{"id":17629,"date":"2017-05-19T01:01:08","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T06:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/?p=17629"},"modified":"2017-05-04T06:18:01","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T11:18:01","slug":"the-church-complete-lesson-20-the-vision-of-the-glory-of-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/2017\/05\/19\/the-church-complete-lesson-20-the-vision-of-the-glory-of-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church Complete Lesson 20: The Vision of the Glory of the Church"},"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>The Twelve Apostles represent God\u2019s new Israel: that is the reason why they are twelve, the successors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.<\/p>\n

Saint John tells us about this reality in his Revelation: the Angel shows him \u201cthe New Jerusalem\u201d coming down out of Heaven, which is an image that represents the Glory of the Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. He took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God\u201d (Revelation 21, 9-11).<\/p>\n

It is important to notice the details in Saint John\u2019s description of the Church:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal: having a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb\u201d (Revelation 21, 10-14).<\/p>\n

The \u201cgreat and high wall\u201d represents the majesty and fortification of the Church, in conformity with the way important cities of the past were surrounded and fortified by great walls. The \u201ctwelve gates\u201d bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, open to the four cardinal points, represent the universal catholic character of the Church: She embraces the whole of mankind. The \u201ctwelve foundations\u201d bearing the name of the twelve Apostles represent the successors of the twelve tribes of Israel: they spread the Church up to all nations of the earth.<\/p>\n

It is worth noticing that the Apostles elected one more Apostle <\/strong>to replace Judas Iscariots (Acts 1, 15-26), which completes the number of the Twelve Apostles. These Twelve went to many countries and spread the Good News all around: they chose successors and imposed their hands on their heads to transmit them the power Jesus Christ had bestowed on the Church. At present, they are our Bishops, more than 4,200 all around the world. God\u2019s People spread all over the world among the whole of mankind. Through the Church, the Father accomplishes His plan: \u201cto sum up all things in Christ\u201d (The Letter to the Ephesians 1, 10).<\/p>\n

The Catechism of the Church clearly defines this reality: “The Church, in Christ, is like a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men<\/strong>.” The Church’s first purpose is to be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God. Because men’s communion with one another is rooted in that union with God, the Church is also the sacrament of the unity of the human race. In her, this unity is already begun, since she gathers men “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues”; at the same time, the Church is the “sign and instrument” of the full realization of the unity yet to come (CCC # 775).<\/p>\n

\u201cAs sacrament, the Church is Christ’s instrument. “She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the salvation of all,” “the universal sacrament of salvation,” by which Christ is “at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God’s love for men.” The Church “is the visible plan of God’s love for humanity,” because God desires “that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit\u201d (CCC # 776).<\/p>\n

Prof Felipe Aquino<\/em><\/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><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Twelve Apostles represent God\u2019s new Israel: that is the reason why they are twelve, the successors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Saint John tells us about this reality in his Revelation: the Angel shows him \u201cthe New Jerusalem\u201d…<\/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":[18855,178913],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17629"}],"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=17629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17631,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17629\/revisions\/17631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cancaonova.com\/catholicismanew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}