Newspaper Page Text
A
i
V
PAGE 7-April 5,1979
Official Text Of “Redemptor Hominis”
(Continued from last week)
The Eucharist is the most perfect sacrament
of this union. By celebrating and also partaking
of the Eucharist we unite ourselves with Christ
on earth and in heaven who intercedes for us
with the Father (158) but we always do so
through the redeeming act of his sacrifice,
through which he has redeemed us, so that we
have been “bought with a price.” (159) The
“price” of our redemption is likewise a further
proof of the value that God himself sets on man
and of our dignity in Christ. For by becoming
“children of God,” (160) adopted sons, (161)
we also become in his likeness “a kingdom and
priests” and obtain “a royal priesthood,” (162)
that is to say we share in that unique and
irreversible restoration of man and the world to
the Father that was carried out once for all by
him, who is both the eternal Son (163) and also
true man. The Eucharist is the sacrament in
which our new being is most completely
expressed and in which Christ himself
unceasingly and in an ever new manner “bears
witness” in the Holy Spirit to our spirit (164)
that each of us, as a sharer in the mystery of
the redemption, has access to the fruits of the
filial reconciliation with God (165) that he
himself actuated and continually actuates
among us by means of the church’s ministry.
It is an essential truth, not only of doctrine
but also of life, that the Eucharist builds the
church, (166) building it as the authentic
community of the people of God, as the
assembly of the faithful, bearing the same mark
of unity that was shared by the apostles and the
first disciples of the Lord. The Eucharist builds
ever anew this community and unity, ever
building and regenerating it on the basis of the
sacrifice of Christ, since it commemorates his
death on the cross, (167) the price by which he
redeemed us. Accordingly, in the Eucharist we
touch in a way the very mystery of the body
and blood of the Lord, as is attested by the
very words used at its institution, the words
that, because of that institution, have become
the words with which those called to this
ministry in the church unceasingly celebrate the
Eucharist.
The church lives by the Eucharist, by the
fullness of this sacrament, the stupendous
content and meaning of which have often been
expressed in the church’s magisterium from the
most distant times down to our own days
(168) . However, we can say with certainty that,
although this teaching is sustained by the
acuteness of theologians, by men of deep faith
and prayer, and by ascetics and mystics, in
complete fidelity to the eucharistic mystery, it
still reaches no more than the threshold, since it
is incapable of grasping and translating into
words what the Eucharist is in all its fullness,
what is expressed by it and what is actuated by
it. Indeed, the Eucharist is the ineffable
, sacrament! The essential commitment and,
above all, the visible grace and source of
supernatural strength for the church as the
people jof God is to persevere and advance
constantly in eucharistic life and eucharistic
piety and to develop spiritually in the climate
of the Eucharist. With all the greater reason,
then, it is not permissible for us, in thought, life
or action, to take away from this truly most
holy sacrament its full magnitude and its
essential meaning. It is at one and the same
time a sacrifice-sacrament, a
communion-sacrament, and a
presence-sacrament. And, although it is true
that the Eucharist always was and must
continue to be the most profound revelation of
the human brotherhood of Christ’s disciples
and confessors, it cannot be treated merely as
an “occasion” for manifesting this
brotherhood. When celebrating the sacrament
of the body and blood of the Lord, the full
magnitude of the divine mystery must be
respected, as must the full meaning of this
sacramental sign in which Christ is really
present and is received, the soul is filled with
grace and the pledge of future glory is given
(169) . This is the source of the duty to carry
out rigorously the liturgical rules and
everything that is a manifestation of
community worship offered to God himself, all
the more so because in this sacramental sign he
entrusts himself to us with limitless trust, as if
not taking into consideration our human
weakness, our unworthiness, the force of habit,
routine, or even the possibility of insult. Every
member of the church, especially bishop and
priests, must be vigilant in seeing that this
sacrament of love shall be at the center of the
life of the people of God so that through all the
manifestations of worship due to it Christ shall
be given back “love for love” and truly become
“the life of our souls” (170). Nor can we, on
the other hand, ever forget the following words
of St. Paul: “Let a man examine himself, and so
eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (171).
