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The Community Is Formed Around God’s Word

Photo by Jonathan Lara
Photo by Jonathan Lara

Here is an excerpt from an address given by Chiara Lubich at the opening of the Congress of the Parish Movement on May 3, 1986.

It is the encounter with the Word of God, and in particular, the encounter with words which speak of love, of charity, that set in motion the gospel revolution. It is through the practice of these words that new relationships are formed between persons formerly indifferent to one another. It is through these words that a dispersed group of people can become a community.

For is it not by loving our neighbors as ourselves, by loving even our enemies and by loving one another that we try to live as brothers and sisters, and give life – wherever we are – to Christian brotherhood, and to the family of the children of God?

Our Holy Father, John Paul II, indicates that the Word is the first instrument used by the Spirit to form the parish community. Speaking to Saint Joseph Cafasso Parish in Rome, he said, “Do you want to know how a parish community is formed and how it develops? The community is formed, first and foremost, around the Word of God.”

Love: the Cohesive Force of the Community

The words of the gospel which the popes themselves have most frequently stressed are those which speak about love, about charity. These words lived out make it possible for the parish to fulfil itself as a living community.

Pope Paul VI said, “A true parish is a parish in which everyone loves one another; its members know that this is the fundamental law. What can we call this binding force, capable of keeping the parish body together? We can call it charity…A marvellous gift…it emanates from God…it is the great basic law of the Church. It is the distinctive mark that indicates the degree of ecclesiastical life.”

Speaking to the parish of Our Lady of Help of Christians in Rome, Paul VI urged, “You have already built the material temple; now build the living Church. You are the Church. This temple is only the place where you assemble. You must build your community as a unit whose center is the pastor and those who take care of your spiritual welfare. You must allow yourselves to be penetrated by this sense of unity, of communion, which in the language of the gospel means to be brothers and sisters, and that means to love one another, to help one another.”

On another occasion he said: “Love one another, love one another. Oh how stupendous it would be if these parishes of ours would show what religious society should be! Individuals who were once strangers, who were different from one another due to customs, education, origin, age, profession etc., now meet in church, having discovered and now considering themselves as brothers and sisters. They become friends to one another. They seek out the sick in order to care for them; the unemployed, in order to offer them assistance; and children, in order to educate them. In short, if there is something we can do for our neighbour, we should immediately feel ready and willing to say: Christ is calling us. Remember the solemn words of Christ: They will recognize you as my disciples, authentic and faithful followers of mine, if you love one another.”

On still another occasion in the new Roman parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Paul VI added, “If this church were to remain empty, what would be the point of building it? It would not be much of a church. Consequently, all the faithful of the parish must cooperate and erect a true and new Church worthy of our times, formed by people who love one another in a spirit of Christian charity.

So it is above all the words of the gospel which speak of love that the popes have been underlining as necessary for an authentic parish to come to life and prosper.

 

The Parish Community a Path to Communion pp. 113-114

 

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