|
The Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
On Wednesday morning, 29 June, the Solemnity of Sts Peter and
Paul, Patrons of Rome, the Holy Father presided at the Eucharistic
Concelebration in St Peter's Basilica, with the participation of a
Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I of Constantinople.
During Holy Mass, the Pope conferred the Pallium on Cardinal Angelo
Sodano, Secretary of State, of the title of the Suburbicarian Church of
Ostia and new Dean of the College of Cardinals, and on 32 Metropolitan
Archbishops from 21 countries. The following is a translation of the
Holy Father's Homily, which was given in Italian.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul is at the same time a
grateful memorial of the great witnesses of Jesus Christ and a solemn
confession for the Church: one, holy, catholic and apostolic. It
is first and foremost a feast of catholicity. The sign of Pentecost
—
the new community that speaks all languages and unites all peoples into
one people, in one family of God
—,
this sign has become a reality. Our liturgical assembly, at which
Bishops are gathered from all parts of the world, people of many
cultures and nations, is an image of the family of the Church
distributed throughout the earth.
Strangers have become friends; crossing every border, we recognize
one another as brothers and sisters. This brings to fulfilment the
mission of St Paul, who knew that he was the "minister of Christ Jesus
among the Gentiles, with the priestly duty of preaching the Gospel of
God so that the Gentiles [might] be offered up as a pleasing sacrifice,
consecrated by the Holy Spirit" (Rom 15:16).
The purpose of the mission is that humanity itself becomes a living
glorification of God, the true worship that God expects: this is the
deepest meaning of catholicity
— a
catholicity that has already been given to us, towards which we
must constantly start out again. Catholicity does not only
express a horizontal dimension, the gathering of many people in unity,
but also a vertical dimension: it is only by raising. our eyes to God,
by opening ourselves to him, that we can truly become one.
Expression of Church's outreach
Like Paul, Peter also came to Rome, to the city that was a centre
where all the nations converged and, for this very reason, could become,
before any other, the expression of the universal outreach of the
Gospel. As he started out on his journey from Jerusalem to Rome, he must
certainly have felt guided by the voices of the prophets, by faith and
by the prayer of Israel.
The mission to the whole world is also part of the proclamation of
the Old Covenant: the people of Israel were destined to be a light for
the Gentiles. The great Psalm of the Passion, Psalm 22[21], whose first
verse Jesus cried out on the Cross: "My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?", ends with the vision: "All the ends of the earth shall
remember and turn to the Lord; all the families of the nations shall bow
down before him" (Ps 22[21]:28). When Peter and Paul came to Rome, the
Lord on the Cross who had uttered the first line of that Psalm was
risen; God's victory now had to be proclaimed to all the nations,
thereby fulfilling the promise with which the Psalm concludes.
The content of unity: apostolic faith
Catholicity means universality
— a
multiplicity that becomes unity; a unity that nevertheless remains
multiplicity. From Paul's words on the Church's universality we
have already seen that the ability of nations to get the better of
themselves in order to look towards the one God, is part of this
unity. In the second century, the founder of Catholic theology, St
Irenaeus of Lyons, described very beautifully this bond between
catholicity and unity and I quote him. He says: "The Church spread
across the world diligently safeguards this doctrine and this faith,
forming as it were one family: the same faith, with one mind and one
heart, the same preaching, teaching and tradition as if she had but one
mouth. Languages abound according to the region but the power of our
tradition is one and the same. The Churches in Germany do not differ in
faith or tradition, neither do those in Spain, Gaul, Egypt, Libya, the
Orient, the centre of the earth; just as the sun, God's creature, is one
alone and identical throughout the world, so the light of true preaching
shines everywhere and illuminates all who desire to attain knowledge of
the truth" (Adv. Haer. I 10, 2). The unity of men and
women in their multiplicity has become possible because God, this one
God of heaven and earth, has shown himself to us; because the essential
truth about our lives, our "where from?" and "where to?" became visible
when he revealed himself to us and enabled us to see his face, himself,
in Jesus Christ. This truth about the essence of our being, living and
dying, a truth that God made visible, unites us and makes us brothers
and sisters. Catholicity and unity go hand in hand. And
unity has a content: the faith that the Apostles passed on to us in
Christ's name.
'Compendium' of the 'Catechism'
I am pleased that yesterday, the Feast of St Irenaeus and the eve of
the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul, I was able to give the Church a new
guide for the transmission of the faith that will help us to become
better acquainted with and to live better the faith that unites
us: the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The
essential
content of what is presented in detail in the complete Catechism,
through the witness of the saints of all the ages and with reflections
that have matured in theology, is summed up here in this book and must
then be translated into everyday language and constantly put into
practice. The book is in the form of a dialogue with questions and
answers.
The 14 images associated with the various areas of faith are an
invitation to contemplation and meditation. In other words, a visible
summary of what the written text develops in full detail. At the
beginning there is a reproduction of a 6th-century icon of Christ, kept
at Mount Athos, that portrays Christ in his dignity as Lord of the earth
but at the same time also as a herald of the Gospel which he holds in
his hand. "I am who am", this mysterious name of God presented in the
Old Testament, is copied here as his own name: all that exists comes
from him; he is the original source of all being. And since he is one,
he is also ever present, ever close to us and at the same time, ever in
the lead: an "indicator" on our way through life, especially since he
himself is the Way. This book cannot be read as if it were a novel. Its
individual sections must be calmly meditated upon and, through the
images, its content must be allowed to penetrate the soul. I hope that
it will be received as such and become a reliable guide in the
transmission of the faith.
