Lumen Gentium: The Mystery of the Church (42, continued)

Chapter V of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, is entitled “The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church.” It continues as follows:

“42. . . . The Church continually keeps before it the warning of the Apostle which moved the faithful to charity, exhorting them to experience personally what Christ Jesus had known within Himself. This was the same Christ Jesus, who ‘emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave . . . becoming obedient to death’,(233) and because of us ‘being rich, he became poor’.(234) Because the disciples must always offer an imitation of and a testimony to the charity and humility of Christ, Mother Church rejoices at finding within her bosom men and women who very closely follow their Savior who debased Himself to our comprehension. There are some who, in their freedom as sons of God, renounce their own wills and take upon themselves the state of poverty. Still further, some become subject of their own accord to another man, in the matter of perfection for love of God. This is beyond the measure of the commandments, but is done in order to become more fully like the obedient Christ.”(15*)

(233) Philippians 2:7-8.

(234) 2 Corinthians 8:9.

(15*) De spirituali paupertate et oboedientia testimonia praccipua S.Scripturae et Patrum afferuntur in Relatione pp. 152-153.

 

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Dogmatic Constitution on the Church - Lumen Gentium