Catholic Faith
http://www.legionofmarytidewater.com/
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Redemptor hominis
To his venerable Brothers in the Episcopate
the Priests
the religious families, the sons and daughters of the Church
and to all men and women of good will
at the beginning of his papal ministry
1979.03.04
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blessing
Venerable Brothers, and dear Sons and Daughters
greetings and the Apostolic Blessing
I. INHERITANCE
1. At the close of the second Millennium
THE REDEEMER OF MAN, Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of
history. To him go my thoughts and my heart in this solemn moment of
the world that the Church and the whole family of present-day humanity
are now living. In fact, this time, in which God in his hidden design
has entrusted to me, after my beloved Predecessor John Paul I, the
universal service connected with the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome, is
already very close to the year 2000. At this moment it is difficult to
say what mark that year will leave on the face of human history or what
it will bring to each people, nation, country and continent, in spite
of the efforts already being made to foresee some events. For the
Church, the People of God spread, although unevenly, to the most
distant limits of the earth, it will be the year of a great Jubilee. We
are already approaching that date, which, without prejudice to all the
corrections imposed by chronological exactitude, will recall and
reawaken in us in a special way our awareness of the key truth of faith
which Saint John expressed at the beginning of his Gospel: "The Word
became flesh and dwelt among us"1, and elsewhere: "God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life"2.
We also are in a certain way in a season of a new Advent, a season of
expectation: "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers
by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a
Son..."3, by the Son, his Word, who became man and was born of the
Virgin Mary. This act of redemption marked the high point of the
history of man within God's loving plan. God entered the history of
humanity and, as a man, became an actor in that history, one of the
thousands of millions of human beings but at the same time Unique!
Through the Incarnation God gave human life the dimension that he
intended man to have from his first beginning; he has granted that
dimension de- finitively-in the way that is peculiar to him alone, in
keeping with his eternal love and mercy, with the full freedom of
God-and he has granted it also with the bounty that enables us, in
considering the original sin and the whole history of the sins of
humanity, and in considering the errors of the human intellect, will
and heart, to repeat with amazement the words of the Sacred Liturgy: "O
happy fault... which gained us so great a Redeemer!"4
2. The first words of the new Pontificate
It was to Christ the Redeemer that my feelings and my thoughts were
directed on 16 October of last year, when, after the canonical
election, I was asked: "Do you accept?" I then replied: "With obedience
in faith to Christ, my Lord, and with trust in the Mother of Christ and
of the Church, in spite of the great difficulties, I accept". Today I
wish to make that reply known publicly to all without exception, thus
showing that there is a link between the first fundamental truth of the
Incarnation, already mentioned, and the ministry that, with my
acceptance of my election as Bishop of Rome and Successor of the
Apostle Peter, has become my specific duty in his See.
I chose the same names that were chosen by my beloved Predecessor John
Paul I. Indeed, as soon as he announced to the Sacred College on 26
August 1978 that he wished to be called John Paul-such a double name
being unprecedented in the history of the Papacy-I saw in it a clear
presage of grace for the new pontificate. Since that pontificate lasted
barely 33 days, it falls to me not only to continue it but in a certain
sense to take it up again at the same starting point. This is confirmed
by my choice of these two names. By following the example of my
venerable Predecessor in choosing them, I wish like him to express my
love for the unique inheritance left to the Church by Popes John XXIII
and Paul VI and my personal readiness to develop that inheritance with
God's help.
Through these two names and two pontificates I am linked with the whole
tradition of the Apostolic See and with all my Predecessors in the
expanse of the twentieth century and of the preceding centuries. I am
connected, through one after another of the various ages back to the
most remote, with the line of the mission and ministry that confers on
Peter's See an altogether special place in the Church. John XXIII and
Paul VI are a stage to which I wish to refer directly as a threshold
from which I intend to continue, in a certain sensc together with John
Paul I, into the future, letting myself be guided by unlimited trust in
and obedience to the Spirit that Christ promised and sent to his
Church. On the night before he suffered he said to his apostles: "It is
to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the
Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you"5.
"When the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear
witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with
me from the beginning"6. "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide
you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but
whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things
that are to come"7.
3. Trust in the Spirit of Truth and of Love
Entrusting myself fully to the Spirit of truth, therefore, I am
entering into the rich inheritance of the recent pontificates. This
inheritance has struck deep roots in the awareness of the Church in an
utterly new way, quite unknown previously, thanks to the Second Vatican
Council, which John XXIII convened and opened and which was later
successfully concluded and perseveringly put into effect by Paul VI,
whose activity I was myself able to watch from close at hand. I was
constantly amazed at his profound wisdom and his courage and also by
his constancy and patience in the difficult postconciliar period of his
pontificate. As helmsman of the Church, the bark of Peter, he knew how
to preserve a providential tranquillity and balance even in the most
critical moments, when the Church seemed to be shaken from within, and
he always maintained unhesitating hope in the Church's solidity. What
the Spirit said to the Church through the Council of our time, what the
Spirit says in this Church to all the Churches8 cannot lead to anything
else-in spite of momentary uneasinesses-but still more mature solidity
of the whole People of God, aware of their salvific mission.
Paul VI selected this present-day consciousness of the Church as the
first theme in his fundamental Encyclical beginning with the words
Ecclesiam Suam. Let me refer first of all to this Encyclical and link
myself with it in this first document that, so to speak, inaugurates
the present pontificate. The Church's consciousness, enlightened and
supported by the Holy Spirit and fathoming more and more deeply both
her divine mystery and her human mission, and even her human
weaknesses-this consciousness is and must remain the first source of
the Church's love, as love in turn helps to strengthen and deepen her
consciousness. Paul VI left us a witness of such an extremely acute
consciousness of the Church. Through the many things, often causing
suffering, that went to make up his pontificate he taught us intrepid
love for the Church, which is, as the Council states, a "sacrament or
sign and means of intimate union with God, and of the unity of all
mankind"9.
4. Reference to Paul VI's first Encyclical
Precisely for this reason, the Church's consciousness must go with
universal openness, in order that all may be able to find in her "the
unsearchable riches of Christ"10 spoken of by the Apostle of the
Gentiles. Such openness, organically joined with the awareness of her
own nature and certainty of her own truth, of which Christ said: "The
word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me"11, is
what gives the Church her apostolic, or in other words her missionary,
dynamism, professing and proclaiming in its integrity the whole of the
truth transmitted by Christ. At the same time she must carry on the
dialogue that Paul VI, in his Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam called "the
dialogue of salvation", distinguishing with precision the various
circles within which it was to be carried on12. In referring today to
this document that gave the programme of Paul VI's pontificate, I keep
thanking God that this great Predecessor of mine, who was also truly my
father, knew how to display ad extra, externally, the true coun-
tenance of the Church, in spite of the various internal weaknesses that
affected her in the postconciliar period. In this way much of the human
family has become, it seems, more aware, in all humanity's various
spheres of existence, of how really necessary the Church of Christ, her
mission and her service are to humanity. At times this awareness has
proved stronger than the various critical attitudes attacking ab intra,
internally, the Church, her institutions and structures, and
ecclesiastics and their activities. This growing criticism was
certainly due to various causes and we are furthermore sure that it was
not always without sincere love for the Church. Undoubtedly one of the
tendencies it displayed was to overcome what has been called
triumphalism, about which there was frequent discussion during the
Council. While it is right that, in accordance with the example of her
Master, who is "humble in heart"13, the Church also should have
humility as her foundation, that she should have a critical sense with
regard to all that goes to make up her human character and activity,
and that she should always be very demanding on herself, nevertheless
criticism too should have its just limits. Otherwise it ceases to be
constructive and does not reveal truth, love and thankfulness for the
grace in which we become sharers principally and fully in and through
the Church. Furthermore such criticism does not express an attitude of
service but rather a wish to direct the opinion of others in accordance
with one's own, which is at times spread abroad in too thoughtless a
manner.
Gratitude is due to Paul VI because, while respecting every particle of
truth contained in the various human opinions, he preserved at the same
time the providential balance of the bark's helmsman14. The Church that
I-through John Paul I-have had entrusted to me almost immediately after
him is admittedly not free of internal difficulties and tension. At the
same time, however, she is internally more strengthened against the
excesses of self-criticism: she can be said to be more critical with
regard to the various thoughtless criticisms, more resistent with
respect to the various "novelties", more mature in her spirit of
discerning, better able to bring out of her everlasting treasure "what
is new and what is old"15, more intent on her own mystery, and because
of all that more serviceable for her mission of salvation for all: God
"desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth"16.
5. Collegiality and apostolate
In spite of all appearances, the Church is now more united in the
fellowship of service and in the awareness of apostolate. This unity
springs from the principle of collegiality, mentioned by the Second
Vatican Council. Christ himself made this principle a living part of
the apostolic College of the Twelve with Peter at their head, and he is
continuously renewing it in the College of the Bishops, which is
growing more and more over all the earth, remaining united with and
under the guidance of the Successor of Saint Peter. The Council did
more than mention the principle of collegiality: it gave it immense new
life, by -among other things-expressing the wish for a permanent organ
of collegiality, which Paul VI founded by setting up the Synod of the
Bishops, whose activity not only gave a new dimension to his
pontificate but was also later clearly reflected in the pontificate of
John Paul I and that of his unworthy Successor from the day they began.
The principle of collegiality showed itself particularly relevant in
the difficult postconciliar period, when the shared unanimous position
of the College of the Bishops-which displayed, chiefly through the
Synod, its union with Peter's Successor-helped to dissipate doubts and
at the same time indicated the correct ways for renewing the Church in
her universal dimension. Indeed, the Synod was the source, among other
things, of that essential momentum for evangelization that found
expression in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi17, wich was
so joyously welcomed as a programme for renewal which was both
apostolic and also pastoral. The same line was followed in the work of
the last ordinary session of the Synod of the Bishops, held about a
year before the death of Pope Paul VI and dedicated, as is known, to
catechesis. The results of this work have still to be arranged and
enunciated by the Apostolic See.
As we are dealing with the evident development of the forms in which
episcopal collegiality is expressed, mention must be made at least of
the process of consolidation of National Episcopal Conferences
throughout the Church and of other collegial structures of an
international or continental character. Referring also to the
centuriesold tradition of the Church, attention should be directed to
the activity of the various diocesan, provincial and national Synods.
It was the Council's idea, an idea consistently put into practice by
Paul VI, that structures of this kind, with their centuries of trial by
the Church, and the other forms of collegial collaboration by Bishops,
such as the metropolitan structure-not to mention each individual
diocese-should pulsate in full awareness of their own identity and, at
the same time, of their own originality within the universal unity of
the Church. The same spirit of collaboration and shared responsibility
is spreading among priests also, as is confirmed by the many Councils
of Priests that have sprung up since the Council. That spirit has
extended also among the laity, not only strengthening the already
existing organizations for lay apostolate but also creating new ones
that often have a different outline and excellent dynamism.
Furthermore, lay people conscious of their responsibility for the
Church have willingly committed themselves to collaborating with the
Pastors and with the representatives of the Institutes of consecrated
life, in the spheres of the diocesan Synods and of the pastoral
Councils in the parishes and dioceses.
I must keep all this in mind at the beginning of my pontificate as a
reason for giving thanks to God, for warmly encouraging all my brothers
and sisters and for recalling with heartfelt gratitude the work of the
Second Vatican Council and my great Predecessors, who set in motion
this new surge of life for the Church, a movement that is much stronger
than the symptoms of doubt, collapse and crisis.
6. The road to Christian unity
What shall I say of all the initiatives that have sprung from the new
ecumenical orientation? The unforgettable Pope John XXIII set out the
problem of Christian unity with evangelical clarity as a simple
consequence of the will of Jesus Christ himself, our Master, the will
that Jesus stated on several occasions but to which he gave expression
in a special way in his prayer in the Upper Room the night before he
died: "I pray... Father... that they may all be one"18. The Second
Vatican Council responded concisely to this requirement with its Decree
on ecumenism. Pope Paul VI, availing himself of the activities of the
Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, began the first difficult
steps on the road to the attainment of that unity. Have we gone far
along that road? Without wishing to give a detailed reply, we can say
that we have made real and important advances. And one thing is
certain: we have worked with perseverance and consistency, and the
representatives of other Christian Churches and Communities have also
committed themselves together with us, for which we are heartily
grateful to them. It is also certain that in the present historical
situation of Christianity and the world the only possibility we see of
fulfilling the Church's universal mission, with regard to ecumenical
questions, is that of seeking sincerely, perseveringly, humbly and also
courageously the ways of drawing closer and of union. Pope Paul VI gave
us his personal example for this. We must therefore seek unity without
being discouraged at the difficulties that can appear or accumulate
along that road; otherwise we would be unfaithful to the word of
Christ, we would fail to accomplish his testament. Have we the right to
run this risk?
There are people who in the face of the difficulties or because they
consider that the first ecumenical endeavours have brought negative
results would have liked to turn back. Some even express the opinion
that these efforts are harmful to the cause of the Gospel, are leading
to a further rupture in the Church, are causing confusion of ideas in
questions of faith and morals and are ending up with a specific
indifferentism. It is perhaps a good thing that the spokesmen for these
opinions should express their fears. However, in this respect also,
correct limits must be maintained. It is obvious that this new stage in
the Church's life demands of us a faith that is particularly aware,
profound and responsible. True ecumenical activity means openness,
drawing closer, availability for dialogue, and a shared investigation
of the truth in the full evangelical and Christian sense; but in no way
does it or can it mean giving up or in any way diminishing the
treasures of divine truth that the Church has constantly confessed and
taught. To all who, for whatever motive, would wish to dissuade the
Church from seeking the universal unity of Christians the question must
once again be put: Have we the right not to do it? Can we fail to have
trust-in spite of all human weakness and all the faults of past
centuries-in our Lord's grace as revealed recently through what the
Holy Spirit said and we heard during the Council? If we were to do so,
we would deny the truth concerning ourselves that was so eloquently
expressed by the Apostle: "By the grace of God I am what I am, and his
grace towards me was not in vain"19.
