Office Of Readings | Advent Tuesday Week 2 | A Reading From Lumen Gentium, The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution On The Church | The Eschatological Character Of The Pilgrim Church

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Office Of Readings | Advent Tuesday Week 2 | A Reading From Lumen Gentium, The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution On The Church | The Eschatological Character Of The Pilgrim Church

‘The eschatological character of the pilgrim Church.’

The reading sets before us the Church’s life in its full horizon. The reading begins by reminding us that the Church is called to holiness, and that this holiness will reach its completion only in heaven. The Church already belongs to Christ, and already receives his grace, but its true perfection lies ahead, when all things are renewed in Jesus. In that renewal, creation itself will be perfected, for the world and the human family are bound together in God’s plan. What began in Jesus Christ will one day embrace the whole of creation.

The text then turns to Christ’s present work. Lifted up upon the cross and risen from the dead, Jesus draws all things to himself. From the right hand of the Father he pours out the Spirit upon the Church, forming it as his Body and making it the sacrament through which salvation is offered to the world. Jesus continues to act: gathering, nourishing, and uniting his people through his presence in the sacraments, especially in the gift of his body and blood. His work is not a past event but an ongoing reality.

The Council stresses that the renewal we await has already begun. In Jesus Christ the new creation has been inaugurated, and through the Spirit it continues to unfold in the Church. There the faithful learn, by faith, the meaning of our earthly life and the purpose of our labour. With hope in the blessings to come, we take up the work entrusted to us by the Father, knowing that this daily faithfulness forms part of our salvation. Life on earth is therefore not a distraction from God’s plan, but the very place in which his grace takes shape in us.

At the same time, the Church remains a pilgrim. The ‘end of the ages’ is already present, yet the final fulfilment is still to come. The Church bears a real holiness, but it is not yet perfect. Its life is lived within the conditions of a passing world, and it feels the weight of creation’s longing for redemption. Saint Paul’s image of creation ‘groaning in travail’ expresses this well: the world strains toward the full revealing of God’s children, and the Church shares in that longing. The faithful live between what has begun and what is promised, carrying both hope and patience.

This vision invites us to see the Church neither as a finished reality nor as a purely future hope, but as something in motion: grounded in Christ, guided by the Spirit, and awaiting the day when God will bring all things to completion. In this way the pilgrim Church offers a pattern for the Christian life itself—rooted in grace, active in the present, and looking with longing toward the glory that is to come.

A Reading From Lumen Gentium, The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution On The Church | The Eschatological Character Of The Pilgrim Church

The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus and in which we acquire holiness through the grace of God, will reach its perfection only in the glory of heaven, when the time comes for the renewal of all things, and the whole world, which is intimately bound up with man and reaches its perfection through him, will, along with the human race, be perfectly restored in Christ.

Lifted above the earth, Christ drew all things to himself. Rising from the dead, he sent his life-giving Spirit upon his disciples, and through the Spirit established his Body, which is the Church, as the universal sacrament of salvation. Seated at the right hand of the Father, he works unceasingly in the world, to draw men into the Church and through it to join them more closely to himself, nourishing them with his own body and blood, and so making them share in his life of glory.

The promised renewal that we look for has already begun in Christ. It is continued in the mission of the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit it goes on developing in the Church: there we are taught by faith about the meaning also of our life on earth as we bring to fulfilment – with hope in the blessings that are to come – the work that has been entrusted to us in the world by the Father, and so work out our salvation.

The end of the ages is already with us. The renewal of the world has been established, and cannot be revoked. In our era it is in a true sense anticipated: the Church on earth is already sealed by genuine, if imperfect, holiness. Yet, until a new heaven and a new earth are built as the dwelling place of justice, the pilgrim Church, in its sacraments and institutions belonging to this world of time, bears the likeness of this passing world. It lives in the midst of a creation still groaning and in travail as it waits for the sons of God to be revealed in glory.

Christian Prayer With Jesus

O God,
you renew all things in your Son
and guide your Church on its pilgrim way.
Strengthen our hope in the world to come,
and help us to live faithfully in this passing age,
that we may share at last
in the glory prepared for your children.
Amen.

Glossary Of Christian Terms

Eschatological – Referring to the last things: the final fulfilment of God’s plan at the end of time.
Pilgrim Church – The Church on earth, journeying toward its heavenly fulfilment.
Universal sacrament of salvation – A term used by the Council to describe the Church as the visible instrument through which Christ brings salvation to all.
Renewal of all things – The promised restoration of creation in Christ at the end of time.
New heaven and new earth – Biblical language for the final state of creation when God’s reign is fully revealed.
Groaning in travail – Saint Paul’s image of creation longing for redemption, like a woman in labour.