The Church of Mercy by Pope Francis Read Free Book Online Page B

the Church on her journey through the centuries—despite the difficulties, the problems, the weaknesses, our sins—that transmits to us the authentic message of Christ? That she gives us the certainty that what we believe in is really what Christ communicated to us?
    3. My final thought: the Church is apostolic because she
is sent to bring the Gospel to all the world
. She continues in history the mission that Jesus entrusted to the apostles: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt. 28:19–20). This is what Jesus told us to do! I insist on this missionary aspect, because Christ invites all to “go out” and encounter others; he sends us, he asks us to move in order to spread the joy of the Gospel! Once again let us ask ourselves: Are we missionaries by our words, and especially by our Christian life, by our witness? Or are we Christians closed in our hearts and in our churches—sacristy Christians? Are we Christians in name only, who live like pagans? We must ask ourselves these questions, which are not a rebuke. I ask myself as well: What kind of Christian am I? Is my witness true?
    The Church’s roots are in the teaching of the apostles, the authentic witnesses of Christ, but she looks to the future, she has the firm consciousness of being sent—sent by Jesus—of being missionary, bearing the name of Jesus by her prayer, proclaiming it and testifying to it. A Church that is closed in on herself and in the past, a Church that only sees the little rules of behavior, of attitude, is a Church that betrays her own identity; a closed Church betrays her own identity! Then, let us rediscover today all the beauty and responsibility of being the Church apostolic! And remember this: the Church is apostolic because we pray—our first duty—and because we proclaim the Gospel by our life and by our words.

PART THREE
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Listening to the Spirit

11
Be Guided by the Holy Spirit
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General Audience, 15 May 2013
    Now I would like to reflect on the Holy Spirit’s action in guiding the Church and each one of us to the Truth. Jesus himself told his disciples that the Holy Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13), since he himself is “the Spirit of Truth” (see John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13).
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    The truth is not a possession; it is an encounter with a Person.
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    We are living in an age in which people are rather skeptical of truth. Benedict XVI has frequently spoken of relativism, that is, of the tendency to consider nothing definitive and to think that truth comes from consensus or from something we like. The question arises: Does
the
truth really exist? What is
the
truth? Can we know it? Can we find it? Here springs to my mind the question of Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator, when Jesus reveals to him the deep meaning of his mission: “What is truth?” (John 18:37, 38). Pilate cannot understand that the truth is standing in front of him; he cannot see in Jesus the face of the truth that is the face of God. And yet Jesus is exactly this: the Truth that, in the fullness of time, “became flesh” (see John 1:1, 14) and came to dwell among us so that we might know it. The truth is not grasped as a thing; the truth is encountered. It is not a possession; it is an encounter with a Person.
    But who can enable us to recognize that Jesus is the Word of Truth, the only begotten Son of God the Father? St. Paul teaches that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). It is the Holy Spirit himself, the gift of the risen Christ, who makes us recognize the Truth. Jesus describes him as the “Paraclete,” namely, “the one who comes to our aid,” who is beside us to sustain us on this journey of knowledge. And at the Last Supper, Jesus assures the disciples