Rosena - The Mystery and Destiny of the Church: Gods Plan for Our Salvation - From Eden to the Apocalypse

Sr. Rosena Marie

God's Plan for Our Salvation

from Eden to the Apocalypse

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Part 1

Man's Eternal Quest

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Part 2

What Is Man?

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Part 3

The Week of Salvation History

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Part 4

The Sixth Day: The Age of the Church

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Part 5

The Seventh Day: The Last Things

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In this time when the echoes of the Great jubilee proclaimed by our Holy Father Pope John Paul II, to honor the Second Millennium of the birth of Christ, are still lingering with us, it seems appropriate to reflect upon the mystery of the Church that he founded, to bring his salvation to all peoples. This work has been written in an attempt to give a basic idea of what the Church really is, in her nature and destiny, which have unfolded with the passing of the ages.

Since the Church is a work of God, created by his Wisdom and governed by his Providence, it is, like all his works, a profound mystery. It came into being with creation, and was in a state of preparation through all the days of Salvation History until the coming of Christ, who gave it its final form and structure on earth. It will reach its final perfection in heaven. Jesus himself gave the best description of the Church when he said:

It is described in detail, we might say, in the book of Revelation, chapter 21, and by St. Augustine in his celebrated work The City of God. The Church has been compared to many things, which we shall touch upon later in this work; Jesus constantly spoke of it as the kingdom of God on earth.

From the revelation of Christ the Church has also received all that Man can know authentically about God and his works. It is he who supplies the key to the whole mystery of creation and reveals that he himself is the key. It is his presence alone that gives cohesion and meaning to the mystery of the human destiny.

In order, therefore, to grasp the mystery of Christ essentially, we must place him at the heart of creation to see what design or pattern we may discover therein, when examined in the light of his presence. This is what we propose to do, however briefly, in this work, which is a reflection on that spiritual kingdom that he instituted to bring the grace of his redemption to all men.

If this review can help in some way to strengthen the wavering faith of the faithful and deepen their commitment to Jesus and his Church, it will have abundantly fulfilled the purpose for which it has been written.

"In the beginning!" The phrase signifies that awesome moment in eternity - since we can express it in no other way - when God decided to create. He said: "Let it be," and creation came to be. His word of command or his will to create brought it into being. So the phrase "In the beginning" constitutes the great dividing line between time and eternity, for both creation and time began simultaneously.

Now there follows an account of the work of the six days of creation, a cosmic account of the universe and all it contains. It treats of the cosmic elements of creation, although not in sequence: light and darkness; the heavens; vegetation, grass, and trees; the sun, the moon, and the stars to govern the light and darkness of day and night, and to govern the seasons and the passage of the years; the creatures to inhabit the waters, from the least to the greatest; the birds of the air; cattle and creeping things of the earth, and beasts of all kinds.

And then God created Man, the last on the list of life but first in dignity and excellence, pinnacle of creation, and highest note in the symphony of life. He made Man in his own image and likeness and appointed him lord of creation, with a mandate to spread over the face of the earth to rule and govern it. With that mandate, the work of creation was complete, and God rested on the seventh day.

When we look at this account of creation, creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars; the fish of the sea and the birds of the air; or the beasts of the field, we find that they are engaging today all the intellectual powers of Man at the highest levels of science and scholarship.

It is the same with chapter 2 of Genesis. The profound mysteries that lie concealed beneath the picturesque description of Eden are foreshadowings of future mysteries of the Church of Christ, and of the entire mystery of redemption. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is a prophetic foreshadowing of the Fall of Man and the whole tragedy of sin, while the mystic River of Eden foreshadows the grace of redemption encompassing the whole earth, as the following verse expresses it.

4 "Eden" copyright Sr. Rosena Marie.

Thus, we may regard these first two chapters of Genesis as the opening chapters of the destiny of the Church on earth.

In the book of Wisdom, the inspired author speaks of the admirable wisdom and providence of God's creative activity, when he says:

And as the Church began at the moment of creation, its destiny began to evolve through time, and will continue to do so until the end of the world. The record of its destiny in time is the history of the Church on earth, which we call Salvation History. The record of its destiny began when God placed Man on trial as a first test of his fidelity, which is recounted in chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, and from that moment, it continued to evolve throughout the ages.