Pope Francis began his reflections, offered to those present in the chapel of the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse, by turning again to the figure of King David in the day’s first reading take from the Second Book of Samuel.
By the way in which David prays, as a son who speaks with his father and receives even the answer of “no” to his demands with joy, it is apparent that he had “a strong feeling of belonging to the people of God,” the Pope observed.
This example makes us wonder about our own sense of belonging to the Church, continued the pontiff,stating that “the Christian is not baptized to receive baptism and then go on his way.”
“The first fruit of Baptism is that you belong to the church, to the People of God. One cannot understand a Christian without the Church,” he explained, recalling the words of Pope Paul VI when he stated that “it is an absurd dichotomy to love Christ without the Church.”
“We receive in the Church the message of the Gospel and we become holy in the church, our path in the Church. The other is a fantasy or, like he would say, an absurd dichotomy.”
Pope Francis then went on to describe how there are “three pillars” within this “belonging,” and this “feeling” with the Church, the first of which is humility with the awareness that being placed in a community is “a great grace.”
“A person that is not humble, cannot hear along with the Church, he hears only what she likes, what he likes,” noted the Pope, adding that this humility can be seen in David’s prayer, when he says “Who am I, Lord God, and what is my house?”
“With this consciousness,” we are aware “that our story of salvation has begun and will not end when I die. No, it is a whole story of salvation,” observed the pontiff, “I come, the Lord takes you, makes you go ahead and then calls you and the story continues.”
The Pope then emphasized that “the Church first began before us and will continue after us,” and this realization helps us to recognize with humility that “we are a small part of a great people, that walks on the path of the Lord.”
Referring to the second pillar of our “belonging” to the Church, the pontiff revealed that it is a fidelity which “is connected to obedience.”
“Faithfulness to the Church; faithfulness to her teaching: fidelity to the Creed; fidelity to the doctrine, guarding this doctrine,” he explained, repeating “Humility and fidelity.”
Paul VI also reminds us “that we receive the message of the Gospel as a gift and we should transmit it as a gift” explained the Pope, “but not like our thing: it is a gift received that we give, and in this transmission we should be faithful.”
He went on to say that “because we have received” this gift, “we should give a Gospel that is not ours, but that is from Jesus, and we should not become owners of the Gospel, owners of the doctrine received, to use it as we please.”
Concluding his reflections, the Pope explained that the third pillar of our belonging to and with the Church is the special service “to pray” for her.
“How is our prayer for the Church? Do we pray for the Church?” he asked, stating that we do “In the Mass every day,” but what about “at our house, no? When we make our prayers?”
Urging those present to pray for the whole Church is every part of the world, the Pope asked that the Lord “help us to go down this path of deepening our belonging to the Church and our feeling with the Church.”
stating that “the Christian is not baptized to receive baptism and then go on his way.”Funny that as I read this, I began to think about my Churchlessness a number of years ago and how comfortable I was, for a time, being in that state. I found these relevant posts (here, here, here and here) and this comment that speak to that time. There are probably others. The comfort however was temporary. Thank God.
I now know I need Church. I now know I need what is offered in the Eucharist, particularly He who is bodily present in that Eucharist, He who fills both known and unknown voids.
My need to fight that in me that abhors going is continuous and so I acknowledge the Pope's wisdom in his articulation of the necessity for humility. When I desire to stay home, my focus is entirely too self-centered. I don't want to go. I'd rather do something else. I'm too busy. I, I, I, I.
If I turn that focus outward, on my need to intercede for others, in how that takes place at Mass, on Who it is I'll not be partaking of if I don't go, on seeing others there who are as needy as I, then that desire to stay home is overcome.
It's interesting to go back and read what I wrote during my Churchlessness but I'm glad I'm no longer drifting. There is freedom in drifting and it's particularly alluring but... after a time, I became more and more aware of my directionlessness and even more disturbed by it. For that disturbedness, I am now most thankful.
So very thankful.
Carry on.
