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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Paul’s teaching on the Church was the main focus of the catechesis given by the Holy Father Benedict XVI in his General Audience held on Wednesday, October 15. The Pope primarily focused on the origin of the word “Church,” which comes from the Greek "ekklēsía" and that in the Old Testament “means the assembly of the people of Israel, gathered by God, and particularly the model assembly at the foot of Sinai.” “The term ‘ekklēsía’ only appears in the writings of Paul, who is the first author of a Christian writing.” “This word ‘Church’ has a multifaceted meaning: It indicates on one hand the assemblies of God in particular places (a city, a country, a house), but it also means all of the Church taken together. And thus we see that ‘the Church of God’ is not just the sum of the particular local Churches, but that these are at the same time the actualization of the one Church of God. All together they are the ‘Church of God,’ which precedes each local Church and which is expressed and actualized in them.”
Benedict XVI then referred to the fact that “nearly always the word "Church" appears with the added descriptor "of God": It is not a human association, born from ideas or common interests, but a gathering of God. He has gathered it together and because of this it is one in all of its actualizations. The unity of God creates the unity of the Church in all of the places where it is found.” In the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul elaborates on the concept of the unity of the Church, “in continuation with the concept of the people of God, Israel, considered by the prophets as the "spouse of God," called to live a spousal relationship with him. Paul presents the only Church of God as "spouse of Christ" in love, one spirit with Christ himself.” Although the early Church of Christ was harshly persecuted by Saul, he had seen threatened in this new movement the fidelity to the tradition of the people of God, animated by faith in the one God, after his encounter with the Risen Christ, “Paul understood that the Christians weren't traitors; on the contrary, in the new situation, the God of Israel, through Christ, had extended his call to all people, becoming the God of all peoples. In this way, fidelity to the only God was fulfilled; the distinctive signs made up of particular norms and observances were no longer necessary, because all were called, in their differences, to form part of the one people of God in the ‘Church of God,’ in Christ.”
One thing was clear to Paul: “the fundamental and foundational value of Christ and the ‘word’ he proclaimed. Paul knew that not only is one not a Christian by coercion, but that rather in the internal configuration of the new community, the institutionally component was inevitably linked to the ‘living word,’ the proclamation of the living Christ in which God opens himself to all peoples and unites them in the one people of God... Concretely, this word is made up of the cross and resurrection of Christ, in which the Scriptures have been fulfilled.”
At the center of the preaching of the Apostle is Christ’s Paschal Mystery, the Holy Father said, that “announced in the word, is fulfilled in the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, and materializes in Christian charity. The evangelizing work of Paul does not have any other goal than to firmly establish the community of the believers in Christ. This idea is within the same etymology of the term ‘ekklēsía,’ which Paul, and with him all of Christianity, prefers to the other term ‘synagogue,’ ... The believers are called by God, who gathers them in a community, his Church.”
The exclusively Pauline concept of the Church is that of her as “Body of Christ.” The Pope reflected on this, pointing out two dimensions: “One is of a sociological character, according to which the body is formed by its components and wouldn't exist without them... The other interpretation makes reference to the very Body of Christ. Paul sustains that the Church is not just an organism, but rather becomes truly the Body of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist, where all receive his Body and truly become his Body. Thus is fulfilled the spousal mystery, that all are one body and one spirit in Christ.”
“Paul shows he knows well and he brings us to understand that the Church is not his and is not ours: the Church is the body of Christ, it is ‘Church of God,’ ‘field of God,’ construction of God … ‘temple of God’... The relationship between Church and temple assumes therefore two complementary dimensions: On one hand, the characteristic of separation and purity, which the sacred building had, is applied to the ecclesial community; on the other hand, the concept of a material space is surpassed, to transfer this value to the reality of a living community of faith. If before, temples were considered places of the presence of God, now it is known and seen that God does not dwell in buildings made of stone, but that the place of the presence of God is in the world of the living community of the believers.”
Concluding his speech, Benedict XVI made one last reflection: “In the Letter to Timothy, Paul qualifies the Church as "house of God" (1 Timothy 3:15); and this is a truly original definition, because it refers to the Church as a community structure in which warm interpersonal relationships of a familial character are lived. The Apostle helps us to understand ever better the mystery of the Church in its distinct dimensions of assembly of God in the world. This is the greatness of the Church and the greatness of our call: We are the temple of God in the world, the place where God truly dwells, and we are, at the same time, community, family of God, who is love. As family and house of God we should carry out in the world the charity of God and thus be, with the strength that comes from faith, the place and sign of his presence.”(SL) (Agenzia Fides 16/10/2008)
