To the Christian Churches and Communities (14 June 1984)

TO THE WORKING COMMUNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Ecumenical Center of Kehrsatz (Bern)
Thursday, June 14, 1984

Dear Mr President, dear Excellency,
brothers and sisters in Christ,

1. "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all in one place" ( Acts 2:1). This is the image that comes to mind as I am able to be with you this morning, sharing in your concerns and hopes and joining you in prayer in the power of the spirit of Pentecost. I thank you, the representatives of Christian churches and communities in this country, for the gift of this meeting; I thank in particular the members of this body who have contributed verbally or in writing to the fruitful exchange of beliefs and concerns.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenly places" ( Eph 1:3), is how the author of the letter to the Ephesians begins his hymn to God's plan of salvation. May this triune God "be glorified through the Church and through Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever" ( Ibid 3:21).

2. You have rightly stressed, Mr President, in agreement with all those present here, the importance of our dialogues on the nature and mission of the Church. We all constantly reflect anew on the profound mystery of the Church and pray without ceasing that the Lord will bring us together in the visible form of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. You, dear Pastor Kuster, have pointed out with your words the growing challenge facing all Christians, namely that large parts of our society are in danger of sinking into pure worldliness and disorientation through the loss of their faith and ethical values. Here we have a great historical responsibility before us, in which no Christian community can remain isolated, but is called to the greatest possible degree of common witness to the Gospel in all areas of life. As disciples of the one Lord Jesus Christ, on the foundation of Holy Scripture and the early creeds, our common heritage, we are obliged to follow this call to the best of our conscience if we do not want to burden ourselves with further guilt.

Dear Mrs. Stucky-Schaller, the issue you have raised also unites us. It is enough to take a look at the Holy Scriptures to see what a great mission women have in God's salvation. In both the Old and New Covenants, God has repeatedly called women to be the instruments of his plan of salvation. He has needed them and needs them today and tomorrow. We must therefore seriously ask ourselves whether women in the Church and society today already occupy the place intended for them by the Creator and Redeemer and whether their dignity and rights are duly recognized. As is well known, these questions are already on the agenda of discussions between our churches; and we can hope that they will lead to a common clarification and formation of opinion.

I would like to raise many other thoughts, answers and questions at this meeting. I am thinking of the joint declaration of the Christian Catholic Church and the Union of Baptist Churches and I also have the "Statement" and the questions of the Salvation Army in mind. I trust that the spirit and concerns of our meeting will be continued in a different way and in ways that are no less promising. Last but not least, my colleagues in Rome are also available for this.

3. The ecumenical community that has grown in Switzerland over the years has begun to bear fruit. God has given your working group the grace to address, since 1971, the questions and requests that concern Christians in this country in an exemplary spirit of brotherhood and reconciliation. You strive openly to recognize the fullness of the truth, in humble listening to the word of God, in fidelity to apostolic tradition and in true solidarity.

We acknowledge with gratitude that Divine Providence has made our divided communities as a whole capable and willing to break down age-old prejudices against one another and to free themselves from the entanglement of certain unjust or even polemical ideas about the other confessions. Moreover, the Divine Spirit urges us to come together again in a full community of witness in truth and love.

4. Is it not the Holy Spirit who works the diversity of gifts and ministries and yet unites the faithful in Christ so intimately that he is the life and unity principle of the Church? ( Unitatis Redintegratio , 2, 2) In all our efforts to understand one another better in the truth, we are referred to the mystery of the Holy Spirit. According to the Scriptures, he is not only at work as the ever new and current "dynamis of God", but also makes present in history the incarnate and exalted Lord Jesus Christ in the form of the servant of his Church. This mystery of faith must be meditated on again and again in humility and venerated in prayer.

Finally, it remains to be added: No one can love righteously unless God has given him the spirit of power and love. Only the power of divine love can break down the barriers within Christianity that have grown over the centuries and that still exist in part; it can transform the rank disputes among Christ's disciples into a noble spiritual rivalry and make us together messengers of his love, "so that the world may believe" ( Io . 17:21).

5. I would like to encourage you to continue and even intensify your theological dialogues in truth and love. I would like to encourage you to strengthen your efforts to promote a common pastoral ministry wherever this can be justified, especially with regard to interfaith marriages and the foreign residents of this country. I would like to call on you to work closely together on socio-political issues and on the great global concerns of the realization of human rights and the commitment to peace. The Spirit of God has enabled us to develop a wide network of Christian charity and in this to fulfill the law ( Rom 13:10). "Let brotherly love endure" ( Heb 13:1).

Let us not be discouraged when we remain exposed to the tension between what has already been achieved and what is desired by all, between longing and patience, that tension which often results from “doing the truth in love” ( Eph 4:15).

First of all, let us do the most important thing: let us pray without ceasing ( Luke 18:1). I would like to invite you now to join in prayer together, from which everything must begin and into which everything must flow for the greater glory of God and the salvation of the world.

© Copyright 1984 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana