Today's General Audience began at 10:30am in Saint Peter's Square. The Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and faithful who had come from various parts of Italy and from all parts of the world. In his catechism, spoken in Italian, the Pope continued the new cycle of teachings on the Ministry of the Church, focusing on the theme The Church: the Body of Christ.
After the syntheses of the catechesis had been presented in various languages, Pope Francis greeted the various linguistic groups of pilgrims and faithful who were present. He then issued a special call on the occasion of the World Day of Refugees which will be observed tomorrow, and commissioned those present to testify to the Gospel of life, making reference to last Sunday's celebration of Evangelium Vitae Day.
The General Audience concluded with the recitation of the Our Father and the Apostolic Blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today I will focus on another expression with which the Second Vatican Council indicates the nature of the Church: that of a body; the Council says that the Church is the Body of Christ (cf. Lumen gentium, 7).
I want to begin with a text from the Acts of the Apostles that we know well: the conversion of Saul, who would come to be known as Paul, one of the greatest evangelists (cf Acts 9:4-5). Saul was a persecutor of Christians, but while he was on the road leading to the city of Damascus, suddenly a light enveloped him, he fell to the ground and heard a voice which said to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He asked, Who are you, O Lord? and the voice responded, I am Jesus, the one who you are persecuting (Acts 9:3-5). This experience shows us the depth of the relationship between us Christians and Jesus. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he did not leave us orphans, but through the gift of the Holy Spirit, our union with Him became even more intense. The Second Vatican Council affirmed the fact that Jesus, by communicating His Spirit, made His brothers, called together from all nations, mystically the components of His own Body (Dogmatic Constitution, Lumen gentium, 7).
The image of the body helps us to understand this deep bond between the Church and Christ, which Saint Paul developed especially in his first letter to the Corinthians (cf chapter 12). First of all, the body calls us to a living reality. The Church is not a charitable, cultural or political association, but a living body, which walks through and acts in history. And this body has a head, Jesus, who guides it, nurtures it and supports it. This is a point that I want to underscore: if we separate the head from the rest of the body, the entire person can't survive. So it is also with the Church: we must remain ever more deeply bound to Jesus. But not only that: as with a body, it is important that blood be allowed to bring life into the body, so we must allow Jesus to work in us, so that his Word may guide us, so that his Eucharistic presence might feed us, might animate us, so that his love might strengthen our love for our neighbour. It is always like this! Always, always! Dear brothers and sisters, remain united to Jesus, faithful to Him, let us live our lives according to his Gospel, being fed on daily prayer, by listening to the Word of God and by participating in the Sacraments.
And here I come to a second aspect of the Church as the Body of Christ. Saint Paul says that like members of a human body, which though many, still make up one single body, so it is with us: we have been baptised in one Spirit, and formed into one body (cf 1 Cor 12:12-13). Therefore in the Church, there is a variety, a diversity of tasks and functions; there is no dull uniformity, but a richness of gifts which are distributed by the Holy Spirit. But there is communion and unity: all live and function in relation to each other, and all combine to form a single living body, profoundly connected to Christ. Remember it well: to be part of the Church means that we must be united to Christ and receive from Him the divine life that makes it possible for us to live as Christians. It means that we must remain united to the Pope and the Bishops who are instruments of unity and of communion, and it also means that we must learn to overcome personalities and divisions, to better understand each other, to harmonize with each other's varieties and riches; in a word to better love God and one another, in our families, in our parishes, in our associations. For a body and its limbs to live, they must be united! Unity must always reign over conflict! Unresolved conflicts can cause separations between us, can separate us from God. Conflicts can help us to grow, but they can also divide. Let us not go down the road of division, settling for the struggles between us! We must all be united, with our differences, but always united: this is the road of Jesus. Unity is always better than conflict. Unity is a grace which we must pray for from the Lord, because it frees us from the temptations that divide us, from the selfishness between us, from selfishness and from idle chatter. How much harm is done through idle chatter, how much harm! Don't ever gossip about others, never! How much damage is done to the Church by the divisions between Christians, by those who take part in such narrow interests!
