





Pope John Paul II



THE REDEEMER OF MAN

Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II


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 center 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 St. 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 St. 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 definitively-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 October 16 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 August 26,
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 sense 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 tranquility 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 Churches(8) cannot lead to anything else-in spite of momentary
uneasiness-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 the 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 on.(12)
In referring today to this document that gave the program 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
countenance of the Church, in spite of the various internal weaknesses that
affected her in the post-conciliar 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 helmsman.(14)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 resistant 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 appearance, 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 St. 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
fonded 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 post-conciliar 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 Nuntiandi(17), which was so joyously welcomed as a
program 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 centuries-old 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 crating 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
endeavors 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 the 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 ever system and recognizing what is
right; this does not at all mean losing certitude about one's own faith(20)
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 fist 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
saeculi?(21)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 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 Father(29), and who had to go away from
us(30) - 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 truth.(31)In Him are "all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge,"(32) and the Church is His Body.(33)"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-embracing 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 is 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 man(39) - 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 reforged(42).Are we of the twentieth century not
convinced of the overpoweringly 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, an 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 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 it 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, became our reconciliation with the Father(48).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 fatherhoodof God and that love which man in a
way rejected by breaking the first Covenant(51) 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 first-born Son to be
children of God(54) 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 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 son(60), 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 mercy(63);
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 "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 Abraham.(68)

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 mankindand 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 center 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 light."(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(73) says.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 St. Paul and, for instance, his address in the Areopagus at
Athens(74).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 document(77).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 integrity(78).In fulfilling this mission, we look towards
Christ Himself, the first evangelizer(79), 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 freedom(81).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
deceive moment He was once more confirming what He has 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
worshipers 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 VI,(86) 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 expressed 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 "even 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 Redemption is entrusted
to the solicitude of the Church.Her solicitude is about the whole man and
is focused 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 Himself.(92) 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 woman: "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, contact, 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 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 endeavor "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 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 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 earth(98) 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", 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 difficult 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 creation,(99) 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
honest, 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 or 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 favoring
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, for the future of men on earth and
therefore also for the course set for the whole 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 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" it.(100)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 "kinship", that is to say his call to share in the kingly function -
the munus regale - of Christ Himself.(101)The essential meaning of this
"kinship" 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 meaningfulness of the various
initiatives of everyday life and also of the premises for many civilization
programs, political programs, economic 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 synod.(103)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 Lazarus.(105)So widespread is the phenomenon that it brings
into question the financial, 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
bitterness.(106)

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 dignity.(107)

Such a task is not an impossible one.The principle of solidarity, in
a wide sense, must inspire the effective search for appropriate institutions
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 requires 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 colors 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 judgement
according to the words of Christ related in Matthew's Gospel.(108)

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 just 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 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 obligating
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
program that describes itself as "humanistic".And what social, economic,
political or cultural program could renounce this description?We are
firmly convinced that there is no program in today's world in which man is
not invariably brought to the fore, even when the platforms of the programs
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 programs and
systems.This necessarily imposes the duty to submit these programs 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 depart from
the horrible experiences of the last World War but also to create the basis
for continual revision of programs, 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 programs,
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,
neocolonialismand 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 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 state.(111)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 vigor of
public authority.(113)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 opposition by citizens to authority, or a
situation of oppression, intimidation, violence, and terrorism, of which
many examples 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 prejudicesand 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 vigor 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 Church.(116)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 comes 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 life,(117) and
newly created in Christ for the fullness of grace and truth.(118)Christ's
union with man is power and the source of power, as St. 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 life.(120)This life, which the Father has promised and offered to
each man is 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 fulfillment of man's vocation.It is in a way the fulfillment 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 St. Augustine:"You made us 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 filiation(127) 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
Spirit,(130) the gifts of the Spirit,(131) and the fruits of the Holy
Spirit(132) are revealed in men.The present-day Church seems to repeat
with ever greater fevor 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
Church.(134)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 self-insertion 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 Father.(136)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
it in 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 received
by man in Christ through the grace of the Holy Spirit(137) and of his
destination to grace and glory.(138)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 by 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, 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 king,(140) 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 truth,(143) 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 infallibility(145) to those whom He entrusted with the mandate of
transmitting and teaching that truth(146) - as has besides been clearly
defined by the First Vatican Council(147) and has then been repeated by the
Second Vatican Council(148) - and He furthermore endowed the whole of the
People of God with a special sense of the faith.(149)

