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VATICAN II: THE THIRD SESSION A THEOLOGIAN's REPORT T HE FATHERS of the Church, especially St. Augustine, fascinated by the magic of numbers, saw in the number three a symbol of Heaven (the three Persons of the Trinity) and in number four a symbol of earth (the four elements ; earth, water, fire and air), both together forming the mystic number seven, the number of creation and of redemption (sacraments, virtues). One is tempted, in this spirit, to see the first three sessions of the Council as concerned principally with the Church as divine, and the fourth and final one as looking to the world which is the concrete setting of the Church. In the first sessions the new consciousness of herself which the Church has slowly and with difficulty attained was formulated; once that had been accomplished she could turn her attention to her situation in the world and her attitude to others. In the first session the Council became truly ecumenical, fully universal. Refusing to confine itself to the narrow Latin limits and restricted perspective set for it by preparatory bodies under the guidance of the Roman Curia, it constituted itself as a Council that was really Catholic, not Latin only, or European , or even Western, but universal in fact and aim. As Pope John wished, it became a Council that was above all pastoral and ecumenical, not called to define or to condemn but to adapt the Church to the needs of her divine mission in the world to-day and to prepare the way for the unity of the whole Christian community. The second session made it clear that the central theme of this Council is the Church, first in herself and then in her relations with the other Christian communities and with the world. From a concept of herself that had, in the West, be79 80 AMBROSE J. MC NICHOLL come too exclusively juridical the Church turned to one that is more inward and spiritual based on the primacy of the ontology of grace that makes her one living reality with her Founder as Head. She revealed herself as the sacrament of Christ, the visible and efficacious sign of the saving presence of God in history, and renewed and adapted her internal life of worship and of sanctification in the Constitution on the liturgy, the first practical fruits of the Council. At the same time the Council began to take the daily directions of the Church from the hands of jurists and functionaries and to place it in the hands of pastors awake to the needs of their time. The conciliar commission set up to work out the practical application of the constitution on the liturgy was composed of residential bishops from all over the world, a practical example of episcopal collegiality in fact, and a sign of what is to come, and to be normal in the future of the Church. The Council is sometimes seen as a body set up to promote renewal and reform in the Church. It is far more than that. It is the Church herself, in her divinely appointed leaders, in the process of renewing and reforming herself. It is the work of the divine Spirit acting within the Church to draw its members to greater likeness to their Head and to draw the attention of men to the Mystical Body of Christ. Once the Council had become a truly Catholic one the Church could, in the decisive second session, define herself as a sacrament, the efficacious sign of God to the world; her external form could more easily be seen as having value primarily as a sign and means by which the Holy Spirit acts in the world, so that her visible structure could be fully referred to the invisible reality of Christ. In his discourse to the Fathers at the opening of the third session Pope Paul summed up the theme of this Council saying : " The hour has come when the Church must present herself , saying what Christ thinks and wishes her to be. . . . The Church must define herself, and draw from the consciousness which she has of herself the teaching which the Holy Spirit VATICAN II...

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