Register Summary

Pope Benedict XVI met with 50,000 people in St. Peter’s Square during his general audience on March 29. He continued his catechesis on the relationship between Christ and the Church, stressing the importance of the Church as Christ’s instrument of love that bonds Christ to mankind and unites those who believe in him.

“Through the apostolic ministry,” the Holy Father said, “the Church will live throughout the ages, building and nourishing the communion in Christ and in the Spirit to which everyone is called and in which everyone can experience the Father’s gift of salvation.” The Church, he emphasized, is a reflection of the communion of the blessed Trinity itself.

Pope Benedict then explained how the Gospel of John highlights this idea of communion as sharing in the life of the blessed Trinity.

“The communion of love that binds the Son to the Father and to mankind is, at the same time, the model and source of the fraternal communion that must unite the disciples among themselves,” he noted. “During the time of their pilgrimage on earth, through their communion with the Son, the disciples are already able to share in the divine life of Jesus and the Father.”

The Holy Father added that “this life of communion, both with God and among ourselves, is the ultimate goal of the proclamation of the Gospel and the goal of conversion to Christianity.”

Pope Benedict XVI concluded by emphasizing the importance of the Eucharist: “In the Eucharist, Jesus nourishes us and unites us to himself, to the Father, to the Holy Spirit and among ourselves, and this network of unity that embraces the world is an anticipation in our time of the world to come.”

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Through the apostolic ministry, the Church — the community that the Son of God made man gathered together — will live throughout the ages, building and nourishing the communion in Christ and in the Spirit to which everyone is called and in which everyone can experience the Father’s gift of salvation. As Pope Clement, the third successor of Peter, said at the end of the first century, the Twelve Apostles were careful to provide successors (see 1 Clement 42, 4) so that the mission entrusted to them would continue after their death. So, throughout the centuries, the Church, organically structured under the guidance of her legitimate shepherds, has continued to live in the world as a mystery of communion, which, in some way, reflects the very communion of the Trinity — the mystery of God himself.

_{Reflection of the Trinity}

The Apostle Paul alluded to this supreme Trinitarian source when he expressed the following wish for his Christians: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship [or communion] of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Corinthians 13:13). These words — probably an echo of the early Church’s worship — show that the free gift of the Father’s love in Jesus Christ is fulfilled and expressed in the communion that the Holy Spirit has brought about. This interpretation, based on the close parallelism between the three possessives in the text (“the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ … the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”), presents this “fellowship” [or “communion”] as a gift characteristic of the Spirit, the fruit of the love that God the Father gives and of the grace that the Lord Jesus offers.

Moreover, the immediate context, which is characterized by an emphasis on fraternal communion, leads us to see in the koinonia of the Holy Spirit not only a “sharing” in the divine life in an individual way — as if each person were on his own — but also, in consequence, the “communion” among believers that the Spirit himself enkindles as its author and principal agent (see Philippians 2:1). It could be maintained that grace, love and communion, which are associated with Christ, the Father and the Spirit respectively, are different aspects of the one divine action for our salvation, an action that creates the Church and that makes the Church, as St. Cyprian said in the third century, “a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (De Oratione Dominica, 23: PL 4, 536, quoted in Lumen Gentium, 4).

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The idea of communion as sharing in the Trinitarian life is strongly highlighted in the Gospel of John, where the communion of love that binds the Son to the Father and to mankind is, at the same time, the model and source of the fraternal communion that must unite the disciples among themselves: “Love one another as I love you” (John 15:12; see John 13:34) and “so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:21, 22). So, it is the communion of mankind with the Trinitarian God and a communion of people among themselves. During the time of their pilgrimage on earth, through their communion with the Son, the disciples are already able to share in the divine life of Jesus and the Father: “For our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

This life of communion, both with God and among ourselves, is the ultimate goal of the proclamation of the Gospel and the goal of conversion to Christianity: “What we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us” (1 John 1:3). Therefore, this twofold communion with God and with each other is inseparable. Wherever communion with God is destroyed, which is communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the root and source of communion among us is also destroyed. Moreover, wherever communion among ourselves is not being lived out, communion with the Trinitarian God cannot be alive and true, as we have heard.

_{The Eucharistic Bread}

Let us now take a further step. Communion — the fruit of the Holy Spirit — is nourished by the Eucharistic bread (see 1 Corinthians 10:16-17) and is expressed through fraternal relationships in a sort of anticipation of the world to come. In the Eucharist, Jesus nourishes us and unites us to himself, to the Father, to the Holy Spirit and among ourselves, and this network of unity that embraces the world is an anticipation in our time of the world to come. Given the fact that it is an anticipation of the world to come, communion is a gift that also has some very real consequences: It forces us out of our isolation and from being closed in on ourselves, and allows us to share in the love that unites us to God and with each other. It is easy to understand what a great gift this is if we only think of the divisions and conflicts that afflict relationships between individuals, groups and entire nations. Unless there is the gift of unity in the Holy Spirit, the division of mankind is inevitable.

Truly, “communion” is the good news; it is the remedy the Lord has given us for the loneliness that threatens everyone today, the precious gift that makes us feel welcomed and loved in God, in the unity of his people gathered together in the name of the Trinity. It is the light that makes the Church shine forth as a sign lifted up among the nations: “If we say, ‘We have fellowship with him,’ while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:6-7).

In this way, the Church reveals herself to be, despite all the human weaknesses that are part of her historical makeup, a wondrous creation of love, created to make Christ available until the end of time to every man and woman who truly wishes to encounter him. In the Church, the Lord continues to be our contemporary. Scripture is not something of the past. The Lord does not speak in the past, but speaks in the present. He is speaking to us today. He gives us light, shows us the way to life, provides us with fellowship and, in this way, prepares us for peace and opens us up to this peace.

(Register translation)