The Church as the sacrament of salvation

Abstract

'By her relationship with Christ, the Church is a kind of sacrament or sign of intimate union with God, and of the unity of all mankind. She is also an instrument for the achieving of such union and unity' (LG, n. 1). With these words the Second Vatican Council, which was convened by Pope John for the purpose of making the Church reflect on herself and acquire a new awareness of herself as a mystety of salvation, gives us a definition of the Church that is both existential and dyna- mic. Up to Vatican II most of the Church's teachings about herself were mostly conditioned by a static legalistic attitude and inspired by a certain preoccupation, not altogether unwarranted perhaps, CO protect both revealed truth and age-old institutions within her from dangerous doctrines and the impact of relativism. Now, however, that the Church has caught the signs of the times and has realized more than ever chat she is made up of men and for men, Vatican IT describes the Church of Christ in terms of the sacramental principle, which is basic in the present economy of salvation.