The People of God
“A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” [1st Letter of St Peter, 2:9]
“Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” [Colossians, 3:12-15a,17]
'Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them.' [Catechism of the Catholic Church, 783]
From the Pastoral Plan
The world in which we live thirsts for God and every person, as God’s creations, finds meaning and fulfilment only in Him. As Saint Augustine reminds us: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”[St AUGUSTINE, "Confessions", 11] This restlessness, this thirst, is often not recognised and results in much searching that reaches no fulfilment. It is into this space that the Church must step, answering ‘the need to respond adequately to many people’s thirst for God.’[POPE FRANCIS, "Evangelii Gaudium", n.89]
It is, therefore, in this space that we stand as Christ’s faithful in the Diocese. The opportunities that this space affords prompt us to answer the Lord’s call to prayer, to grow in our conformity to Him through our formation, that we may do His work.
This Pastoral Plan presents, therefore, our earnest attempt to respond to this challenge in our present times and circumstances. While we must be in no doubt that the challenges are significant, we know, too, that our following of Christ, our proclamation of the Word Who is Life, brings with it the joy of the Kingdom of God.
["The Word Who is Life: The Call to Mission", paragraphs 6.1 - 6.3]
'The Church's mission is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.' [Catechism of the Catholic Church, 782]
The salt of the earth
"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its altiness be restored? It is no longer good for anythin except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet." [Matthew 5:13-14]
The light of the world
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." [Matthew 5:15-16]
The Church
"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." [Acts 2:4]
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"Established by Christ as a communion of life, charity and truth, it is also used by Him as an instrument for the redemption of all, and is sent forth into the whole world as the light of the world and the salt of the earth." ["Lumen Gentium" n.9 ]
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"The People of God believes that it is led by the Lord's Spirit, Who fills the earth. Motivated by this faith, it labors to decipher authentic signs of God's presence and purpose in the happenings, needs and desires in which this People has a part along with other men of our age. For faith throws a new light on everything, manifests God's design for man's total vocation, and thus directs the mind to solutions which are fully human." [​"Gaudium et Spes", Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, n.11]
from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
781 'At all times and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has been acceptable to him. He has, however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness.'​
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782 The People of God is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political or cultural groups found in history:
- It is the People of God: God is not the property of any one people. But he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a people: "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation". (1 Peter 2:9)
- One becomes a member of this people not by a physical birth, but by being 'born anew', a birth 'of water and the Spirit', (John 3:3-5) that is, by faith in Christ, and Baptism.
- This people has for its Head Jesus the Christ (the anointed, the Messiah). Because the same anointing, the Holy Spirit, flows from the head into the body, this is 'the messianic people'.
- 'The status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as a temple.'
- 'Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us.' (cf. John 13:34) This is the 'new' law of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:2; Galatians 5:25)
- 'Its mission is to be the salt of the earth and light of the world (cf. Matthew 5:13-16) This people is 'a most sure seed of unity, hope and salvation for the whole human race'.
- 'Its destiny, finally, 'is the Kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on earth and which must be further extended until it has been brought to perfection by him at the end of time.' (see "Lumen Gentium", n.9 )
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783 Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them.
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784 On entering the people of God through faith and Baptism, one receives a share in this people's unique, priestly vocation. 'The baptised, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.' (see "Lumen Gentium", n.10 )
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785 'The holy People of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office', above all in the supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People, lay and clergy, when it 'unfailingly adheres to this faith... once for all delivered to the saints', (see "Lumen Gentium", n.12 ) and when it deepens its understanding and becomes Christ's witness in the midst of this world.
786 Finally, the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ. Christ, King and Lord of the universe, made himself the servant of all, for he came 'not be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many'. (Matthew 20:28) The People of God fulfils its royal dignity by a life in keeping with its vocation to serve with Christ.
