HOMILIES, ANGELUS, AND OTHER SPIRITUAL TEXTS

AUDIENCE OF 10/15/08
Catechesis #8, Pauline Year cycle


Here is a translation of the Holy Father's catechesis today on "The ecclesiastical dimension in the thinking of St. Paul."



Dear brothers and sisters,

In last Wednesday's catechesis, I spoke of St. Paul's relationship with the pre-Paschal Jesus in his earthly life. The question was, "What did Paul know about the life of Jesus, his words, and his Passion?"

Today, I wish to speak about St. Paul's teachings on the Church. We should start from the observation that this word, 'chiesa' in Italian - 'eglise' in French, 'Iglesia' in Spanish - is taken from the Greek word "ekklēsía".

It comes from the Old Testament and meant the assembly of the people of Israel, called together by God, in particular, the exemplary assembly at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

This word now means the new community of believers in Christ, who feel themselves to bethe assembly of God, the new convocation of all the peoples before God, by God himself.

The word ekklēsía then appears in the writing of Paul, who is the first author of a Christian writing. This is found in the incipit (start) of the Letter to the Thessalonians, which Paul textually addresses "To the Church of the Thessalonians" (cfr afterwards 'the Church of the Laodiceans' in Col 4,16).

In other Letters, he speaks of the Church of God that is in Corinth (1 Cor 1,2; 2 Cor 1,1), in Galatia (Gal 1,2 ecc.) – local Churches, in short - but he also writes of having persecuted 'the Church of God' - not a specific local community, but 'the Church of God'.

So we see that the word "Church' has a pluridimensional meaning: on the one hand, it indicates the assemblies of God in specific places (a city, a country, a house), but it also means the whole Church in its entirety.

We see then that 'the Church of God' is not merely the sum of different local Churches, but that the different local Churches are, in turn, a realization of the one Church of God. Altogether they are 'the Church of God', which precedes the individual local Churches, and which is expressed and realized in them.

It is important to note that almost always, the word 'Church' appears with the added qualification 'of God' - it is not a human association, born of common ideas or interests, but a convocation by God.

He has called peoples together (convoked them) and therefore, it is one in all its manifestations. The unity of God creates the unity of the Church in all the places where it is found.

Later, in the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul would elaborate abundantly on the concept of unity in the Church, in continuity with the concept of the People of God, Israel, considered by the prophets as 'the spouse of God' and called on to live a spousal relation with Him.

Paul presents the one Church of God as 'the bride of Christ' in love - one body and one spirit with Christ himself.

It is known how the young Paul had been a dogged adversary of the new movement constituted by the Church of Christ. He was its adversary because he saw that this new movement threatened loyalty to the tradition of the People of God, inspired by faith in the one God. Such loyalty was expressed above all in circumcision, in the observance of the rules for ritual purity, in the abstention from certain foods, in respect for the Sabbath.

The Israelis had paid for this loyalty with the blood of martyrs, during the period of the Maccabees, when the Hellenistic regime obligated all peoples to conform to the one Hellenistic culture. Many Israelites had defended Israel's own calling with their blood. The martyrs paid with their lives to keep the identity of their people, which was expressed through those particular elements.

After his encounter with the Risen Lord, Paul understood that Christians were not traitors; that, on the contrary, in the new situation, the God of Israel, through Christ, had extended his call to all peoples, becoming the God of all peoples.

This was the way of loyalty to the one God. It was no longer necessary to show distinctive signs by specific norms and observances, because everyone is called, in their variety, to be part of the one people of God, of the 'Church of God' in Christ.

One thing was immediately clear to Paul about the new situation: the fundamental and founding value of Christ and the 'word' that he announced. Paul knew not only that one does not become Christian through coercion, but that in the internal configuration of the new community, the institutional component was inevitably linked to the living 'word', to announcing the living Christ in whom God opens himself to all peoples and unites them in the one People of God.

It is emblematic that Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, uses several times, even in reference to Paul, the syntagma (sequence of words) "announce the word" (Acts 4,29.31; 8,25; 11,19; 13,46; 14,25; 16,6.32), with the evident intention of highlighting maximally the decisive weight of the 'word' announced.

Concretely, this word is made up of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, in which the Scriptures had been realized. The Paschal mystery, which had caused Paul's life to change on the road to Damascus, is obviously at the center of the Apostle's preaching (cfr 1 Cor 2,2;15,14).

This mystery, announced in the word, is realized in the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, and becomes reality in Christian charity. Paul's evangelizing work had no other end but to firmly implant the community of believers in Christ.

This idea is contained in the etymology itself of the word ekklēsía, which Paul, and with him, all Christianity, preferred to the other term 'synagogue' - not just because, originally, the first term is more secular (having come from the Greek practice of political assemblies which were not religious), but because it directly implies the more theological idea of a call ab extra, from outside, therefore, not a simple gathering together. Rather, believers are called by God, who brings them together in one community, his Church.

