In Brief

Christ Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own”.1

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”.2

One enters into the People of God by faith and Baptism. “All men are called to belong to the new People of God”3, so that, in Christ, “men may form one family and one People of God”4.

The Church is the Body of Christ. Through the Spirit and his action in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist, Christ, who once was dead and is now risen, establishes the community of believers as his own Body.

In the unity of this Body, there is a diversity of members and functions. All members are linked to one another, especially to those who are suffering, to the poor and persecuted.

The Church is this Body of which Christ is the head: she lives from him, in him, and for him; he lives with her and in her.

The Church is the Bride of Christ: he loved her and handed himself over for her. He has purified her by his blood and made her the fruitful mother of all God’s children.

The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. the Spirit is the soul, as it were, of the Mystical Body, the source of its life, of its unity in diversity, and of the riches of its gifts and charisms.

“Hence the universal Church is seen to be ‘a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’”5.