NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE
POPE JOHN PAUL II

Introduction

The Church's joy was great during the Jubilee Year, as she became more than ever a pilgrim people.

An opportunity to examine how far she had renewed herself to evangelize with fresh enthusiasm.

What we have observed demands to be "deciphered" to hear the Spirit during this most intense year.

It is especially necessary for us to direct our thoughts to the future which lies before us.

We lived this Jubilee not only as a remembrance of the past, but also as a prophecy of the future.

We now need to profit from the grace received, by resolutions and guidelines for action.

This is a task for all the local churches to undertake.

In each of them, gathered around their Bishop the "one holy catholic and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative".

I MEETING CHRIST: THE LEGACY OF THE GREAT JUBILEE

The celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation was "one unceasing hymn of praise to the Trinity" and "a journey of reconciliation and a sign of true hope for all who look to Christ and to his Church".

Two thousand years have gone by, but Jesus' proclamation of his mission is as enduring as ever: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:21).

The coincidence of this Jubilee with the opening of a new millennium has certainly helped people to become more aware of the mystery of Christ within the great horizon of the history of salvation. Christianity is a religion rooted in history!

Christ is the foundation and center of history, he is its meaning and ultimate goal.

To purify our vision for the contemplation of the mystery, this Jubilee Year has been strongly marked by the request for forgiveness for individuals and for the entire Church.

This "purification of memory" has strengthened our steps for the journey towards the future and has made us more humble and vigilant in our acceptance of the Gospel.

Countless pilgrims have come in successive waves to Rome, to the Tombs of the Apostles, wanting to profess their faith, confess their sins and receive the mercy that saves.

Long queues of pilgrims waited patiently to go through the Holy Door, each of whom with the story of a life, made up of joys, worries, sufferings; the story of someone whom Christ had met and who, in dialogue with him, was setting out again on a journey of hope.

The continuous flow of pilgrims was a kind of concrete image of the pilgrim Church, going forth to contemplate the face of Christ.

Highlights

The young showed themselves to be for Rome and for the Church a special gift of the Spirit of God.

They are to become "morning watchmen" (cf. Is 21:11-12) at the dawn of the new millennium.

It meant doing what Christ did when he placed a child in the midst of the disciples and made it the very symbol of the attitude which we should have if we wish to enter the Kingdom of God (cf. Mt 18:2-4).

That Jubilee gathering also gave an opportunity to voice a strong call to correct the economic and social imbalances present in the world of work.

Numberless families commit themselves to bringing the light of Christ to bear on a culture which, in an ever more disturbing way, is losing sight of the very meaning of marriage and the family as an institution.

In the presence of a large part of the world episcopate, the lives of the men and women of the new millennium was entrusted to Mary's maternal care.

It was there that the majority of the faithful were able to gain its special graces, and particularly the indulgence connected with the Jubilee Year.

It is certainly still difficult, and will perhaps be long.

The problem of the international debt of poor countries took on particular significance: a gesture of generosity towards these countries was in the very spirit of the Jubilee in its original Biblical setting.

II A FACE TO CONTEMPLATE

The men and women of our day ask believers not only to "speak" of Christ, but in a certain sense to "show" him to them. Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated his face.

The contemplation of Christ's face cannot fail to be inspired by all that we are told about him in Sacred Scripture so that Saint Jerome can vigorously affirm: "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ".

One can only Jesus by the path of faith: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 1,16).

We cannot come to the fullness of contemplation of the Lord's face by our own efforts alone, but by allowing grace to take us by the hand.

Only the experience of silence and prayer offers the growth and development of a knowledge of that mystery proclaimed by John: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (1:14).

Jesus is true God and true man!

Like the Apostle Thomas, the Church is constantly invited by Christ to touch his wounds, to recognize, that is, the fullness of his humanity taken from Mary, given up to death, transfigured by the Resurrection: "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side" (Jn 20:27).

Like Thomas, the Church bows down in adoration before the Risen One, clothed in the fullness of his divine splendor, and never ceases to exclaim: "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20:28).

"Your face, O Lord, I seek" (Ps 27:8). The ancient longing of the Psalmist could receive no fulfillment greater and more surprising than the contemplation of the face of Christ.

