90
and evangelizers, transcending any institutional
expression, however necessary. I would like to
dwell briefly on this way of understanding the
Church, whose ultimate foundation is in the free
and gracious initiative of God.
A people for everyone
112.âThe salvation which God offers us is the
work of his mercy. No human efforts, howev-
er good they may be, can enable us to merit so
great a gift. God, by his sheer grace, draws us to
himself and makes us one with him.
79
He sends
his Spirit into our hearts to make us his children,
transforming us and enabling us to respond to
his love by our lives. The Church is sent by Jesus
Christ as the sacrament of the salvation offered
by God.
80
Through her evangelizing activity,
she cooperates as an instrument of that divine
grace which works unceasingly and inscrutably.
Benedict XVI put it nicely at the beginning of
the Synodâs reflections: âIt is important always
to know that the first word, the true initiative,
the true activity comes from God and only by
inserting ourselves into the divine initiative, only
begging for this divine initiative, shall we too be
able to become â with him and in him â evange-
lizersâ.
81
This principle of the primacy of grace
79
âCf.
Propositio
4.
80
âCf. S
econd
V
atican
E
cumenical
C
ouncil
, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium
, 1.
81
âMeditation during the First General Congregation of
