These thoughts are not new

Pope Francis' message is an echo of the message of the Old Testament prophets. Below is a description of their message from Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 6, p.316.

If the Messiah of the final times is to establish on earth the divine justice which is based on God's grace, and if this deed essentially affects those without rights, the oppressed, who cannot help themselves, then the 'poor man' moves more strongly than before into the center of attention. The poverty of the population of the land, who were shamelessly exploited in the time of Amos and Isaiah and the newly founded Royal system of government, was seen by the prophets both as a scandal of economics and ethics and as a scandal in terms of covenant theology. Poverty as such is not a value, should not be, and must at all costs be abolished. It humiliates the human person to the status of a needy beggar, to one who is bowed down, thin, physically and intellectually weak, one who is absolutely poor. Job describes how the poor are naked and hungry at night, like beasts in the fields and in the vineyards of the rich were they look for food – and it is these same rich people who have stolen their fields and garments. (24:2-12) Deuteronomy thinks of these poor when laying down the law, and the wisdom teachers warned against turning away one's eyes from them, lest their curse follow the one who is well fed (Sir 5)

Preference for the Poor

We, the Church, what should we be?

We the transmitters of the faith, how should we act?

To whom do we give the message?





 V. A Mother With An Open Heart

46. A Church which “goes forth” is a Church whose doors are open.  .... At times we have to be like the father of the prodigal son, who always keeps his door open so that when the son returns, he can readily pass through it.

 47. The Church is called to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open ... so that if someone, moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door. There are other doors that should not be closed either. .... This is especially true of the sacrament which is itself “the door”: baptism. The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak … Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems.

48. If the whole Church takes up this missionary impulse, she has to go forth to everyone without exception. But to whom should she go first? When we read the Gospel we find a clear indication: not so much our friends and wealthy neighbours, but above all the poor and the sick, those who are usually despised and overlooked, “those who cannot repay you” (Lk 14:14). There can be no room for doubt or for explanations which weaken so clear a message. Today and always, “the poor are the privileged recipients of the Gospel”, and the fact that it is freely preached to them is a sign of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. May we never abandon them.

49. Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. … I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. … If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).

And so ...

45. We see then that the task of evangelization operates within the limits of language and of circumstances. It constantly seeks to communicate more effectively the truth of the Gospel in a specific context, without renouncing the truth, the goodness and the light which it can bring whenever perfection is not possible. A missionary heart is aware of these limits and makes itself “weak with the weak... everything for everyone” (1 Cor 9:22). It never closes itself off, never retreats into its own security, never opts for rigidity and defensiveness. It realizes that it has to grow in its own understanding of the Gospel and in discerning the paths of the Spirit, and so it al ways does what good it can, even if in the process, its shoes get soiled by the mud of the street

Receiving the Good News

The following paragraphs, under the section of Evangelii Gaudium entitled "FROM THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL", express an appreciation for the nuances in proclaiming the Gospel that may exist across cultural boundaries and across the centuries of the Church's organic growth. Of course the Church, in her task of preserving and passing on of the Faith, has at times been overly protective. Vatican II went some distance in opening the faithful to a personal exploration of the Gospel. Pope Francis suggests that while maintaining a respect for the essence of the Gospel, it must be expressed with language understood by the listener, related to their life experiences and we must "complement one another in our partial reception of reality and the Gospel".

40. ... Within the Church countless issues are being studied and reflected upon with great freedom. Differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology and pastoral practice, if open to being reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can enable the Church to grow, since all of them help to express more clearly the immense riches of God’s word. For those who long for a monolithic body of doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance, this might appear as undesirable and leading to confusion. But in fact such variety serves to bring out and develop different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel.


41. At the same time, today’s vast and rapid cultural changes demand that we constantly seek ways of expressing unchanging truths in a language which brings out their abiding newness. “The deposit of the faith is one thing... the way it is expressed is another”. There are times when the faithful, in listening to completely orthodox language, take away something alien to the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ, because that language is alien to their own way of speaking to and understanding one another. With the holy intent of communicating the truth about God and humanity, we sometimes give them a false god or a human ideal which is not really Christian. In this way, we hold fast to a formulation while failing to convey its substance. This is the greatest danger. Let us never forget that “the expression of truth can take different forms ....

42. All of this has great relevance for the preaching of the Gospel, if we are really concerned to make its beauty more clearly recognized and accepted by all. Of course, we will never be able to make the Church’s teachings easily understood or readily appreciated by everyone. Faith always remains something of a cross; it retains a certain obscurity which does not detract from the firmness of its assent. ... We need to remember that all religious teaching ultimately has to be reflected in the teacher’s way of life, which awakens the assent of the heart by its nearness, love and witness.

43. In her ongoing discernment, the Church can also come to see that certain customs not directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even some which have deep historical roots, are no longer properly understood and appreciated. Some of these customs may be beautiful, but they no longer serve as means of communicating the Gospel. We should not be afraid to re-examine them. At the same time, the Church has rules or precepts which may have been quite effective in their time, but no longer have the same usefulness for directing and shaping people’s lives. Saint Thomas Aquinas pointed out that the precepts which Christ and the apostles gave to the people of God “are very few”. Citing Saint Augustine, he noted that the precepts subsequently enjoined by the Church should be insisted upon with moderation “so as not to burden the lives of the faithful” and make our religion a form of servitude, whereas “God’s mercy has willed that we should be free”. This warning, issued many centuries ago, is most timely today. It ought to be one of the criteria to be taken into account in considering a reform of the Church and her preaching which would enable it to reach everyone.

