Vatican City, 18 June 2014 (VIS) –
During this Wednesday's general audience Pope Francis began a new
series of catechesis on the Church, “like a son who speaks about
his mother, about his own family. The Church is not an institution
that exists for its own ends, or a private association, an NGO;
neither must she limit her view to the clergy or the Vatican. The
Church is a far broader entity, open to all humanity, and not born
unexpectedly. She was founded by Jesus but consists of a people with
a long history behind them, prepared long before Christ Himself”.
“This story, or 'prehistory' of the
Church, is already found in the pages of the Old Testament. According
to the Book of Genesis, God chose Abraham … and asked him to leave
his earthly homeland behind to go towards another land, that He would
show to him. But God did not call upon Abraham alone, as an isolated
individual, but instead from the very beginning He involved all of
his family, his relatives and all those who served in his house. …
The first important fact is this: starting with Abraham, God formed a
people in order to bring His blessing to all families on earth. And
Jesus was born within this population”.
The second element is that it was not
Abraham who convoked the people around him. … Typically man sought
the divine, seeking to bridge the distance and invoking support and
protection. In this case, however, we see something unprecedented: it
was God Himself Who took the initiative and addressed His word to
man, creating a bond and a new relationship with him. In this way God
constitutes a people of all those who listen to His word and who set
out on their path, trusting in Him. This is the sole condition:
trusting in God. If you place your trust in God, listen to Him and
set out on His path, this means being a Church. God's love precedes
everything … He precedes us. The prophet Jeremiah said that God was
like the flower of the almond-tree, as it is the first tree that
flowers in spring, meaning that God always flowers before us. When we
arrive, He is already there waiting for us. … He is always there
before us”.
“Abraham and his family listened to
the call of God and set out on their way. … But this does not mean
that they are always convinced and faithful. On the contrary, ever
since the beginning there has been resistance, man has withdrawn into
himself and his own interests, and has been tempted to bargain with
God in order to solve problems on his own terms. There are the
betrayals and sins that mark the path of the people throughout the
history of salvation, which is the history of God's fidelity to His
people, and the infidelity of the people of God. However, God never
tires, He is patient and over time He continues to educate and form
His people, like a father with his son. He maintains this same
attitude with the Church”.
“Indeed, we too, in spite of our
intention to follow the Lord Jesus, experience every day the
selfishness and hardness of our hearts. However, when we recognise
ourselves as sinners, God fills us with His mercy and His love. This
is what enables us to grow as the people of God, as a Church; it is
not our cleverness, our merits, but rather the daily experience of
how much the Lord loves and cares for us. This is what makes us truly
feel that we are His, that we are in His hands,and it enables us to
grow in communion with Him and among ourselves. Being Church means
having a sense of being in the hands of God, Who is our father and
loves us, Who awaits us”.
The Pope underlined that this is God's
plan: “to form a people blessed by His love and able to bring his
blessing to all populations on earth. This project does not change,
and is always in process. It found its culmination in Christ, and God
continues to carry it out in the Church to this day. Let us then ask
the grace to remain faithful in following the Lord Jesus and in
listening to His Word, ready to set out every day, like Abraham,
towards the land of God and man, our true homeland, and thus to
become a blessing and sign of God's love for all His children”.
He added, “I like to think that a
synonym, another way we could describe Christians is this: we are men
and women, we are people who bless. The Christian, through his life,
should always bless, should bless God and others. We Christians are
people who bless, who know how to bless. It is a beautiful vocation”.