As on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the Church pauses in contemplation of this bleeding face, which conceals the life of God and offers salvation to the world.

But her contemplation of Christ's face cannot stop at the image of the Crucified One. He is the Risen One! Were this not so, our preaching would be in vain and our faith empty (cf. 1 Cor 15:14).

Two thousand years after these events, the Church relives them as if they had happened today.

Heartened by this experience, the Church sets out once more on her journey to proclaim Christ to the world at the dawn of the Third Millennium: " the same yesterday and today and for ever" (Heb 13:8).

The great legacy of the Jubilee is the contemplation of the face of Christ. Christ in his historical features and in his mystery, Christ known through his manifold presence in the Church and in the world, and confessed as the meaning of history and the light of life's journey.

Much awaits us, and for this reason we must set about drawing up an effective post-Jubilee pastoral plan.

III STARTING AFRESH FROM CHRIST

"I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt 28:20). This assurance has accompanied the Church for two thousand years, and has now been renewed in our hearts by the celebration of the Jubilee.

From it we must gain new impetus in Christian living, making it the force which inspires our journey.

Conscious of the Risen Lord's presence among us, we ask ourselves today the same question put to Peter in Jerusalem immediately after his Pentecost speech: "What must we do?" (Acts 2:37).

We shall not be saved by a formula but by a Person, and the assurance given us: I am with you!

It is not therefore a matter of inventing a "new program". The program already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition, it is the same as ever.

Ultimately, it has its center in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfillment in the heaven.

This is a program which does not change with shifts of times and cultures, even though it takes account of time and culture for the sake of true dialogue and effective communication.

This program for all times is our program for the Third Millennium.

But it must be translated into pastoral initiatives adapted to the circumstances of each community.

It is in the local churches that the specific features of a detailed pastoral plan can be identified.

Pastors of the particular Churches, with the help of all sectors of God's People, are exhorted confidently to plan the stages of the journey ahead, harmonizing the choices of each diocesan community with those of neighboring Churches and of the universal Church.

Certain pastoral priorities

First of all all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness.

Once the Jubilee is over, we resume our normal path, but knowing that stressing holiness remains more than ever an urgent pastoral task.

To profess the Church as holy means to point to her as the Bride of Christ, for whom he gave himself precisely in order to make her holy (cf. Eph 5:25-26).

This as it were objective gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized. But the gift in turn becomes a task: "This is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Th 4:3).

It is a duty which concerns not only certain Christians: "All the Christian faithful, of whatever state or rank, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity"

The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction.

This training in holiness calls for a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer.

We have to learn to pray: as it were learning this art ever anew from the lips of the Divine Master himself, like the first disciples: "Lord, teach us to pray!" (Lk 11:1).

Prayer develops that conversation with Christ which makes us his intimate friends: "Abide in me and I in you" (Jn 15:4).

In today's world, despite widespread secularization, there is a widespread demand for spirituality, a demand which expresses itself in large part as a renewed need for prayer.

Our Christian communities must become genuine "schools" of prayer, where the meeting with Christ is expressed not just in imploring help but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotion.

It is essential that education in prayer should become in some way a key-point of all pastoral planning.

How helpful it would be if not only in religious communities but also in parishes more were done to ensure an all-pervading climate of prayer.

With proper discernment, this would require that popular piety be given its proper place, and that people be educated especially in liturgical prayer.

Perhaps it is more thinkable than we usually presume for the average day of a Christian community to combine the many forms of pastoral life and witness in the world with the celebration of the Eucharist and even the recitation of Lauds and Vespers.

For two thousand years, Christian time has been measured by the memory of that "first day of the week" (Mk 16:2,9; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1), when the Risen Christ gave the Apostles the gift of peace and of the Spirit (cf. Jn 20:19-23).

Following Dies Domini, I therefore wish to insist that sharing in the Eucharist should really be the heart of Sunday for every baptized person.

The Sunday Eucharist which every week gathers Christians together as God's family is the privileged place where communion is ceaselessly proclaimed and nurtured.

Precisely through sharing in the Eucharist, the Lord's Day also becomes the Day of the Church, when she can effectively exercise her role as the sacrament of unity.

A renewed pastoral courage in ensuring that the day-to-day teaching of Christian communities persuasively and effectively presents the practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is also called for.