Divisions between us, but also divisions within the community: evangelical Christians, Orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, but why so many divisions? We must try to promote unity. I want to tell you something: today, before I left the Casa, I spent forty minutes, more or less a half hour with an Evangelical pastor. We prayed together, we prayed for unity. But we should pray for and with Catholics, and also for and with other Christians, ask the Lord to grant us unity, unity between us. But how can we have unity between Christians if we are not able to find unity among Catholics? To find unity in the family? There are so many families who are struggling and divided! Seek unity, the unity that creates the Church. The unity that comes from Jesus Christ. He sends us his Holy Spirit to unify us.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask God to help us be members of the Body of the Church, always profoundly united to Christ, to help us not cause suffering to the Body of the Church through our conflicts, our divisions and our selfishness, to help us to be living members, connected to each other through the power of love, which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts (cf Rm 5:5).
Following the syntheses of this catechesis, offered in various languages, the Holy Father offered greetings to each of the language groups who were present for the General Audience. Here is a translation of the greeting he offered (in Italian) to English-speaking pilgrims:
I offer an affectionate greeting to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience, including those from England, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Indies and the United States. May your stay in the Eternal City confirm you in love for our Lord and for his Body which is the Church. God bless you all!
When all of the linguistic groups had been addressed, the Holy Father issued a special appeal:
Tomorrow, we will celebrate the World Day of Refugees. This year, we are invited to give special consideration to the situations facing refugee families, often forced to quickly leave their homes and their homelands and to lose all that is good and safe in order to flee from violence, persecution or serious discrimination because of religious beliefs or because of ethnicity or political convictions.
In addition to the dangers of the journey, these families are often at risk of disintegration, and within the countries who welcome them, they must face cultural and societal realities which are different from their own. We must not be insensitive to such families and toward all our brothers and sisters who are refugees: we are called to help them, to open ourselves in order to better understand their situations and to offer them hospitality. Everywhere in the world, we should strive to provide persons and institutions capable of helping these brothers and sisters: in their faces, we see the face of Christ!
Last Sunday, as part of the Year of Faith, we celebrated God who is Life and the source of life, Christ who gives us divine life and the Holy Spirit who supports us in the life-giving relationship of the true children of God. I would like once more to invite all people to welcome and witness to the Gospel of life, to promote and defend life in all its dimensions and at all its stages. To be Christian is to say yes to life, to say yes to God, the Living God.
After the syntheses of the catechesis had been presented in various languages, Pope Francis greeted the various linguistic groups of pilgrims and faithful who were present. He then issued a special call on the occasion of the World Day of Refugees which will be observed tomorrow, and commissioned those present to testify to the Gospel of life, making reference to last Sunday's celebration of Evangelium Vitae Day.
The General Audience concluded with the recitation of the Our Father and the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the General Audience
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today I will focus on another expression with which the Second Vatican Council indicates the nature of the Church: that of a body; the Council says that the Church is the Body of Christ (cf. Lumen gentium, 7).
I want to begin with a text from the Acts of the Apostles that we know well: the conversion of Saul, who would come to be known as Paul, one of the greatest evangelists (cf Acts 9:4-5). Saul was a persecutor of Christians, but while he was on the road leading to the city of Damascus, suddenly a light enveloped him, he fell to the ground and heard a voice which said to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He asked, Who are you, O Lord? and the voice responded, I am Jesus, the one who you are persecuting (Acts 9:3-5). This experience shows us the depth of the relationship between us Christians and Jesus. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he did not leave us orphans, but through the gift of the Holy Spirit, our union with Him became even more intense. The Second Vatican Council affirmed the fact that Jesus, by communicating His Spirit, made His brothers, called together from all nations, mystically the components of His own Body (Dogmatic Constitution, Lumen gentium, 7).
The image of the body helps us to understand this deep bond between the Church and Christ, which Saint Paul developed especially in his first letter to the Corinthians (cf chapter 12). First of all, the body calls us to a living reality. The Church is not a charitable, cultural or political association, but a living body, which walks through and acts in history. And this body has a head, Jesus, who guides it, nurtures it and supports it. This is a point that I want to underscore: if we separate the head from the rest of the body, the entire person can't survive. So it is also with the Church: we must remain ever more deeply bound to Jesus. But not only that: as with a body, it is important that blood be allowed to bring life into the body, so we must allow Jesus to work in us, so that his Word may guide us, so that his Eucharistic presence might feed us, might animate us, so that his love might strengthen our love for our neighbour. It is always like this! Always, always! Dear brothers and sisters, remain united to Jesus, faithful to Him, let us live our lives according to his Gospel, being fed on daily prayer, by listening to the Word of God and by participating in the Sacraments.
