{"id":17499,"date":"2017-04-14T01:01:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T06:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/?p=17499"},"modified":"2017-04-06T06:27:12","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T11:27:12","slug":"the-church-complete-lesson-15-the-church-and-the-kingdom-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/2017\/04\/14\/the-church-complete-lesson-15-the-church-and-the-kingdom-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church Complete Lesson 15: The Church and the Kingdom of God"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Saint<\/a>

By valyag (Own work) [GFDL (http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Vatican Council II teaches us that the Kingdom of God is identified with the Church.<\/h2>\n

The Church \u201creceives the mission to proclaim and to spread among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ and of God and to be, on earth, the initial budding forth of that kingdom\u201d (Lumen Gentium 5).<\/p>\n

Therefore Christ founded the Church on the rock of Peter and the Apostles so that She can be the \u201cseed\u201d of God\u2019s Kingdom. Christ founded His Kingdom on earth and His Kingdom cannot exist for mankind without the Church.<\/p>\n

The images Jesus used to describe His Church show Her mission and intimate union with Him.<\/p>\n

When \u201cthe fullness of time\u201d had come (The Letter to the Galatians 4, 4) God sent His Son to the world so that His Plan of Salvation could be accomplished. That is Jesus\u2019 Mission, for the Father wants\u00a0 \u201cto sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth\u201d (The Letter to the Ephesians 1, 10). Jesus founded the Kingdom of Heaven on earth through the announcement of the Gospel and the creation of His Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church, or, in other words, the kingdom of Christ<\/strong> now present in mystery, grows visibly through the power of God in the world\u201d (Lumen Gentium 3).<\/p>\n

It is worth noticing here that Vatican Council II identifies the Church to Christ\u2019s Kingdom, present on earth as a mystery.<\/p>\n

Jesus started the Church by preaching the Good News, \u201cthe coming of God\u2019s Kingdom\u201d promised in the Gospel. \u201cThis is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand\u201d (Mark 1, 15).<\/p>\n

God\u2019s Kingdom emerged through Jesus\u2019 presence on earth, His Words and His miracles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if it is by the finger of God that [I] drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you\u201d (Luke 11, 20; Matthew 12, 28).<\/p>\n

The seed and the beginning of the Kingdom is that \u201clittle flock of sheep\u201d that Jesus the Shepherd gathered to live with Him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cDo not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom\u201d (Luke 12, 32).<\/h3>\n

That \u201clittle flock\u201d of disciples represents the starting point of the Church, predestined to be \u201cGod\u2019s Family\u201d (The Letter to the Ephesians 2, 20). It is Jesus\u2019 family and He looks after them like a Good Shepherd.<\/p>\n

\u201c I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me\u201d (John 10, 14).<\/p>\n

The Lord compares His Church to a sheepfold and the only gate to it is the Christ Himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep\u2026. Whoever enters through me will be saved\u201d (John 10, 8-9).<\/p>\n

The Church is God\u2019s flock and He Himself is the Shepherd. Human shepherds take care of the flock but each sheep is guided and fed by Christ Himself.<\/p>\n

Prof Felipe Aquino<\/p>\n

Professor Felipe Aquino\u00a0is a\u00a0widower, father of five children. <\/span>On TV Can\u00e7\u00e3o Nova he presents the program \u201cEscola da F\u00e9\u201d [School of faith] and \u201cPergunte e Responderemos\u201d [Ask and respond], on Radio he presents the program \u201cin the heart of the Church\u201d. <\/span>On weekends he preaches deepening meetings throughout Brazil and abroad. He w<\/span>rote 73 books of Catholic background by publishers, Loyola and Cleopas and Can\u00e7\u00e3o Nova. His t<\/span>eacher\u2019s page:www.cleofas.com.br<\/a>\u00a0Twitter: @pfelipeaquino<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Vatican Council II teaches us that the Kingdom of God is identified with the Church. The Church \u201creceives the mission to proclaim and to spread among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ and of God and to be, on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9791],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17499"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17669,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17499\/revisions\/17669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}