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37 ChAPter 2 The holy spirit and the Church in the previous chapter, we discussed the early church’s experience of the Word as the principle of the endowment of grace, and of the spirit as the principle of its reception. We then reflected on the spirit within the triune life of God, and proposed analogies for understanding the spirit as the spirit of reception. The nature and mission of God determines the nature and mission of the church. The church is called to be an icon of the Trinity.1 in this chapter we move to a more specific discussion of the role of the spirit in the economy of salvation, and in particular, the role of the spirit in co-instituting the church as “the universal sacrament of salvation.”2 the SPIrIt AS Co - IN S t It ut IN g PrINCIPLe since the gift of faith comes from the spirit’s activity, the community of faith, the church, exists through the power of the spirit. The church is the community of Christ’s disciples who live by the faith and the grace of the spirit. The spirit from the father, with whom Jesus the Christos was anoint1 . see Bruno forte, The Church: Icon of the Trinity. A Brief Study (Boston: st. Paul Books and media, 1991). 2. LG, 48; GS, 45; AG, 1. 38 T H E P R I NC I P LE ed, is the same spirit whom the father sends upon, and whom the risen one shares with, the community of Christ’s disciples at Pentecost. if Christ is the principle of endowment of grace in the history of salvific revelation, and the spirit is the principle of its reception, the church is the place where the mission of the Word and the mission of the spirit find their clearest point of conjuncture in human history. in this sense, the spirit is the “co-instituting principle” of the church, along with the principle of the Word.3 Both Word and spirit bring the church of the Triune God into being. This “instituting” is not to be seen simply in the chronological sense of a one-off “beginning”; the Word and spirit continuously enable the church to be church throughout its history. as the co-instituting principle of the church, the holy spirit is the principle not only of the church’s beginning but also of the church’s continuing existence, i.e., the guarantee of the church’s indefectibility, the belief “that Christ’s Church would never succumb either to external hostility or to internal corruption.”4 Vatican ii affirms this inability of the church to fail as due to the action of the holy spirit.5 Christ’s promises , that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church,6 and that he, Christ, would be with his disciples till the end of time,7 are promises guaranteed fulfillment through the work of the holy spirit. The indefectibility of Christ’s church fundamentally means that its continuing existence is assured by the holy spirit.8 included in this general assurance is the more specific conviction that 3. on the two missions of Word and spirit, and the spirit as the co-instituting principle of the church, see yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit (new york: Crossroad, 1997), 2:5–14. 4. francis a. sullivan, Magisterium: Teaching Authority in the Catholic Church (new york: Paulist Press, 1983), 4. also on the indefectibility of the church, see yves Congar, “indefectibility and infallibility,” Compass 5 (1971): 43–45; sullivan, Magisterium, 4–23. 5. LG, 9 states: “as the church journeys through temptations and tribulations, it is strengthened by the power of the grace of God that was promised it by the Lord, so that it does not fall away from perfect fidelity through the weakness of the flesh, but remains the worthy spouse of its Lord, and so that, under the action of the holy spirit, it does not cease from renewing itself until, through the cross, it arrives at the light which knows no setting.” Tanner translation. 6. mt 16:18. 7. mt 28:20. 8. “The Church’s confidence that she will ‘remain a bride worthy of the Lord’ is not a matter of human pride. it is a matter of humble faith in the power of God’s grace and the abiding assistance of the holy spirit. it is only by the power of grace and the work of the...

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