[extracts from Catechism of the Catholic Church, English translation for the UK, © Burns & Oates - Libreria Editrice Vaticana]
You can access the full Catechism at the Vatican archive:
​Lumen gentium ("The Light of Nations")
Dogmatic Constitution on the Nature of the Church, from the Second Vatican Council
​© The Holy See
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CHAPTER I - THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH
8 ​Just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and persecution, so the Church is called to follow the same route that it might communicate the fruits of salvation to men. Christ Jesus, "though He was by nature God . . . emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave",(Philippians 2:6-7) and "being rich, became poor"(2 Corinthians 8:9) for our sakes. Thus, the Church, although it needs human resources to carry out its mission, is not set up to seek earthly glory, but to proclaim, even by its own example, humility and self-sacrifice. [...] The Church, "like a stranger in a foreign land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God"(see note), announcing the cross and death of the Lord until He comes."(1 Corinthians 11:26) By the power of the risen Lord it is given strength that it might, in patience and in love, overcome its sorrows and its challenges, both within itself and from without, and that it might reveal to the world, faithfully though darkly, the mystery of its Lord until, in the end, it will be manifested in full light.
Note: St Augustine, "De Civitate Dei" ("The City of God") XVIII, 51, 2
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CHAPTER II - ON THE PEOPLE OF GOD
9 At all times and in every race God has given welcome to whosoever fears Him and does what is right.(cf. Acts 10:35) God, however, does not make men holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased Him to bring men together as one people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness. He therefore chose the race of Israel as a people unto Himself. With it He set up a covenant. Step by step He taught and prepared this people, making known in its history both Himself and the decree of His will and making it holy unto Himself. All these things, however, were done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified in Christ, and of that fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word of God Himself made flesh. "Behold the days shall come saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel, and with the house of Judah . . . I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people . . . For all of them shall know Me, from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord.(Jeremiah 31:31-34) Christ instituted this new covenant, the new testament, that is to say, in His Blood,(cf. 1 Corinthians 11:25) calling together a people made up of Jew and gentile, making them one, not according to the flesh but in the Spirit. This was to be the new People of God. For those who believe in Christ, who are reborn not from a perishable but from an imperishable seed through the word of the living God,(cf. 1 Peter 1:23) not from the flesh but from water and the Holy Spirit,(cf. John 3:56) are finally established as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people . . . who in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God".(1 Peter 2:9-10)
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10 Christ the Lord, High Priest taken from among men,(cf. Hebrews 5:1-5) made the new people "a kingdom and priests to God the Father".(cf. Revelation 6:1) The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, in order that through all those works which are those of the Christian man they may offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the power of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvellous light.(1 Peter 2:4-10) Therefore all the disciples of Christ, persevering in prayer and praising God,(Acts 2:42-47) should present themselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.(Romans 12:1) Everywhere on earth they must bear witness to Christ and give an answer to those who seek an account of that hope of eternal life which is in them.(1 Peter 3:15)
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Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated: each of them in its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ.(note a)
The ministerial priest, by the sacred power he enjoys, teaches and rules the priestly people; acting in the person of Christ, he makes present the Eucharistic sacrifice, and offers it to God in the name of all the people.
But the faithful, in virtue of their royal priesthood, join in the offering of the Eucharist. (note b) They likewise exercise that priesthood in receiving the sacraments, in prayer and thanksgiving, in the witness of a holy life, and by self-denial and active charity.​​
note (a): cf. Pius XII, Allocution "Magnificate Dominum" ("Magnify the Lord") 2nd November 1954
(b) cf. Pius XI, Encyclical "Miserentissimus Redemptor" ("Most Merciful Redeemer") 8th May 1928
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12 The holy people of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office; it spreads abroad a living witness to Him, especially by means of a life of faith and charity and by offering to God a sacrifice of praise, the tribute of lips which give praise to His name.(cf. Hebrews 13:15)
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It is not only through the sacraments and the ministries of the Church that the Holy Spirit sanctifies and leads the people of God and enriches it with virtues, but, "allotting his gifts to everyone according as He wills,(1 Corinthians 12:11) He distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts He makes them fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and building up of the Church, according to the words of the Apostle: "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for profit".(cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:12,19-21) These charisms, whether they be the more outstanding or the more simple and widely diffused, are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation for they are perfectly suited to and useful for the needs of the Church.