Through Christ, the Church grows constantly in the new life of grace and is sustained in the hope of one day sharing eternal life with God

At the General Audience of Wednesday, 27 May, the Holy Father continued his catechesis on the Church. In the 34^th talk of the series he spoke of the Church as a prophetic community which gives witness to her hope. Here is the Pope's address, which he gave in Italian.

1. The Church, a witness to the life of Christ and in Christ, as we saw in the previous catechesis, is also a witness of hope: of that Gospel hope which finds its source in Christ. Indeed, in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes Vatican II says of Christ: "The Lord is the goal or human history, ... the centre of mankind, the joy of all hearts and the fulfilment of all [human] aspirations" (Gaudium et spes, n. 45). In this text the Council quotes the words of Paul VI, who said in an address that Christ is "the focal point of the desires of history and civilization" (Address of 3 February 1965). As we see, the hope which the Church witnesses to has vast dimensions; we can even say it is immense.

2. It is primarily a question of hope for eternal life. This hope corresponds to the desire for immortality which the human person has in his heart in virtue of the soul's spiritual nature. The Church preaches that earthly life is the "passing" to another life: to life in God, where "there shall be no more death" (Rv 21:4). Because of Christ, who—as St Paul says —is "the firstborn from the dead" (Col 1:18; cf. 1 Cor 15:20), because of his resurrection, human beings can live in expectation of the eternal life proclaimed and brought by him.

3. It is a question of hope for happiness in God. We are an called to this happiness, as the command of Christ reveals to us: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15). On another occasion Jesus assured his disciples that "in my Father's house there are many dwelling places" (Jn 14:2), and that he was leaving them on earth and going to heaven to "prepare a place for you, ... so that where I am you also may be" (Jn 14:3).

4. It is a question of hope in being with Christ "in the Father's house" after death. The Apostle Paul was full of this hope, to the point of saying, "I long to depart this life and be with Christ", and "that is far better" (Phil 1:23). "We are courageous'', lie also wrote, "and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord" (2 Cor 5:8). Christian hope also assures us that the "exile in the body" will not last and that our hope in the Lord will be fulfilled with the resurrection of the body at the end of the world. Jesus gives us this certitude; he relates it to the Eucharist: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I win raise him on the last day" (Jn 6:54). It is a true and proper resurrection of the body, with the full reintegration of individual persons into the new life of heaven, and not a reincarnation understood as a return to life on the same earth in different bodies. In the revelation which Christ preached and to which the Church gives witness the hope of resurrection is placed in the context of "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rv 21:1), in which the "new life" which men share with the incarnate Word will find its full realization.

5. If the Church gives witness to this hope—hope for eternal life, for the resurrection of the body, for eternal happiness in God—she does so as an echo of the Apostles' teachings especially that of St Paul who said that Christ himself is the source and basis of this hope. "Christ Jesus our hope", the Apostle says (1 Tm 1:1), and he also writes that in Christ "the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past ... has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery ..., it is Christ ... the hope for glory" (Col 1:26-27).

The prophecy of hope, then, is based on Christ, and on him depends the simultaneous growth of "new life" in him and of hope in "eternal life".

6. Although the hope which comes from Christ has its ultimate goal beyond ad temporal limits, it nevertheless permeates the life of Christians in time. St Paul states: "In him [Christ] you also, who have heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God's possession, to the praise of his glory" (Eph 1:13-14). God is actually the one "who gives us security ... in Christ and who anointed us ...; he has also put his seal upon us and given the Spirit in our hearts as a first installment" (2 Cor 1:21-22).

Hope; therefore, is a gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, because of whom the human person even now lives in eternity: he lives in Christ as a sharer in the eternal life which the Son receives from the Father and gives to his disciples (cf. Jn 5:26; 6:54-57; 10:28; 17:2). St Paul says that this is the hope which "does not disappoint" (Rom 5:5), because it draws on the power of God's love which "has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us" (ibid.).

The Church is a witness to this hope. She proclaims it and brings it as a gift to individuals who accept Christ and live in him, and to the whole of mankind and all peoples, to whom she must and wants to make known the "Gospel of the kingdom" (Mt 24:14), according to Christ's will.

7. Even in the face of the difficulties of this life and the painful experiences of misconduct and failure in human history hope is the source of Christian optimism. Certainly, the Church cannot close her eyes to the many kinds of evil in the world. Nevertheless, she knows how to rely on Christ's victorious presence and she inspires her long and patient activity with this certainty, ever mindful of what her Founder declared in his farewell speech to the Apostles: "I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world" (Jn 16:33). From the certainty of this victory of Christ, which expands in history on a profound level, the Church draws that supernatural optimism in looking at the world and at life which the gift of hope translates into action. She is trained by history to resist and to continue in her work as the minister of Christ crucified and risen: but in virtue of the Holy Spirit who she hopes will always bring new spiritual victories, instilling in souls and spreading through the world the Gospel leaven of grace and truth (cf. Jn 16:13). The Church wants to hand on to her members and, as much as possible, to all people, this Christian optimism, born of trust, courage and farsighted perseverance. She makes her own the words of the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Romans: "May the God [the giver] of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Rom 15:13). The God of hope is "the God of endurance and encouragement" (Rom 15:5).

8. In fact, the Church in every age can make her own the memorable words of St Francis Xavier, which were inspired by the grace at work in him: "I do not remember ever having had so many and such continual spiritual consolations, as on these islands (i.e., the Moluccas, where, amidst great difficulties, the missionary saint was preaching the Gospel). I walked at great length on these islands, which were surrounded by enemies and populated with friends who were not exactly sincere, in lands without any remedy for physical illness or any human help in preserving life. Those islands should not be called the 'Islands of the Moor', but the 'islands of hope in God'!" (Epist. S. Francisci Xaverii, in Monumenta Missionum Societatis Iesu, vol. I [Rome, 1944], p. 380).

We can say that the world into which Christ has brought his paschal victory has become, through the power of his redemption, the "island of Divine Hope".