What we have just said must also be applied -although in another way
and with the due differences-to activity for coming closer together
with the representatives of the non-Christian religions, an activity
expressed through dialogue, contacts, prayer in common, investigation
of the treasures of human spirituality, in which, as we know well, the
members of these religions also are not lacking. Does it not sometimes
happen that the firm belief of the followers of the non-Christian
religions-a belief that is also an effect of the Spirit of truth
operating outside the visible confines of the Mystical Body-can make
Christians ashamed at being often themselves so disposed to doubt
concerning the truths revealed by God and proclaimed by the Church and
so prone to relax moral principles and open the way to ethical
permissiveness. It is a noble thing to have a predisposition for
understanding every person, analyzing every system and recognizing what
is right; this does not at all mean losing certitude about one's own
faith20 or weakening the principles of morality, the lack of which will
soon make itself felt in the life of whole societies, with deplorable
consequences besides.
II. THE MYSTERY OF THE REDEMPTION
7. Within the Mystery of Christ
While the ways on which the Council of this century has set the Church
going, ways indicated by the late Pope Paul VI in his first Encyclical,
will continue to be for a long time the ways that all of us must
follow, we can at the same time rightly ask at this new stage: How, in
what manner should we continue? What should we do, in order that this
new advent of the Church connected with the approaching end of the
second millennium may bring us closer to him whom Sacred Scripture
calls "Everlasting Father", Pater futuri saeculi21? This is the
fundamental question that the new Pope must put to himself on accepting
in a spirit of obedience in faith the call corresponding to the command
that Christ gave Peter several times: "Feed my lambs"22, meaning: Be
the shepherd of my sheepfold, and again: "And when you have turned
again, strengthen your brethren"23.
To this question, dear Brothers, sons and daughters, a fundamental and
essential response must be given. Our response must be: Our spirit is
set in one direction, the only direction for our intellect, will and
heart is-towards Christ our Redeemer, towards Christ, the Redeemer of
man. We wish to look towards him-because there is salvation in no one
else but him, the Son of God- repeating what Peter said: "Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life"24.
Through the Church's consciousness, which the Council considerably
developed, through all levels of this self-awareness, and through all
the fields of activity in which the Church expresses, finds and
confirms herself, we must constantly aim at him "who is the head"25,
"through whom are all things and through whom we exist"26, who is both
"the way, and the truth"27 and "the resurrection and the life",28,
seeing whom, we see the Father29, and who had to go away from us30-that
is, by his death on the Cross and then by his Ascension into heaven-in
order that the Counsellor should come to us and should keep coming to
us as the Spirit of truth31. In him are "all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge"32, and the Church is his Body33. "By her relationship
with Christ, the Church is a kind of sacrament or sign and means of
intimate union with God, and of the unity of all mankind"34, and the
source of this is he, he himself, he the Redeemer.
The Church does not cease to listen to his words. She rereads them
continually. With the greatest devotion she reconstructs every detail
of his life. These words are listened to also by non-Christians. The
life of Christ speaks, also, to many who are not capable of repeating
with Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"35. He, the
Son of the living God, speaks to people also as Man: it is his life
that speaks, his humanity, his fidelity to the truth, his all-em
bracing love. Furthermore, his death on the Cross speaks-that is to say
the inscrutable depth of his suffering and abandonment. The Church
never ceases to relive his death on the Cross and his Resurrection,
which constitute the content of the Church's daily life. Indeed, it is
by the command of Christ himself, her Master, that the Church
unceasingly celebrates the Eucharist, finding in it the "fountain of
life and holiness"36, the efficacious sign of grace and reconciliation
with God, and the pledge of eternal life. The Church lives his mystery,
draws unwearyingly from it and continually seeks ways of bringing this
mystery of her Master and Lord to humanity-to the peoples, the nations,
the succeeding generations, and every individual human being-as if she
were ever repeating, as the Apostle did: "For I decided to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified"37. The Church stays
within the sphere of the mystery of the Redemption, which has become
the fundamental principle of her life and mission.
8. Redemption as a new creation
The Redeemer of the world! In him has been revealed in a new and more
wonderful way the fundamental truth concerning creation to which the
Book of Genesis gives witness when it repeats several times: "God saw
that it was good"38. The good has its source in Wisdom and Love. In
Jesus Christ the visible world which God created for man39-the world
that, when sin entered, "was subjected to futility"40- recovers again
its original link with the divine source of Wisdom and Love. Indeed,
"God so loved the world that he gave his only Son"41. As this link was
broken in the man Adam, so in the Man Christ it was reforged42. Are we
of the twentieth century not convinced of the over poweringly eloquent
words of the Apostle of the Gentiles concerning the "creation (that)
has been groaning in travail together until now"43 and "waits with
eager longing for the revelation of the sons of God"44, the creation
that "was subjected to futility"? Does not the previously unknown
immense progress-which has taken place especially in the course of this
century-in the field of man's dominion over the world itself reveal-to
a previously unknown degree-that manifold subjection "to futility"? It
is enough to recall certain phenomena, such as the threat of pollution
of the natural environment in areas of rapid industrialization, or the
armed conflicts continually breaking out over and over again, or the
prospectives of self-destruction through the use of atomic, hydrogen,
neutron and similar weapons, or the lack of respect for the life of the
unborn. The world of the new age, the world of space flights, the world
of the previously unattained conquests of science and technology -is it
not also the world "groaning in travail"45 that "waits with eager
longing for the revealing of the sons of God"46?
In its penetrating analysis of "the modern world", the Second Vatican
Council reached that most important point of the visible world that is
man, by penetrating like Christ the depth of human consciousness and by
making contact with the inward mystery of man, which in Biblical and
non-Biblical language is expressed by the word "heart". Christ, the
Redeemer of the world, is the one who penetrated in a unique
unrepeatable way into the mystery of man and entered his "heart".
Rightly therefore does the Second Vatican Council teach: "The truth is
that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man
take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to
come (Rom 5:14), Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam, in the very
revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals
man to himself and brings to light his most high calling". And the
Council continues: "He who is the 'image of the invisible God' (Col
1:15), is himself the perfect man who has restored in the children of
Adam that likeness to God which had been disfigured ever since the
first sin. Human nature, by the very fact that is was assumed, not
absorbed, in him, has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond
compare. For, by his Incarnation, he, the son of God, in a certain way
united himself with each man. He worked with human hands, he thought
with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart
he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us,
like to us in all things except sin"47, he, the Redeemer of man.
9. The divine dimension of the mystery of the Redemption
As we reflect again on this stupendous text from the Council's
teaching, we do not forget even for a moment that Jesus Christ, the Son
of the living God, become our reconciliation with the Father48. He it
was, and he alone, who satisfied the Father's eternal love, that
fatherhood that from the beginning found expression in creating the
world, giving man all the riches of creation, and making him "little
less than God"49, in that he was created "in the image and after the
likeness of God".50. He and he alone also satisfied that fatherhood of
God and that love which man in a way rejected by breaking the first
Covenant51 and the later covenants that God "again and again offered to
man"52. The redemption of the world-this tremendous mystery of love in
which creation is renewed-53 is, at its deepest root, the fullness of
justice in a human Heart-the Heart of the First-born Son-in order that
it may become justice in the hearts of many human beings, predestined
from eternity in the Firstborn Son to bé children of God54 and
called to grace, called to love. The Cross on Calvary, through which
Jesus Christ-a Man, the Son of the Virgin Mary, thought to be the son
of Joseph of Nazareth- "leaves" this world, is also a fresh
manifestation of the eternal fatherhood of God, who in him draws near
again to humanity, to each human being, giving him the thrice holy
"Spirit of truth"55.
This revelation of the Father and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which
stamp an indelible seal on the mystery of the Redemption, explain the
meaning of the Cross and death of Christ. The God of creation is
revealed as the God of redemption, as the God who is "faithful to
himself"56, and faithful to his love for man and the world, which he
revealed on the day of creation. His is a love that does not draw back
before anything that justice requires in him. Therefore "for our sake
(God) made him (the Son) to be sin who knew no sin"57. If he "made to
be sin" him who was without any sin whatever, it was to reveal the love
that is always greater than the whole of creation, the love that is he
himself, since "God is love"58. Above all, love is greater than sin,
than weakness, than the "futility of creation"59, it is stronger than
death; it is a love always ready to raise up and forgive, always ready
to go to meet the prodigal son60, always looking for "the revealing of
the sons of God"61, who are called to the glory that is to be
revealed"62. This revelation of love is also described as mercy63; and
in man's history this revelation of love and mercy has taken a form and
a name: that of Jesus Christ.
10 . The human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption
Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is
incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not
revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not
experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate
intimately in it. This, as has already been said, is why Christ the
Redeemer "fully reveals man to himself". If we may use the expression,
this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this
dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong
to his humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly
"expressed" and, in a way, is newly created. He is newly created!
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there
is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus"64. The
man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly-and not just in
accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even
illusory standards and measures of his being-he must with his unrest,
uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and
death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with
all his own self, he must "appropriate" and assimilate the whole of the
reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If
this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not
only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself. How
precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he "gained so great
a Redeemer"65, and if God "gave his only Son "in order that man "should
not perish but have eternal life"66.
In reality, the name for that deep amazement at man's worth and dignity
is the Gospel, that is to say: the Good News. It is also called
Christianity. This amazement determines the Church's mission in the
world and, perhaps even more so,"in the modern world". This amazement,
which is also a conviction and a certitude-at its deepest root it is
the certainty of faith, but in a hidden and mysterious way it vivifies
every aspect of authentic humanism-is closely connected with Christ. It
also fixes Christ's place-so to speak, his particular right of
citizenship-in the history of man and mankind. Unceasingly
contemplating the whole of Christ's mystery, the Church knows with all
the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the
Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man and given back
meaning to his life in the world, a meaning that was lost to a
considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the Redemption
was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the Cross and
death to Resurrection.
The Church's fundamental function in every age and particularly in ours
is to direct man's gaze, to point the awareness and experience of the
whole of humanity towards the mystery of God, to help all men to be
familiar with the profundity of the Redemption taking place in Christ
Jesus. At the same time man's deepest sphere is involved-we mean the
sphere of human hearts, consciences and events.
11. The mystery of Christ as the basis of the Church's mission and of Christianity
The Second Vatican Council did immense work to form that full and
universal awareness by the Church of which Pope Paul VI wrote in his
first Encyclical. This awareness-or rather self-awareness-by the Church
is formed a "in dialogue"; and before this dialogue becomes a
conversation, attention must be directed to "the other", that is to
say: the person with whom we wish to speak. The Ecumenical Council gave
a fundamental impulse to forming the Church's self-awareness by so
adequately and competently presenting to us a view of the terrestrial
globe as a map of various religions. It showed furthermore that this
map of the world's religions has superimposed on it, in previously
unknown layers typical of our time, the phenomenon of atheism in its
various forms, beginning with the atheism that is programmed, organized
and structured as a political system.
With regard to religion, what is dealt with is in the first place
religion as a universal phenomenon linked with man's history from the
beginning, then the various non-Christian religions, and finally
Christianity itself. The Council document on non-Christian religions,
in particular, is filled with deep esteem for the great spiritual
values, indeed for the primacy of the spiritual, which in the life of
mankind finds expression in religion and then in morality, with direct
effects on the whole of culture. The Fathers of the Church rightly saw
in the various religions as it were so many reflections of the one
truth, "seeds of the Word"67, attesting that, though the routes taken
may be different, there is but a single goal to which is directed the
deepest aspiration of the human spirit as expressed in its quest for
God and also in its quest, through its tending towards God, for the
full dimension of its humanity, or in other words for the full meaning
of human life. The Council gave particular attention to the Jewish
religion, recalling the great spiritual heritage common to Christians
and Jews. It also expressed its esteem for the believers of Islam,
whose faith also looks to Abraham68.
The opening made by the Second Vatican Council has enabled the Church
and all Christians to reach a more complete awareness of the mystery of
Christ, "the mystery hidden for ages"69 in God, to be revealed in time
in the Man Jesus Christ, and to be revealed continually in every time.
In Christ and through Christ God has revealed himself fully to mankind
and has definitively drawn close to it; at the same time, in Christ and
through Christ man has acquired full awareness of his dignity, of the
heights to which he is raised, of the surpassing worth of his own
humanity, and of the meaning of his existence.
