CSDC 49

The Church, the community of those who have been brought together by the Risen Christ and who have set out to follow him, is “the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent dimension of the human person”⁵⁴ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 76: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1099.. She is “in Christ a kind of sacrament — a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men”⁵⁵ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 1: AAS 57AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 57 (1965) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1965), 5.. Her mission is that of proclaiming and communicating the salvation wrought in Jesus Christ, which he calls “the Kingdom of God” (Mk 1:15), that is, communion with God and among men. The goal of salvation, the Kingdom of God embraces all people and is fully realized beyond history, in God. The Church has received “the mission of proclaiming and establishing among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ and of God, and she is, on earth, the seed and the beginning of that Kingdom”⁵⁶ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 5: AAS 57AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 57 (1965) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1965), 8..