The People of God have a share in the prophetic office of Christ in which they give witness to him through a life of faith and charity

At the General Audience of Wednesday, 13 May, the Holy Father continued his weekly catechesis on the Church. Having finished his discussion of the Church as a priestly people, he turned his attention to the prophetic nature of the ecclesial community. Here is the Holy Father's address, which he gave in Italian.

1. In the previous catecheses we have spoken of the Church as a "sacred and organic ... priestly community" which "is brought into operation through the sacraments and the exercise of virtues" (Lumen gentium, n. 11). It was a commentary on the conciliar Constitution Lumen gentium devoted to the identity of the Church (Lumen gentium, n. 11). But in the same Constitution we read: "The holy People of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office [mucus]; it spreads abroad a living witness to him, especially by a life of faith and love and by offering to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips praising his name (cf. Heb 13:15)" (Lumen gentium, n. 12). According to the Council, then, the Church has a prophetic character as sharing in the same prophetic office of Christ. We will discuss this character in today's catechesis and in the ones following, as we continue in the path laid out by the Dogmatic Constitution just cited, in which the Council explains this doctrine more explicitly (Lumen gentium, n. 12).

Today we will consider the presuppositions on which the Church's witness of faith is based.

2. The Council's text, in presenting the Church as a "prophetic community", highlights this feature in relation to the function of "witnessing", for the sake of which she was desired and founded by Jesus. Indeed, the Council says that the Church "spreads abroad a living witness to Christ". The reference to Christ's words in the New Testament is obvious: primarily to words the risen Lord addressed to the Apostles which are recorded in Acts: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). With these words Jesus calls attention to the fact that the act of giving witness, which is the particular duty of the Apostles, depends on the sending of the Holy Spirit whom he promised and who came on the day of Pentecost. In the power of the Paraclete, who is the Spirit of truth, the witness to Christ crucified and risen becomes a duty and responsibility for the other disciples, particularly the women who were present with Christ's Mother in the Upper Room in Jerusalem as members of the very first ecclesial community. The women, indeed, were already privileged, because they were the first to bring the message and were witnesses to Christ's resurrection (cf. Mt 28: 1-10).

Apostles were first to respond with faith

3. When Jesus says to the Apostles: "You will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8), he is speaking of the witness of faith which will certainly be fulfilled in them in a special way. They, in fact, were eyewitnesses of Christ's works, and they heard with their own ears the words he spoke; they received directly from him the truths of divine Revelation. They were the first to respond with faith to what they saw and heard. This is what Simon Peter did when, in the name of the Twelve, he professed that Jesus is "the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16). And another time, near Capernaum, when some began to leave Jesus after he announced the mystery of the Eucharist, Simon Peter also did not hesitate to say: "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God" (Jn 6:68-69).

4. The Apostles’ particular witness of faith was a "gift from above" (cf. Jas 1: 17). This was true not only of the Apostles, but also of those who at that time and later were to hand on their testimony. Jesus said to them: "The mystery of the kingdom of God has been Granted to you" (Mk 4: 11). And, looking ahead to a critical moment, he gave Peter this assurance: "I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers" (Lk 22:32).

So, on the basis of these significant passages in the New Testament, we can say that, if the Church, as the People of God, shares in Christ's prophetic office by spreading abroad a living witness to him, as we read in the Council (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 12), then this witness of faith on the Church's part finds its basis and support in the witness of the Apostles. This testimony is primordial and fundamental for the prophetic office of the entire People of God.

5. In another conciliar Constitution Dei Verbum, we read that the Apostles "handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received—whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit". But others too, along with the Twelve, fulfilled the command of Christ about giving the witness of faith in the Gospel: that is, "those Apostles [like Paul] and other men associated with the Apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing" (Del Verbum, n. 7). "What was handed on by the Apostles comprises everything that serves to make the People of God live their lives in holiness and doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes" (Del Verbum, n. 8).

Holy Spirit guides Church to fulness of truth

As we see, according to the Council there is a close connection between the Church, the Apostles, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit—and the continuity between the Christological mystery and the apostolic and ecclesial institution: a mystery which includes the continuous presence and activity of the Holy Spirit.

6. It is precisely in the Constitution on Divine Revelation that the Council formulates the truth about Tradition through which the apostolic witness continues in the Church as a witness of faith on the part of the whole People of God. "The Tradition that comes from the Apostles makes progress in the Church, with the help of the Holy Spirit. There is a growth in insight into the realities and words that are being passed on. This comes about in various ways. It comes through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts (cf Lk 2:19, 51). It comes from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which they experience. And it comes from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the Episcopate, the sure charism of truth. Thus as the centuries go by, the Church is always advancing towards the plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her" (Del Verbum n. 8).

According to the Council, then, this advance towards the fulness of divine truth under the protection of the Spirit of truth is fulfilled through insight, experience (i.e., a vivid sense of spiritual realities), and teaching (cf. Dei Verbum, n. 10).

In this regard, too, Mary is a model for the Church, because she was the first to "keep all these things, reflecting on them in her heart" (Lk 2:19, 51).

7. Under the Holy Spirit's influence the community professes its faith and applies the truth of faith to daily life. On the one hand there is the whole Church's effort to gain a better understanding of Revelation, the object of faith: a systematic study of Scripture and continuous reflection or meditation on the profound significance and value of God's word. On the other hand, in her own life the Church gives the witness of her faith showing the consequences and implications of revealed doctrine and the superior value which human conduct derives from it. By teaching the precepts promulgated by Christ, she follows the way he opened and shows the excellence of the Gospel message.

The Holy Spirit gives believers a 'sensus fidei'

Every Christian must "acknowledge Christ before others" (cf. Mt 10:32) in union with the whole Church and maintain "good conduct" among non-believers, so that they may arrive at faith (cf. 1 Pt 2:12).

8. In these ways indicated by the Council, that "sense of faith", by which the People of God share in the prophetic office of Christ, is developed and passed on, through the "community" witness of the Church. We read in Lumen gentium: "By this appreciation of the faith, aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the People of God, guided by the sacred Magisterium and obeying it, receives not the mere word of men, but truly the word of God (cf. 1 Thes 2:13) the faith once for all delivered to the saints (cf. Jude 3). The people unfailingly adheres to this faith, penetrates it more deeply with right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life" (Lumen gentium, n. 12).

The Council text highlights the fact that "this appreciation of the faith is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth". Because of this "sense", in which the divine "anointing" bears fruit, "the People of God, guided by the sacred Magisterium, ... unfailingly adheres to this faith" (Lumen gentium, n. 12). "The whole body of the faithful who have an anointing that comes from the holy one (cf. 1 Jn 2:20, 27) cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of the faith [senses fidei ] of the whole people when, 'from the Bishops to the last of the faithful' they manifest a universal consent of faith and morals" (Lumen gentium, n. 12).

It should be noted that a clear consequence of the conciliar text is that this "consent in faith and morals" does not derive from a referendum or plebiscite. It can only be understood properly to the extent that one continues to remember Christ's words: "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike" (Mt 11:25).