All of us who are Christ's followers must therefore meet and unite
around him. This unity in the various fields of the life, tradition,
structures and discipline of the individual Christian Churches and
ecclesial Communities cannot be brought about without effective work
aimed at getting to know each other and removing the obstacles blocking
the way to perfect unity. However, we can and must immediately reach
and display to the world our unity in proclaiming the mystery of
Christ, in revealing the divine dimension and also the human dimension
of the Redemption, and in struggling with unwearying perseverance for
the dignity that each human being has reached and can continually reach
in Christ, namely the dignity of both the grace of divine adoption and
the inner truth of humanity, a truth which-if in the common awareness
of the modern world it has been given such fundamental importance-for
us is still clearer in the light of the reality that is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the stable principle and fixed centre of the mission
that God himself has entrusted to man. We must all share in this
mission and concentrate all our forces on it, since it is more
necessary than ever for modern mankind. If this mission seems to
encounter greater opposition nowadays than ever before, this shows that
today it is more necessary than ever and, in spite of the opposition,
more awaited than ever. Here we touch indirectly on the mystery of the
divine "economy" which linked salvation and grace with the Cross. It
was not without reason that Christ said that "the kingdom of heaven has
suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force"70 and moreover
that "the children of this world are more astute... than are the
children of líght"71. We gladly accept this rebuke, that we may
be like those "violent people of God "that we have so often seen in the
history of the Church and still see today, and that we may consciously
join in the great mission of revealing Christ to the world, helping
each person to find himself in Christ, and helping the contemporary
generations of our brothers and sisters, the peoples, nations, States,
mankind, developing countries and countries of opulence-in short,
helping everyone to get to know "the unsearchable riches of Christ"72,
since these riches are for every individual and are everybody's
property.
12. The Church's mission and human freedom
In this unity in mission, which is decided principally by Christ
himself, all Christians must find what already unites them, even before
their full communion is achieved. This is apostolic and missionary
unity, missionary and apostolic unity. Thanks to this unity we can
together come close to the magnificent heritage of the human spirit
that has been manifested in all religions, as the Second Vatican
Council's Declaration Nostra Aetate says73. It also enables us to
approach all cultures, all ideological concepts, all people of good
will. We approach them with the esteem, respect and discernment that
since the time of the Apostles has marked the missionary attitude, the
attitude of the missionary. Suffice it to mention Saint Paul and, for
instance, his address in the Areopagus at Athens74. The missionary
attitude always begins with a feeling of deep esteem for "what is in
man"75, for what man has himself. worked out in the depths of his
spirit concerning the most profound and important problems. It is a
question of respecting everything that has been brought about in him by
the Spirit, which "blows where it wills"76. The mission is never
destruction, but instead is a taking up and fresh building, even if in
practice there has not always been full correspondence with this high
ideal. And we know well that the conversion that is begun by the
mission is a work of grace, in which man must fully find himself again.
For this reason the Church in our time attaches great importance to all
that is stated by the Second Vatican Council in its Declaration on
Religious Freedom, both the first and the second part of the
document77. We perceive intimately that the truth revealed to us by God
imposes on us an obligation. We have, in particular, a great sense of
responsibility for this truth. By Christ's institution the Church is
its guardian and teacher, having been endowed with a unique assistance
of the Holy Spirit in order to guard and teach it in its most exact
integrity78. In fulfilling this mission, we look towards Christ
himself, the first evangelizer79, and also towards his Apostles,
martyrs and confessors. The Declaration on Religious Freedom shows us
convincingly that, when Christ and, after him, his Apostles proclaimed
the truth that comes not from men but from God ("My teaching is not
mine, but his who sent me"80, that is the Father's), they preserved,
while acting with their full force of spirit, a deep esteem for man,
for his intellect, his will, his conscience and his freedom81. Thus the
human person's dignity itself becomes part of the content of that
proclamation, being included not necessarily in words but by an
attitude towards it. This attitude seems to fit the special needs of
our times. Since man's true freedom is not found in everything that the
various systems and individuals see and propagate as freedom, the
Church, because of her divine mission, becomes all the more the
guardian of this freedom, which is the condition and basis for the
human person's true dignity.
Jesus Christ meets the man of every age, including our own, with the
same words: "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you
free"82. These words contain both a fundamental requirement and a
warning: the requirement of an honest relationship with regard to truth
as a condition for authentic freedom, and the warning to avoid every
kind of illusory freedom, every superficial unilateral freedom, every
freedom that fails to enter into the whole truth about man and the
world. Today also, even after two thousand years, we see Christ as the
one who brings man freedom based on truth, frees man from what
curtails, diminishes and as it were breaks off this freedom at its
root, in man's soul, his heart and his conscience. What a stupendous
confirmation of this has been given and is still being given by those
who, thanks to Christ and in Christ, have reached true freedom and have
manifested it even in situations of external constraint!
When Jesus Christ himself appeared as a prisoner before Pilate's
tribunal and was interrogated by him about the accusation made against
him by the representatives of the Sanhedrin, did he not answer: "For
this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear
witness to the truth"83? It was as if with these words spoken before
the judge at the decisive moment he was once more confirming what he
had said earlier: "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you
free". In the course of so many centuries, of so many generations, from
the time of the Apostles on, is it not often Jesus Christ himself that
has made an appearance at the side of people judged for the sake of the
truth? And has he not gone to death with people condemned for the sake
of the truth? Does he ever cease to be the continuous spokesman and
advocate for the person who lives "in spirit and truth"84? Just as he
does not cease to be it before the Father, he is it also with regard to
the history of man. And in her turn the Church, in spite of all the
weaknesses that are part of her human history, does not cease to follow
him who said: "The hour is coming, and now is, when the true
worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the
Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in spirit and truth"85.
III. REDEEMED MAN AND HIS SITUATION IN THE MODERN WORLD
13. Christ united himself with each man
When we penetrate by means of the continually and rapidly increasing
experience of the human family into the mystery of Jesus Christ, we
understand with greater clarity that there is at the basis of all these
ways that the Church of our time must follow, in accordance with the
wisdom of Pope Paul VI86, one single way: it is the way that has stood
the test of centuries and it is also the way of the future. Christ the
Lord indicated this way especially, when, as the Council teaches, "by
his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, in a certain way united himself
with each man"87. The Church therefore sees its fundamental task in
enabling that union to be brought about and renewed continually. The
Church wishes to serve this single end: that each person may be able to
find Christ, in order that Christ may walk with each person the path of
life, with the power of the truth about man and the world that is
contained in the mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption and with
the power of the love that is radiated by that truth. Against a
background of the ever increasing historical processes, which seem at
the present time to have results especially within the spheres of
various systems, ideological concepts of the world and regimes, Jesus
Christ becomes, in a way, newly present, in spite of all his apparent
absences, in spite of all the limitations of the presence and of the
institutional activity of the Church. Jesus Christ becomes present with
the power of the truth and the love that are expressed in him with
unique unrepeatable fullness in spite of the shortness of his life on
earth and the even greater shortness of his public activity.
Jesus Christ is the chief way for the Church. He himself is our way "to
the Father's house"88 and is the way to each man. On this way leading
from Christ to man, on this way on which Christ unites himself with
each man, nobody can halt the Church. This is an exigency of man's
temporal welfare and of his eternal welfare. Out of regard for Christ
and in view of the mystery that constitutes the Church's own life, the
Church cannot remain insensible to whatever serves man's true welfare,
any more than she can remain indifferent to what threatens it. In
various passages in its documents the Second Vatican Council has
expresscd the Church's fundamental solicitude that life in "the world
should conform more to man's surpassing dignity"89 in all its aspects,
so as to make that life "ever more human"90. This is the solicitude of
Christ himself, the good Shepherd of all men. In the name of this
solicitude, as we read in the Council's Pastoral Constitution, "the
Church must in no way be confused with the political community, nor
bound to any political system. She is at once a sign and a safeguard of
the transcendence of the human person"91.
Accordingly, what is in question here is man in all his truth, in his
full magnitude. We are not dealing with the "abstract" man, but the
real, "concrete", "historical" man. We are dealing with "each" man, for
each one is included in the mystery of the Redemption and with each one
Christ has united himself for ever through this mystery. Every man
comes into the world through being conceived in his mother's womb and
being born of his mother, and precisely on account of the mystery of
the Redemption is entrusted to the solicitude of the Church. Her
solicitude is about the whole man and is focussed on him in an
altogether special manner. The object of her care is man in his unique
unrepeatable human reality, which keeps intact the image and likeness
of God himself92. The Council points out this very fact when, speaking
of that likeness, it recalls that "man is the only creature on earth
that God willed for itself"93. Man as "willed" by God, as "chosen" by
him from eternity and called, destined for grace and glory-this is
"each" man, "the most concrete" man, "the most real"; this is man in
all the fullness of the mystery in which he has become a sharer in
Jesus Christ, the mystery in which each one of the four thousand
million human beings living on our planet has become a sharer from the
moment he is conceived beneath the heart of his mother.
14. For the Church all ways lead to man
The Church cannot abandon man, for his "destiny", that is to say his
election, calling, birth and death, salvation or perdition, is so
closely and unbreakably linked with Christ. We are speaking precisely
of each man on this planet, this earth that the Creator gave to the
first man, saying to the man and the women: "subdue it and have
dominion"94. Each man in all the unrepeatable reality of what he is and
what he does, of his intellect and will, of his conscience and heart.
Man who in his reality has, because he is a "person", a history of his
life that is his own and, most important, a history of his soul that is
his own. Man who, in keeping with the openness of his spirit within and
also with the many diverse needs of his body and his existence in time,
writes this personal history of his through numerous bonds, contacts,
situations, and social structures linking him with other men, beginning
to do so from the first moment of his existence on earth, from the
moment of his conception and birth. Man in the full truth of his
existence, of his personal being and also of his community and social
being-in the sphere of his own family, in the sphere of society and
very diverse contexts, in the sphere of his own nation or people
(perhaps still only that of his clan or tribe), and in the sphere of
the whole of mankind-this man is the primary route that the Church must
travel in fulfilling her mission: he is the primary and fundamental way
for the Church, the way traced out by Christ himself, the way that
leads invariably through the mystery of the Incarnation and the
Redemption.
It was precisely this man in all the truth of his life, in his
conscience, in his continual inclination to sin and at the same time in
his continual aspiration to truth, the good, the beautiful, justice and
love that the Second Vatican Council had before its eyes when, in
outlining his situation in the modern world, it always passed from the
external elements of this situation to the truth within humanity: "In
man himself many elements wrestle with one another. Thus, on the one
hand, as a creature he experiences his limitations in a multitude of
ways. On the other, he feels himself to be boundless in his desires and
summoned to a higher life. Pulled by manifold attractions, he is
constantly forced to choose among them and to renounce some. Indeed, as
a weak and sinful being, he often does what he would not, and fails to
do what he would. Hence he suffers from internal divisions, and from
these flow so many and such great discords in society"95.
This man is the way for the Church-a way that, in a sense, is the basis
of all the other ways that the Church must walk-because man-every man
without any exception whatever-has been redeemed by Christ, and because
with man-with each man without any exception whatever-Christ is in a
way united, even when man is unaware of it: "Christ, who died and was
raised up for all, provides man"-each man and every man- "with the
light and the strength to measure up to his supreme calling"96.
Since this man is the way for the Church, the way for her daily life
and experience, for her mission and toil, the Church of today must be
aware in an always new manner of man's "situation". That means that she
must be aware of his possibilities, which keep returning to their
proper bearings and thus revealing themselves. She must likewise be
aware of the threats to man and of all that seems to oppose the
endeavour "to make human life ever more human"97 and make every element
of this life correspond to man's true dignity-in a word, she must be
aware of all that is opposed to that process.
15. What modern man is afraid of
Accordingly, while keeping alive in our memory the picture that was so
perspicaciously and authoritatively traced by the Second Vatican
Council, we shall try once more to adapt it to the "signs of the times"
and to the demands of the situation, which is continually changing and
evolving in certain directions.
The man of today seems ever to be under threat from what he produces,
that is to say from the result of the work of hís hands and,
even more so, of the work of his intellect and the tendencies of his
will. All too soon, and often in an unforeseeable way, what this
manifold activity of man yields is not only subjected to "alienation",
in the sense that it is simply taken away from the person who produces
it, but rather it turns against man himself, at least in part, through
the indirect consequences of its effects returning on himself. It is or
can be directed against him. This seems to make up the main chapter of
the drama of present-day human existence in its broadest and universal
dimension. Man therefore lives increasingly in fear. He is afraid that
what he produces-not all of it, of course, or even most of it, but part
of it and precisely that part that contains a special share of his
genius and initiative-can radically turn against himself; he is afraid
that it can become the means and instrument for an unimaginable
self-destruction, compared with which all the cataclysms and
catastrophes of history known to us seem to fade away. This gives rise
to a question: Why is it that the power given to man from the beginning
by which he was to subdue the earth98 turns against himself, producing
an understandable state of disquiet, of conscious or unconscious fear
and of menace, which in various ways is being communicated to the whole
of the present-day human family and is manifesting itself under various
aspects?
This state of menace for man from what he produces shows itself in
various directions and various degrees of intensity. We seem to be
increasingly aware of the fact that the exploitation of the earth, the
planet on which we are living, demands rational and honest planning. At
the same time, exploitation of the earth not only for industrial but
also for military purposes and the uncontrolled development of
technology outside the framework of a long-range authentically
humanistic plan often bring with them a threat to man's natural
environment, alienate him in his relations with nature and remove him
from nature. Man often seems to see no other meaning in his natural
environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption. Yet it
was the Creator's will that man should communicate with nature as an
intelligent and noble "master" and "guardian", and not as a heedless
"exploiter" and "destroyer".
The development of technology and the development of contemporary
civilization, which is marked by the ascendancy of technology, demand a
proportional development of morals and ethics. For the present, this
last development seems unfortunately to be always left behind.