This call by the apostle indicates at least
indirectly the close link between the Eucharist
and penance. Indeed, if the first word of
Christ’s teaching, the first phrase of the Gospel
Good News, was “Repent, and believe in the
gospel” (“metanoeite”) (172), the sacrament of
the passion, cross and resurrection seems to
strengthen and consolidate in an altogehter
special way this call in our souls. The Eucharist
and penance thus become in a sense two closely
connected dimensions of authentic life in
accordance with the spirit of the Gospel, of
truly Christian life. The Christ who calls to the
eucharistic banquet is always the same Christ
who exhorts us to penance and repeats his
“Repent” (173). Without this constant ever
renewed endeavor for conversion, partaking of
the Eucharist would lack its full redeeming
effectiveness and there would be a loss or at
least a weakening of the special readiness to
offer God the spiritual sacrifice (174) in which
our sharing in the priesthood of Christ is
expressed in an essential and universal manner.
In Christ, priesthood is linked with his sacrifice,
his self-giving to the Father; and, precisely
because it is without limit, that self-giving gives
rise in us human beings subject to numerous
limitations to the need to turn to God in an
ever more mature way and with a constant, ever
more profound, conversion.
In the last years much has been done to
highlight in the church’s practice — in
conformity with the most ancient tradition of
the church — the community aspect of penance
and especially of the sacrament of penance. We
cannot however forget that conversion is a
particularly profound inward act in which the
individual cannot be replaced by others and
cannot make the community be a substitute for
him. Although the participation by the
fraternal community of the faithful in the
penitential celebration is a great help for the act
of personal conversion, nevertheless, in the final
analysis, it is necessary that in this act there
should be a pronouncement by the individual
himself with the whole depth of his conscience
and with the whole of his sense of guilt and of
trust in God, placing himself like the psalmist
before God to confess: “Against you . . . have I
sinned” (175). In faithfully observing the
centuries-old practice of the sacrament of
penance — the practice of individual confession
with a personal act of sorrow and the intention
to amend and make satisfaction — the church is
therefore defending the human soul’s individual
right: man’s right to a more personal encounter
with the crucified forgiving Christ, with Christ
saying, through the minister of the sacrament
of reconciliation: “Your sins are forgiven”
(176); “Go, and do not sin again” (177). As is
evident, this is also a right on Christ’s part with
regard to every human being redeemed by him:
his right to meet each one of us in that key
moment in the soul’s life constituted by the
moment of conversion and forgiveness. By
guarding the sacrament of penance, the church
expressly affirms her faith in the mystery of the
redemption as a living and life-giving reality
that fits in with man’s inward truth, with
human guilt and also with the desires of the
human conscience. “Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be satisfied” (178). The sacrament of
penance is the means to satisfy man with the
righteousness that comes from the Redeemer
himself.
In the church, gathering particularly today in
a special way around the Eucharist and desiring
that the authentic eucharistic community
should become a sign of the gradually maturing
unity of all Christians, there must be a
lively-felt need for penance, both in its
sacramental aspect (179), and in what concerns
penance as a virtue. This second aspect was
expressed by Paul VI in the apostolic
constitution “Paenitemini” (180). One of the
church’s tasks is to put into practice the
teaching “Paenitemini” contains; this subject
must be investigated more deeply by us in
common reflection, and many more decisions
must be made about it in a spirit of pastoral
collegiality and with respect for the different
traditions in this regard and the different
circumstances of the lives of the people of
today. Nevertheless, it is certain that the church
of the new Advent, the church that is
continually preparing for the new coming of
the Lord, must be the church of the Eucharist
and of penance. Only when viewed in this
spiritual aspect of her life and activity is she
seen to be the church the divine mission, the
church “in statu missionis,” as the Second
Vatican Council has shown her to be.
21. The Christian Vocation to Service and
Kingship
In building up from the very foundations the
picture of the church as the people of God —
by showing the threefold mission of Christ
himself, through participation in which we
become truly God’s people — the Second
Vatican Council highlighted, among other
characteristics of the Christian vocation, the
one that can be described as “kingly.” To
present all the riches of the council’s teaching
we would here have to make reference to
numerous chapters and paragraphs of the
constitution “Lumen Gentium” and of many
other documents by the council. However, one
element seems to stand out in the midst of all
these riches: the sharing in Christ’s kingly
mission, that is to say the fact of rediscovering
in oneself and others the special dignity of our
vocation that can be described as “kingship.”
