURCH, PEOPLE 0F GOD AND SAVING INSTITUTION

65 The Church, instituted by Christ, had its origin in his death and resurrection. She is the new People of God, prepared for in the course of the history of Israel; a people to which Christ gives life and growth through the outpouring of the Spirit, and which he perpetually renews and directs by his hierarchical and charismatic gifts; "a people made one with the unity of the Father and the Son and the Hoiy Spirit" (LG, 4).

The Church, therefore, inasmuch as she is the People of God, the society of the faithful, and the communion of men in Christ, is the work of God’s saving love in Christ.

And the principles which give birth to Christians, form them, and establish them as a community (namely, the deposit of faith, the sacraments, and the apostolic ministries) are found in the Catholic Church. To her they have been entrusted, and from them spring the ecciesial activities. in other words, in the Church there are ail the means necessary for assembling herself and guiding herself to maturity as the communion of men in Christ. This work is the fruit not only of the action of a transcendent God, and of the invisible working of Christ and of his Spirit, but also of the institutions, offices, and saving actions of the Church. The Church, therefore, besides being a society 0f the faithful, is also mother of the faithful because of her ministeriai and salutary work.

The Church is the holy People of God which shares in the prophetic office of Christ (cf. LG, 12). Assembled by the word of God, it accepts it and gives witness b it throughout the world. She is a priestly people: "Christ the Lord, High Priest baked from among men, ‘made a kingdom and priests to God his Father’ (Apoc. 1, 6) out of this new people. The baptised, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. Thus through ail those works befitting Christian men they can offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the power of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvellous light" (LG, 10). The Church, however, is essentially a hierarchical society; it 15 a people guided by its Shepherds, who are in union with the Supreme Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ, and who are under his direction (cf. LG, 22). To them the faithful look with filial love and obedient homage. The Church is a people on pilgrimage toward fullness of the mystery of Christ.

The Holy Spirit’s presence in the Church, on the one hand, safeguards in hem, in an indefectible manner, the objective conditions required for her sanctifying meeting with Christ; on the other hand, the Holy Spirit’s presence brings it about that the Church strives for continual purification and renewal in hem members, and for the sake of hem members, and in her changeable structures.