Accordingly, in spite of the marvel of this progress, in which it is
diffiicult not to see also authentic signs of man's greatness, signs
that in their creative seeds were revealed to us in the pages of the
Book of Genesis, as early as where it describes man's creation99, this
progress cannot fail to give rise to disquiet on many counts. The first
reason for disquiet concerns the essential and fundamental question:
Does this progress, which has man for its author and promoter, make
human life on earth "more human" in every aspect of that life? Does it
make it more "worthy of man"? There can be no doubt that in various
aspects it does. But the question keeps coming back with regard to what
is most essential -whether in the context of this progress man, as man,
is becoming truly better, that is to say more mature spiritually, more
aware of the dignity of his humanity, more responsible, more open to
others, especially the neediest and the weakest, and readier to give
and to aid all.
This question must be put by Christians, precisely because Jesus Christ
has made them so universally sensitive about the problem of man. The
same question must be asked by all men, especially those belonging to
the social groups that are dedicating themselves actively to
development and progress today. As we observe and take part in these
processes we cannot let ourselves be taken over merely by euphoria or
be carried away by one-sided enthusiasm for our conquests, but we must
all ask ourselves, with absolute honesty, objectivity and a sense of
moral responsibility, the essential questions concerning man's
situation today and in the future. Do all the conquests attained until
now and those projected for the future for technology accord with man's
moral and spiritual progress? In this context is man, as man,
developing and progressing or is he regressing and being degraded in
his humanity? In men and "in man's world", which in itself is a world
of moral good and evil, does good prevail over evil? In men and among
men is there a growth of social love, of respect for the rights of
others-for every man, nation and people-or on the contrary is there an
increase of various degrees of selfishness, exaggerated nationalism
instead of authentic love of country, and also the propensity to
dominate others beyond the limits of one's legitimate rights and merits
and the propensity to exploit the whole of material progress and that
in the technology of production for the exclusive purpose of dominating
others or of favouring this or that imperialism?
These are the essential questions that the Church is bound to ask
herself, since they are being asked with greater or less explicitness
by the thousands of millions of people now living in the world. The
subject of development and progress is on everybody's lips and appears
in the columns of all the newspapers and other publications in all the
languages of the modern world. Let us not forget however that this
subject contains not only affirmations and certainties but also
questions and points of anguished disquiet. The latter are no less
important than the former. They fit in with the dialectical nature of
human knowledge and even more with the fundamental need for solicitude
by man for man, for his humanity, and for the future of people on
earth. Inspired by eschatological faith, the Church considers an
essential, unbreakably united element of her mission this solicitude
for man, for his humanity, forthe future of men on earth and therefore
also for the course set for the whole of development and progress. She
finds the principle of this solicitude in Jesus Christ himself, as the
Gospels witness. This is why she wishes to make it grow continually
through her relationship with Christ, reading man's situation in the
modern world in accordance with the most important signs of our time.
16. Progress or threat
If therefore our time, the time of our generation, the time that is
approaching the end of the second millennium of the Christian era,
shows itself a time of great progress, it is also seen as a time of
threat in many forms for man. The Church must speak of this threat to
all people of good will and must always carry on a dialogue with them
about it. Man's situation in the modern world seems indeed to be far
removed from the objective demands of the moral order, from the
requirements of justice, and even more of social love. We are dealing
here only with that which found expression in the Creator's first
message to man at the moment in which he was giving him the earth, to
"subdue" it100. This first message was confirmed by Christ the Lord in
the mystery of the Redemption. This is expressed by the Second Vatican
Council in these beautiful chapters of its teaching that concern man's
"kingship"; that is to say his call to share in the kingly function-the
munus regaleof Christ himself101. The essential meaning of this
"kingship" and "dominion" of man over the visible world, which the
Creator himself gave man for his task, consists in the priority of
ethics over technology, in the primacy of the person over things, and
in the superiority of spirit over matter.
This is why all phases of present-day progress must be followed
attentively. Each stage of that progress must, so to speak, be x-rayed
from this point of view. What is in question is the advancement of
persons, not just the multiplying of things that people can use. It is
a matter-as a contemporary philosopher has said and as the Council has
stated-not so much of "having more" as of "being more"102. Indeed there
is already a real perceptible danger that, while man's dominion over
the world of things is making enormous advances, he should lose the
essential threads of his dominion and in various ways let his humanity
be subjected to the world and become himself something subject to
manipulation in many ways-even if the manipulation is often not
perceptible directly-through the whole of the organization of community
life, through the production system and through pressure from the means
of social communication. Man cannot relinquish himself or the place in
the visible world that belongs to him; he cannot become the slave of
things, the slave of economic systems, the slave of production, the
slave of his own products. A civilization purely materialistic in
outline condemns man to such slavery, even if at times, no doubt, this
occurs contrary to the intentions and the very premises of its
pioneers. The present solicitude for man certainly has at its root this
problem. It is not a matter here merely of giving an abstract answer to
the question: Who is man? It is a matter of the whole of the dynamism
of life and civilization. It is a matter of the mean ingfulness of the
various initiatives of everyday life and also of the premises for many
civilization programmes, political programmes, eco nomic ones, social
ones, state ones, and many others.
If we make bold to describe man's situation in the modern world as far
removed from the objective demands of the moral order, from the
exigencies of justice, and still more from social love, we do so
because this is confirmed by the well-known facts and comparisons that
have already on various occasions found an echo in the pages of
statements by the Popes, the Council and the Synod103. Man's situation
today is certainly not uniform but marked with numerous differences.
These differences have causes in history, but they also have strong
ethical effects. Indeed everyone is familiar with the picture of the
consumer civilization, which consists in a certain surplus of goods
necessary for man and for entire societies-and we are dealing precisely
with the rich highly developed societies-while the remaining
societies-at least broad sectors of them-are suffering from hunger,
with many people dying each day of starvation and malnutrition. Hand in
hand go a certain abuse of freedom by one group-an abuse linked
precisely with a consumer attitude uncontrolled by ethics -and a
limitation by it of the freedom of the others, that is to say those
suffering marked shortages and being driven to conditions of even worse
misery and destitution.
This pattern, which is familiar to all, and the contrast referred to,
in the documents giving their teaching, by the Popes of this century,
most recently by John XXIII and by Paul VI,104 represent, as it were,
the gigantic development of the parable in the Bible of the rich
banqueter and the poor man Lazarus105. So widespread is the phenomenon
that it brings into question the fìnancial, monetary, production
and commercial mechanisms that, resting on various political pressures,
support the world economy. These are proving incapable either of
remedying the unjust social situations inherited from the past or of
dealing with the urgent challenges and ethical demands of the present.
By submitting man to tensions created by himself, dilapidating at an
accelerated pace material and energy resources, and compromising the
geophysical environment, these structures unceasingly make the areas of
misery spread, accompanied by anguish, frustration and bitterness106.
We have before us here a great drama that can leave nobody indifferent.
The person who, on the one hand, is trying to draw the maximum profit
and, on the other hand, is paying the price in damage and injury is
always man. The drama is made still worse by the presence close at hand
of the privileged social classes and of the rich countries, which
accumulate goods to an excessive degree and the misuse of whose riches
very often becomes the cause of various ills. Add to this the fever of
inflation and the plague of unemployment -these are further symptoms of
the moral disorder that is being noticed in the world situation and
therefore requires daring creative resolves in keeping with man's
authentic dignity107.
Such a task is not an impossible one. The principle of solidarity, in a
wide sense, must inspire the effective search for appropriate in
stitutions and mechanisms, whether in the sector of trade, where the
laws of healthy competition must be allowed to lead the way, or on the
level of a wider and more immediate redistribution of riches and of
control over them, in order that the economically developing peoples
may be able not only to satisfy their essential needs but also to
advance gradually and effectively.
This difficult road of the indispensable transformation of the
structures of economic life is one on which it will not be easy to go
forward without the intervention of a true conversion of mind, will and
heart. The task reguires resolute commitment by individuals and peoples
that are free and linked in solidarity. All too often freedom is
confused with the instinct for individual or collective interest or
with the instinct for combat and domination, whatever be the
ideological colours with which they are covered. Obviously these
instincts exist and are operative, but no truly human economy will be
possible unless they are taken up, directed and dominated by the
deepest powers in man, which decide the true culture of peoples. These
are the very sources for the effort which will express man's true
freedom and which will be capable of ensuring it in the economic field
also. Economic development, with every factor in its adequate
functioning, must be constantly programmed and realized within a
perspective of universal joint development of each individual and
people, as was convincingly recalled by my Predecessor Paul VI in
Populorum Progressio. Otherwise, the category of "economic progress"
becomes in isolation a superior category subordinating the whole of
human existence to its partial demands, suffocating man, breaking up
society, and ending by entangling itself in its own tensions and
excesses.
It is possible to undertake this duty. This is testified by the certain
facts and the results, which it would be difficult to mention more
analytically here. However, one thing is certain: at the basis of this
gigantic sector it is necessary to establish, accept and deepen the
sense of moral responsibility, which man must undertake. Again and
always man.
This responsibility becomes especially evident for us Christians when
we recall-and we should always recall it-the scene of the last judgment
according to the words of Christ related in Matthew's Gospel108.
This eschatological scene must always be "applied" to man's history; it
must always be made the "measure" for human acts as an essential
outline for an examination of conscience by each and every one: "I was
hungry and you gave me no food ... naked and you did not clothe me...
in prison and you did not visit me"109. These words become charged with
even stronger warning, when we think that, instead of bread and
cultural aid, the new States and nations awakening to independent life
are being offered, sometimes in abundance, modern weapons and means of
destruction placed at the service of armed conflicts and wars that are
not so much a requirement for defending their íust rights and
their sovereignty but rather a form of chauvinism, imperialism, and
neocolonialism of one kind or another. We all know well that the areas
of misery and hunger on our globe could have been made fertile in a
short time, if the gigantic investments for armaments at the service of
war and destruction had been changed into investments for food at the
service of life.
This consideration will perhaps remain in part an "abstract" one. It
will perhaps offer both "sides" an occasion for mutual accusation, each
forgetting its own faults. It will perhaps provoke new accusations
against the Church. The Church, however, which has no weapons at her
disposal apart from those of the spirit, of the word and of love,
cannot renounce her proclamation of "the word ... in season and out of
season"110. For this reason she does not cease to implore each side of
the two and to beg everybody in the name of God and in the name of man:
Do not kill! Do not prepare destruction and extermination for men!
Think of your brothers and sisters who are suffering hunger and misery!
Respect each one's dignity and freedom!
17. Human rights: "letter" or "spirit"
This century has so far been a century of great calamities for man, of
great devastations, not only material ones but also moral ones, indeed
perhaps above all moral ones. Admittedly it is not easy to compare one
age or one century with another under this aspect, since that depends
also on changing historical standards. Nevertheless, without applying
these comparisons, one still cannot fail to see that this century has
so far been one in which people have provided many injustices and
sufferings for themselves. Has this process been decisively curbed? In
any case, we cannot fail to recall at this point, with esteem and
profound hope for the future, the magnificent effort made to give life
to the United Nations Organization, an effort conducive to the
definition and establishment of man's objective and inviolable rights,
with the member States obliging each other to observe them rigorously.
This commitment has been accepted and ratified by almost all
present-day States, and this should constitute a guarantee that human
rights will become throughout the world a fundamental principle of work
for man's welfare.
There is no need for the Church to confirm how closely this problem is
linked with her mission in the modern world. Indeed it is at the very
basis of social and international peace, as has been declared by John
XXIII, the Second Vatican Council, and later Paul VI, in detailed
documents. After all, peace comes down to respect for man's inviolable
rights-Opus iustitiae pax-while war springs from the violation of these
rights and brings with it still graver violations of them. If human
rights are violated in time of peace, this is particularly painful and
from the point of view of progress it represents an incomprehensible
manifestation of activity directed against man, which can in no way be
reconciled with any programme that describes itself as "humanistic".
And what social, economic, political or cultural programme could
renounce this description? We are firmly convinced that there is no
programme in today's world in which man is not invariably brought to
the fore, even when the platforms of the programmes are made up of
conflicting ideologies concerning the way of conceiving the world.
If, in spite of these premises, human rights are being violated in
various ways, if in practice we see before us concentration camps,
violence, torture, terrorism, and discrimination in many forms, this
must then be the consequence of the other premises, undermining and
often almost annihilating the effectiveness of the humanistic premises
of these modern programmes and systems. This necessarily imposes the
duty to submit these programmes to continual revision from the point of
view of the objective and inviolable rights of man.
The Declaration of Human Rights linked with the setting up of the
United Nations Organization certainly had as its aim not only to
departfrom the horrible experiences of the last world war but also to
create the basis for continual revision of programmes, systems and
regimes precisely from this single fundamental point of view, namely
the welfare of man-or, let us say, of the person in the community-which
must, as a fundamental factor in the common good, constitute the
essential criterion for all programmes, systems and regimes. If the
opposite happens, human life is, even in time of peace, condemned to
various sufferings and, along with these sufferings, there is a
development of various forms of domination, totalitarianism,
neocolonialism and imperialism, which are a threat also to the
harmonious living together of the nations. Indeed, it is a significant
fact, repeatedly confirmed by the experiences of history, that
violation of the rights of man goes hand in hand with violation of the
rights of the nation, with which man is united by organic links as with
a larger family.
Already in the first half of this century, when various State
totalitarianisms were developing, which, as is well known, led to the
horrible catastrophe of war, the Church clearly outlined her position
with regard to these regimes that to all appearances were acting for a
higher good, namely the good of the State, while history was to show
instead that the good in question was only that of a certain party,
which had been identified with the State111. In reality, those regimes
had restricted the rights of the citizens, denying them recognition
precisely of those inviolable human rights that have reached
formulation on the international level in the middle of our century.
