VATICAN CITY, JAN 6, 2001 (VIS) - Today, Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, following the ceremony for the closing of the Holy Door in the Vatican Basilica, Pope John Paul II signed the Apostolic Letter "Novo millennio ineunte." This is the concluding document of the Jubilee Year and has been published in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese and Latin. The Letter, in four chapters, has one theme throughout: Jesus Christ.
The Letter, a summary of which is given below, gives voice to the Church's sense of her need, after a year of intense spiritual experience, to "put out into the deep" ' in obedience to the command given by Jesus to Peter: "Duc in altum," and to face the challenges of the future.
In the first chapter, "Meeting Christ, the Legacy of the Great Jubilee," Pope John Paul II re-reads the principal events of the Jubilee Year, not so much to evaluate them as to raise a hymn of praise and to "decipher" the messages which the Spirit of God has given to the Church throughout this year of grace. A few significant moments are revisited: from the great ecumenical beginning in the Basilica of Saint Paul to the powerful act of "purification of memory", from the pilgrimage to the Holy Land to the numerous meetings with highly diverse groups of people.
Young people receive special mention, since their Jubilee left a profound impression and served as a reminder of the need for a bold and committed pastoral outreach to the coming generation. Beyond its external events, Pope John Paul II views the Great Jubilee above all as an event of grace, confident that it has touched countless people's lives and has summoned them to undertake a journey of conversion. The title captures the conclusion drawn by the Pope: a renewed meeting with Christ is the Jubilee's true "legacy," one which must now be treasured and invested for the future.
In the second chapter, "A Face to Contemplate," before looking to the future, the Pope encourages the Church not to neglect, but indeed to deepen, her contemplation of the mystery of Christ, her eyes fixed upon His face. Here there is the risk which Jesus Himself pointed out to Martha of Bethany ("you are anxious and troubled about many things"): the risk of throwing oneself headlong into pastoral activity and neglecting the contemplation which is its origin and source. From this source the Church continually needs to draw.
The Pope re-reads the mystery of Christ in its fundamental aspects. The chapter is less a doctrinal treatise than a re-echoing of the voice of Peter in his confession at Caesarea Philippi ' "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." It holds Peter's confession up to the whole Church as her perennial foundation. The Letter then sketches a comprehensive historical portrait of Jesus, emphasizing the truth and credibility of the Gospels. It turns to the contemplation of Christ's face, to the depths of His divine-human mystery, focusing on His divine self-awareness, even amid the drama of the Cross. It then lifts its gaze to the splendor of the Resurrection.
The third chapter, "Starting Afresh from Christ," stresses that Christian pastoral activity has as its goal an experience of solid faith, leading to a holiness of the kind traced by Chapter 5 of "Lumen gentium" ("the universal call to holiness"). It is to this goal that all teaching in the Church must look, presenting the highest ideals and not resting content with religious mediocrity.
This implies the need to rediscover prayer at the depth to which the Christian experience of God can lead it, taking our cue from the rich pastoral and mystical heritage of two thousand years of history: personal prayer, but above all community prayer, starting with the liturgy, "source and summit" of the Church's life. The Pope issues a special invitation to rediscover Sunday, the weekly Easter, in such a way that the Eucharist becomes its heart. Then comes the call for a more resolute presentation of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Jubilee has shown that this Sacrament, when properly presented and fostered, can move beyond the seemingly irreversible crisis which it has experienced in recent decades.
Finally, as the soul of everything, the Pope underlines the primacy of listening to the Word of God, from which flows logically the proclamation of the Word. The "new evangelization" ' a summons so often repeated in recent years ' remains more urgent than ever after the Jubilee.
The fourth and final chapter, "Witnesses to Love," offers reflection on communion ("koinonia"), which the Second Vatican Council rediscovered as a key term for understanding the mystery of the Church. It is put forward by the Pope first in its spiritual aspect, and then in some of the more practical aspects which flow from this.
In the Church, there are areas and instruments of communion with a clear institutional profile. These need to be developed and promoted. In this regard, the Letter mentions a range of structures (Synods, Episcopal Conferences, Presbyterial and Pastoral Councils), already present in the universal Church and in the particular Churches, with the warning however that these will become soulless if a spirituality of communion is not fostered, that is, an ability to see communion as a gift from on high and also to live it in a fraternal way, valuing and welcoming each other's gifts.
Among the indispensable commitments, one is ecumenism, so that with all our brothers and sisters in faith we may live more and more of the full unity which the Church already enjoys in Christ. Then there is the extensive issue of fraternal charity, which is such a defining part of all pastoral activity. The Holy Father reminds us of the many challenges facing the Church, impelling her to become, with still greater "imagination" and generosity, an expression of God's concrete love in the countless situations of human suffering and poverty. Here we also find the "sign" of charity which the Pope wants to leave as a fruit and a memento of the Jubilee Year. Once expenses have been paid, what is left of the Jubilee offerings will go to form an endowment in Rome, a symbol of that flowering of charity to which the Church will continue to be committed in the new millennium.
A further theme is the courageous witness to which Christians are called in every area of social and cultural life, especially where the leaven of the Gospel is urgently needed: including the family, the protection of life, the ecological crisis, and unethical scientific experimentation.
What must not be forgotten is the witness which Christians must give, as the Council taught, in the area of interreligious dialogue. Without in any way diminishing the need for Christian proclamation, dialogue remains an important sign-post for everyone in advancing the search for truth and the promotion of peace.
The Letter finishes, as it began, by recalling Jesus' invitation to Peter in the story of the miraculous catch of fish: "Duc in altum!" The Holy Door closes, but the living door, Christ Jesus whom it symbolizes, remains open more than ever. It is not to a dull routine that the Church returns after the zest of the Jubilee. On the contrary, what awaits her is a new apostolic outreach, inspired and sustained by confidence in the presence of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
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