Pope Leo XIV at the general audience on Lumen Gentium: the Church is a complex reality, both human and divine
The curtain opens. At the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on March 4, Leo XIV greeted pilgrims and tourists from all over the world, speaking of the “Church, visible and spiritual reality”. Before speaking, however, the Pope drew energy from a long ride in the Popemobile. Then, finally, he cleared his throat and began to reflect on the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium. This is the document promulgated by Paul VI on November 21, 1964, during the Second Vatican Council. One of the fundamental texts of the Council, which redefines the Church not only as a hierarchy, but as the “People of God”, the “Mystical Body of Christ” and the sacrament of salvation.
The complexity of the Church
Inside the Lumen Gentiumthe Church is defined as “a complex reality”. A complexity due above all to its human dimension, ineluctably marked by the “smallness” and “fragility of its members”. This is the so-called “God’s method”a perennial miracle in which He shows himself in the “weakness of creatures, continuing to manifest himself and act”. According to Leo
Leo XIV’s appeal to Ratzinger
And it is precisely through people that “the presence of Christ and his saving action” is revealed. It is impossible not to notice the Pontiff’s reference to Benedict XVI, in particular to the speech of 9 November 2006 to the bishops of Switzerland: «there is no opposition between the Gospel and the institution, on the contrary, the structures of the Church serve precisely for the “realization and concretization of the Gospel in our time”». Here, in the same way, according to Leone, «the holiness of the Church consists in this: in the fact that Christ lives there and continues to give himself through the smallness and fragility of its members. Contemplating this perennial miracle that occurs within her, we understand the “method of God”: He makes himself visible through the weakness of creatures, continuing to manifest himself and act.”
It could not be missing, as a convinced Augustinian, the Pope’s reference to the saint of Hippowho maintained that charity «conquers all things, and without it all things are worth nothing; wherever it is, it attracts everything to itself.”
A human and divine Church
The key message that the Pope wanted to launch at the General Audience is the strong and unique one of one Church as «community of men and women who share the joy and effort of being Christianswith their strengths and weaknesses, announcing the Gospel and becoming a sign of the presence of Christ who accompanies us on the journey of life.” And this is true, of course, but it leaves out the divine dimension of the ecclesial institution, relegating it to a simple “institutional organization”. No, Leo XIV sees the divine dimension not “in an ideal perfection or spiritual superiority of its members, but in the fact that the Church is generated by God’s loving plan for humanity, realized in Christ”. In short, a reality that is simultaneously human and divine, whose task is to welcome the sinner (man) and lead him to God. The curtain closes.