There is a temptation which perennially besets every spiritual journey and pastoral work: that of thinking that the results depend on our ability to act and to plan.

God of course asks us really to cooperate with his grace, and therefore invites us to invest all our resources of intelligence and energy in serving the cause of the Kingdom. But it is fatal to forget that "without Christ we can do nothing" (cf. Jn 15:5).

It is prayer which roots us in this truth. It constantly reminds us of the primacy of Christ and, in union with him, the primacy of the interior life and of holiness.

As this millennium begins, allow the Successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith, which expresses itself in a renewed commitment to prayer.

There is no doubt that this primacy of holiness and prayer is inconceivable without a renewed listening to the word of God.

This needs to be deepened by making sure that every family has a Bible.

It is especially necessary that listening to the word of God should become a life-giving encounter, which draws from the biblical text the living word which questions, directs and shapes our lives.

A new apostolic outreach is needed, which will be lived as the everyday commitment of Christian communities and groups.

Christ must be presented to all people with confidence. We shall address adults, families, young people, children, without ever hiding the most radical demands of the Gospel message.

IV WITNESSES TO LOVE

Our pastoral planning will necessarily be inspired by the "new commandment" which he gave us: "Love one another, as I have loved you" (Jn 13:34).

This is the other important area in which there has to be commitment and planning on the part of the universal Church and the particular Churches: the domain of communion (koinonia), which embodies and reveals the very essence of the mystery of the Church.

Communion is the fruit and demonstration of that love which springs from the heart of the Eternal Father and is poured out upon us through the Spirit which Jesus gives us (cf. Rom 5:5), to make us all "one heart and one soul" (Acts 4:32).

The Apostle Paul in the hymn to love reminds us: even if we speak the tongues of men and of angels, and if we have faith "to move mountains", but are without love, all will come to "nothing" (cf. 1 Cor 13:2).

To make the Church the home and the school of communion is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning.

Before making practical plans, we need to promote a spirituality of communion, making it the guiding principle of education wherever Christians are formed, wherever ministers of the altar, consecrated persons, and pastoral workers are trained, wherever families and communities are being built up.

A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart's contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of those around us.

A spirituality of communion makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship.

A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for theone who has received it, but also as a "gift for me".

A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to "make room" for our brothers and sisters, bearing "each other's burdens" (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy.

Let us have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will serve very little purpose.

Communion must be cultivated and extended at every level in the structures of each Church's life.

Relations between Bishops and priests, between Pastors and the People of God, between clergy and Religious, between associations and movements must all be clearly characterized by communion.

To this end, the structures of participation envisaged by Canon Law, such as the Council of Priests and the Pastoral Council, must be ever more highly valued.

These of course are not governed by the rules of parliamentary democracy, because they are consultative rather than deliberative; yet this does not mean that they are less meaningful and relevant.

The theology and spirituality of communion encourage a fruitful dialogue between Pastors and faithful: on the one hand uniting them a priori in all that is essential, and on the other leading them to pondered agreement in matters open to discussion.

Without prejudice to their authority, Pastors are encouraged to listen more widely to the People of God. "Let us listen to what all the faithful say, because in every one of them the Spirit of God breathes".

Such a vision of communion is closely linked to the Christian community's ability to make room for all the gifts of the Spirit.

The unity of the Church is not uniformity, but an organic blending of legitimate diversities. It is the reality of many members joined in a single body, the one Body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 12:12).

Therefore the Church of the Third Millennium will need to encourage all the baptized and confirmed to be aware of the their active responsibility in the Church's life.

Together with the ordained ministry, other ministries, whether formally instituted or simply recognized, can flourish for the good of the whole community, sustaining it in all its many needs: from catechesis to liturgy, from the education of the young to the widest array of charitable works.

Along these lines, another important aspect of communion is the promotion of forms of association, whether of the more traditional kind or the newer ecclesial movements, which continue to give the Church a vitality that is God's gift and a true "springtime of the Spirit".

Obviously, associations and movements need to work in full harmony within both the universal Church and the particular Churches, and in obedience to the authoritative directives of the Pastors.

