Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - During the Wednesday general audience in St Peter’s Square buffered by a strong April wind, Pope Benedict XVI continued his catechesis on the theme “Service of Communion”. The Holy Father explained: “We wish to consider the origins of the Church in order to understand the original plan of Jesus and so comprehend the essence of the Church which remains despite the varying of times. We wish to understand the reason for our being in the Church and how we must commit ourselves to living this in the new Christian millennium.”
Pope Benedict XVI highlighted two aspects of the early Church: the first, examined mainly by St Ireneus of Lyons di Lione, underlines the “intimate bond existing between the Holy Spirit and the Church”. The second aspect explains that this bond “does not cancel our humanity with all its weaknesses and so from the beginning the community of the disciples experiences not only the joy of the Holy Spirit, the grace of the truth and love, but also trial, consisting above all of argument with regard to the truths of the faith with the consequent laceration of communion”. “So there is always a danger - the Pope said -, in the vicissitudes of the world and also in the weakness of the Church, of losing the faith and thus losing also love and brotherhood. It is therefore a precise duty for those who believe in the Church of love and wish to live in her, to recognise this danger and accept that there cannot be communion with those who distance themselves from the doctrine of salvation”. The fledgling Church was well aware of these possible tensions in the experience of communion and in fact the New Testament lays strong emphasis on “the reality and duty of brotherly love among Christians” as its severity with former members of the community who were no longer members expresses: “The Church of love is also the Church of the truth, understood primarily as fidelity to the Gospel which the Lord Jesus entrusted to his disciples”.
The family of the children of God “to live in unity and peace needs persons who tend to it in truth and guide it with wise and authoritative discernment: that is, persons called to carry on the ministry of the Apostles... the Church belongs entirely to the Spirit, but it has a structure, apostolic succession, which has the responsibility to guarantee that the Church remains in Christ’s gift of the truth from which stems her ability to love”. The Acts of the Apostles narrate the life of the early Church: “Communion is born of the faith born of the preaching of the apostles, is nourished in the breaking of the bread and prayer and expressed in fraternal charity and service”. The Holy Father then underlined: “The Apostles and their successors therefore are custodians and authoritative witnesses of the deposit of truth entrusted to the Church and also ministers of charity: two aspects which go together. They must always keep in mind the inseparability of this twofold service which in actual fact is one: truth and charity, revealed and given to us by the Lord Jesus …truth and love are two faces of the same gift which comes from God and which, thanks to the apostolic ministry, is safeguarded in the Church and comes down to us in the present day!”
At the end of the audience addressing Spanish visitors the Pope mentioned the great Spanish missionary St Francis Xavier: “On April 7th there will be celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the birthday of St Francis Xavier the great Jesuit missionary who preached the Gospel in the lands of Asia opening many doors to Christ. I join these celebrations to thank the Lord for giving his Church this great gift. I sent Cardinal Antonio María Rouco to preside celebrations at the Javier Shrine in Navarra, Spain. I am united with him and all the pilgrims who will go to that famous missionary place. As we contemplate the figure of St Francis Xavier we feel called to pray for all those who dedicate their life to the evangelising mission, proclaiming the salvific message of Jesus”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 6/4/2006, righe 44, parole 666)