44. Saint Thomas Aquinas noted that the multiplicity and variety “were the intention of the first agent”, who wished that “what each individual thing lacked in order to reflect the divine goodness would be made up for by other things”… Consequently, we need to grasp the variety of things in their multiple relationships. By analogy, we need to listen to and complement one another in our partial reception of reality and the Gospel.

Receiving the Eucharist

1.   

            I was introduced to this quote from a sermon by St. Augustine a couple of years ago by someone I had the pleasure of working with in the RCIA at St. Michael's Church in Wheaton. It brings reception of the Eucharist into focus.

      What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the Body of Christ and the chalice the Blood of Christ. ... How is the bread His Body? And the chalice, or what is in the chalice, how is it His Blood? Those elements, brethren, are called Sacraments, because in them one thing is seen, but another is understood. What is seen is the corporeal species, but what is understood is the spiritual fruit. ... `You, however, are the Body of Christ and His members.' If, therefore, you are the Body of Christ and His members, your mystery is presented at the table of the Lord, you receive your mystery. To that which you are, you answer: `Amen'; and by answering, you subscribe to it. For you hear: `The Body of Christ!' and you answer: `Amen!' Be a member of Christ's Body, so that your `Amen' may be the truth.                                                                                 St.Augustine, Sermon 272

     "Be a member of Christ's Body." A recent reading amplified the meaning of that phrase. 

      

      When we do not intend to become the Eucharist for others, when we do not intend to become daily bread for another person, when we have no intention of giving ourselves totally and breaking our bodies and pouring out our blood for the salvation of this world, then the Eucharist is reduced to a mere sentimental, empty action. The bread of life becomes the appetizer for empathy.

Indeed, if we do not intend to become what we receive, we would do well to absent ourselves from communion." from Living the Lord's Prayer by Albert Haase, O.F.M.

I personally found this way of expressing the meaning of the Eucharist quite intimidating.

Advice for all Evangelizers

From Evangelli Gaudium

38. ... it needs to be said that in preaching the Gospel a fitting sense of proportion has to be maintained. This would be seen in the frequency with which certain themes are brought up and in the emphasis given to them in preaching. For example, if in the course of the liturgical year a parish priest speaks about temperance ten times but only mentions charity or justice two or three times, an imbalance results, and precisely those virtues which ought to be most present in preaching and catechesis are overlooked. The same thing happens when we speak more about law than about grace, more about the Church than about Christ, more about the Pope than about God’s word.

39. When preaching is faithful to the Gospel, the centrality of certain truths is evident and it becomes clear that Christian morality is not a form of stoicism, or self-denial, or merely a practical philosophy or a catalogue of sins and faults. Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others. Under no circumstance can this invitation be obscured! All of the virtues are at the service of this response of love. If this invitation does not radiate forcefully and attractively, the edifice of the Church’s moral teaching risks becoming a house of cards, and this is our greatest risk. It would mean that it is not the Gospel which is being preached, but certain doctrinal or moral points based on specific ideological options. The message will run the risk of losing its freshness and will cease to have “the fragrance of the Gospel”.

Fears of Misunderstanding

The kindness of our new Pope is evident in his description of media reportage as "occasionally biased". In paragraph 34 the Pope discusses the fear that more orthodox Catholics might have regarding his presentation of the Faith. They fear that his more compassionate and inclusive approach to those who practice behaviors that are not consistent with Catholic beliefs might be conceived as an acceptance of such behaviors. He realizes this may be a problem, but he has full confidence in " what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing" in the Gospel message and in our ability to convey it.. "The message is simplified, while losing none of its depth and truth, and thus becomes all the more forceful and convincing." Our challenge in conveying the message is that we need not just a knowledge of the Faith, but a natural expression of it born of its full integration into our daily lives.

From Evangelii Gaudium 
34. In today’s world of instant communication and occasionally biased media coverage, the message we preach runs a greater risk of being distorted or reduced to some of its secondary aspects. In this way certain issues which are part of the Church’s moral teaching are taken out of the context which gives them their meaning.  ... We need to be realistic and not assume that our audience understands the full background to what we are saying or is capable of relating what we say to the very heart of the Gospel which gives it meaning, beauty and attractiveness.


35. Pastoral ministry in a missionary style is not obsessed with the disjointed transmission of a multitude of doctrines to be insistently imposed.  ... the message has to concentrate on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary. The message is simplified, while losing none of its depth and truth, and thus becomes all the more forceful and convincing.

36. All revealed truths derive from the same divine source and are to be believed with the same faith, yet some of them are more important for giving direct expression to the heart of the Gospel. ... In this sense, the Second Vatican Council explained, “in Catholic doctrine there exists an order or a ‘hierarchy’ of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian faith”. This holds true as much for the dogmas of faith as for the whole corpus of the Church’s teaching, including her moral teaching.