New communities are a living sign of the holy spirit continues to work in the Church and to cheer her up
Don Berna, Auxiliary Bishop of São Paulo-photo: Yamin
On this day, 26 November, on the occasion of the Holy Mass in the retreat with the “new communities”, Bishop Berna, Auxiliary Bishop of São Paulo, in his homily mused about the joy to celebrate the Eucharist, to celebrate communion with the Lord in community and as the “new communities” must and can contribute with this ecclesial communion and the new evangelization.
Check out the central ideas of the homily this Saturday:
“What a joy when I heard that I was told …” (Psalm 121)
We say, as the Psalmist of that time: “what a joy we’re here to celebrate the Eucharist.” A church community is not because two or three people get together and say: now we want to form a community.A new community is not born of someone. A new community is not born from the initiative of some group. This is not the basis. It is not a result of chance or of a human will. A new community is born of the Holy Spirit.
A founder is the one who feels the call of the Holy Spirit in his intimate and docility go corresponding to this special appeal and infecting others. It’s always the spirit that takes the initiative to attract more people to the vocation. A founder doesn’t have to worry if your community will have new vocations. Who sows is the Holy Spirit, who calls is the Lord himself.
New communities, living sign of the action of the Holy Spirit
New communities are a living sign of the holy spirit continues to work in the Church and to encourage her. They are that spring, that new freshness in the Church, as St. John Paul II said, but will only be a spring assuming its place in the Church. Not a ghetto, not as a place apart, but assuming their role, respecting the other ecclesial realities, in dioceses, parishes, without closing itself. All closure produces only death.
God wanted the Church to gather her all her children in the only begotten son, Jesus Christ, and so continue the mission to announce the Gospel. The Church has always been desired by God and the Church is a place of apostolate.
Many new communities have been born and have died. Have appeared and have now disappeared. The closure causes death. In the Church, new communities are not an undesirable mutation, are not a disposable reality. They are expected and necessary, and on the action of the Holy Spirit, must bear witness to the Gospel in the world. They have their place and their function. The spirit does not act at the closing. The Holy Spirit cannot be part of a project like this.
We are called to be part of the family of God and within this family, the members of the new communities, who walk with the Lord, the good Shepherd. You are called to live the radicalism of his baptism. This is new, the beauty of the new communities: live the radicalism of his baptism in the world, inserted into the secular realities.
You are still in training, seeking to live the beauty of the Gospel, with challenges, but trying to give answers to the current needs of the world. That requires listening, obedience to the Church.So we become instruments in the hands of the Lord. Called by the spirit to be of service. So, listen to the Holy Spirit, remain in obedience to the Church. Only in this way will you be instruments of the new evangelization.
Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ!
Portuguese Transcription and adaptation: Tim Matos and Adailton Batista