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INTRODUCTION
The Context
These words of Jesus, “Put out into the deep,” open the letter the Holy Father
addressed to the Church on January 6th of 2001. It is the second of two apostolic
letters specifically on the third millennium. The first, as you know, was delivered
to the Church on November 14, 1994 and is called the Apostolic Letter Tertio
Millennio Adveniente or On the Coming of the Third Millennium. The first letter
was intended to prepare the Church for the Great Jubilee Year 2000 while the
second, the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte or On the Beginning of the
New Millennium, looks back over the events of the Jubilee Year and offers the Holy
Father’s perspective on what the future might bring. Before looking forward,
indeed, in order to see what lies in the future of the Church and in the life of each
1 NMI, 1.
4 NMI. 3.
5 See his first Encyclical Ecclesiam suam, §§23-25: “Why do we have the boldness to invite
you to this act of ecclesiastical awareness? To this explicit, though interior, act of faith? Many
are the reasons, in our opinion, and they all derive from the profound and key demands of the
unique moment reached by the life of the Church. The Church needs to reflect on herself. She
needs to feel the throb of her own life. She must learn to know herself better, if she wishes to live
her own proper vocation and to offer to the world her message of brotherhood and of salvation.
She needs to experience Christ in herself, according to the words of the Apostle Paul: ‘May
Christ find a dwelling place, through faith, in your hearts’.” Cf. §18.
6 This theme is unmistakably central to the work of the Council. Consider, for example, Art.
1 of Lumen gentium: “Christ is the light of humanity; and it is, accordingly, the heart-felt desire
of this sacred Council, being gathered together in the Holy Spirit, that, by proclaiming his Gospel
to every creature, it may bring to all men that light of Christ which shines out visibly from the
Church. Since the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of a sacrament—a sign and instrument, that
is, of communion with God and of unity among all men—she here proposes, for the benefit of
the faithful and of the whole world, to set forth, as clearly as possible, and in the tradition laid
down by earlier Councils, her own nature and universal mission.”
“As if following the footsteps of the Saints, countless sons and daughters of the
Church 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.”
The Pope saw in these people the outward face of Jesus.7 Thus, he concludes his
observations saying that this year was:
7 NMI, 8: “As I observed the continuous flow of pilgrims, I saw them as a kind of concrete
image of the pilgrim Church, the Church placed, as St. Augustine says, ‘amid the persecutions of
the world and the consolations of God.’ We have only been able to observe the outer face of this
unique event. Who can measure the marvels of grace wrought in human hearts? It is better to be
silent and to adore, trusting humbly in the mysterious workings of God and singing his love
without end: ‘Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo!”
It was also
3) A sign of true hope (§7)
a. Countless pilgrims “following in the footsteps of the Saints ... wanting
to profess their faith, confess their sins and receive the mercy that saves”
(§8). “We have only been able to observe the outer face of this unique
event. Who can measure the marvels of grace wrought in human hearts?
b. Young people, “an image that more than any other will live on in
memory”
c. International Eucharistic Congress
d. Particular churches
e. Ecumenical events
f. Personal pilgrimage to the Holy Land
g. Charitable works and gifts, e.g., international debt relief
“But if we ask what is the core of the great legacy [the Jubilee] leaves us, I
would not hesitate to describe it as the contemplation of the face of Christ:
Christ considered 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” (§15).
If at the heart of the Jubilee, we found the Church in contemplation of the face of
our Lord, then this must indicate the “programme” for the future of the Church. In
fact, this is precisely the conclusion that the Holy Father drew:
“And is it not the Church’s task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical
So, the task is found in witness and this witness is an expression of the true
pastoral plan of the Church: prayer and contemplation. Contemplation is a
prerequisite to Witness as knowing precedes loving.8
“It is important however that what we propose, with the help of God, should be
profoundly rooted in contemplation and prayer. Ours is a time of continual
movement which often leads to restlessness, with the risk of ‘doing for the sake
of doing’. We must resist this temptation by trying “to be” before trying “to
do’. (§15)
What the Holy Father envisions is a “pastoral” plan which truly has Christ as its
inspiration, its measure and its end. “The mystery of Christ,” he declared, [is] “the
absolute foundation of all pastoral activity” (§15).
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our
hands, concerning the word of life. . . that which we have seen and heard
we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our
fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”10
Like Peter and like John, Pope John Paul II directs our attention to that person
through whose face we may have an intimate and profound dialogue with God. He
directs our attention to the people who possessed just such a relationship.
1) The Mother’s Child
2) The Carpenter’s Son
3) The Baptist’s confession, “Behold the Lamb of God”
4) Pilgrims in search of the word of salvation
5) People in search of the Bread of Life
6) The bloody face
8) The face that made hearts burn
This was the face that faith saw and contemplated. It was seen in many different
ways, under many different aspects, but only one aspect fathoms the depths that lie
hidden to our bodily eyes. Only the eyes of faith fathoms those depths. “Regardless
of how much his body was seen or touched,” said the Holy Father, “only faith
could fully enter the mystery of that face” (§19).
By putting out into the deep, Christ and the Holy Father are calling upon us to
fathom the depths of the mystery that is Christ. The boat upon which we embark is
the Church, and the deep is the mystery that is found in the face of the Son of God.
Neither can be seen or know without faith.
The more we see and understand both, the more those depths, the more we
come to understand something of ourselves and the extent of the Father’s love.
Contemplation of the face of Christ is the one programme that will never fail, and
the only programme that will secure the Church’s future.
a. Training in Holiness
“In fact, to place the pastoral planning under the heading of holiness is
a choice filled with consequences. It implies the conviction that, since
Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation
into Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit, it would be a contradiction
to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a
shallow religiosity.” (31)
* personal prayer
* Sunday Eucharist
* Sacrament of Reconciliation
“If we have truly contemplated the face of Christ, dear Brothers and Sisters,
our pastoral planing will necessarily be inspired by the ‘new commandment’
which he gave us: ‘Love one another, as I have loved you.’ (Jn 13:34).” (§42)
We find within this command by Jesus the two-fold task of the Church’s pastoral
plan.
b. To think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of
the Mystical Body, and therefore as ‘those who are a part of me’.
CONCLUSION