While sharing the joy of all people of good will, of all people who
truly love justice and peace, at this conquest, the Church, aware that
the "letter" on its own can kill, while only "the spirit gives
life"112, must continually ask, together with these people of good
will, whether the Declaration of Human Rights and the acceptance of
their "letter" mean everywhere also the actualization of their
"spirit". Indeed, well founded fears arise that very often we are still
far from this actualization and that at times the spirit of social and
public life is painfully opposed to the declared "letter" of human
rights. This state of things, which is burdensome for the societies
concerned, would place special responsibility towards these societies
and the history of man on those contributing to its establishment.
The essential sense of the State, as a political community, consists in
that the society and people composing it are master and sovereign of
their own destiny. This sense remains unrealized if, instead of the
exercise of power with the moral participation of the society or
people, what we see is the imposition of power by a certain group upon
all the other members of the society. This is essential in the present
age, with its enormous increase in people's social awareness and the
accompanying need for the citizens to have a right share in the
political life of the community, while taking account of the real
conditions of each people and the necessary vigour of public
authority113. These therefore are questions of primary importance from
the point of view of the progress of man himself and the overall
development of his humanity.
The Church has always taught the duty to act for the common good and,
in so doing, has likewise educated good citizens for each State.
Furthermore, she has always taught that the fundamental duty of power
is solicitude for the common good of society; this is what gives power
its fundamental rights. Precisely in the name of these premises of the
objective ethical order, the rights of power can only be understood on
the basis of respect for the objective and inviolable rights of man.
The common good that authority in the State serves is brought to full
realization only when all the citizens are sure of their rights. The
lack of this leads to the dissolution of society, opposition by
citizens to authority, or a situation of oppression, intimidation,
violence, and terrorism, of which many exemples have been provided by
the totalitarianisms of this century. Thus the principle of human
rights is of profound concern to the area of social justice and is the
measure by which it can be tested in the life of political bodies.
These rights are rightly reckoned to include the right to religious
freedom together with the right to freedom of conscience. The Second
Vatican Council considered especially necessary the preparation of a
fairly long declaration on this subject. This is the document called
Dignitatis Humanae,114 in which is expressed not only the theological
concept of the question but also the concept reached from the point of
view of natural law, that is to say from the "purely human" position,
on the basis of the premises given by man's own experience, his reason
and his sense of human dignity. Certainly the curtailment of the
religious freedom of individuals and communities is not only a painful
experience but it is above all an attack on man's very dignity,
independently of the religion professed or of the concept of the world
which these individuals and communities have. The curtailment and
violation of religious freedom are in contrast with man's dignity and
his objective rights. The Council document mentioned above states
clearly enough what that curtailment or violation of religious freedom
is. In this case we are undoubtedly confronted with a radical injustice
with regard to what is particularly deep within man, what is
authentically human. Indeed, even the phenomenon of unbelief,
a-religiousness and atheism, as a human phenomenon, is understood only
in relation to the phenomenon of religion and faith. It is therefore
difficult, even from a "purely human" point of view, to accept a
position that gives only atheism the right of citizenship in public and
social life, while believers are, as though by principle, barely
tolerated or are treated as second-class citizens or are even-and this
has already happened- entirely deprived of the rights of citizenship.
Even if briefly, this subject must also be dealt with, because it too
enters into the complex of man's situations in the present-day world
and because it too gives evidence of the degree to which this situation
is overburdened by prejudices and injustices of various kinds. If we
refrain from entering into details in this field in which we would have
a special right and duty to do so, it is above all because, together
with all those who are suffering the torments of discrimination and
persecution for the name of God, we are guided by faith in the
redeeming power of the Cross of Christ. However, because of my office,
I appeal in the name of all believers throughout the world to those on
whom the organization of social and public life in some way depends,
earnestly requesting them to respect the rights of religion and of the
Church's activity. No privilege is asked for, but only respect for an
elementary right. Actuation of this right is one of the fundamental
tests of man's authentic progress in any regime, in any society, system
or milieu.
IV. THE CHURCH'S MISSION AND MAN'S DESTINY
18. The Church as concerned for man's vocation in Christ
This necessarily brief look at man's situation in the modern world
makes us direct our thoughts and our hearts to Jesus Christ, and to the
mystery of the Redemption, in which the question of man is inscribed
with a special vigour of truth and love. If Christ "united himself with
each man"115, the Church lives more profoundly her own nature and
mission by penetrating into the depths of this mystery and into its
rich universal language. It was not without reason that the Apostle
speaks of Christ's Body, the Church116. If this Mystical Body of Christ
is God's People -as the Second Vatican Council was to say later on the
basis of the whole of the Biblical and patristic tradition-this means
that in it each man receives within himself that breath of life that
comes from Christ. In this way, turning to man and his real problems,
his hopes and sufferings, his achievements and falls-this too also
makes the Church as a body, an organism, a social unit perceive the
same divine influences, the light and strength of the Spirit that come
from the crucified and risen Christ, and it is for this very reason
that she lives her life. The Church has only one life: that which is
given her by her Spouse and Lord. Indeed, precisely because Christ
united himself with her in his mystery of Redemption, the Church must
be strongly united with each man.
This union of Christ with man is in itself a mystery. From the mystery
is born "the new man", called to become a partaker of God's life117,
and newly created in Christ for the fullness of grace and truth118.
Christ's union with man is power and the source of power, as Saint John
stated so incisively in the prologue of his Gospel: "(The Word) gave
power to become children of God"119. Man is transformed inwardly by
this power as the source of a new life that does not disappear and pass
away but lasts to eternal life120. This life, which the Father has
promised and offered to each man in Jesus Christ, his eternal and only
Son, who, "when the time had fully come"121, became incarnate and was
born of the Virgin Mary, is the final fulfilment of man's vocation. It
is in a way the fulfilment of the "destiny" that God has prepared for
him from eternity. This "divine destiny" is advancing, in spite of all
the enigmas, the unsolved riddles, the twists and turns of "human
destiny" in the world of time. Indeed, while all this, in spite of all
the riches of life in time, necessarily and inevitably leads to the
frontier of death and the goal of the destruction of the human body,
beyond that goal we see Christ. "I am the resurrection and the life, he
who believes in me... shall never die"122. In Jesus Christ, who was
crucified and laid in the tomb and then rose again, "our hope of
resurrection dawned... the bright promise of immortality"123, on the
way to which man, through the death of the body, shares with the whole
of visible creation the necessity to which matter is subject. We intend
and are trying to fathom ever more deeply the language of the truth
that man's Redeemer enshrined in the phrase "It is the spirit that
gives life, the flesh is of no avail"124. In spite of appearances,
these words express the highest affirmation of man-the affirmation of
the body given life by the Spirit.
The Church lives these realities, she lives by this truth about man,
which enables him to go beyond the bounds of temporariness and at the
same time to think with particular love and solicitude of everything
within the dimensions of this temporariness that affect man's life and
the life of the human spirit, in which is expressed that never-ending
restlessness referred to in the words of Saint Augustine: "You made us
for yourself, Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in
you"125. In this creative restlessness beats and pulsates what is most
deeply human-the search for truth, the insatiable need for the good,
hunger for freedom, nostalgia for the beautiful, and the voice of
conscience. Seeking to see man as it were with "the eyes of Christ
himself", the Church becomes more and more aware that she is the
guardian of a great treasure, which she may not waste but must
continually increase. Indeed, the Lord Jesus said: "He who does not
gather with me scatters"126. This treasure of humanity enriched by the
inexpressible mystery of divine filiation127 and by the grace of
"adoption as sons"128 in the Only Son of God, through whom we call God
"Abba, Father"129, is also a powerful force unifying the Church above
all inwardly and giving meaning to all her activity. Through this force
the Church is united with the Spirit of Christ, that Holy Spirit
promised and continually communicated by the Redeemer and whose
descent, which was revealed on the day of Pentecost, endures for ever.
Thus the powers of the Spirit130, the gifts of the Spirit131, and the
fruits of the Holy Spirit 132 are revealed in men. The present-day
Church seems to repeat with ever greater fervour and with holy
insistence: "Come, Holy Spirit!". Come! Come! "Heal our wounds, our
strength renew; On our dryness pour your dew; Wash the stains of guilt
away; Bend the stubborn heart and will; Melt the frozen, warm the
chill; Guide the steps that go astray"133.
This appeal to the Spirit, intended precisely to obtain the Spirit, is
the answer to all the "materialisms" of our age. It is these
materialisms that give birth to so many forms of insatiability in the
human heart. This appeal is making itself heard on various sides and
seems to be bearing fruit also in different ways. Can it be said that
the Church is not alone in making this appeal? Yes it can, because the
"need" for what is spiritual is expressed also by people who are
outside the visible confines of the Church134. Is not this confirmed by
the truth concerning the Church that the recent Council so acutely
emphasized at the point in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium
where it teaches that the Church is a "sacrament or sign and means of
intimate union with God, and of the unity of all mankind?"135. This
invocation addressed to the Spirit to obtain the Spirit is really a
constant selfinsertion into the full magnitude of the mystery of the
Redemption, in which Christ, united with the Father and with each man,
continually communicates to us the Spirit who places within us the
sentiments of the Son and directs us towards the Father136. This is why
the Church of our time-a time particularly hungry for the Spirit,
because it is hungry for justice, peace, love, goodness, fortitude,
responsibility, and human dignity-must concentrate and gather around
that Mystery, finding in it the light and the strength that are
indispensable for her mission. For if, as was already said, man is the
way for the Church's daily life, the Church must be always aware of the
dignity of the divine adoption re ceived by man in Christ through the
grace of the Holy Spirit137 and of his destination to grace and
glory138. By reflecting ever anew on all this, and by accepting it with
a faith that is more and more aware and a love that is more and more
firm, the Church also makes herself better fitted for the service to
man to which Christ the Lord calls her when he says: "The Son of man
came not to be served but to serve"139. The Church performs this
ministry by sharing in the "triple office" belonging to her Master and
Redeemer. This teaching, with its Biblical foundation, was brought
fully to the fore by the Second Vatican Council, to the great advantage
of the Church's life. For when we become aware that we share in
Christ's triple mission, his triple office as priest, as prophet and as
king140, we also become more aware of what must receive service from
the whole of the Church as the society and community of the People of
God on earth, and we likewise understand how each one of us must share
in this mission and service.
19. The Church as responsible for truth
In the light of the sacred teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the
Church thus appears before us as the social subject of responsibility
for divine truth. With deep emotion we hear Christ himself saying: "The
word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me"141. In
this affirmation by our Master do we not notice responsibility for the
revealed truth, which is the "property" of God himself, since even he,
"the only Son", who lives "in the bosom of the Father"142, when
transmitting that truth as a prophet and teacher, feels the need to
stress that he is acting in full fidelity to its divine source? The
same fidelity must be a constitutive quality of the Church's faith,
both when she is teaching it and when she is professing it. Faith as a
specific supernatural virtue infused into the human spirit makes us
sharers in knowledge of God as a response to his revealed word.
Therefore it is required, when the Church professes and teaches the
faith, that she should adhere strictly to divine truth143, and should
translate it into living attitudes of "obedience in harmony with
reason"144. Christ himself, concerned for this fidelity to divine
truth, promised the Church the special assistance of the Spirit of
truth, gave the gift of infallibility145 to those whom he entrusted
with the mandate of transmitting and teaching that truth146-as has
besides been clearly defined by the First Vatican Council147 and has
then been repeated by the Second Vatican Council148-and he furthermore
endowed the whole of the People of God with a special sense of the
faith149.
Consequently, we have become sharers in this mission of the prophet
Christ, and in virtue of that mission we together with him are serving
divine truth in the Church. Being responsible for that truth also means
loving it and seeking the most exact understanding of it, in order to
bring it closer to ourselves and others in all its saving power, its
splendour and its profundity joined with simplicity. This love and this
aspiration to understand the truth must go hand in hand, as is
confirmed by the histories of the saints in the Church. These received
most brightly the authentic light that illuminates divine truth and
brings close God's very reality, because they approached this truth
with veneration and love-love in the first place for Christ, the living
Word of divine truth, and then love for his human expression in the
Gospel, tradition and theology. Today we still need above all that
understanding and interpretation of God's Word; we need that theology.
Theology has always had and continues to have great importance for the
Church, the People of God, to be able to share creatively and
fruitfully in Christ's mission as prophet. Therefore, when theologians,
as servants of divine truth, dedicate their studies and labours to ever
deeper understanding of that truth, they can never lose sight of the
meaning of their service in the Church, which is enshrined in the
concept intellectus fidei. This concept has, so to speak, a two-way
function, in line with Saint Augustine's expression: intellege,
utcredas-crede, ut intellegas,150 and it functions correctly when they
seek to serve the Magisterium, which in the Church is entrusted to the
Bishops joined by the bond of hierarchical communion with Peter's
Successor, when they place themselves at the service of their
solicitude in teaching and giving pastoral care, and when they place
themselves at the service of the apostolic commitments of the whole of
the People of God.
As in preceding ages, and perhaps more than in preceding ages,
theologians and all men of learning in the Church are today called to
unite faith with learning and wisdom, in order to help them to combine
with each other, as we read in the prayer in the liturgy of the
memorial of Saint Albert, Doctor of the Church. This task has grown
enormously today because of the advance of human learning, its
methodology, and the achievements in knowledge of the world and of man.