This dignity is expressed in readiness to serve,
in keeping with the example of Christ, who
“came not to be served but to serve.” (181) If,
in the light of this attitude of Christ’s, “being a
king” is truly possible only by “being a
servant,” then “being a servant” also demands
so much spiritual maturity that it must really
be described as “being a king.” In order to be
able to serve others worthily and effectively we
must be able to master ourselves, possess the
virtues that make this mastery possible. Our
sharing in Christ’s kingly mission — his “kingly
function” (“munus”) is closely linked with
every sphere of both Christian and human
morality.
In presenting the complete picture of the
people of God and recalling the place among
that people held not only by priests but also by
the laity, not only by the representatives of the
hierarchy but also by those of the institutes of
consecrated life, the Second Vatican Council
did not deduce this picture merely from a
sociological premise. The church as a human
society can of course be examined and
described according to the categories used by
the sciences with regard to any human society.
But these categories are not enough. For the
whole of the community of the people of God
and for each member of it what is in question is
not just a specific “social membership;” rather,
for each and every one what is essential is a
particular “vocation.” Indeed, the church as the
people of God is also — according to the
teaching of St. Paul mentioned above, of which
Pius XII reminded us in wonderful terms —
“Christ’s mystical body.” (182) Membership in
that body has for its source a particular call,
united with the saving action of grace.
Therefore, if we wish to keep in mind this
community of the people of God, which is so
vast and so extremely differentiated, we must
see first and foremost Christ saying in a way to
each member of the community: “Follow me.”
(183) It is the community of the disciples, each
of whom in a different way — at times very
consciously and consistently, at other times not
very consciously and very inconsistently — is
following Christ. This shows also the deeply
“personal” aspect and dimension of this
society, which, in spite of all the deficiencies of
its community life — in the human meaning of
the word — is a community precisely because
all its members form it together with Christ
himself, at least because they bear in their souls
the indelible mark of a Christian.
The Second Vatican Council devoted very
special attention to showing how this
“ontological” . community of disciples and
confessors must increasingly become, even from
the “human” point of view, a community
aware of its own life and activity. The
initiatives taken by the council in this field have
been followed up by the many further
initiatives of a synodal, apostolic and
organizational kind. We must however always
keep in mind the truth that every initiative
serves true renewal in the church and helps to
bring the authentic light that is Christ (184)
insofar as the initiative is based on adequate
awareness of the individual Christian’s vocation
and of responsibility for this singular, unique
and unrepeatable grace by which each Christian
in the community of the people of God builds
up the body of Christ. This principle, the key
rule for the whole of Christian practice —
apostolic and pastoral practice, practice of
interior and of social life — must with due
proportion be applied to the whole of
humanity and to each human being. The pope
too and every bishop must apply this principle
to himself. Priests and Religious must be
faithful to this principle. It is the basis on
which their lives must be built by married
people, parents, and women and men of
different conditions and professions, from
those who occupy the highest posts in society
to those who perform the simplest tasks. It is
precisely the principle of the “kingly service”
that imposes on each one of us, in imitation of
Christ’s example, the duty to demand of
himself exactly what we have been called to,
what we have personally obliged ourselves to by
God’s grace, in order to respond to our
vocation. This fidelity to the vocation received
from God through Christ involves the joint
responsibility for the church for which the
Second Vatican Council wishes to educate all
Christians. Indeed, in the church as the
community of the people of God under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit’s working, each
member has “his own special gift,” as St. Paul
teaches (185). Although this “gift” is a personal
vocation and a form of participation in the
church’s saving work, it also serves others,
builds the church and the fraternal
communities in the various spheres of human
life on earth.
