The relationship
between the Visible Reality and Spiritual Nature of the Church
Vatican City, 29
October 2014 (VIS) – The Church: spiritual nature and visible reality. “Two
different things or a single Church?”, said the Pope in this Wednesday's
general audience, returning in his catechesis to the theme of the Church. “If
the Church is always one”, he continued, “how can we understand the
relationship between the visible and spiritual reality?”.
Francis commented
that when we speak about visible reality we must not think only of the Pope,
bishops, priests, nuns and consecrated persons. “The visible reality of the
Church is constituted by the many baptised brothers and sisters throughout the
world who believe, hope and love. … The Church is all of us”. Therefore, the
visible reality of the Church cannot be measured or known in its entirety. “How
can we know all the wonders that Christ is capable of achieving through us, in
the hearts and lives of people?” he said. “See: even the visible reality of the
Church goes beyond our control, beyond our strength, and it is a mysterious
reality, as it comes from God”.
To understand the
relationship between the visible and spiritual realities of the Church we must
look to Christ, “whose body is the Church and from whom She is generated, in an
act of infinite love. Indeed, also in Christ, through the mystery of the
Incarnation, we recognise a human nature and a divine reality, united in the
same person in a wonderful and indissoluble way. This applies in a similar way
to the Church … who is a mystery too, in which what we are unable to see is
more important than what we can see, and can be recognised only with the eyes
of faith”.
The Holy Father went
on to ask how visible reality could be placed at the service of the spiritual
nature of the Church, explaining that it is possible by following the example of
Christ, “who made use of His humanity, as He was also a man, to announce and
implement the divine plan for redemption and salvation, as He was God. Through
her visible reality, from all that we see, the sacraments and the witness of
all Christians, the Church is called each day to be close to every person,
beginning with the poor; to the suffering and the marginalised, so as to make
them aware of Jesus' compassionate and merciful gaze”.
Before concluding,
he asked all the faithful present to pray for the gift of faith, “so that we
are able to comprehend how, despite our limits and our poverty, the Lord has
truly made us instruments of His grace and the visible sign of His love for all
humanity. We can become the source of scandal, it is true. But we can also
become the source of witness, saying through our lives what Jesus wants from
us”.
© VIS, Vatican
Information Service
Post a Comment