This concerns both the exact sciences and the human sciences, as well
as philosophy, which, as the Second Vatican Council recalled, is
closely linked with theology151.
In this field of human knowledge, which is continually being broadened
and yet differentiated, faith too must be investigated deeply,
manifesting the magnitude of revealed mystery and tending towards an
understanding of truth, which has in God its one supreme source. If it
is permissible and even desirable that the enormous work to be done in
this direction should take into consideration a certain pluralism of
methodology, the work cannot however depart from the fundamental unity
in the teaching of Faith and Morals which is that work's end.
Accordingly, close collaboration by theology with the Magisterium is
indispensable. Every theologian must be particularly aware of what
Christ himself stated when he said: "The word which you hear is not
mine but the Father's who sent me"152. Nobody, therefore, can make of
theology as it were a simple collection of his own personal ideas, but
everybody must be aware of being in close union with the mission of
teaching truth for which the Church is responsible.
The sharing in the prophetic office of Christ himself shapes the life
of the whole of the Church in her fundamental dimension. A particular
share in this office belongs to the Pastors of the Church, who teach
and continually and in various ways proclaim and transmit the doctrine
concerning the Christian faith and morals. This teaching, both in its
missionary and its ordinary aspect, helps to assemble the People of God
around Christ, prepares for participation in the Eucharist and points
out the ways for sacramental life. In 1977 the Synod of the Bishops
dedicated special attention to catechesis in the modern world, and the
mature results of its deliberations, experiences and suggestions will
shortly find expression-in keeping with the proposal made by the
participants in the Synod-in a special papal document. Catechesis
certainly constitutes a permanent and also fundamental form of activity
by the Church, one in which her prophetic charism is manifested:
witnessing and teaching go hand in hand. And although here we are
speaking in the first place of priests, it is however impossible not to
mention also the great number of men and women religious dedicating
themselves to catechetical activity for love of the divine Master.
Finally, it would be difficult not to mention the many lay people who
find expression in this activity for their faith and their apostolic
responsibility.
Furthermore, increasing care must be taken that the various forms of
catechesis and its various fields-beginning with the fundamental field,
family catechesis, that is the catechesis by parents of their
children-should give evidence of the universal sharing by the whole of
the People of God in the prophetic office of Christ himself. Linked
with this fact, the Church's responsibility for divine truth must be
increasingly shared in various ways by all. What shall we say at this
point with regard to the specialists in the various disciplines, those
who represent the natural sciences and letters, doctors, jurists,
artists and technicians, teachers at various levels and with different
specializations? As members of the People of God, they all have their
own part to play in Christ's prophetic mission and service of divine
truth, among other ways by an honest attitude towards truth, whatever
field it may belong to, while educating others in truth and teaching
them to mature in love and justice. Thus, a sense of responsibility for
truth is one of the fundamental points of encounter between the Church
and each man and also one of the fundamental demands determining man's
vocation in the community of the Church. The present-day Church, guided
by a sense of responsibility for truth, must persevere in fidelity to
her own nature, which involves the prophetic mission that comes from
Christ himself: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you...
Receive the Holy Spirit"153.
20. Eucharist and Penance
In the mystery of the Redemption, that is to say in Jesus Christ's
saving work, the Church not only shares in the Gospel of her Master
through fidelity to the word and service of truth, but she also shares,
through a submission filled with hope and love, in the power of his
redeeming action expressed and enshrined by him in a sacramental form,
especially in the Eucharist154. The Eucharist is the centre and summit
of the whole of sacramental life, through which each Christian receives
the saving power of the Redemption, beginning with the mystery of
Baptism, in which we are buried into the death of Christ, in order to
become sharers in his Resurrection155, as the Apostle teaches. In the
light of this teaching, we see still more clearly the reason why the
entire sacramental life of the Church and of each Christian reaches its
summit and fullness in the Eucharist. For by Christ's will there is in
this Sacrament a continual renewing of the mystery of the Sacrifice of
himself that Christ offered to the Father on the altar of the Cross, a
Sacrifice that the Father accepted, giving, in return for this total
self-giving by his Son, who "became obedient unto death"156, his own
paternal gift, that is to say the grant of new immortal life in the
resurrection, since the Father is the first source and the giver of
life from the beginning. That new life, which involves the bodily
glorification of the crucified Christ, became an efficacious sign of
the new gift granted to humanity, the gift that is the Holy Spirit,
through whom the divine life that the Father has in himself and gives
to his Son157 is communicated to all men who are united with Christ.
The Eucharist is the most perfect Sacrament of this union. By
celebrating and also partaking of the Eucharist we unite ourselves with
Christ on earth and in heaven who intercedes for us with the Father158
but we always do so through the redeeming act of his Sacrifice, through
which he has redeemed us, so that we have been "bought with a
price"159. The "price" of our redemption is likewise a further proof of
the value that God himself sets on man and of our dignity in Christ.
For by becoming "children of God"160, adopted sons161, we also become
in his likeness "a kingdom and priests" and obtain "a royal
priesthood"162, that is to say we share in that unique and irreversible
restoration of man and the world to the Father that was carried out
once for all by him, who is both the eternal Son163 and also true Man.
The Eucharist is the Sacrament in which our new being is most
completely expressed and in which Christ himself unceasingly and in an
ever new manner "bears witness" in the Holy Spirit to our spirit164
that each of us, as a sharer in the mystery of the Redemption, has
access to the fruits of the filial reconciliation with God165 that he
himself actuated and continually actuates among us by means of the
Church's ministry.
It is an essential truth, not only of doctrine but also of life, that
the Eucharist builds the Church166, building it as the authentic
community of the People of God, as the assembly of the faithful,
bearing the same mark of unity that was shared by the Apostles and the
first disciples of the Lord. The Eucharist builds ever anew this
community and unity, ever building and regenerating it on the basis of
the Sacrifice of Christ, since it commemorates his death on the
Cross167, the price by which he redeemed us. Accordingly, in the
Eucharist we touch in a way the very mystery of the Body and Blood of
the Lord, as is attested by the very words used at its institution, the
words that, because of that institution, have become the words with
which those called to this ministry in the Church un ceasingly
celebrate the Eucharist.
The Church lives by the Eucharist, by the fullness of this Sacrament,
the stupendous content and meaning of which have often been expressed
in the Church's Magisterium from the most distant times down to our own
days168. However, we can say with certainty that, although this
teaching is sustained by the acuteness of theologians, by men of deep
faith and prayer, and by ascetics and mystics, in complete fidelity to
the Eucharistic mystery, it still reaches no more than the threshold,
since it is incapable of grasping and translating into words what the
Eucharist is in all its fullness, what is expressed by it and what is
actuated by it. Indeed, the Eucharist is the ineffable Sacrament! The
essential commitment and, above all, the visible grace and source of
supernatural strength for the Church as the People of God is to
persevere and advance constantly in Eucharistic life and Eucharistic
piety and to develop spiritually in the climate of the Eucharist. With
all the greater reason, then, it is not permissible for us, in thought,
life or action, to take away from this truly most holy Sacrament its
full magnitude and its essential meaning. It is at one and the same
time a Sacrifice-Sacrament, a Communion-Sacrament, and a
Presence-Sacrament And, although it is true that the Eucharist always
was and must continue to be the most profound revelation of the human
brotherhood of Christ's disciples and confessors, it cannot be treated
merely as an "occasion" for manifesting this brotherhood. When
celebrating the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord, the full
magnitude of the divine mystery must be respected, as must the full
meaning of this sacramental sign in which Christ is really present and
is received, the soul is filled with grace and the pledge of future
glory is given169.
This is the source of the duty to carry out rigorously the liturgical
rules and everything that is a manifestation of community worship
offered to God himself, all the more so because in this sacramental
sign he entrusts himself to us with limitless trust, as if not taking
into consideration our human weakness, our unworthiness, the force of
habit, routine, or even the possibility of insult. Every member of the
Church, especially Bishops and Priests, must be vigilant in seeing that
this Sacrament of love shall be at the centre of the life of the People
of God, so that through all the manifestations of worship due to it
Christ shall be given back «love for love "and truly become "the
life of our souls"170. Nor can we, on the other hand, ever forget the
following words of Saint Paul: "Let a man examine himself, and so eat
of the bread and drink of the cup"171.
This call by the Apostle indicates at least indirectly the close link
between the Eucharist and Penance. Indeed, if the first word of
Christ's teaching, the first phrase of the Gospel Good News, was
"Repent, and believe in the gospel" (metanoeite),172 the Sacrament of
the Passion, Cross and Resurrection seems to strengthen and consolidate
in an altogether special way this call in our souls. The Eucharist and
Penance thus become in a sense two closely connected dimensions of
authentic life in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel, of truly
Christian life. The Christ who calls to the Eucharistic banquet is
always the same Christ who exhorts us to penance and repeats his
"Repent"173. Without this constant ever renewed endeavour for
conversion, partaking of the Eucharist would lack its full redeeming
effectiveness and there would be a loss or at least a weakening of the
special readiness to offer God the spiritual sacrifice174 in which our
sharing in the priesthood of Christ is expressed in an essential and
universal manner. In Christ, priesthood is linked with his Sacrifice,
his selfgiving to the Father; and, precisely because it is without
limit, that self-giving gives rise in us human beings subject to
numerous limitations to the need to turn to God in an ever more mature
way and with a constant, ever more profound, conversion.
In the last years much has been done to highlight in the Church's
practice-in conformity with the most ancient tradition of the Church-
he community aspect of penance and especially of the sacrament of
Penance. We cannot however forget that conversion is a particularly
profound inward act in which the individual cannot be replaced by
others and cannot make the community be a substitute for him. Although
the participation by the fraternal community of the faithful in the
penitential celebration is a great help for the act of personal
conversion, nevertheless, in the final analysis, it is necessary that
in this act there should be a pronouncement by the individual himself
with the whole depth of his conscience and with the whole of his sense
of guilt and of trust in God, placing himself like the Psalmist before
God to confess: "Against you... have I sinned"175. In faithfully
observing the centuries-old practice of the Sacrament of Penance-the
practice of individual confession .with a personal act of sorrow and
the intention to amend and make satisfaction-the Church is therefore
defending the human soul's individual right: man's right to a more
personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ, with Christ
saying, through the minister of the sacrament of Reconciliation: "Your
sins are forgiven"176; "Go, and do not sin again"177. As is evident,
this is also a right on Christ's part with regard to every human being
redeemed by him: his right to meet each one of us in that key moment in
the soul's life constituted by the moment of conversion and
forgiveness. By guarding the sacrament of Penance, the Church expressly
affirms her faith in the mystery of the Redemption as a living and
life-giving reality that fits in with man's inward truth, with human
guilt and also with the desires of the human conscience. "Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be
satisfied"178. The sacrament of Penance is the means to satisfy man
with the righteousness that comes from the Redeemer himself.
In the Church, gathering particularly today in a special way around the
Eucharist and desiring that the authentic Eucharistic community should
become a sign of the gradually maturing unity of all Christians, there
must a lively-felt need for penance, both in its sacramental aspect179,
and in what concerns penance as a virtue. This second aspect was
expressed by Paul VI in the Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini180. One
of the Church's tasks is to put into practice the teaching Paenitemini
contains; this subject must be investigated more deeply by us in common
reflection, and many more decisions must be made about it in a spirit
of pastoral collegiality and with respect for the different traditions
in this regard and the different circumstances of the lives of the
people of today. Nevertheless, it is certain that the Church of the new
Advent, the Church that is continually preparing for the new coming of
the Lord, must be the Church of the Eucharist and of Penance. Only when
viewed in this spiritual aspect of her life and activity is she seen to
be the Church of the divine misison, the Church in statu missionis, as
the Second Vatican Council has shown her to be.
21. The Christian vocation to service and kingship
In building up from the very foundations the picture of the Church as
the People of God-by showing the threefold mission of Christ himself,
through participation in which we become truly God's People-the Second
Vatican Counci] highlighted, among other characteristics of the
Christian vocation, the one that can be described as "kingly". To
present all the riches of the Council's teaching we would here have to
make reference to numerous chapters and paragraphs of the Constitution
Lumen Gentium and of many other documents by the Council. However, one
element seems to stand out in the midst of all these riches: the
sharing in Christ's kingly mission, that is to say the fact of
rediscovering in oneself and others the special dignity of our vocation
that can be described as "kingship". This dignity is expressed in
readiness to serve, in keeping with the example of Christ, who "came
not to be served but to serve"181. If, in the light of this attitude of
Christ's, "being a king" is truly possible only by "being a servant"
then "being a servant" also demands so much spiritual maturity that it
must really be de- scribed as "being a king". In order to be able to
serve others worthily and effectively we must be able to master
ourselves, possess the virtues that make this mastery possible. Our
sharing in Christ's kingly mission-his "kingly function" (munus) is
closely linked with every sphere of both Christian and human morality.
In presenting the complete picture of the People of God and recalling
the place among that people held not only by priests but also by the
laity, not only by the representatives of the Hierarchy but also by
those of the Institutes of Consecrated Life, the Second Vatican Council
did not deduce this picture merely from a sociological premise. The
Church as a human society can of course be examined and described
according to the categories used by the sciences with regard to any
human society. But these categories are not enough. For the whole of
the community of the People of God and for each member of it what is in
question is not just a specific "social membership"; rather, for each
and every one what is essential is a particular "vocation". Indeed, the
Church as the People of God is also-according to the teaching of Saint
Paul mentioned above, of which Pius XII reminded us in wonderful
terms-"Christ's Mystical Body"182. Membership in that body has for its
source a particular call, united with the saving action of grace.