Catholicity and unity, hand in hand
We have said that the catholicity of the Church and the
unity of the Church go together. The fact that both dimensions
become visible to us in the figures of the holy Apostles already shows
us the consequent characteristic of the Church: she is apostolic.
What does this mean?
The Lord established Twelve Apostles just as the sons of Jacob were
12. By so doing he was presenting them as leaders of the People of God
which, henceforth universal, from that time has included all the
peoples. St Mark tells us that Jesus called the Apostles so "to be with
him, and to be sent out" (Mk 3:14). This seems almost a contradiction in
terms. We would say: "Either they stayed with him or they were sent
forth and set out on their travels". Pope St Gregory the Great says a
word about angels that helps us resolve this contradiction. He says that
angels are always sent out and at the same time are always in God's
presence, and continues, "Wherever they are sent, wherever they go, they
always journey on in God's heart" (Homily, 34,,13). The Book of
Revelation described Bishops as "angels" in their Church, so we can
state: the Apostles and their successors must always be with the Lord
and precisely in this way
—
wherever they may go
—
they must always be in communion with him and live by this communion.
Oneness of the Apostolic Church
The Church is apostolic, because she professes the faith of the
Apostles and attempts to live it. There is a unity that marks the Twelve
called by the Lord, but there is also continuity in the apostolic
mission. St Peter, in his First Letter, described himself as "a fellow
elder" of the presbyters to whom he writes (5:1). And with this he
expressed the principle of apostolic succession: the same ministry which
he had received from the Lord now continues in the Church through
priestly ordination. The Word of God is not only written but, thanks to
the testimonies that the Lord in the sacrament has inscribed in the
apostolic ministry, it remains a living word. Thus, I now address you,
dear Brother Bishops. I greet you with affection, together with your
relatives and the pilgrims from your respective Dioceses. You are about
to receive the Pallium from the hands of the Successor of Peter. We had
it blessed, as though by Peter himself, by placing it beside his tomb.
It is now an expression of our common responsibility to the "chief
Shepherd" Jesus Christ, of whom Peter speaks (I Pt 5:4). The Pallium is
an expression of our apostolic mission. It is an expression of our
communion whose visible guarantee is the Petrine ministry. Unity
as well as apostolicity are bound to the Petrine service that
visibly unites the Church of all places and all times, thereby
preventing each one of us from slipping into the kind of false autonomy
that all too easily becomes particularization of the Church and might
consequently jeopardize her independence. So, let us not forget that the
purpose of all offices and ministries is basically that "we [all] become
one in faith and in the knowledge of God's son, and form that perfect
man who is Christ come to full stature", so that the Body of Christ may
grow and build "itself up in love" (Eph 4:13, 16).
In this perspective, I warmly and gratefully greet the Delegation of
the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, sent by the Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew I to whom I address a cordial thought, and led by
Metropolitan Ioannis, who has come for our feast day and is taking part
in our celebration. Even though we may not yet agree on the issue of the
interpretation and importance of the Petrine Ministry, we are
nonetheless together in the apostolic succession, we are deeply united
with one another through episcopal ministry and through the sacrament of
priesthood, and together profess the faith of the Apostles as it is
given to us in Scripture and as it was interpreted at the great
Councils. At this time in a world full of scepticism and doubt but also
rich in the desire for God, let us recognize anew our common mission to
witness to Christ the Lord together, and on the basis of that unity
which has already been given to us, to help the world in order that it
may believe. And let us implore the Lord with all our hearts to guide us
to full unity so that the splendour of the truth, which alone can
create unity, may once again become visible in the world.
The Church is not holy by herself
Today's Gospel tells of the profession of faith of St Peter, on whom
the Church was founded: "You are the Messiah... the Son of the living
God" (Mt 16:16). Having spoken today of the Church as one,
catholic and apostolic but not yet of the Church as holy, let
us now recall another profession of Peter, his response on behalf of the
Twelve at the moment when so many abandoned Christ: "We have come to
believe; we are convinced that you are God's holy one" (Jn 6:69). What
does this mean?
Jesus, in his great priestly prayer, says that he is consecrating
himself for his disciples, an allusion to the sacrifice of his death
(cf. Jn 17:19). By saying this, Jesus implicitly expresses his role as
the true High Priest who brings about the mystery of the "Day of
Reconciliation", no longer only in substitutive rites but in the
concrete substance of his own Body and Blood. The Old Testament term
"the Holy One of the Lord" identified Aaron as the High Priest who had
the task of bringing about Israel's sanctification (Ps 106[105]:16;
Vulgate: Sir 45:6). Peter's profession of Christ, whom he declares to be
the Holy One of God, fits into the context of the Eucharistic Discourse
in which Jesus announces the Day of Reconciliation through the
sacrificial offering of himself: "the bread I will give is my flesh, for
the life of the world" (Jn 6:51). So this profession is the background
of the priestly mystery of Jesus, his sacrifice for us all. The Church
is not holy by herself; in fact, she is made up of sinners
—
we all know this and it is plain for all to see. Rather, she is made
holy ever anew by the Holy One of God, by the purifying love of Christ.
God did not only speak, but loved us very realistically; he loved us to
the point of the death of his own Son. It is precisely here that we are
shown the full grandeur of revelation that has, as it were, inflicted
the wounds in the heart of God himself. Then each one of us can say
personally, together with St Paul, I live "a life of faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).
Let us pray to the Lord that the truth of these words may be deeply
impressed in our hearts, together with his joy and with his
responsibility; let us pray that shining out from the Eucharistic
Celebration it will become increasingly the
force that shapes our lives.
|