Fidelity to one’s vocation, that is to say
persevering readiness for “kingly service,” has
particular significance for these many forms of
building, especially with regard to the more
exigent tasks, which have more influence on the
life of our neighbor and of the whole of
society. Married people must be distinguished
for fidelity to their vocation, as is demanded by
the indissoluble nature of the sacramental
institution of marriage. Priests must be
distinguished for a similar fidelity to their
vocation, in view of the indelible character that
the Sacrament of Orders stamps on their souls.
In receiving this sacrament, we in the Latin
church knowingly and freely commit ourselves
to live in celibacy, and each one of us must
therefore do all he can, with God’s grace, to be
thankful for this gift and faithful to the bond
that he has accepted forever. He must do so as
married people must, for they must endeavor
with all their strength to persevere in their
matrimonial union, building up the family
community through this witness of love and
educating a new generation of men and women,
capable in their turn of dedicating the whole of
their lives to their vocation, that is to say to the
“kingly service” of which Jesus Christ has
offered us the example and the most beautiful
model. His church, made up of all of us, is “for
men” in the sense that, by basing ourselves on
Christ’s example (186) and collaborating with
the grace that he has gained for us, we are able
to attain to “being kings,” that is to say we are
able to produce a mature humanity in each one
of us. Mature humanity means full use of the
gift of freedom received from the Creator when
he called to existence the man made “in his
image, after his likeness.” This gift finds its full
realization in the unreserved giving of the whole
of one’s human person, in a spirit of the love of
a spouse, to Christ and, with Christ, to all those
to whom he sends men and women totally
consecrated to him in accordance with the
evangelical counsels. This is the ideal of the
religious life, which has been undertaken by the
orders and congregations both ancient and
recent, and by the secular institutes.
Nowadays it is sometimes held, though
wrongfully, that freedom is an end in itself,
that each human being is free when he makes
use of freedom as he wishes, and that this must
be our aim in the lives of individuals and
societies. In reality, freedom is a great gift only
when we know how to use it consciously for
everything that is our true good. Christ teaches
us that the best use of freedom is charity,
which takes concrete form in self-giving and in
service. For this “freedom Christ has set us
free” (187) and ever continues to set us free.
The church draws from this source the
unceasing inspiration, the call and the drive for
her mission and her service among all mankind.
The full truth about human freedom is
indelibly inscribed on the mystery of the
redemption. The church truly serves mankind
when she guards this truth with untiring
attention, fervent love and mature commitment
and when in the whole of her own community,
she transmits it and gives it concrete form in
human life through each Christian’s fidelity to
his vocation. This confirms what we have
already referred to, namely that man is and
always becomes the “way” for the church’s
daily life.
22. The Mother in Whom We Trust
When therefore at the beginning of the new
pontificate I turn my thoughts and my heart to
the Redeemer of man, I thereby wish to enter
and penetrate into the deepest rhythm of the
church’s life. Indeed, if the church lives her life,
she does so because she draws it from Christ,
and he always wishes but one thing, namely
that we should have life and have it abundantly
(188). This fullness of life in him is at the same
time for man. Therefore the church, uniting
herself with all the riches of the mystery of the
redemption, becomes the church of living
people, living because given life from within by
the working of “the Spirit of truth” (189) and
visited by the love that the Holy Spirit has
poured into our hearts (190). The aim of any
service in the church, whether the service is
apostolic, pastoral, priestly or episcopal, is to
keep up this dynamic link between the mystery
of the redemption and every man.
If we are aware of this task, then we seem to
understand better what it means to say that the
church is a mother (191) and also what it
means to say that the church always, and
particularly at our time, has need of a mother.
We owe a debt of special gratitude to the
fathers of the Second Vatican Council, who
expressed this truth in the constitution “Lumen
Gentium” with the rich Mariological doctrine
contained in it (192). Since Paul VI, inspired by
that teaching, proclaimed the mother of Christ
“mother of the church” (193), and that title
has become known far and wide, may it be
permitted to his unworthy successor to turn to
Mary as mother of the church at the close of
these reflections which it was opportune to
make at the beginning of his papal service. Mary
is mother of the church because, on account of
the eternal Father’s ineffable choice (194) and
due to the Spirit of love’s “special action”
(195), she gave human life to the Son of God,
“for whom and by whom all things exist” (196)
and from whom the whole of the People of
God receives the grace and dignity of election.
