Dec 16 Mon
What is the Church, the true Church?
“We need to meditate frequently on the fact that the Church is a deep and great mystery, so that we never forget it… If men, using only their reason, were to analyze her, they would see only a group of people who abide by certain precepts and think similarly. But that would not be the Church."
“The Church, the Second Vatican Council teaches, is like a sacrament—a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and unity among all men. It is a mystery, not only in the hidden depth of her life, but also in the sense that the Church is not so much a human and historical and visible reality, as a divine reality, far superior to our normal capacity to know." We must look at her with eyes of faith.
“Through the Church, we Catholics are united with all our brothers who have already left this life and are being cleansed in purgatory—the Church suffering—and with those who already enjoy the beatific vision and love forever the thrice holy God—the Church triumphant. The Church is in our midst and at the same time transcends history. It was born under the mantle of our Lady and continues to praise her on earth and in heaven as her mother."
To understand the Church, one first has to love her. And only then, to study her.
The Church always needs our love, shown by our words and deeds. But there are moments when this is more necessary than ever. We cannot be naive or indifferent: “If we love the Church, there will never arise in us a morbid interest in airing, as the faults of the Mother, the weaknesses of some of her children. The Church, the Spouse of Christ, does not have to intone any mea culpa. But we do: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. The only true mea culpa is a personal one, not the one which attacks the Church, pointing out and exaggerating the human defects which, in this holy mother, result from the presence in her of us, men...."
We should meditate on “the mystery of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. It is time to ask ourselves: Do I share with Christ his zeal for souls? Do I pray for the Church of which I form part, in which I must carry out a specific mission which no one else can do for me? To be in the Church is already much, but it is not enough. We must "be" the Church, because our Mother must never be a stranger to us, something external, foreign to our deepest thoughts."
Let us ask the most Blessed Virgin, Mater Ecclesiae, to obtain from her Son Jesus the grace of being, at every moment, good and faithful children of our holy Mother the Church.
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