“The Church lives in this paradox: She is a reality that is both human and divine.”
In this week’s Wednesday audience, Pope Leo XIV continues his catechesis on the Second Vatican Council and ‘Lumen gentium,’ reflecting on the Church as both a visible and spiritual reality.
The Church is both human and divine. She is human—a community of men and women who share the joy and struggle of being Christians and proclaiming the Gospel. And she is divine—generated by God’s plan for humanity, realized in Christ.
This is what constitutes the holiness of the Church: She is at the same time an earthly community of real people with their strengths and weaknesses, and the mystical body of Christ. She both welcomes us as sinners, and leads us to God.
Let us all “build up the Church: not only by organizing its visible forms, but by building that spiritual edifice which is the body of Christ, through communion and charity among ourselves.”
