The church community

Card. Suenens, primate of Belgium, highlighted: "We must dare to face the impressive number of young people who today say 'yes' to the Gospel and to Jesus and 'no' to the Church". To what can we attribute this attitude?
According to card. Suenens are responsible for "the men of the Church who reflect so little or nothing in their eyes the image of Christ". It is therefore necessary "to eliminate everything he knows of sclerosis and formalism and to offer young people an image of the incarnate Church of men who are transparent of the Lord present in the world".
But I wonder if the slogan "Christ yes, Church no" also has another reason, if it does not start from an idea of the Church which privileges the institution, sometimes in its less important and ephemeral aspects, leaving its profound, intimate and vital reality: "community of faith, hope and love" (Lumen Gentium n. 8). A group of people who have “three goods of supreme value in common: faith, hope and charity.

Community of faith. Lumen Gentium invites us to contemplate the mystery of the Holy Trinity: the Father, creator of the universe (n. 2); the Son of God, our savior, founder of the Church (LG n. 2); the Holy Spirit, "who dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful" (n. 4). We are led back, in meditation on the Church, to the root and supreme mystery of the faith.

Community of hope. The Church, like an exile, seeks and thinks about things above (n. 6), walks until she comes to the light (n. 7), giving reason to everyone for her hope in eternal life. (No. 10).
Community of hope not only for those who are in the Church (n. 9), an affirmation that will find development in Gaudium et spes.

Community of love. The Spirit produces charity among the faithful (n. 7). The Church recognizes in the poor and the suffering the image of her Founder, takes care to relieve their need, and intends to serve Christ in them (n. 8).

from “Progetto” (now “NP”), 1978, n. 1

Michele Pellegrino
NP March 2023