Mary: God's Yes to Man: Encyclical Letter: Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II

Author:Pope John Paul II [Paul, Pope John II]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9780898702194
Published: 2014-03-14T04:00:00+00:00

2. The Church’s journey and the unity of all Christians

29. “In all of Christ’s disciples the Spirit arouses the desire to be peacefully united, in the manner determined by Christ, as one flock under one shepherd.”72 The journey of the Church, especially in our own time, is marked by the sign of ecumenism: Christians are seeking ways to restore that unity which Christ implored from the Father for his disciples on the day before his Passion: “That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21). The unity of Christ’s disciples, therefore, is a great sign given in order to kindle faith in the world, while their division constitutes a scandal.73

The ecumenical movement, on the basis of a clearer and more widespread awareness of the urgent need to achieve the unity of all Christians, has found on the part of the Catholic Church its culminating expression in the work of the Second Vatican Council: Christians must deepen in themselves and each of their communities that “obedience of faith” of which Mary is the first and brightest example. And since she “shines forth on earth . . . as a sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim People of God”, “it gives great joy and comfort to this most holy Synod that among the divided brethren, too, there are those who give due honor to the Mother of our Lord and Savior. This is especially so among the Easterners.”74

30. Christians know that their unity will be truly rediscovered only if it is based on the unity of their faith. They must resolve considerable discrepancies of doctrine concerning the mystery and ministry of the Church, and sometimes also concerning the role of Mary in the work of salvation.75 The dialogues begun by the Catholic Church with the churches and ecclesial communities of the West76 are steadily converging upon these two inseparable aspects of the same mystery of salvation. If the mystery of the Word made flesh enables us to glimpse the mystery of the divine motherhood and if, in turn, contemplation of the Mother of God brings us to a more profound understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation, then the same must be said for the mystery of the Church and Mary’s role in the work of salvation. By a more profound study of both Mary and the Church, clarifying each by the light of the other, Christians who are eager to do what Jesus tells them—as their Mother recommends (cf. Jn 2:5)—will be able to go forward together on this “pilgrimage of faith”. Mary, who is still the model of this pilgrimage, is to lead them to the unity which is willed by their one Lord and so much desired by those who are attentively listening to what “the Spirit is saying to the churches” today (Rev 2:7, 11, 17).

Meanwhile, it

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