During Pope Leo XIV’s March 4 Wednesday audience, the Holy Father continued his catechesis series on Vatican II, affirming that the Church is a well-ordered body in which the human and divine dimensions harmoniously coexist.
“The Church is at the same time an earthly community and the mystical body of Christ,” Pope Leo said, “a visible assembly and a spiritual mystery, a reality present in history and a people journeying towards heaven.”
To better understand the reality of this relationship, Pope Leo noted that Lumen gentium refers to this union in light of the earthly life of Jesus Christ.
“Just as Jesus’ humanity was immediately apparent to those who walked by his side,” Pope Leo said in his audience on Lumen gentium, “so too the human dimension of the Church is easy to perceive: it is a community of men and women who, with their gifts and their flaws, seek to proclaim the Gospel within a visible structure.”
Pope Leo also said that by following the Lord, one opens oneself to a spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ, noting that it is through the earthly limitations of the Church that Christ’s saving presence can be manifested.
“This is what constitutes the holiness of the Church,” the Pontiff said, “the fact that Christ dwells in her and continues to give himself through the smallness and fragility of her members.”
Pope Leo again referred to the life of Christ, emphasizing that the flesh of Christ visibly manifests the invisible God.
“Those who followed Jesus more closely, however, recognized that his humanity — his loving gaze, his merciful gestures and his powerful word — manifested his divinity, which led them to salvation.”
The Holy Father concluded by urging the faithful to be true followers of Christ.
“Let us strive to be authentic witnesses of the love of Christ,” Pope Leo said, “so that all can recognize in us and among us the charity that characterizes true Christians and builds up the Church.”