• The KINGDOM OF GOD was the

dominant theme of the public

ministry of Jesus Christ.
• The Good News preached to the poor.
• The gift of God, our ABBA, father who
is sensitive to the needs and
suffering of every human beings.
• It is the seed quietly sown.
• The offer of pardon to sinners.
• The banquet of table-fellowship and joyful
communion with the Lord.
• The gift of Salvation and Eternal Life.
• Christ inaugurated his Church by preaching the
coming of GOD’S KINGDOM.
• His parables about the Kingdom of God employed
many specific images:
 a treasure hidden in a field
 the leaven raising the dough
 the tiny mustard seed growing into a tall tree
 a fish net catching the good and the bad
• The church serve the kingdom:
 as the leaven in the dough of humanity
 in sowing the seed and casting of the net
• The Church includes both the good and the bad fish,
the wheat and the weeds.
• The Church represents the coming Kingdom as the
kingdom in process.
• The petition “Your Kingdom come” in the Lord’s
prayer indicates that God’s kingdom is something
already here, but not yet in its fulfillment in glory.
 The PILGRIM church
stands between the
already and the not yet,
constantly striving to
prepare the way for, and
witness to, the kingdom in
glory.
• “ God has willed to make men holy and save
them, not merely as individuals without any
mutual bonds, but making them into a single
people, a people which acknowledge Him in
truth and serves Him in Holiness” ( LG 9 )

• “Calling together a people, making them one

not according to flesh but in the Spirit.”
Distinguishing Characteristics:

a. Cause - God
“ You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people God claims for his own”
(1 Pt 2:9f )
b. Head - Christ
“ who was handed over to death for our sins
and raised up for our justification.” (Rom 4:25)
c. Members - are those who believe in Christ.
“ who are reborn through the Word of the living
God, of water and Spirit in baptism.” (cf Jn 3:3,5)

d. Condition
The dignity and freedom of the sons/daughters of
God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a
temple.

e. Law
Christ’ new commandment of love and the new law of
the Spirit.
f. Mission
To be the salt of the earth, the light of the
world.

g. Destiny
The final Kingdom of God, brought to
perfection at the end of time.
This new people of God

Priestly
Prophetic
Kingly
• As priest, Jesus was THE MEDIATOR between
God and man.
• His life was characterized by holiness and
prayer.
• He offered the sacrifice of himself for the sake
of the forgiveness of sins.
• We Christians offer spiritual worship for the
glory of God and the salvation of men.
• Jesus was the Father’s MESSENGER who
proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom.
• Jesus preached the Word of God both through
his words and through his example.
• We give witness to Christ so that the power
of the Gospel may shine out in daily family
and social life”
• Jesus’ kingship was manifested not through
domination but through selfless service to
others.

• We serve others especially the poor and the

suffering in whom we recognize the likeness of
our poor and suffering founder.
Objectives:

• Discuss the scriptural image of the Church as

Body of Christ and as Temple of the Holy
Spirit;
• Identify practices that manifest these scriptural
images of the Church; and
• Illustrate one’s image of the Church through a
symbol.
Christ’s body can refer to :
1. Physical body - the historical Jesus, assumed
at the Incarnation.
2. Eucharistic body - making sacramentally
present to us the person of the Risen Christ in
his saving sacrifice.
3. Mystical body - the church, the faithful, united
to Christ as their head, and united and vivified
by His Spirit.
Unity in Diversity

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the

same Spirit; there are different ministries but the
same Lord; there are different works but the same
God who accomplishes all of them in everyone.”
(1 Cor. 12:4-6)
• “You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God
dwells in you”
• The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he has
anointed me. He has sent me to bring tidings to the
poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives.”
• It is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit that is offered
to all Christians in faith.
• Those who follow Jesus are to make His Spirit their
own.
• For many Filipino Catholics, Jesus Christ has become a
real Person in their lives through their devotion to Mary
his mother, who knows him best.
• Early in John’s Gospel, Mary is described as “the
Mother of Jesus.” Her request prompted the first of the
‘Signs’ of Jesus and the “manifestation of his glory” so
that his disciples “believed in him” (cf. Jn 2:1-11).
• “She is clearly the mother of the members of Christ . . .
since she cooperated out of love so that there might be
born in the Church the faithful who are members of
Christ their Head” (LG 53, quoting St. Augustine; cf.
CCC 963).
• Our Filipino Marian piety is also solidly grounded on the
doctrinal teaching of the Church. Vatican II presents the
Blessed Virgin Mary in the final chapter of its Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church (LG).
• The Church’s teaching on Mary is presented in four
sections:
1. the Role of the Blessed Virgin in the Plan of
Salvation;
2. the Blessed Virgin and the Church;
3. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin in the Church; and
4. Mary, a Sign of Sure Hope and Solace for the
Pilgrim People of God.
• The Virgin Mary is acknowledged and honored
as being truly the MOTHER OF GOD and of
the Redeemer.
• Redeemed in a more exalted fashion, by reason
of the merits of her Son and united to him by a
close and indissoluble tie, she is endowed
with the high office and dignity of the Mother
of the Son of God, and therefore she is also
the beloved daughter of the Father and the
temple of the Holy Spirit (LG 53).
• Mary’s perpetual virginity is not simply abstention
from sexual intercourse, but the positive value of perfect
personal integrity in her total gift of self to God.
Mary’s virginity flowered into maternity not only for
Jesus, the first-born of all creation (cf. Rom 8:29; Col
1:15,18), but also for all who would be born again to new
life in him (cf. Jn 3:3; 1 Jn 5:11; LG 57; CCC 499-501).
• The Virgin Birth, then, is not a privilege affecting only
Jesus and Mary, but a positive sign of the Father’s
gracious saving love which adopts us all in sending
His Son, and the Spirit’s building a new People of
God, the Body of Christ, the Church.
• Mary, therefore, had the unique mission from God
to be Mother of His Son-made-man, the Redeemer.
She thus shares in a special way Jesus’ salvific
mission. From this mission flows her singular grace
and privilege of the Immaculate Conception (cf.
CCC 490).

