The Messenger - January 2008 - Living the Gospel Message
By Fr. Finbarr Clancy, SJ - 02 January 2008
The Pope’s Intentions: This month the Pope asks us to pray ‘that the Church may strengthen her unity as a community of love, to reflect the communion of the Holy Trinity’.
In reciting the Creed at Mass, we profess our faith in the three persons of the Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We follow this by making reference to the Church as ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic’. In using these four attributes of the Church, we are conscious that her unity is yet imperfect and that her holiness is sometimes eclipsed by the shadows of sin. Likewise, we are aware that we are not always faithful to the tradition received from the Apostles, and that the Church has not yet made known the fullness of the gospel message to every race, culture and people.
Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity
The Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place each year from 18 - 25 January. This year marks the centenary of its origin and so it should invite us to reflect more deeply on what it is we pray for, and how we pray, during this time.
An Anglican priest, Fr Paul Wattson, began the Octave in 1908. His primary intention was for the return of all Christian denominations to the Roman Catholic Church. The Octave received a broader focus in 1936 under the influential French ecumenist, the Abbé Paul Couturier. He placed a new emphasis on prayer for the unity that Christ wills, when and using the means he wills.
The prayer for Christian unity is an urgent task and it is incumbent upon every Christian. We should never limit prayer for this noble cause to the Octave alone each year. Rather, it should be an intention that we pray for regularly, as individuals and as communities.
Living the Gospel Message
The gospels leave us in no doubt as to the centrality of love and harmony in Jesus’ teaching. When we learn to perfect these attributes, we become true spiritual mirrors of the Trinity. St. Augustine once remarked that ‘if you see love, you see the Trinity’.
In the foot-washing scene (Jn.13:1-16), Jesus gives us a profound example of humble and mutual service. His parable of the vine and the branches (Jn.15:1-17) is all about abiding in harmonious relationships with each other and with God. Jesus prayed earnestly for the unity of all his followers ‘that all might be one’ (Jn.17:1-26).
Heeding Paul’s Advice
St. Paul urged the Corinthians to preserve ‘grace, love and fellowship’ among themselves (2 Cor.13:13), gifts that he significantly linked with the Trinity. The Corinthians badly needed to hear his message as they often found it difficult to get on with each other (cf. 1 Cor 3:3-4) and were jealous and envious over people’s gifts and talents (1 Cor.12:4-11).
Paul saw all these gifts coming from the Trinity as source. He urged his flock to be ambitious for the higher gifts, especially love (1 Cor.13:1-13), and to preserve the unity that is brought about by the Holy Spirit (Eph.4:1-6), and symbolized in the Eucharist (1 Cor.10:16-17). Christians must be peacemakers and agents of reconciliation and forgiveness (2 Cor.5:17-20; Mt.5:23; 18:21-22).
Three Aspects of the Church
Pope John Paul II was particularly fond of three key words, ‘Mystery, Communion and Mission’, in his reflections on the Church. They are useful words as they apply to the Trinity itself, to the Church, and to the Eucharist at the heart of the Church’s life and mission - the sacramentum caritatis.
1. The Church as Mystery
The Church, as chapter one of Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium reminds us, is the mystery of the outreach of the Trinity towards humanity. The Father’s plan of salvation in Christ and sanctification by the Holy Spirit raises us up to be partakers of the divine nature (2 Pt.1:4). We become People of God, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
It is helpful to keep these images of the Church together, as Vatican II does, because they remind us of the connection between the Trinity and the Church. ‘Mystery’ is a beckoning word. It is not a problem to be solved, but a deep reality that invites our active engagement. The Church would be so much more attractive if we really felt this.
2. The Church as Communion
Communion is at the heart of the Church’s life. This is true from the smallest cell of the Church, the family or domestic church, through the local manifestation of the Church in each parish, diocese and nation, to the wider international dimension. We are privileged to have so many other nationalities present in Ireland today. They bring the particular riches of their own traditions and cultures to our native Church.
Communion is also an important ecumenical word. We live side by side as Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans and Orthodox. Even if we cannot yet share the one Eucharist, there are already important bonds of communion born of Baptism, nourished by prayer, work and life together. These help deepen our communion as brothers and sisters in Christ.
3. The Church as Mission
The Church is missionary by nature. The Eucharistic celebration ends by sending us out ‘to love and serve the Lord’. We do this through active love of our neighbours. Among Jesus’ first words recorded in the gospel are the words, ‘Come and see’ (Jn.1:39), and his concluding words were, ‘Go, make disciples of all the nations’ (Mt.28:19; Mk.16:15). We come together as ‘companions’ in order ‘to be sent out’ (Mk.3:14).
In his exhortation on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us of the threefold nature of the Eucharistic mystery: it is a mystery to be believed, celebrated and lived. In the Eucharist we are drawn especially close to the Trinity. We journey through, with and in Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to offer glory and thanks to the Father.
The Church as Icon of the Trinity
Vatican II reminded us that in our ecumenical quest for unity we should never lose sight of the Trinity as the great paradigm and source of unity (Unitatis redintegratio 2). In praying during the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity and at other times during the year also, we should pray to the Trinity for this noble cause of unity which thrives on harmonious diversity.
The Preface for Christian Unity reminds us of diversity and unity as twin gifts of the Spirit: ‘How marvellous are the works of the Spirit, revealed in so many gifts! Yet how marvellous is the unity the Spirit creates from their diversity!’ This only reminds us of Paul’s advice to the Corinthians also.
The Trinity is the mystery
underpinning all mysteries of our faith, including that of the Church (Lumen Gentium 2-4) and her mission (Ad gentes 1-4) throughout time and space. In the words of Cardinal Kasper: ‘The communion of the Church is prefigured, made possible and sustained by the communion of the Trinity... It is participation in the Trinitarian community itself. The Church is, as it were, the icon of Trinitarian fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.’ Each individual Christian and all our communities are invited to be ‘mobile monasteries’ where Jesus’ words petitioning unity, ‘that all may be one’ (Jn.17:20-23), prayerfully ascend with regular rhythm to the Father’s presence, aided by the wings of the Holy Spirit.