FAUSTO GOMEZ OP
CHRIST IS PRESENT IN THE CHURCH, THE SACRAMENTS, AND MISSION (#1)
Christian faith is not identified with any specific culture. It can enter into any and all cultures. Different cultural expressions of Christian faith enrich it. What matters most in every region of the whole world, is that Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and always, is the center in all cultural expressions. I remember the verses of John Oxenham: In Christ now meet both East and West / In him meet South and North, / All Christy souls are one in him, / Throughout the whole wide earth.
In previous columns, we tried to answer the question “who is Christ?”. In continuing columns, we shall try to answer the question “where is Christ?”.“Whoever serves me must follow me; and wherever I am, there my servant will be also” (Jn 12:26).
In an enlightening article, theologian Mayoral speaks of four places where we can find Jesus today. In three rather comfortable places: the Church, the sacraments, and the Sacred Scriptures. And, in one more place – less comfortable, perhaps – the poor in the world (cf. Jose Antonio Mayoral, “Maestro, ¿dónde vives?”). To these four, we add two more special places: Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist and the Holy Trinity dwelling in our hearts.
CHRIST IS PRESENT IN THE CHURCH: The Church is the community of disciples, the mystical Body of Christ, the Church of the sacraments, the evangelizer. It is the prayerful and compassionate community where its members – disciples and followers of Jesus – experience fraternity, pray together, are graced by the sacraments, and proclaim by word and deed God’s Kingdom. When the Lord appeared to Paul on the way to Damascus, Jesus asked him: “Why are you persecuting me?” That is – why are you persecuting my Church? The Church is a community of faith, hope and love, the Mystical Body of Christ in which He is the Head and His disciples – women, men and children – its members. The members of the Church form the spiritual edifice which is the Church and where they are living stones built upon the foundation that is Christ (cf. 1 Cor 3:9-12). Helped by Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, the disciple of disciples, and led by the Vicar of Christ, the Pope.
CHRIST IS PRESENT IN THE SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH: The Church is, in Christ, like a sacrament or sign and instrument of the intimate union with God and of the whole human race (cf. Vatican II, LG 1, 9, 48; CCC 775). Christ lives in the sacraments, that is, in the saving actions Jesus performed through His life: the saving actions that His Church continues performing up to the present (J. A. Mayoral). Thus, in Baptism, Christ continues baptizing; in Penance, He heals the sorrowful; in the Eucharist, Christ offers Himself for all and gives Himself to us (cf. Vatican II, SC 7).
The Church is a fraternal community, where the members love one another as Jesus witnessed and taught them (cf. Jn 13:34). The Church, as a fraternal community “is a God-enlightened space in which to experience the hidden presence of the Risen Lord” (John Paul II, VC, 42).
The Church is a prayerful community. Jesus said: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Mt 18:20). The Lord is present in a prayerful community, in the Liturgy of the Hours. He is present in communal prayer and also present in personal prayer: in prayer as a personal encounter with Christ.
CHRIST IS PRESENT IN THE CHURCH’S MISSION:Before ascending into heaven Jesus said to the first community of disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19:20). “Mission means: to give life to others”(Pope Francis, EG 10).
Vatican II says: “The pilgrim church is missionary by her very nature” (AG 2). “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity” (St. John Paul II, RM, 14). Her mission is evangelization, which comprises preaching the word, communicating divine life through the sacraments and witnessing of charity.
Our Lord Jesus is present in the mission (evangelization) of the Church: in the proclamation of the Good News to the whole of humanity. The center of preaching the Gospel is Jesus Christ, “who was crucified, died and is risen” – and lives; who is “the Good News of God.”Jesus is present in the lives of missionaries, that is of all his disciples (cf. RM 44).
Jesus is also present, moreover, in different ways in other religions, in other believers, in all other people of good will. Jesus is not the exclusive possession of Christians: God wants the salvation of all, and Jesus died for all humanity. Therefore, God gives in mysterious ways sufficient graces to all: to be able – with their cooperation, when possible – to be saved. No one will be able to say to God:“You did not help me enough!”
The universality of salvation is a call“for an end to all forms of nationalism and ethnocentrisms, or the merging of the preaching of the Gospel with the economic and military interests of colonial powers” (Pope Francis).
We are all missionaries, evangelizers. Thus, we always remember: “To evangelize is first of all to bear witness” (St. Paul VI, EN 26). Thus, “the witness of a Christian life is the first and irreplaceable form of mission” (RM 42). Illuminating words of Pope Benedict XVI: “A Christian knows when it is time to speak and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak” (DCE 31).
Consoling words of Jesus: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).
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