• This signifies that Mary was, “from the first moment

of her conception, in view of the merits of Christ
Jesus the Savior of the human race, preserved
immune from all stain of original sin” (ND 709).
• Moreover, thus “preserved free from all guilt of
original sin, the Immaculate Virgin was taken up
body and soul into heavenly glory [Assumption]
upon the completion of her earthly sojourn” (LG 59;
cf. ND 715; CCC 966).

• With her Assumption to join her Son, the Risen Christ,

in the fullness of her personality, Mary reveals the
fullness of God’s redeeming work for all of us, “a
sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People
of God” (LG 68).
• Both privileges of Mary, her Immaculate Conception
and her Assumption, are not exceptions that
separate Mary from us. They are rather privileges of
fullness and completion. Mary’s grace is universally
shared; her privilege is that of fullness.

• Both privileges are constituted by the Spirit’s

presence, in whom we are all called to share. Thus
they put Mary at the inmost core of all human persons
and of the Church.
• Practically speaking, sinless like Christ himself, Mary
was not blinded or confused by pride or false self-
centeredness. More fully and truly “human” than we
are, Mary then can truly appreciate our human
trials and failures.

• These graces were given to Mary precisely in view

of her unique role in God’s plan to save all through
Christ’s redemptive mission.
• The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception
teaches that Mary, the mother of Christ, was
conceived without sin and her conception was
thus immaculate.
• Mary's sinless conception is the reason
why Catholics refer to Mary as "full of grace".
• The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is
celebrated by Catholics on December 8th each
year.
• Mary received God's grace from the first
moment of her existence, and was totally and
completely redeemed by this grace. Because
she was redeemed, Mary spent her whole
existence in a perfect relationship with God.

• God did this so that Mary would be worthy to be

the mother of God.
“Chosen in advance to be the Mother of the
incarnate Word, Mary is at the same time
the first-fruits of his redeeming action. The
grace of Christ the Redeemer acted in her in
anticipation, preserving her from original sin
and from any contagion of guilt.”

Pope John Paul II, Dec 8, 2003

• The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was
proclaimed as infallible by Pope Pius IX in the bull
(formal proclamation) Ineffabilis Deus in 1854, and
thus is an important article of faith for Roman
Catholics.
“We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which
holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her
conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent
God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of
mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original
sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and
constantly be believed by all the faithful.” Pope Pius IX
• Roman Catholics believe the doctrine of the
Assumption, which teaches that at the end of her
life, Mary, the mother of Christ, was taken body
and soul (i.e. both physically and spiritually) into
heaven to live with her son (Jesus Christ) for ever.
• Human beings have to wait until the end of
time for their bodily resurrection, but Mary's body
was able to go straight to heaven because her soul
hadn't been tainted by original sin.
• Catholics celebrate the Feast of the
Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August
15th each year.
• Eastern Orthodox Christians, following the
Julian calendar, mark the event as the Feast
of the Dormition of the Theotokos, or the
Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God
on 28th August.
• The doctrine of the Assumption was proclaimed
as infallible by Pope Pius XII on All Saints
Day 1950 in the bull (formal
proclamation) Munificentissimus Deus.
“We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a
divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate
Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having
completed the course of her earthly life, was
assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
Pope Pius XII
• Mary is also seen as the MODEL OF THE
CHURCH.
• In all of her actions she exemplifies the mission
of the Church.
• She agreed to God’s will to give birth to Jesus
and supported and displayed her faith in her
son throughout his ministry.
• She was with him at every stage of his work on
Earth and fully supported and followed his
teachings.
 By her complete adherence to the Father's
will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to
every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin
Mary is the Church's model of faith and
charity.

CCC 967 (Catechism of the Catholic

Church)
• Catholics do not worship Mary. Instead,
they pray and ask her to intercede on
their behalf. This means that they ask
Mary to join them in their prayers.

• Catholics venerate Mary instead, which

means that they show her respect
and reverence.
• One of the ways they do this is through
praying the rosary, which consists of
prayers including the 'Hail Mary’.

• The months of May and October are also

dedicated to Mary. During this time, the
rosary will be prayed daily
and devotion is shown to Mary.