Holiness & Mission

Here is an excerpt from a July 4 address of Pope Benedict to the Church in Brindisi. His comments on the Church and the integral connection between holiness and mission are refreshing to hear.

The Church in essence, like Christ and together with him, is called and sent out to establish the Kingdom of life and to drive out the dominion of death so that the life of God may triumph in the world; so that God who is Love may triumph....

The Church in Christ then is the place in which to accept and mediate God's love. In this perspective it is clear that the Church's holiness and missionary character are two sides of the same coin: only because she is holy, that is, filled with divine love, can the Church carry out her mission, and it is precisely in terms of this task that God chose her and sanctified her as his property. Our first duty, therefore, precisely in order to heal this world, is to be holy, configured to God; in this way we emanate a healing and transforming power that also acts on others, on history....

The Church is the community of sinners who believe in God's love, letting themselves be transformed by him and thus become holy, sanctifying the world.  

Enlivened by the hope in which you have been saved, may you too, brothers and sisters of this ancient Church of Brindisi, be signs and instruments of the compassion and mercy of Christ. To the Archbishop and priests I fervently repeat the words of the divine Teacher: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without pay, give without pay" (Mt 10: 8). This mandate is once again addressed in the first place to you today. The Spirit who acted in Christ and in the Twelve, is the same as the One who works in you and enables you to perform among your people, in this territory, signs of the Kingdom of love, justice and peace that is coming, indeed, that is already in the world.

I love the part about the Church being the “community of sinners who believe in God’s love.”  I pray that we and all the Church would rediscover our calling as “a people set apart – called to declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (see 1 Peter 2)

Any comments?

Personally, his final statement “the Spirit who acted in Christ and in the Twelve, is the same as the One who works in you” is a wonderful reminder that the same Holy Spirit abides in us and empowers us to “heal the sick, etc.”  Bill Johnson repeated this theme (see Podcast 47 at http://christlife.libsyn.com) when he said, “Do you not realize that the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead dwells in you?!” (see Romans 8:11).  What a wonderful wake up call to the reality of all those who are baptized into Christ.