Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received pilgrims and visitors in St Peter's Square on
Wednesday morning for his weekly General Audience. In his catechetical remarks, the
Holy Father concentrated on the image of the Church as living temple and People of
God. Below, please find Vatican Radio's translation of his remarks. Listen:
Today I would like briefly to refer to one more picture
that helps us to illustrate the mystery of the Church: that of the temple (cf. Lumen
Gentium, 6).
What does the word, ‘temple’ call to mind? It makes us think of
a building, a construction. In particular, it recalls to many minds the history of
the People of Israel narrated in the Old Testament. In Jerusalem, the great Temple
of Solomon was the locus of the encounter with God in prayer. Within the Temple was
the Ark of the Covenant, a sign of God's presence among the people, and inside the
Ark were the Tablets of the Law, the manna and the rod of Aaron, a reminder that God
had always been in the history of his people, had always been with them on their journey,
always directed their stride – and the Temple recalls this story. We, too, when we
go to the temple, must remember this story – my story – the story of each one of us
– of how Jesus encountered me, of how he walked with me, how Jesus loves and blesses
me.
That, which was prefigured in the ancient Temple, is realized in the Church,
by the power of the Holy Spirit: the Church is the “house of God”, the place of His
presence, where we can find and meet the Lord, the Church is the temple in which dwells
the Holy Spirit, who animates, guides and sustains her. If we ask ourselves, “Where
we can meet God? Where can we enter into communion with Him through Christ? Where
can we find the light of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our lives?” the answer is, “in
the People of God, among us, for we are Church – among us, within the People of God,
in the Church – there we shall meet Jesus, we shall meet the Holy Spirit, we shall
meet the Father.
The ancient temple was built by the hands of men: they wanted
to “give a home” to God, to have a visible sign of His presence among the people.
With the Incarnation of the Son of God, the prophecy of Nathan to King David is fulfilled
(cf. 2 Sam 7.1 to 29): it is not the king, it is not we, who are to “give a home to
God,” but God Himself who “builds his house” to come and dwell among us, as St. John
writes in the Prologue of his Gospel (cf. 1:14). Christ is the living Temple of the
Father, and Christ himself builds His “spiritual home”, the Church, made not of stone
materials, but of “living stones” – of us, our very selves. The Apostle Paul says
to the Christians of Ephesus: you are “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: in whom all the building,
being framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord.(Eph 2:20-22)” How
beautiful this is! We are the living stones of God, profoundly united to Christ, who
is the rock of support, and among ourselves. What then, does this mean? It means that
we are the Temple – the Church, but, us, living – we are Church, we are [the] living
temple, and within us, when we are together, there is the Holy Spirit, who helps us
grow as Church. We are not isolated, we are People of God – and this is the Church:
People of God.
It is, moreover, the Holy Spirit with His gifts, who designs
the variety – and this is important – what does the Holy Spirit do in our midst? He
designs the variety – the variety, which is the richness of the Church and unites
everything and everyone, so as to constitute a spiritual temple, in which we offer
not material sacrifices, but us ourselves, our life (cf. 1 Pt 2:4-5). The Church is
not a weave of things and interests, it is rather the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the
Temple in which God works, the Temple in which each of us with the gift of Baptism
is living stone. This tells us that no one is useless in the Church – no on is useless
in the Church! – and should anyone chance to say, some one of you, “Get home with
you, you’re useless!” that is not true. No one is useless in the Church. We are all
needed in order to build this temple. No one is secondary: “Ah, I am the most important
one in the Church!” No! We are all equal in the eyes of God. But, one of you might
say, “Mr. Pope, sir, you are not equal to us.” But I am just like each of you. We
are all equal. We are all brothers and sisters. No one is anonymous: all form and
build the Church. Nevertheless, it also invites us to reflect on the fact that the
Temple wants the brick of our Christian life, that something is wanting in the beauty
of the Church.
So I would like for us to ask ourselves: how do we live our
being Church? We are living stones? Are we rather, so to speak, tired stones, bored,
indifferent? Have any of you ever noticed how ugly a tired, bored, indifferent Christian
is? It’s an ugly sight. A Christian has to be lively, joyous, he has to live this
beautiful thing that is the People of God, the Church. Do we open ourselves to the
Holy Spirit, so as to be an active part of our communities, or do we close in on ourselves,
saying, “I have so many things to do, that’s not my job.”?
May the Lord grant
us His grace, His strength, so that we can be deeply united to Christ, the cornerstone,
stone of support for all of our lives and the life of the Church. Let us pray that,
animated by His Spirit, we might always be living stones of the Church.