God is an Investor in People

 

The Word of God:

 

"All baptised in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ, and there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus."

 

"You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light."

 

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The People of God

 

The Church is the People of God (Lumen Gentium)

 

"All the faithful, that is, who by Baptsim, are incorporated into Christ, are constituted the people of God, who have been made sharers in their own way in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ and play their part in carrying out the mission of the whole christian people in the church and in the world." (Lumen Gentium §31)

 

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Mission of the Church (People of God)

 

"The Church, equipped with the gifts of its founder and faithfully observing his precepts of charity, humility and self-denial, receives the mission of proclaiming and establishing among all peoples the kingdom of Christ and of God, as is, on earth, the seed and the beginning of that kingdom." (Lumen Gentium §5)

 

 

 

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The Kingdom of God comes about when

 

God rules in our hearts - We accept God's unfailing love for us.

We act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with God (Micah)

We strive to become "fully alive to the glory of God" (St Ireneus)

We elect to serve rather than be served. (Luke 22 v 24-27)

We treat others as we would like them to treat us. (Matt 7 v 12)

 

 

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The Loss of the "Open" Vision of Vatican II

 

"Benedict XVI has begun well. He is taking his own time to make his mark and to shape his vision of Catholicism on the church. He is clearly a man of genuine spirituality and culture. But there are elements of his theology that should certainly cause concern for Catholics who have inherited a more "open" vision of Vatican II, that is the majority of Catholics in the English-speaking world ... "

 

 

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Without the means of coercion, laws cannot be imposed on a community that are unwilling to accept them. This is as true for the Church as it is for civil society.

 

Canonical Doctrine of Reception

 

originated in the statement of Gratian after canon 3 in Distinction IV of his Decretum (circa 1140).

 

"Laws are instituted when they are promulgated and they are confirmed when they are approved by the practices of those who use them."

 

"Valerius Reginaldus (1543-1623) said that when people are given a law which causes them to be unwilling and rebellious there is a presumption that the law is not suitable for that community. He interpreted Gratian's confirming effect of the approving practices of the law's users to mean that the law receives force to bind its subjects by that acceptance."

Read the whole paper by Rev. James Coriden, J.C.D,

 

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Magna Carta

 

It is a custom when teaching history to study Magna Carta in the context of the development of democracy, common and constittutional law. Although excuses have been made in his favour, Pope Innocent III in Etsi Karissimus in Christo, 1215, said,

 

"On behalf of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Sprit, and by the authority of SS Peter and Paul his apostles, and by our own authority, acting on the general advice of our brethren, we utterly reject and condemn this settlement (Magna Carta) and under threat of excommunication we order that the king (of England) should not dare to observe it and that the barons and their associates should not require it to be observed: the charter, with all undertakings and guarantees whether confirming or resulting from it, we declare to be null, and void of all validity for ever. Wherefore, let no man deem it lawful to infringe this document of our annulmetn and prohibition, or presume to oppose it. If anyone should presume to do so, let him know that he will incur the anger of Almighty God and of Ss Peter and Paul his apostles."

 

Today, in the UK, we enjoy privileges that have been hard won down the ages often in the face of bitter hostility from those who should have been on the side of the People of God.