The Church of Mercy by Pope Francis Read Free Book Online

solely beneath the shadow of our steeple; rather, she embraces a vast number of peoples and nations who profess the same faith, are nourished by the same Eucharist, and are served by the same pastors. To feel that we are in communion with the whole Church, with all of the Catholic communities of the world great and small—this is beautiful! And then, to feel we are all on a mission, great and small communities alike, that we all must open our doors and go out for the sake of the Gospel. Let us ask ourselves, then, what do I do in order to communicate to others the joy of encountering the Lord, the joy of belonging to the Church? Proclaiming and bearing witness to the faith is not the work of the few; it also concerns me, you, each one of us!
    A third and final thought: the Church is catholic because she is the “home of harmony,” where
unity and diversity
know how to merge in order to become a great source of wealth. Let us think about the image of a symphony, which implies accord, harmony, various instruments playing together. Each one preserves its own unmistakable timbre, and the sounds characteristic of each blend together around a common theme. Then there is the one who directs it, the conductor, and as the symphony is performed all play together in harmony, but the timbre of each individual instrument is never eliminated; indeed, the uniqueness of each is greatly enhanced!
    This is a beautiful image illustrating that the Church is like a great orchestra in which there is great variety. We are not all the same, and we do not all have to be the same. We are all different, varied, each of us with our own special qualities. And this is the beauty of the Church: everyone brings their own gifts, which God has given, for the sake of enriching others. And between the various components there is diversity; however, it is a diversity that does not enter into conflict and opposition. It is a variety that allows the Holy Spirit to blend it into harmony. He is the true “Maestro.” He is harmony. And here let us ask ourselves: In our communities do we live in harmony or do we argue among ourselves? In my parish community, in my movement, in the place where I am part of the Church, is there gossip? If there is gossip, there is no harmony but rather conflict. And this is not the Church. The Church is everyone in harmony—never gossip about others, never argue! Let us accept others; let us accept that there is a fitting variety, that this person is different, that this person thinks about things in this way or that—that within one and the same faith we can think about things differently. Or do we tend to make everything uniform? But uniformity kills life. The life of the Church is variety, and when we want to impose this uniformity on everyone, we kill the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
    Let us pray to the Holy Spirit, who is truly the author of this unity in variety, of this harmony, that he might make us ever more “catholic” in this Church that is catholic and universal!

10
Sent to Bring the Gospel to All the World
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General Audience, 16 October 2013
    When we recite the Creed, we say, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” I don’t know if you have ever reflected on the meaning of the expression “the Church is apostolic.” Perhaps from time to time, coming to Rome, you have thought about the importance of the apostles Peter and Paul, who here gave their lives to bring and bear witness to the Gospel.
    But it is even more. To profess that the Church is apostolic means to stress the constitutive bond that she has with the apostles, with that small group of twelve men whom Jesus one day called to himself; he called them by name, that they might remain with him and that he might send them out to preach (see Mark 3:13–19).
Apostle
, in fact, is a Greek word meaning “sent,” “dispatched.” An apostle is a person who has been given a mandate, sent to do something, and the apostles were chosen,