Therefore, if we wish to keep in mind this community of the People of
God, which is so vast and so extremely differentiated, we must see
first and foremost Christ saying in a way to each member of the
community: "Follow me"183. It is the community of the disciples, each
of whom in a different way -at times very consciously and consistently,
at other times not very consciously and very inconsistently-is
following Christ. This shows also the deeply "personal" aspect and
dimension of this society, which, in spite of all the deficiencies of
its community life-in the human meaning of this word-is a community
precisely because all its members form it together with Christ himself,
at least because they bear in their souls the indelible mark of a
Christian.
The Second Vatican Council devoted very special attention to showing
how this "ontological" community of disciples and confessors must
increasingly become, even from the "human" point of view, a community
aware of its own life and activity. The initiatives taken by the
Council in this field have been followed up by the many further
initiatives of a synodal, apostolic and organizational kind. We must
however always keep in mind the truth that every initiative serves true
renewal in the Church and helps to bring the authentic light that is
Christ184 insofar as the initiative is based on adequate awareness of
the individual Christian's vocation and of responsibility for this
singular, unique and unrepeatable grace by which each Christian in the
community of the People of God builds up the Body of Christ. This
principle, the key rule for the whole of Christian practice-apostolic
and pastoral practice, practice of interior and of social life-must
with due proportion be applied to the whole of humanity and to each
human being. The Pope too and every Bishop must apply this principle to
himself. Priests and religious must be faithful to this principle. It
is the basis on which their lives must be built by married people,
parents, and women and men of different conditions and professions,
from those who occupy the highest posts in society to those who perform
the simplest tasks. It is precisely the principle of the "kingly
service" that imposes on each one of us, in imitation of Christ's
example, the duty to demand of himself exactly what we have been called
to, what we have personally obliged ourselves to by God's grace, in
order to respond to our vocation. This fidelity to the vocation
received from God through Christ involves the joint responsibility for
the Church for which the Second Vatican Council wishes to educate all
Christians. Indeed, in the Church as the community of the People of God
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit's working, each member has "his
own special gift", as Saint Paul teaches185. Although this "gift" is a
personal vocation and a form of participation in the Church's saving
work, it also serves others builds the Church and the fraternal
communities in the various spheres of human life on earth.
Fidelity to one's vocation, that is to say persevering readiness for
"kingly service", has particular significance for these many forms of
building, especially with regard to the more exigent tasks, which have
more influence on the life of our neighbour and of the whole of
society. Married people must be distinguished for fidelity to their
vocation, as is demanded by the indissoluble nature of the sacramental
institution of marriage. Priests must be distinguished for a similar
fidelity to their vocation, in view of the indelible character that the
sacrament of Orders stamps on their souls. In receiving this sacrament,
we in the Latin Church knowingly and freely cammit ourselves to live in
celibacy, and each one of us must therefore do all he can, with God's
grace, to be thankful for this gift and faithful to the bond that he
has accepted for ever. He must do so as married people must, for they
must endeavour with all their strength to persevere in their
matrimonial union, building up the family community through this
witness of love and educating new generations of men and women, capable
in their turn of dedicating the whole of their lives to their vocation,
that is to say to the "kingly service "of which Jesus Christ has
offered us the example and the most beautiful model. His Church, made
up of all of us, is "for men" in the sense that, by basing ourselves on
Christ's example186 and collaborating with the grace that he has gained
for us, we are able to attain to "being kings", that is to say we are
able to produce a mature humanity in each one of us. Mature humanity
means full use of the gift of freedom received from the Creator when he
called to existence the man made "in his image, after his likeness".
This gift finds its full realization in the unreserved giving of the
whole of one's human person, in a spirit of the love of a spouse, to
Christ and, with Christ, to all those to whom he sends men and women
totally consecrated to him in accordance with the evangelical counsels.
This is the ideal of the religious life, which has been undertaken by
the Orders and Congregations both ancient and recent, and by the
Secular Institutes.
Nowadays it is sometimes held, though wrongly, that freedom is an end
in itself, that each human being is free when he makes use of freedom
as he wishes, and that this must be our aim in the lives of individuals
and societies. In reality, freedom is a great gift only when we know
how to use it consciously for everything that is our true good. Christ
teaches us that the best use of freedom is charity, which takes
concrete form in self-giving and in service. For this "freedom Christ
has set us free"187 and ever continues to set us free. The Church draws
from this source the unceasing inspiration, the call and the drive for
her mission and her service among all mankind. The full truth about
human freedom is indelibly inscribed on the mystery of the Redemption.
The Church truly serves mankind when she guards this truth with
untiring attention, fervent love and mature commitment and when in the
whole of her own community she transmits it and gives it concrete form
in human life through each Christian's fidelity tò his vocation.
This confirms what we have already referred to, namely that man is and
always becomes the "way" for the Church's daily life.
22. The Mother in whom we trust
When therefore at the beginning of the new pontificate I turn my
thoughts and my heart to the Redeemer of man, I thereby wish to enter
and penetrate into the deepest rhythm of the Church's life. Indeed, if
the Church lives her life, she does so because she draws it from
Christ, and he always wishes but one thing, namely that we should have
life and have it abundantly188. This fullness of life in him is at the
same time for man. Therefore the Church, uniting herself with all the
riches of the mystery of the Redemption, becomes the Church of living
people, living because given life from within by the working of "the
Spirit of truth"189 and visited by the love that the Holy Spirit has
poured into our hearts190. The aim of any service in the Church,
whether the service is apostolic, pastoral, priestly or episcopal, is
to keep up this dynamic link between the mystery of the Redemption and
every man.
If we are aware of this task, then we seem to understand better what it
means to say that the Church is a mother191 and also what it means to
say that the Church always, and particularly at our time, has need of a
Mother. We owe a debt of special gratitude to the Fathers of the Second
Vatican Council, who expressed this truth in the Constitution Lumen
Gentium with the rich Mariological doctrine contained in it192. Since
Paul VI, inspired by that teaching, proclaimed the Mother of Christ
"Mother of the Church"193, and that title has become known far and
wide, may it be permitted to his unworthy Successor to turn to Mary as
Mother of the Church at the close of these reflections which it was
opportune to make at the beginning of his papal service. Mary is Mother
of the Church because, on account of the Eternal Father's ineffable
choice194 and due to the Spirit of Love's special action195, she gave
human life to the Son of God, "for whom and by whom all things
exist"196 and from whom the whole of the People of God receives the
grace and dignity of election. Her Son explicitly extended his Mother's
maternity in a way that could easily be understood by every soul and
every heart by designating, when he was raised on the Cross, his
beloved disciple as her son197. The Holy Spirit inspired her to remain
in the .Upper Room, after our Lord's Ascension, recollected in prayer
and expectation, together with the Apostles, until the day of
Pentecost, when the Church was to be born in visible form, coming forth
from darkness198. Later, all the generations of disciples, of those who
confess and love Christ, like the Apostle John, spiritually took this
Mother.to their own homes199, and she was thus included in the history
of salvation and in the Church's mission from the very beginning, that
is from the moment of the Annunciation. Accordingly, we who form
today's generation of disciples of Christ all wish to unite ourselves
with her in a special way. We do so with all our attachment to our
ancient tradition and also with full respect and love for the members
of all the Christian Communities.
We do so at the urging of the deep need of faith, hope and charity. For
if we feel a special need, in this difficult and responsible phase of
the history of the Church and of mankind, to turn to Christ, who is
Lord of the Church and Lord of man's history on account of the mystery
of the Redemption, we believe that nobody else can bring us as Mary can
into the divine and human dimension of this mystery. Nobody has been
brought into it by God himself as Mary has. It is in this that the
exceptional character of the grace of the divine Motherhood consists.
Not only is the dignity of this Motherhood unique and unrepeatable in
the history of the human race, but Mary's participation, due to this
Maternity, in God's plan for man's salvation through the mystery of the
Redemption is also unique in profundity and range of action.
We can say that the mystery of the Redemption took shape beneath the
heart of the Virgin of Nazareth when she pronounced her "fiat". From
then on, under the special influence of the Holy Spirit, this heart,
the heart of both a virgin and a mother, has always followed the work
of her Son and has gone out to all those whom Christ has embraced and
continues to embrace with inexhaustible love. For that reason her heart
must also have the inexhaustibility of a mother. The special
characteristic of the motherly love that the Mother of God inserts in
the mystery of the Redemption and the life of the Church finds
expression in its exceptional closeness to man and all that happens to
him. It is in this that the mystery of the Mother consists. The Church,
which looks to her with altogether special love and hope, wishes to
make this mystery her own in an ever deeper manner. For in this the
Church also recognizes the way for her daily life, which is each person.
The Father's eternal love, which has been manifested in the history of
mankind through the Son whom the Father gave, "that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life"200, comes close to each of
us through this Mother and thus takes on tokens that are of more easy
understanding and access by each person. Consequently, Mary must be on
all the ways for the Church's daily life. Through her maternal presence
the Church acquires certainty that she is truly living the life of her
Master and Lord and that she is living the mystery of the Redemption in
all its life-giving profundity and fullness. Likewise the Church, which
has struck root in many varied fields of the life of the whole of
present-day humanity, also acquires the certainty and, one could say,
the experience of being close to man, to each person, of being each
person's Church, the Church of the People of God.
Faced with these tasks that appear along the ways for the Church, those
ways that Pope Paul VI clearly indicated in the first Encyclical of his
pontificate, and aware of the absolute necessity of all these ways and
also of the difficulties thronging them, we feel all the more our need
for a profound link with Christ. We hear within us, as a resounding
echo, the words that he spoke: "Apart from me you can do nothing"201.
We feel not only the need but even a categorical imperative for great,
intense and growing prayer by all the Church. Only prayer can prevent
all these great succeeding tasks and difficulties from becoming a
source of crisis and make them instead the occasion and, as it were,
the foundation for ever more mature achievements on the People of God's
march towards the Promised Land in this stage of history approaching
the end of the second millennium. Accordingly, as I end this meditation
with a warm and humble call to prayer, I wish the Church to devote
herself to this prayer, together with Mary the Mother of Jesus202, as
the Apostles and disciples of the Lord did in the Upper Room in
Jerusalem after his Ascension203. Above all, I implore Mary, the
heavenly Mother of the Church, to be so good as to devote herself to
this prayer of humanity's new Advent, together with us who make up the
Church, that is to say the Mystical Body of her Only Son. I hope that
through this prayer we shall be able to receive the Holy Spirit coming
upon us204 and thus become Christ's witnesses "to the end of the
earth"205, like those who went forth from the Upper Room in Jerusalem
on the day of Pentecost.
With the Apostolic Blessing.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, on the fourth of March, the First
Sunday of Lent, in the year 1979, the first year of my Pontificate.
JOHN PAUL II
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Jn. 1:14.
2. Jn. 3:16.
3. Heb. 1:1-2.
4. Exsultet at the Easter Vigil.
5. Jn. 16:7.
6. Jn. 15:26-27.
7. Jn. 16:13.
8. Cf. Rev. 2:7.
9. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 1: AAS 57 (1965) 5.
10. Eph. 3:8.
11. Jn. 14:24.
12. Pope Paul VI: Encyclical Letter Ecclesiam Suam: AAS 56 (1964) 650ff.
13. Mt. 11:29.
14. Mention must be made here of the salient documents of the
pontificate of Paul VI, some of which were spoken of by himself in his
address during Mass on the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and
Paul in 1978: Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam: AAS 56 (1964) 609-659;
Apostolic Letter Investigabiles Divitias Christi: AAS 57 (1965)
298-301; Encyclical Sacerdotalis Caelibatus: AAS 59 (1967) 657-697;
Solemn Profession of Faith: AAS 60 (1968) 433-445; Encyclical Humanae
Vitae: AAS 60 (1968) 481-503; Apostolic Exhortation Quinque Iam Anni:
AAS 63 (1971) 97-106; Apostolic Exhortation Evangelica Testificatio:
AAS 63 (1971) 497-535; Apostolic Exhortation Paterna cum Benevolentia:
AAS 67 (1975) 5-23; Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino: AAS 67
(1975) 289-322; Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi: AAS 68
(1976) 5-76.
15. Mt. 13:52.
16. 1 Tim. 2:4.
17. Pope Paul VI: Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi: AAS 68 (1976) 5-76.
18. Jn. 17:21; cf. 17:11, 22-23; 10:16; Lk 9:49, 50, 54.
19. 1 Cor. 15:10.
20. Cf. Vatican Council I: Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius, Cap. III
De fide, can. 6: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, Ed. Istituto per le
Scienze Religiose, Bologna 1973 3, p. 811.
21. Is. 9:6.
22. Jn. 21:15.
23. Lk. 22:32.
24. Jn. 6:68; cf. Acts 4:8-12.
25. Cf. Eph. 1:10, 22; 4:25; Col. 1:18.
26. 1 Cor 8:6; cf. Col. 1:17.
27. Jn. 14:6.
28. Jn. 11:25.
29. Cf. Jn. 14:9.
30. Cf. Jn. 16:7.
31. Cf. Jn. 16:7, 13.
32. Col. 2:3.
33. Cf. Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 6:15; 10:17; 12:12, 27; Eph. 1:23; 2:16; 4:4; Col. 1:24; 3:15.
34. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 1: AAS 57 (1965) 5.
