Vatican
City, 11 September 2013 (VIS) – Five hundred faithful participated
this morning in the Wednesday general audience, in which Pope Francis
continued his catechesis on the Church during the “Year of Faith”,
turning to the theme of maternity.
“Among
the images that the Vatican Council II chose to help us better
understand the nature of the Church, there is that of the 'mother':
the Church is our mother in faith and in the supernatural life. For
me it is the most beautiful image of the Church: the Church as
mother. In what sense and how is the Church a mother? Let us begin
with the human reality of maternity”.
“First
and foremost a mother gives life, she carries her child in the womb
for nine months and then introduces him to life – she generates
him. The Church does likewise: she generates us in faith, by the work
of the Holy Spirit who renders her fruitful, like the Virgin Mary.
Certainly, faith is a personal act … but we receive faith from
others, in a family, in a community that teaches me to say 'I
believe', 'we believe'. A Christian is not an island! We do not
become Christians alone and by our own efforts, but rather faith is a
gift from God that is given in and through the Church. And the Church
gives us life in Baptism: that is, the moment in which she enables us
to be born as children of God, the moment in which she gives us life
in God, in which she generates us as a mother. … This permits us to
understand something very important: our participation in the Church
is not an external or formal fact, it is not a question of filling
out a form, but is instead an internal and vital act. One does not
belong to the Church in the same way as one belongs to a society, a
team or any other organisation. It is a living bond, like that one
has with one's own mother as … the Church is truly the mother of
all Christians”.
“A
mother does not limit herself to giving life, but rather with great
care helps her children to grow; she gives them milk, she nurtures
them, she shows them the path of life, she accompanies them … she
also knows how to correct them, to forgive, to understand; she knows
how to be close to them in times of illness and suffering. In short,
a good mother helps her children to come out of themselves, not to
stay comfortably tucked under the maternal wing. … The Church, like
a good mother, does the same thing: she accompanies our growth by
transmitting to us the Word of God, which is a light that illuminates
the path of Christian life, in administering the Sacraments. She
nourishes us with the Eucharist, she brings us God's forgiveness
through the Sacrament of Penance, she supports us in times of
sickness through the Anointing of the Sick. The Church accompanies us
in all our life in faith, in all our Christian life”.
Francis
concluded by remarking that in the first centuries of the Church, it
was very clearly understood that “the Church, while she is the
mother of Christians, while she 'makes' Christians, is also 'made up'
of Christians. The Church is not something apart from us, but is
rather the entire body of believers, as the 'we' of Christians: I,
you, we are all part of the Church. So, we all experience the
maternity of the Church, both pastors and faithful. At times I hear:
'I believe in God but not in the Church … I've heard that the
Church says … that priests say...”. Priests are one thing, but
the Church is not made up solely of priests – we are all the
Church! And if you say that you believe in God but you do not believe
in the Church, you are saying that you do not believe in yourself,
which is a contradiction. We are all the Church: from the recently
baptised child to the bishops, to the Pope; we are all Church, and we
are all equal in the eyes of God. We are all called to collaborate in
the birth of faith in new Christians, we are all called upon to be
educators in faith, to proclaim the Gospel. ... We all participate in
the maternity of the Church … we are all the Church … so that the
light of Christ may illuminate the furthest reaches of the Earth.
Long live the Holy Mother Church!
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