Along this line, we can also understand the original concept, exclusively Pauline, of the Church as 'the Body of Christ". One must keep in mind that the concept has two dimensions.

One is a sociological character, according to which the body is made up of its components and would not exist without them. This interpretation appears in the Letter to the Romans and the first Letter to the Corinthians, where Paul adapts an image that already existed in Roman sociology: He says that a people is like a body with different members, which each has its function, and that everything, including the smallest and apparently most insignificant part, is necessary so that the body can live and carry out its functions.

At the same time, the Apostle observes that in the Church, there are so many vocations: prophets, apostles, teachers, simple people - all called to live every day in charity, all necessary to make up the living unity of this spiritual organism.

The other interpretation refers to the Body of Christ himself. Paul maintains that the Church is not just an organism, but truly becomes the Body of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist, where we all receive his Body and we really become his Body.

Thus is realized the spousal mystery that everyone becomes one body and one spirit in Christ. Thus, reality goes far beyond the sociological image, expressing its true profound essence, namely, the unity of all who are baptized in Christ, whom the apostle considered 'one' in Christ, conformed to the sacrament of his Body.

Saying this, Paul shows he knows well - and makes us all understand -that the Church is neither his nor ours: the Church is the Body of Christ, it is the 'Church of God', "field of God, edifice of God... temple of God" (1 Cor 3,9.16).

This last designation is particularly interesting, because it attributes to a whole fabric of interpersonal relationships a term that commonly served to refer to a physical place considered sacred.

The relationship between Church and temple thus assumes two complementary dimensions: on the one hand, it confers on the ecclesial community the characteristic of separateness and purity which are attributes of a sacred place; but on the other hand, it goes beyond the idea of a material space, to transfer its valency to the reality of a living community of faith.

If originally, temples were considered places with the presence of God, now it is known and seen that God does not inhabit edifices made of stone, but that the place of God's presence in the world is the living community of believers.

The description 'the people of God' deserves a separate discourse. In Paul it substantially applies to the people of the Old Testament, and then to the pagans, who were the 'non-people', but who had also become the people of God, thanks to their insertion in Christ through the word and the sacraments.

Finally, one last nuance. In the Letter to Timothy, Paul describes the Church as 'house of God' (1 Tim 3,15). This is a truly original definition, because it refers to the Church as a communitarian structure in which there are warm inter-personal relationships of a familial character.

The Apostle helps us to understand ever more deeply the mystery of the Church in its different dimensions as the assembly of God in the world.

This is the greatness of the Church and the greatness of our calling. We are the temple of God in the world, the place where God truly lives; and at the same time, we are also a community, the family of God, who is Love.

As family and house of God, we must realize God's charity in the world, and thus become, with the power that comes from faith, both the place as well as the sign of his presence.

Let us pray to the Lord so that he may grant us to be ever more his Church, his Body, the place where his charity is present in this world and in our history.


This is how he synthesized the catechesis in English:

In our continuing catechesis on Saint Paul, we now consider his teaching on the Church.

It was "the Church of God" which Paul persecuted before his conversion, and throughout his Letters he uses the term "Church" both with reference to local Christian communities and to the Church as a whole.

For Paul, faith in the person of Jesus Christ and his Gospel is at the heart of the Church. Paul’s entire work of evangelization, centred on the proclamation of the Paschal mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection, was aimed at establishing new communities of those who believe in the Lord and share in the life of the Spirit.

The Church thus takes shape as an "ekklesía", a concrete assembly called into being by God’s word. For Paul, the Church is also the "Body of Christ", a living body endowed with a complex of ministries which are spiritual in their origin and purpose.

In the variety and the theological richness of his teaching on the Church, Paul invites us to understand and love the Church ever more deeply, and to work for her upbuilding in faith and charity.

I offer a warm welcome to all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience including the members of the English and Welsh Bishops’ Committee for Christian Unity and the representation of government officials from the Philippines. I also greet the Mill Hill missionaries, and school groups present from England and Scotland.

May your visit to Rome strengthen your commitment to share God’s word with others. Upon all of you, I invoke the Lord’s blessings of peace and joy.


He had a special message for Polish pilgrims:

I warmly greet all the Poles who have come to visit the tomb of the Servant of God John Paul II, on the anniversary of his election to the Chair of Peter (Oct. 16, 1978). In thanking you for your presence, I also join you all spiritually in your prayers at his tomb.

I also greet the pilgrims from Bialystok who have come here in gratitude for the beatification of Fr. Michał Sopoćko. I bless you all from my heart. Praise be to Jesus Christ.


And in his final greeting to Italians:

Dear friends, we celebrate today the feast of St. Teresa of Avila. May this great saint testify to you, dear young people, that authentic love cannot be separated from truth. And may she show you, dear people who are afflicted, that the Cross of Christ is they mystery of redemptive love. And to the newlyweds, look on her as a model of faithfulness to God, who entrusts to each of us a special mission.