Abstract

Lumen Gentium establishes the relationship «Church - Communion - Mission». In fact the recognition of the connections among these three terms refers back to an understanding of the Church as mystery, set in relation to the trinitarian, christological and anthropological mystery. In the light of Lumen Gentium, the affirmation of the understanding of the Church as mystery cannot be separated from the assertion of the sacramentality of the Church. The focus on the contents of the dogmatic Constitution on the Church and on the historical amd cultural context of the present day allows an understanding of the relationship between Church, communion and mission against the background of the Church understood as the «sacrament of the Kingdom of God». Lumen Gentium does not directly correlate the notions of «sacrament» and of «Kingdom of God», but in its content, it clearly suggests the possibility of such a correlation