And here I come to a second aspect of the Church as the Body of Christ. Saint Paul says that like members of a human body, which though many, still make up one single body, so it is with us: we have been baptised in one Spirit, and formed into one body (cf 1 Cor 12:12-13). Therefore in the Church, there is a variety, a diversity of tasks and functions; there is no dull uniformity, but a richness of gifts which are distributed by the Holy Spirit. But there is communion and unity: all live and function in relation to each other, and all combine to form a single living body, profoundly connected to Christ. Remember it well: to be part of the Church means that we must be united to Christ and receive from Him the divine life that makes it possible for us to live as Christians. It means that we must remain united to the Pope and the Bishops who are instruments of unity and of communion, and it also means that we must learn to overcome personalities and divisions, to better understand each other, to harmonize with each other's varieties and riches; in a word to better love God and one another, in our families, in our parishes, in our associations. For a body and its limbs to live, they must be united! Unity must always reign over conflict! Unresolved conflicts can cause separations between us, can separate us from God. Conflicts can help us to grow, but they can also divide. Let us not go down the road of division, settling for the struggles between us! We must all be united, with our differences, but always united: this is the road of Jesus. Unity is always better than conflict. Unity is a grace which we must pray for from the Lord, because it frees us from the temptations that divide us, from the selfishness between us, from selfishness and from idle chatter. How much harm is done through idle chatter, how much harm! Don't ever gossip about others, never! How much damage is done to the Church by the divisions between Christians, by those who take part in such narrow interests!
Divisions between us, but also divisions within the community: evangelical Christians, Orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, but why so many divisions? We must try to promote unity. I want to tell you something: today, before I left the Casa, I spent forty minutes, more or less a half hour with an Evangelical pastor. We prayed together, we prayed for unity. But we should pray for and with Catholics, and also for and with other Christians, ask the Lord to grant us unity, unity between us. But how can we have unity between Christians if we are not able to find unity among Catholics? To find unity in the family? There are so many families who are struggling and divided! Seek unity, the unity that creates the Church. The unity that comes from Jesus Christ. He sends us his Holy Spirit to unify us.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask God to help us be members of the Body of the Church, always profoundly united to Christ, to help us not cause suffering to the Body of the Church through our conflicts, our divisions and our selfishness, to help us to be living members, connected to each other through the power of love, which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts (cf Rm 5:5).
Following the syntheses of this catechesis, offered in various languages, the Holy Father offered greetings to each of the language groups who were present for the General Audience. Here is a translation of the greeting he offered (in Italian) to English-speaking pilgrims:
I offer an affectionate greeting to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience, including those from England, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Indies and the United States. May your stay in the Eternal City confirm you in love for our Lord and for his Body which is the Church. God bless you all!
When all of the linguistic groups had been addressed, the Holy Father issued a special appeal:
Tomorrow, we will celebrate the World Day of Refugees. This year, we are invited to give special consideration to the situations facing refugee families, often forced to quickly leave their homes and their homelands and to lose all that is good and safe in order to flee from violence, persecution or serious discrimination because of religious beliefs or because of ethnicity or political convictions.
In addition to the dangers of the journey, these families are often at risk of disintegration, and within the countries who welcome them, they must face cultural and societal realities which are different from their own. We must not be insensitive to such families and toward all our brothers and sisters who are refugees: we are called to help them, to open ourselves in order to better understand their situations and to offer them hospitality. Everywhere in the world, we should strive to provide persons and institutions capable of helping these brothers and sisters: in their faces, we see the face of Christ!
Last Sunday, as part of the Year of Faith, we celebrated God who is Life and the source of life, Christ who gives us divine life and the Holy Spirit who supports us in the life-giving relationship of the true children of God. I would like once more to invite all people to welcome and witness to the Gospel of life, to promote and defend life in all its dimensions and at all its stages. To be Christian is to say yes to life, to say yes to God, the Living God.
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