40 YEARS SINCE THE COUNCIL

by Pascual Chávez Villanueva

REJUVENATING THE FACE

THE FOUNDER

This year I shall be writing about the Church, the mother of our faith. And I want to do so as Don Bosco did: so that his boys might learn to love her. I shall do so by presenting those who contribute to spreading and sustaining her, beginning with her Founder...

The Church is not a material structure, nor a social organisation, nor is it a hierarchy, even less a State. The Church is a social body, but of a very special kind that theology calls mystical, the Mystical Body, made up of the people of God led by Christ himself. It is for this reason that the Church should be loved, and therefore known, since you cannot love what you don’t know. Christ loved her and gave himself up for her (cf. Eph 5,25.27). It is Christ, therefore, who is the founder and we the members of that very special Body that should function perfectly so that it may continue to grow. Nowadays there is a lot of talk, perhaps too much, about the Vatican, about priests, about the Church and about churches, frequently on the basis of clichés or prejudice, the result of little knowledge and/or of slight practical acquaintance. It would seem that among the young there is a growing disaffection regarding the Church/institution, the Church/Body so that in some countries there is is a real separation between the “Official Church” and the younger generation: “Christ yes, Church no”. But such a division is impossible: surveys continue to find Jesus the most interesting personage in history, even though in some areas of culture as a person he is becoming more vague and less significant. How does one explain this paradox? We’ve already said: it is a question of insufficient knowledge, not to say ignorance.

◙ I invite you therefore to get to know Jesus much better, to contemplate his face as the head and founder of the Church. Serious things should be studied and treated seriously. To get to know Jesus you have to turn to the writings of the New Testament, especially the Gospels that speak about what he did, told by those who lived with him and believed in him, and wrote so that others might believe and be saved. Nowadays we are able to know about the historical process by which the Gospels were written, their sources, their contexts (evangelisation, catechesis, worship). All of this has strengthened the conviction that the historical value of the central nucleus of the Gospels cannot be doubted by anyone with the slightest bit of instruction. St Luke, in the prologue to his Gospel, presents himself as a serious and reliable researcher: “In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us … it seemed good to me also having followed all things closely, for some time past, to write an orderly account for you that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed” (Lc 1 1,3-4). A critical examination of the gospel sources shows the internal coherence of the message of the Man from Nazareth, who lived at a time and in a place that can be historically traced; he was noted for his teaching, the things he did, his miracles; he was crucified under the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, he sent his apostles out to preach the Gospel and to spread the Kingdom of God though the power of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the most deeply significant aspect of Jesus is his being the Son of God. Testimonies to this are his own messianic awareness, the prophecies of the Old Testament that are fulfilled in him, the miracles he worked and above all his resurrection from the dead, as Paul writes. (Rom 1,3).

◙ Jesus revealed himself as Son of God, he revealed God as a Father full of love and mercy, he revealed us as children of this Father, our neighbour as our brother, the world as the Kingdom of God to be built up with peace, justice, solidarity, forgiveness, service of one another, love. The Church comes into being precisely from the Spirit of God communicated to his Apostles by the Risen Lord (“receive the Holy Spirit,” Jn 20.22), and from the command to proclaim this Good News to all the peoples of the world in their own language. (Acts 2, 7) What is this Good News? John sums it up in masterly fashion: «For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life » (Jn 3,16). And Mark points directly to Jesus himself: «The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God » (Mk 1,1). Christianity therefore is not a collection of truths to be believed, a series of commandments to be put into practice, or liturgical rites to be celebrated. The most important thing in Christianity is not man’s efforts to reach God, but rather the grace of God who in Christ wanted to become man so as to be not only God-with-us but also God-like-us. That is the real Good News: in Christ we are children of God, co-heirs of the Kingdom, brothers and sisters of every man and woman on the earth. It is up to us to live according to this new situation. We all of us believe this, and we try to live this newness of life that Jesus has made possible, making up the great Christian family, the new people of God, which is the Church of Jesus. The first thing we need to know then is that the Church is of divine origin, that it is a mystery, since part of God’s plan of salvation, and founded by Christ to continue through history his action of revealing the Father’s love. ◙