Documents of the Second Vatican Council

Lumen Gentium (Light of the Nations)

Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Part VIII)

Article no. 10 in a series by Bishop Kevin Manning.

Catholic Outlook, August 2008

In the last article, I wrote about Chapter 8, the final chapter in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. It treats the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church. To bring my commentary on the Constitution to a conclusion I will develop a key concept of the Constitution: the term "People of God".

People of God
You have often heard yourself referred to as the "People of God", the Church, the people chosen to be His, to serve Him and make Him known throughout the world.

The "People of God" is a term associated with the Covenants of the Old Testament, and the term resurfaced in the Second Vatican Council as one of the most central and frequently used names for the Church.

Advantages
The Scriptural renewal brought about by the Second Vatican Council took us back to this primary idea of Church. The term shows a continuity of God's intervention in human history. It is much easier to speak of the development of the Church in terms of the sins and weaknesses of the members, when she is seen as a group of people advancing, led by the Holy Spirit, through the paths of history.

It also shows essentially the quality of all her members, not the Church as a province of the clergy.

Finally, the terminology is clear, easy to explain, to the People of the Church whereas the name "Mystical Body" still presents difficulties for many.

Objection
Some theologians objected to the term "People of God" saying that it lacked theological depth. It indicates the continuity of the Church with old Israel, but does not show the Christocentric character of the Church.

Convenant background
To understand the term properly we need to go back to the Covenants of the Old Testament first negotiated with the People of God.

The principal Covenant of the Old Testament was made with Moses on Mt Sinai when God said: "I shall be their God and they shall be my people."

This, and the other Covenants, established Israel as God's own people involving a special and permanent relationship granted by God who "chose" His people, but a relationship freely accepted by them.

The sign of the people's acceptance was circumcision, visible testimony that the individual person shared the relationship. The alliance was sealed with the animal sacrifices like those presided over by Moses on Mt Sinai (Ex 24:8)

New Covenant
The death of Christ established a new Covenant, a new alliance made by God with men, sealed by a new sacrifice, offered by the new high priest, promulgating the new law for the new People of God, the Church.

The New Covenant was made by Jesus through a new Covenant sacrifice offered in His blood on the Cross and in the Eucharist: "This is my blood, the blood of the new Covenant." (Mt. 26:28) At the most critical time of His life, Jesus proclaimed the New Covenant.

The theology of the new people of God derives from Jesus' Last Supper with His disciples and can only make full sense in that context. Hence, we need to be careful not to simply describe the new People of God in terms of the old.

People of God is a Christ-centred term
As we have seen, the New Covenant centres on Christ, and the People of God of the new Covenant is continuously formed by, and centred upon, the abiding sacrament of the Eucharist.

Therefore, the title "People of God" is truly centred on Christ, or Christocentric. Baptism, the sign of the new people, is entry into a fellowship whose meaning is demonstrated in the Mass.

The title People of God helps us to understand the nature of the Church with the entire religious experience of ancient Israel as its background.

So, in a way, we come to understand ourselves as a New people - the title in a way indicates a break between the Church and Israel but also a genuine continuity.

God's care for the old Israel was for the sake of His New people, the old Covenant was for the sake of the new Covenant into which it is, we may say, absorbed. One was a preparation for the other.

Conclusion
Ultimately, there is only one Covenant - Christ's - in which the old Covenants somehow participated and from which they drew their meaning, value and eternal quality.

In the one Covenant of Jesus we are all made one, members of the new people in the Covenant of Christ's blood: the new and eternal testament of the Church, God's Holy People.