Texts from Gaudium et Spes, The
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
22. The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the
mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of
Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam,
by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals
man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising,
then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain
their crown.
He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), is Himself
the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness
which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature
as He assumed it was not annulled, by that very fact it has been
raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation
the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked
with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and
loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made
one of us, like us in all things except sin.
As an innocent lamb He merited for us life by the free shedding of His
own blood. In Him God reconciled us to Himself and among ourselves
; from bondage to the devil and sin He delivered us,
so that each one of us can say with the Apostle: The Son of God "loved me
and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20). By suffering for us He not only
provided us with an example for our imitation, He blazed a trail, and
if we follow it, life and death are made holy and take on a new meaning.
The Christian man, conformed to the likeness of that Son Who is the
firstborn of many brothers, received "the first-fruits of the Spirit
" (Rom. 8:23) by which he becomes capable of discharging the new law of
love. Through this Spirit, who is "the pledge of our inheritance" (Eph.
1:14), the whole man is renewed from within, even to the achievement of
"the redemption of the body" (Rom. 8:23): "If the Spirit of him who raised
Jesus from the death dwells in you, then he who raised Jesus Christ from
the dead will also bring to life your mortal bodies because of his Spirit
who dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11). Pressing upon the Christian to be sure, are
the need and the duty to battle against evil through manifold tribulations
and even to suffer death. But, linked with the paschal mystery and patterned
on the dying Christ, he will hasten forward to resurrection in the strength
which comes from hope.
All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will
in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died
for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and
divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only
to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this
paschal mystery.
Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen by believers
in the light of Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles
of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm
us. Christ has risen, destroying death by His death; He has lavished life
upon us so that, as sons in the Son, we can cry out in the Spirit; Abba,
Father.
24. God, Who has fatherly concern for everyone, has willed that all men should
constitute one family and treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood. For
having been created in the image of God, Who "from one man has created the
whole human race and made them live all over the face of the earth" (Acts
17:26), all men are called to one and the same goal, namely God Himself.
For this reason, love for God and neighbor is the first and greatest commandment.
Sacred Scripture, however, teaches us that the love of God cannot be separated
from love of neighbor: "If there is any other commandment, it is summed up
in this saying: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.... Love therefore
is the fulfillment of the Law" (Rom. 13:9-10; cf. 1 John 4:20). To men growing
daily more dependent on one another, and to a world becoming more unified
every day, this truth proves to be of paramount importance.
Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one.
. . as we are one" (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason,
for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons,
and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals
that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself,
cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.