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 splendor and
its profudity 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 labors to even
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 St. Augustine's expression: intellege, ut credas - 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 combine with each
other, as we read in the prayer in the liturgy of the memorial of St.
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 theology.(151)

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 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
Chruch'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."(152)




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
Eucharist.(154)The Eucharist is the center 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
resurrection,(155)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 Son(157) 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 Father(158) 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 sons,(161) 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
Son(163) 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
spirit(164) that each of us, as a sharer in the mystery of the Redemption,
has access to the fruits of the filial reconciliation with God(165) 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 Church,(166) 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 cross,(167) 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 unceasingly
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 days.(168)
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 the 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 given.(169)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 center 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 St. 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."(172)Without this constant ever renewed endeavor
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 sacrifice(174) 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
self-giving 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 - the
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 for all Christians, there must
be a lively-felt need for penance, both in its sacramental aspect,(179) and
in what concerns penance as a virtue.This second aspect was expressed by
Paul VI in the Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini.(180)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 Penance.Only when viewed in this spiritual
aspect of her life and activity is she seen to be the Church of the divine
mission, 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 Council 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 described 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 St. 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 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 Christ(184)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 St. Paul teaches.(185).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 neighbor 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 commit 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 forever.He must do so as married
people must, for they must endeavor 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, this is
to say to the "kingly service" of which Jesus Christ has offered us the
example and most beautiful model.His Church, made up of all of us, if "for
men" in the sense that, by basing ourselves on Christ's example(186) 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 religious life, 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 to
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
abundantly.(188)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 hearts.(190)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 mother(191) 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 it.(192)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 choice(194) and due to the Spirit of Love's
special action,(195) 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 son.(197)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 darkness.(198)
Later, all the generations of disciples, of those who confess and love
Christ, like the apostle John, spiritually took this Mother to their own
homes,(199) 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 traditionand 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 Jesus,(202) as the apostles and disciples of the Lord did in the
Upper Room in Jerusalem after His ascension.(203)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
us(204) 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 St. Peter's, on the fourth of March, the first Sunday
of Lent, in the year 1979, the first year of my pontificate.

 
Joannes Paulus PP. II





FOOTNOTES:

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) 609-650; 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, 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 Constititution 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. 3:16
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, pp. 81, 125,
129, 133; Clement of Alexandria, 'Stromatia, I', 19, 91 and 94: 'Sources
Chretiennes' 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. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern
World 'Gaudium et Spes', 22: AAS 58 (1966) 1042
88. Cf. Jn. 14:1ff
89. Vatican Council II: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern
World 'Gaudium et Spes', 91: AAS 58 (1966) 1113
90. Ibid., 38: l. c., p. 1056
91. Ibid., 76: l. 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: l. c., p. 1033
97. Ibid., 38: l. 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: l. c., pp 207ff.; 'Address to

the Guadalajara Workers', January 30, 1979: l. c., pp 221ff.; 'Address

to the Monterrey Workers', January 31, 1979: l. c., pp 240-242; Vatican

Council II: Declaration on Religious Freedom 'Dignitatis humanae': AAS

58 (1966) 1025-1115; Documenta Synodi Episcoporum: 'De iustitia in

umndo': 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: l. c., pp. 207ff.; 'Address to Monterrey Workers',

January 31, 1979, 4: l. 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

Pontificatus': 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, 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: l. 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, 827-828
144. Cf. Vatican Council I: Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith 'Dei

Filius', Chap. 3: 'Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta', Ed. Instituto

per le Scienze Religiose, Bologna 1973, p. 807
145. Cf. Vatican Council I: First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of

Christ 'Pastor Aeternus': l. 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': l. 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: l. 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 'Guadium 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 71 (1979) 32-36
180. Cf. AAS 58 (1966) 177-198
181. Mt. 20:28
182. Pope Pius XII: Encyclical 'Mustici 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

