This year the solemnity of Pentecost coincides with the conclusion of the month of May dedicated to the Madonna. The Holy Spirit descends on Mary, on the Apostles and immediately afterwards on about three thousand people from many countries. An icon that highlights how Mary is the mother and model of the Church, the symbol that concretely illuminates its nature and its path, in the great effort of discernment it has been making in these years. Pentecost is central for the creation of the Church as a charism and as an institution. But “the sense of faith of the people of God” has always recognized its roots in the moment of Incarnation.
Many asked Antoni Gaudí why he had chosen to dedicate all the funds he had then available for the “Sagrada Familia” in Barcelona, to build only the facade of the apse and the facade of the “Natividad”, instead of laying the foundations for the whole structure. The famous architect replied that “the cathedral of the poor”, as he called it, “is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people”, and added: “a temple, as representative of the people as possible”. Without haste, over time it would have come true. Looking at the beauty of the facades, future generations could not have abandoned the work. So it was! True beauty is not abandoned.
This prophecy can also be applied to Vatican Council II. The Council Fathers together with the Holy Spirit showed the splendid entrance of the “beautiful Church of the Council”, the one formed by the people of God, who was then present through his pastors, and who from that moment should have shown all his beauty in the service of the world. It was the beginning of a trial.
The beauty of the Church in the world is like that of Mary. The Council recovered the symbolic ecclesiology of the Church Fathers, according to which Christ is the light of the nations (Lumen gentium), and the Church, like Mary, is the moon that lives on reflected light. The splendor of the Church lies in relationship and love. It is not a pomp, a self-celebration, an ideal and unassailable perfection. It is a reverberation of union with Christ, it is the beauty of his “people” on their way to the Kingdom.
Mary teaches that the Church is not primarily an institution. This cannot be denied; in its essential elements it is designed by Christ himself, to remain at the service of real people. Mary is not caged in the institution, she is with the Church that always remains pure and authentic. Rather, Mary is in the midst of the people who recognize and honor her as Mother of God and our Mother, Virgin, Immaculate, Assumed into Heaven, Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix (Lumen gentium 62). Mary is always present: “Carried up into heaven, she is the Mother and Queen of all creation”. The people know that to heal the wounded planet, the “common house”, “understands the meaning of all things… and enables us to look at this world with eyes of wisdom” (Laudato sii 241).
History teaches that the ecclesial aspect most exposed to corruption is precisely the men of the institution, who compromise with the world and sometimes, detaching themselves from the people, come to corrupt the world with strategies and projects.
The people should not be idealized, but despite all their limitations, they are always in search of the good of all, and keep the reference to Christ. The real people do not make strategies, they walk every day in the relationship with the Lord. In it we can identify the proper theological place of the Church, like Mary. The people are the “flock” who let themselves be guided freely and meekly by the shepherds. But he turns away from them when he realizes that instead of being treated as “sheep” of Christ, he is treated as “lemmings marching” for their interests.
The experience of Vatican Council II was illuminating with regard to the “people of God”. For the West, the strong prevalence of the Church as an institution was accompanied by a lack of consideration, if not total mistrust, towards the people, from whom nothing was expected for what mattered in the Church. After the Council instead of referring to the real people in an ecclesiological key, the reflection was theoretical, sociological and exegetical in nature, with the proliferation of decades of sterile discussions until to replace the theology of the “people of God” with the theology of “communion”. A missed opportunity because during the Council it was evident that in many other parts of the world the realities of the peoples and local churches were the true treasure of the Church, of which the pastors were a sincere expression. Especially those tried by suffering and persecution, in which the experience of salvation in Christ could be clearly perceived: the Christian East, the Slavic peoples, the communities of the Far East, some African churches, the peoples of Latin America. It was also seen that all those peoples were deeply Marian. Dostoevsky's prophecy came true: “once more, the light will come from below”. Pope Francis echoes it today by calling the people a “religious reserve”.
The time has come to resume the broken road. “The path of synodality is the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium” (Pope Francis, 17 October 2015). The synod “Church and synodality” will be held in 2022. In our opinion, the synodal journey should not mean the reforms of the institutions, although necessary, but not essential: by foreseeing democratic forms and “pink quotas”; all strategies that will not make the Church synodal. It would be like mimicking the world. The central point of the synodality is “who participates”, who realizes the discernment of the journey, which belongs not only to the shepherds, but above all to the “flock”, to the “people of God”. The real cornerstone of the synodality seems to be the ecclesiological recovery of the “people”. With regard to the “pink quotas”, we do not want to trivialize the problem of women in the Church. A clear light on the dignity and on the task of women comes in the beginning from Mary, decisive for the apostolic Church, as woman, wife, mother, disciple. Today we should find the courage to really make room and return the roles.
The path to be taken has as its reference Mary, mother and model of the synodal Church. Reading her in an ecclesiological key, the Second Vatican Council identified the “type of the Church”: the Church is reflected in Mary. Contemplating her can answer, quoting von Balthasar, the question about itself: not “what is the Church”, but “who is the Church”.