Her Son explicitly extended his mother’s
maternity in a way that could easily be
understood by every soul and every heart by
designating, when he was raised up on the cross,
his beloved disciple as her son (197). The Holy
Spirit inspired her to remain in the upper room,
after our Lord’s ascension, recollected in prayer
and expection, together; with the Apostles, until
the day of Pentecost, when the church was to
be born in visible form, coming forth from
darkness (198). Later all the generations of
disciples, of those who confess and love Christ,
like the Apostle John, spiritually took this
mother to their own homes (199), and she was
thus included in the history of salvation and in
the church’s mission from the very beginning,
that is from the moment of the annunciation.
Accordingly, we who form today’s generation
of disciples of Christ all wish to unite ourselves
with her in a special way. We do so with all our
attachment to our ancient tradition and also
with full respect and love for the members of
all the Christian communities.
We do so at the urging of the deep need of
faith, hope and charity. For if we feel a special
need, in this difficult and responsible phase of
the history of the church and of mankind, to
turn to Christ, who is Lord of the church and
Lord of man’s history on account of the
mystery of the redemption, we believe that
nobody else can bring us as Mary can into the
divine and human dimension of this mystery.
Nobody has been brought into it by God
himself as Mary has. It is in this that the
exceptional character of the grace of the divine
motherhood consists. Not only is the dignity of
this motherhood unique and unrepeatable in
the history of the human race, but Mary’s
participation, due to this maternity, in God’s
plan for man’s salvation through the mystery of
the redemption is also unique in profundity and
range of action.
We can say that the mystery of the
redemption took shape beneath the heart of the
Virgin of Nazareth when she pronounced her
“fiat.” From then on, under the special
influence of the Holy Spirit, this heart, the
heart of both a virgin and a mother, has always
followed the work of her Son and has gone out
to all those whom Christ has embraced and
continues to embrace with inexhaustible love.
For that reason her heart must also have the
inexhaustibility of a mother. The special
characteristic of the motherly love that the
mother of God inserts in the mystery of the
redemption and the life of the church finds
expression in its exceptional closeness to man
and all that happens to him. It is in this that the
mystery of the mother consists. The church,
which looks to her with altogether special love
and hope, wishes to make this mystery her own
in an ever deeper manner. For in this the
church also recognizes the way for her daily
life, which is each person.
The Father’s eternal love, which has been
manifested in the history of mankind through
the Son whom the Father gave, “that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life,” (200) comes close to each of us
through this mother and thus takes on tokens
that are of more easy understanding and access
by each person. Consequently, Mary must be
on all the ways for the church’s daily life.
Through her maternal presence the church
acquires certainty that she is truly living the life
of her Master and Lord and that she is living the
mystery of the redemption in all its life-giving
profundity and fullness. Likewise the church,
which has struck root in many varied fields of
the life of the whole of present-day humanity,
also acquires the certainty and, one could say,
the experience of being close to man, to each
person, of being each person’s church, the
church of the people of God.
Faced with these tasks that appear along the
ways for the church, those ways that Pope Paul
VI clearly indicated in the first encyclical of his
pontificate, and aware of the absolute necessity
of all these ways and also of the difficulties
thronging them, we feel all the more our need
for a profound link with Christ. We hear within
us, as a resounding echo, the words that he
spoke: “Apart from me you can do nothing”
(201). We feel not only the need but even a
categorical imperative for great, intense and
growing prayer by all the church. Only prayer
can prevent all these great succeeding tasks and
difficulties from becoming a source of crisis and
make them instead the occasion and, as it were,
the foundation for ever more mature
achievements on the people of God’s march
towards the Promised Land in this stage of
history approaching the end of the second
millennium. Accordingly, as I end this
meditation with a warm and humble call to
prayer, I wish the church to devote herself to
this prayer, together with Mary the Mother of
Jesus (202), as the apostles and disciples of the
Lord did in the Upper Room in Jerusalem after
his Ascension (203). Above all, I implore Mary,
the heavenly Mother of the church, to be so
good as to devote herself to this prayer of
humanity’s new Advent, together with us who
make up the church, that is to say the Mystical
Body of her Only Son, I hope that through this
prayer we shall be able to receive the Holy
Spirit coming upon us (204) and thus become
Christ’s witnesses “to the end of the earth”
(205), like those who went forth from the
Upper Room in Jerusalem on the day of
Pentecost.
