498. January 23, Octave of Christian Unity - 6

Meditations no. 428 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Christ chose to found the Church on the Apostles.

Our Lord founded his Church on the weakness - but also on the fidelity - of a few men, the Apostles, to whom he promised the constant assistance of the Holy Spirit… commented our Father.

The preaching of the Gospel does not arise in Palestine through the personal initiative of a few fervent individuals. What could the Apostles do? They were nothing in their time. From a human point of view they were neither rich nor learned, nor heroes. Jesus places on the shoulders of a handful of disciples an immense, divine task. You did not choose me, it is I who chose you, and I have sent you out to bear fruit and fruit that will last, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name will be granted to you (John 15: 16).

Through two thousand years the apostolic succession has been preserved in the Church. The bishops, declares the Council of Trent, have succeeded the Apostles and are placed, as the Apostle (Paul) himself says, by the Holy Spirit to rule the Church of God (Acts 20: 28) (Council of Trent, Doctrine on the sacrament of Order). And, among the Apostles, Christ himself made Simon the object of special election: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church (Matt 16: 18). I have prayed for you, he adds, so that your faith not fail; and you, when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers (Luke 22: 32).

Peter moves to Rome and there establishes the primatial see of the Vicar of Christ. That is reason it is in Rome that the apostolic succession is seen most clearly. And for this reason, Rome is called the apostolic See by antonomasia. The First Vatican Council proclaimed, with the words of a prior Council, that of Florence: All the faithful of Christ ought to believe that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff possess the primacy over the whole world, and that the same Roman Pontiff is the successor of Blessed Peter, the prince of the Apostles, and true vicar of Jesus Christ, and head of the whole Church, and father and teacher of all Christians; and that Jesus Christ Our Lord gave him, in the person of blessed Peter, full power to feed, rule and govern the universal Church.

Therefore, adds our founder, we help to make that apostolic continuity more evident in the eyes of everyone, by demonstrating with exquisite fidelity our union with the Pope, which is union with Peter. Love for the Roman Pontiff must be in us a beautiful passion, for in him we see Christ.

All Christians are called to be apostles.

In the Church there is a diversity of ministries, but there is only one aim: the sanctification of men. And in this task all Christians participate in some way, through the character imprinted by the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. We must all feel responsible for this mission of the Church, which is the mission of Christ. He who does not have zeal for the salvation of souls, he who does not strive with all his strength to make the name and doctrine of Christ known and loved, will not understand the apostolicity of the Church.

A passive Christian has failed to understand what Christ wants from all of us. A Christian who goes his own way, unconcerned about the salvation of others, does not love with the heart of Jesus…

Whenever we read the Acts of the Apostles, we are moved by the audacity, the confidence in their mission, and the sacrificed joy of the disciples of Christ. They do not ask for multitudes. Even though the multitudes come, they address themselves to each particular soul, to each person, one by one: Philip, to the Ethiopian (cf. Acts 8: 26-40); Peter, to the centurion Cornelius (cf. Acts 10: 1-48); Paul, to Sergio Paulus (cf. Acts 13: 6-12).

They have learned from the Master. Remember the parable of the labourers who awaited work in the middle of the marketplace of the village? When the owner of the vineyard went out, already late in the day, he found that there were still labourers standing idle. Why do you stand here idle all day? Because no one has hired us (Matt 20: 6-7), they answered. This should not happen in the life of a Christian. No one should be found around him who can assert that he has not heard of Jesus Christ because no one has bothered to tell him…

Every Christian should be an apostle, because God, who does not need anyone, nevertheless needs us. He counts on us to dedicate ourselves to propagating his saving doctrine…

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 a 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…

If by chance you hear offensive words or shouts hurled against the Church, show their loveless authors, with humanity and with charity, that they cannot mistreat a mother in that way. They attack her now with impunity, because her kingdom, which is that of her Master and Founder, is not of this world. While the wheat cries out amongst the straw, while the grain sighs amidst the cockle, while the vessels of mercy lament amongst the vessels of wrath, while the lilies cry amongst the thorns, there will be enemies who say: when will her name perish and die? That is to say: See, there will come a time when they will disappear and there will be no Christians… But when they say this, they themselves of necessity die. And the Church remains. (St Augustine, En. in Ps. , 70, II, 12).

No matter what happens, Christ will not abandon his spouse. The Church triumphant is already with him at the right hand of the Father. And our Christian brothers beckon us to join them there, they who glorify God for this reality which we still see in the clear shadow of faith: the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Fruits of the apostolate ad fidem.

The principal apostolate we Christians must carry out in the world, and the best witness we can give of our faith, is to help bring about a climate of genuine charity within the Church. For who indeed could feel attracted to the Gospel if those who say they preach the Good News do not really love one another, but spend their time attacking one another, spreading slander and quarrelling?

It is all too easy, and very fashionable, to say that you love everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike. But if those who maintain this, ill-treat their brothers in the faith, I don’t see how their behaviour can be anything but ‘pious hypocrisy’. By contrast, when in the Heart of Christ we love those ‘who are children of the same Father, and with us share the same faith and are heirs to the same hope’ (Minucius Felix, Octavius, 31), then our hearts expand and become fired with a longing to bring everyone closer to our Lord. Our apostolic desires have no limit. That is why our Father could say, with a truth backed up by many years of work, that the Work loves especially the apostolate ad fidem… and directs its efforts ad gentes, to the gentiles who are far from Jesus Christ. You know very well, he told us on another occasion, the breadth of vision, the charity that we have always shown with those who do not share our faith, with those who are not inside the one, holy, catholic, apostolic, Roman Church. From the beginning we have regarded these souls as friends and so many times they have been cooperators in our apostolic work.

I have told you before that, when, twenty years ago, we asked the Holy See officially, for the authorization to receive non-Catholics and even non-Christians as Cooperators of our Work, the first answer was a dilata, which was already a recognition of the legitimacy of our petition, although it was a way of telling us we had to wait. In the end, in 1950, came the affirmative answer: the Work was therefore the first institution of the Catholic Church that opened its arms fraternally to all people, without distinction of creed or confession.

We have never rejected anyone, and we have received everyone with the charity of Christ and with a human affection that, often, they have not found even amongst their own people. And they have felt at ease at our side, because they have seen that we respected their freedom, that we hold them in high esteem, that we understand them…

Many souls have come to the fullness of the faith, through this gentle road of charity. Thank God for this, and ask him that we never stifle the action of grace and that we always be good instruments of his. I repeat: never judge rashly, be good friends of everybody, respect others’ freedom and the freedom of grace; and, at the same time, confess your faith with words and with deeds.

The Blessed Virgin will bless us in this work of ours, so that many souls arrive at the true faith in the one Church of Christ.