35. Mt. 16:16.
36. Cf. Litany of the Sacred Heart.
37. 1 Cor. 2:2.
38. Cf. Gen. 1 passim.
39. Cf. Gen. 1:26-30.
40. Rom . 8: 20; cf . 8:19-22; Vatican Council II: Pastoral
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 2, 13:
AAS 58 (1966) 1026, 1034-1035.
41. Jn. 3:16.
42. Cf. Rom. 5:12-21.
43. Rom. 8:22.
44. Rom. 8:19.
45. Rom. 8:22.
46. Rom. 8:19.
47. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22: AAS 58 (1966) 1042-1043.
48. Rom. 5:11; Col. 1:20.
49. Ps. 8:6.
50. Cf. Gn. 1:26.
51. Cf. Gn. 3:6-13.
52. Cf. Eucharistic Prayer IV.
53. Cf. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 37: AAS 58 (1966) 1054-1055; Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 48: AAS 57 (1965) 53-54.
54. Cf. Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:8.
55. Cf. Jn. 16:13.
56. Cf. 1 Thes. 5:24.
57. 2 Cor. 5:21; cf. Gal. 3:13.
58. 1 Jn. 4:8, 16.
59. Cf. Rom. 8:20.
60. Cf. Lk. 15:11-32.
61. Rom . 8:19.
62. Cf. Rom. 8:18.
63. Cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., III, q. 46, a. 1, ad 3.
64. Gal. 3:28.
65. Exsultet at the Easter Vigil.
66. Cf. Jn. 3:16.
67. Cf. St. Justin, I Apologia, 46, 1-4; II Apologia, 7 (8), 1-4; 10,
1-3; 13, 3-4; Florilegium Patristicum, II, Bonn 1911 2, pp. 81, 125,
129, 133; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, I, 19, 91 and 94: Sources
Chrétiennes, 30, pp. 117-118; 119-120; Vatican Council II,
Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, 11: AAS 58 (1966)
960; Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 17: AAS 57
(1965) 21.
68. Cf. Vatican Council II: Declaration on the Church's Relations with
Non-Christian Religions Nostra Aetate, 3-4: AAS 58 (1966) 741-743.
69. Col. 1:26.
70. Mt. 11:12.
71. Lk. 16:8.
72. Eph. 3:8.
73. Cf. Vatican Council II: Declaration Nostra Aetate, 1-2: AAS 58 (1966) 740-741.
74. Acts 17:22-31.
75. Jn. 2:26.
76. Jn. 3:8.
77. Cf. AAS 58 (1966) 929-946.
78. Cf. Jn. 14:26.
79. Pope Paul VI: Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 6: AAS 68 (1976) 9.
80. Jn. 7:16.
81. Cf. AAS 58 (1966) 936-938.
82. Jn. 8:32.
83. Jn. 18:37.
84. Cf. Jn. 4:23.
85. Jn. 4:23-24.
86. Cf. Pope Paul VI: Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam: AAS 56 (1964) 609-659.
87. V atican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22: AAS 58 ( 1966) 1042.
88. Cf. Jn. l4:1ff.
89. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 91: AAS 58 (1966) 1113.
90. Ibid., 38: 1. c., p. 1056.
91. Ibid., 76: 1. c., p. 1099.
92. Cf. Gn. 1:26.
93. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 24: AAS 58 ( 1966) 1045.
94. Gn. 1:28.
95. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 10: AAS 58 ( 1966) 1032.
96. Ibid., 10: 1. c., p. 1033.
97. Ibid., 38: 1. c., p. 1056; Pope Paul VI: Encyclical Populorum Progressio, 21: AAS 59 (1967) 267-268.
98. Cf. Gn. 1:28.
99. Cf. Gn. 1-2.
100. Gn. 1:28; cf. Vatican Council II: Decree on the Social
Communications Media Inter Mirifica, 6: AAS 56 (1964) 147; Pastoral
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 74, 78:
AAS 58 (1966) 1095-1096, 1101-1102.
101. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 10, 36: AAS 57 (1965) 14-15, 41-42.
102. Cf. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 35: AAS 58 (1966) 1053; Pope Paul VI:
Address to Diplomatic Corps, January 7, 1965: AAS 57 (1965) 232;
Encyclical Populorum Progressio, 14: AAS 59 (1967) 264.
103. Cf. Pope Pius XII: Radio Message on the Fiftieth Anniversary of
Leo XIII's Encyclical "Rerum Novarum," June 1, 1941: AAS 33 (1941)
195-205; Christmas Radio Message, December 24, 1941: AAS 34 (1942)
10-21; Christmas Radio Message, December 24, 1942: AAS 35 (1943) 9-24;
Christmas Radio Message, December 24, 1943: AAS 36 (1944) 11-24;
Christmas Radio Message, December 24, 1944: AAS 37 (1945) 10-23;
Address to the Cardinals, December 24, 1945: AAS 38 (1946) 15-25;
Address to the Cardinals, December 24, 1946: AAS 39 (1947) 7-17;
Christmas Radio Message, December 24, 1947: AAS 40 (1948) 8-16; Pope
John XXIII: Encyclical Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961) 401-464;
Encyclical Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963) 257-304; Pope Paul VI:
Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam: AAS 56 (1964) 609-659; Address to the
General Assembly of the United Nations, October 4, 1965: AAS 57 (1965)
877-885; Encyclical Populorum Progressio: AAS 59 (1967) 257-299;
Address to the Campesinos of Colombia, August 23, 1968: RRS 60 (1968)
619-623; Speech to the General Assembly of the Latin-American
Episcopate, August 24, 1968: AAS 60 (1968) 639-649; Speech to the
Conference of FAO, November 16, 1970: AAS 62 (1970) 830-838; Apostolic
Letter Octogesima Adveniens: AAS 63 (1971) 401-441; Address to the
Cardinals, June 23, 1972: AAS 64 (1972) 496-505; Pope Paul VI: Address
to the Third General Conference of the Latin-American Episcopate,
January 28, 1979: AAS 71 (1979) 187ff.; Address to the Indians at
Cuilipan, January 29, 1979: 1. c., pp. 207ff.; Address to the
Guadalajara Workers, January 30, 1979: 1. c., pp. 221ff.; Address to
the Monterrey Workers, January 31, 1979: 1. c., pp. 240-242; Vatican
Council II: Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis humanae: AAS 58
(1966) 929-941; Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
Gaudium et Spes: AAS 58 (1966) 1025-1115; Documenta Synodi Episcoporum:
De iustitia in mundo: AAS 63 (1971) 923-941.
104. Cf. Pope John XXIII: Encyclical Mater et Magistra: AAS 53 (1961)
418ff.; Encyclical Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963) 289ff.; Pope Paul VI,
Encyclical Populorum Progressio AAS 59 (1967) 257-299.
105. Cf. Lk. 16:19-31.
106. Cf. Pope John Paul II: Homily at Santo Domingo, January 25, 1979,
3: AAS 71 (1979) 157ff.; Address to Indians and Campesinos at Oaxaca,
January 30, 1979, 2: 1. c., pp. 207ff.; Address to Monterrey Workers,
January 31, 1979, 4: 1. c., p. 242.
107. Cf. Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 42: AAS 63 (1971) 431.
108. Cf. Mt. 25:31-46.
109. Mt. 25:42, 43.
110. 2 Tm. 4:2.
111. Pope Pius XI: Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931) 213;
Encyclical Non Abbiamo Bisogno: AAS 23 (1931) 285-312; Encyclical
Divini Redemptoris: AAS 29 (1937) 65-106; Encyclical Mit brennender
Sorge: AAS 29 (1937) 145-147; Pope Pius XII: Encyclical Summi
Pontificates: AAS 31 (1939) 413-453.
112. Cf. 2 Cor. 3:6.
113. Cf. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 31: AAS 58 (1966) 1050.
114. Cf. AAS 58 (1966) 929-946.
115. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22: AAS 58 (1966) 1042.
116. Cf. 1 Cor. 6:15; 11:3; 12:12-13; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:15-16; 4:4-6; 5:30; Col. 1:18; 3:15; Rom. 12:4-5; Gal. 3:28.
117. 2 Pt. 1:4.
118. Cf. Eph. 2:10; Jn. 1:14, 16.
119. Jn. 1:12.
120. Cf. Jn. 4:14.
121. Gal. 4:4.
122. Jn. 11:25-26.
123. Preface of Christian Death, I.
124. jn. 6:63.
125. Confessio, I, 1: CSEL 33, p. 1.
126. Mt. 12:30.
127. Cf. Jn. 1:12.
128. Gal. 4:5.
129 . Gal. 4: 6; Rom. 8:15.
130. Cf. Rom. 15:13; 1 Cor. 1:24.
131. Cf. Ls. 11:2-3; Acts 2:38.
132. Cf. Gal. 5:22-23.
133. Sequence for Pentecost.
134. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 16: AAS 57 (1965) 20.
135. Ibid., 1: 1. c., p. 5.
136. Cf. Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6.
137. Cf. Rom. 8:15.
138. Cf. Rom. 8:30.
139. Mt. 20:28.
140. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 31-36: AAS 57 (1965) 37-42.
141. Jn. 14:24.
142. Jn. 1:18.
143. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 5, 10, 21: AAS 58 ( 1966) 819, 822, 827-828.
144. Cf. Vatican Council I: Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith
Dei Filius, Chap. 3: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, Ed. Istituto
per le Scienze Religiose, Bologna 1973 3, p. 807.
145. Cf. Vatican Council I: First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
of Christ Pastor Aeternus: 1. c., pp. 811-816; Vatican Council II:
Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 25: AAS 57 (1965) pp. 30-31.
146. Cf. Mt. 28:19.
147. Cf. Vatican Council I: First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ Pastor Aeternus: 1. c., pp. 811-816.
148. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 18-27: AAS 57 (1965) 21-23.
149. Cf. Ibid., 12, 35: 1. c., pp. 16-17, 40-41.
150. Cf. St. Augustine: Sermo 43, 79: PL 38, 257-258.
151. Cf. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 44, 57, 59, 62: AAS 58 (1966) 1064f.,
1077ff., 1079f., 1082ff.; Decree on Priestly Training Optatam Totius,
15: AAS 58 (1966) 722.
152. Jn. 14:24.
153. Jn. 20:21-22.
154. Cf. Vatican Council II: Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10: AAS 56 (1964) 102.
155. Cf. Rom. 6:3-5.
156. Phil. 2:8.
157. Cf. Jn. 5:26; 1 Jn. 5:11.
158. Heb. 9:24; 1 Jn. 2:1.
159. 1 Cor. 6:20.
160. Jn. 1:12.
161. Cf. Rom. 8:23.
162. Rv. 5:10; 1 Pt. 2:9.
163. Cf. Jn. 1:1-4, 18; Mt. 3:17; 11:27; 17:5; Mk. 1:11; Lk. 1:32, 35;
3:22; Rom. 1:4; 2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Jn. 5:5, 20; 2 Pt. 1:17; Heb. 1:2.
164. Cf. 1 Jn. 5:5-11.
165. Cf. Rom. 5:10, 11; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:20, 22.
166. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 11: AAS 57 (1965) 15-16; Pope Paul VI, Talk on September 15,
1965: Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, III (1965) 1036.
167. Cf. Vatican Council II: Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 47: AAS 56 (1964) 113.
168. Cf. Pope Paul VI: Encyclical Mysterium Fidei: AAS 57 (1965) 553-574.
169. Cf. Vatican Council II: Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 47: AAS 56 (1964) 113.
170. Cf. Jn. 6:51, 57; 14:6; Gal. 2:20.
171. 1 Cor. 11:28.
172. Mk. 1:15.
173. Ibid.
174. Cf. 1 Pt. 2:5.
175. Ps. 50 (51):6.
176. Mk. 2:5.
177. Jn. 8:11.
178. Mt. 5:6.
179. Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Normae
Pastorales circa Absolutionem Sacramentalem Generali Modo Impertiendam:
AAS 64 (1972) 510-514; Pope Paul VI: Address to a Group of Bishops from
the United States of America on their "ad limina" Visit, April 20,
1978: AAS 70 (1978) 328-332; Pope John Paul II: Address to a Group of
Canadian Bishops on their "ad limina" Visit, November 17, 1978: AAS 71
(1979) 32-36.
180. Cf. AAS 58 (1966) 177-198.
181. Mt. 20:28.
182. Pope Pius XII: Encyclical Mystici Corporis: AAS 35 (1943) 193-248.
183. Jn. 1:43.
184. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 1: AAS 57 (1965) 5.
185. 1 Cor. 7:7; cf. 12:7, 27; Rom. 12:6; Eph. 4:7.
186. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 36: AAS 57 (1965) 41-42.
187. Gal. 5:1; cf. 5:13.
188. Cf. Jn. 10:10.
189. Jn. 16:13.
190. Cf. Rom. 5:5.
191. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 63-64; AAS 57 (1965) 64.
192. Cf. Chapter VIII, 52-69; AAS 57 (1965) 58-67.
193. Pope Paul VI: Closing Address at the Third Session of the Second
Vatican Ecumenical Council, November 21, 1964: AAS 56 (1964) 1015.
194. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 56: AAS 57 (1965) 60.
195. Ibid.
196. Heb. 2:10.
197. Cf. Jn. 19:26.
198. Cf. Acts 1:14; 2.
199. Cf. Jn. 19:27.
200. Jn. 3:16.
201. Jn. 15:5.
202. Cf. Acts 1:14.
203. Cf. Acts 1:13.
204. Cf. Acts 1:8.
205. Ibid.