PEOPLE OF GOD

Men do not live alone. Families, even, do not live alone, but form a society, a tribe, a people. We have seen that God dealt with mankind in this way. He prepared a people for Himself. And through His own Son born into that people, He wants to bring all the races of the earth to form one people – the People of God.

Each race, as it becomes God’s people in this way, will retain its own characteristics which God himself gave it; and each race will enrich the People of God with the special contribution that it alone can bring. In its turn each race will be tremendously enriched by the new life it finds therein.

The People of God has no army, no political ambitions. It is a people with one aim and purpose; it wants every man, woman and child on earth to live and die in the friendship and love of God their Father as His sons and daughters, as members of God’s own family.

The People of God is made up of all those who live with the new life won for them by Christ. “I am the vine, you are the branches. You have only to live on in me and I will live on in you. If a man lives in me and I in him then he will yield abundant fruit.”

CHRIST LIVING ON TODAY

Thus the work of Christ, the second Adam, was to found and establish a new People of God.

But this new people must be visible and recognizable; it must be loyal and true to Christ’s spirit: it must appear as the work of God, not of man: only then will I trust myself to it in such a vital matter. It must also by readily available so that I can easily go to MEET CHRIST in it.

And this is what Christ did when He established His Church and appointed His apostle, Peter, to govern it as St. Mathew relates in his Gospel.

Jesus put this question to His disciples: “Who do the people say the Son of Man is?” “Some say John the Baptist,” they replied. “Others say, Elias, still others Jeremias, or some other prophet.” “But you,” He went on to say, “who do you say I am?” Then Simon Peter spoke up “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus acquiesced and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of John. It was my Father in heaven that revealed this to you, and not flesh and blood. And I, in turn, say to you: You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew. 16, 13-19)

Christ confirmed this promise in the last days of His life on earth when He said: “Simon (Peter), son of John, do you love me more than these others do?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love you.” Christ then said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A third time He said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was very sad because He said to him for the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21, 15-17)