With the apostolic blessing.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, on the fourth
of March, the first Sunday of Lent, in the year
1979, the first year of my pontificate.
Joannes Paulus PP.l 1
FOOTNOTES
158. Heb. 9:24; 1 Jn. 2:1.
159. 1 Cor. 6:20.
160. Jn. 1:12.
161. Cf. Rom. 8:23.
162. Rev. 5:10; 1 P 2:9.
163. Cf. Jn. 1:1-4, 18; Mt. 3:17; 11:27;
17:5; Mk. 1:11; Lk. 1:32, 35; 3:22; Rom.
1:4; 2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Jn. 5:5, 20; 2 Pet. 1:17
Heb. 1:2.
164. Cf. 1 Jn. 5:5-11.
165. Cf. Rom. 5:10, 11; 2 Cor. 5:18-19;
Col. 1:20, 22.
166. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church “Lumen
Gentius,” 11: AAS 57 (1965) 15-16; Pope
Paul VI, Talk on 15 September 1965:
“Insegnamenti di Paolo VI," III (1965) 1036.
167. Cf. Vatican Council II: Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy “Sacrosanctum
Concilium," 47: AAS 56 (1964) 113.
168. Cf. Pope Paul VI: encyclical
“Mysterium Fidei”: AAS 57 (1965) 553-574.
169. Cf. Vatican Council II: Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy “Sacrosanctum
Concilium," 47: AAS 56 (1964) 113.
170. Cf. Jn. 6:51, 57; 14:6; Gal. 2:20.
171. 1 Cor. 11:28.
172. Mk. 1:15.
173. Ibid.
174. Cf. 1 Pet. 2:5
175. Ps. 50 (51): 6.
176. Mk. 2:5.
177. Jn. 8:11.
178. Mt. 5:6.
179. Cf. Sacred Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith: “Normae Pastorales
cira Absolutionem Sacramentalem Generali
Modo Impertiendam": AAS 64 (1972)
510-514; Pope Paul VI: Address to a Group
of Bishops from the United States of America
on their “ad limina" Visit, 20 April 1978:
AAS 70 (1978) 328-332; Pope John Paul II:
Address to a Group of Canadian Bishops on
their “ad limina" Visit, 17 November 1978:
AAS 71 (1979) 32-36.
180. Cf. AAS 58 (1966) 177-198.
181. Mt. 20:28.
182. Pope Pius XII: Encyclical “Mystici
Corporis”: AAS 35 (1943) 193-248.
183. Jn. 1:43.
184. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church “Lumen
Gentium,” 1: AAS 57 (1965) 5.
185. 1 Cor. 7:7; cf. 12:7, 27; Rom. 12:6;
Eph. 4:7.
186. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church “Lumen
Gentium, 36: AAS 57 (1965) 41-42.
187. Gal. 5:1; cf. 5:13.
188. Cf. Jn. 10:10.
189. Jn. 16:13.
190. Cf. Rom. 5:5.
191. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church “Lumen
Gentium," 63-64: AAS 57 (1965) 64.
192. Cf. Chapter VIII, 52-69: AAS 57
(1965) 58-67.
193. Pope Paul VI: Closing Address at the
Tfiird Session of the Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, 21 November 1964:
AAS 56 (1964) 1015.
194. Cf. Vatican Council II: Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church “Lumen
Gentium," 56 AAS 57 (1965) 60.
195. Ibid.
196. Heb. 2:10.
197. Cf. Jn. 19:26.
198. Cf. Acts. 1:14; 2.
199. Cf. Jn. 19-27.
200. Jn. 3:16.
201. Jn.15:5.
202. Cf. Acts. 1:14.
203. Cf. Acts. 1:13.
204. Cf. Acts. 1:8.
205. Ibid.
“We can say that the mystery of the redemption took shape;
beneath the heart of the Virgin of Nazareth ”