At a time in history like the present, special attention must also be given to the pastoral care of the family, particularly when this fundamental institution is experiencing a radical and widespread crisis.

Families themselves must become increasingly conscious of the care due to children, and play an active role in the Church and in society in safeguarding their rights.

Beginning with intra-ecclesial communion, charity of its nature opens out into a service that is universal; it inspires in us a commitment to practical and concrete love for every human being.

If we have truly started out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he himself wished to be identified: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me" (Mt 25:35-37).

By these words, no less than by the orthodoxy of her doctrine, the Church measures her fidelity.

Certainly we need to remember that no one can be excluded from our love, yet the unequivocal words of the Gospel remind us that there is a special presence of Christ in the poor, and this requires the Church to make a preferential option for them.

Now is the time for a new "creativity" in charity, not only by ensuring that help is effective but also by "getting close" to those who suffer, so that the hand that helps is seen not as a humiliating handout but as a sharing. We must therefore ensure that in every Christian community the poor feel at home.

Today's challenges

For Christian witness to be effective, especially in these delicate and controversial areas, it is important that special efforts be made to explain properly the reasons for the Church's position, stressing that it is not a case of imposing on non-believers a vision based on faith, but of interpreting and defending the values rooted in the very nature of the human person.

In this way charity will necessarily become service to culture, politics, the economy and the family, so that the fundamental principles upon which depend the destiny of human beings and the future of civilization will be everywhere respected.

Clearly, all this must be done in a specifically Christian way: the laity especially must be present in these areas in fulfillment of their lay vocation, without ever yielding to the temptation to turn Christian communities into mere social agencies.

In particular, the Church's relationship with civil society should respect the latter's autonomy and areas of competence, in accordance with the teachings of the Church's social doctrine.

Well known are the efforts made by the Church's teaching authority, especially in the twentieth century, to interpret social realities in the light of the Gospel and to offer in a timely and systematic way its contribution to the social question, which has now assumed a global dimension.

The ethical and social aspect of the question is an essential element of Christian witness.

A practical sign

The Jubilee year should leave an endowment which would in some way be the fruit and seal of the love sparked by the Jubilee.

It is important that such a major religious event should be completely dissociated from any semblance of financial gain.

The endowment to be established is meant to be an enduring legacy and remembrance of the communion experienced during the Jubilee.

Dialogue and mission

A new century, a new millennium are opening in the light of Christ. But not everyone can see this light. Ours is the wonderful and demanding task of becoming its "reflection".

It is in this context also that we should consider the great challenge of inter-religious dialogue to which we shall still be committed in the new millennium.

In the climate of increased cultural and religious pluralism which is expected to mark the society of the new millennium, it is obvious that this dialogue will be especially important in establishing a sure basis for peace and warding off the dread specter of those wars of religion which have so often bloodied human history.

The name of the one God must become increasingly what it is: a name of peace and a summons to peace.

Dialogue, however, cannot be based on religious indifferentism, and we Christians are in duty bound, while engaging in dialogue, to bear clear witness to the hope that is within us (cf. 1 Pt 3:15).

The Church therefore cannot forgo her missionary activity among the peoples of the world.

It is the primary task of the missio ad gentes to announce that it is in Christ, "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life" (Jn 14:6), that people find salvation.

Interreligious dialogue "cannot simply replace proclamation, but remains oriented towards proclamation".

This missionary duty, moreover, does not prevent us from approaching dialogue with an attitude of profound willingness to listen.

In the light of the Council

With the passing of the years, the Council documents have lost nothing of their value or brilliance.

They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church's Tradition.

The Council is the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning.

CONCLUSION: DUC IN ALTUM!

Let us go forward in hope! A new millennium is opening before the Church like a vast ocean upon which we shall venture, relying on the help of Christ.

Christ whom we have contemplated and loved bids us to set out once more on our journey: At the beginning of this new century, our steps must quicken as we travel the highways of the world. Every Sunday, the Risen Christ asks us to meet him as it were once more in the Upper Room.

On this journey we are accompanied by the Blessed Virgin Mary, the sure guide for our steps.

The symbol of the Holy Door now closes behind us; if ours has been a genuine pilgrimage, it will have as it were stretched our legs for the journey still ahead: "Straining forward to what lies ahead, (we) press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:13-14).