Jesus is the Son of God, sent by theFather out of LOVE that we might have life through Him. (see Jn 3:16)

EMPHASIS: God’s solidarity with us, human beings.

A. THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH: HUMAN AND DIVINE

Jesus lived among us as our fellow human being, like us in all things EXCEPT…

He underwent the process of human growth.

He grew and became strong and advanced in wisdom and age, and favor before God and men.

He lived the life of a carpenter, shared the life of the human community, worked in a hidden way for the greater part of his life.

Identified by the Father as His Son and Servant, Jesus preached in the power of the Holy Spirit

The theme of His preaching and deeds was the KINGDOM OF GOD.This Kingdom was not only a reality in the future but was already somehow present through Jesus’ own person, words and deeds.

It was a Kingdom that brought liberation and salvation to the human person both in his physical and spiritual dimensions.

Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom to all but showed special preference for the

The Kingdom achieved its decisive victory through the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He resisted evil and clashed with the religious powers of Israel.He was crucified, and died a victim of injustice, but His death was less a taking away of His life as a free offering of Himself to the Father, an act which He wants us to remember through the Eucharist.

The time between the ascension of the Lord and His return in glory at the end of time is the TIME OF THE CHURCH, the time of mission for the disciples of the Lord

After His Ascension, he sent upon the them the Holy Spirit on Pentecost so that, invested with power from on high, they might proclaim courageously the love of Jesus who died and rose that all might have life.

The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope, and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men.“

The Church is at the same time: - a "society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ; - the visible society and the spiritual community; -the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches.“ These dimensions together constitute "one complex reality which comes together from a human and a divine element":

The Church is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world, but as a pilgrim, so constituted that in her the human is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, the object of our

Quest.