In the first speech of his apostolic visit, Pope Francis reiterated that "no one else but Jesus shines of His own light". He presented Latin America too with the image of a Church that is not self-sufficient because it is always dependent on the grace of Christ
“As Christians, we compare Jesus Christ to the sun and the moon to the Church, the community; no one else but Jesus shines of His own light.” These were Francis’ words the minute he disembarked the papal plane at Quito airport. It was with these few and carefully thought out words that Francis wished to mark the start of his demanding trip to South America, illustrating to everyone what the nature of the Church is and thus what kind of action it should take. Speaking off the cuff, Francis the added the following comment which highlighted the importance of this part of his first speech in Ecuador even more: “The moon does not have its own light, indeed if it hides from the sun it will be enveloped by darkness. The sun is Jesus Christ and if the Church moves away or hides from him, she will be in darkness and no longer able to offer witness.”
Francis got to the Christ-sun and Church-moon comparison after recalling that Ecuador is home to Mount Chimborazo which is referred to as “the place that is ‘closest to the sun’, moon and stars” because its peak, its equatorial position is on the point of the Earth’s crust that is the farthest from the centre of the Earth. But the orographic illustration was just a pretext for Francis to present once again an image that is very dear to him and which is the base note of his entire magisterium.
In his words, gestures, addresses and homilies, Pope Francis continuously repeats one thing: that the Church does not live of its own light. The Church is Christ’s. His grace is the vehicle for its growth in the world. The Church exists in the world as a reflection of His light. This insight about the original mystery of the Church had been summed up in the early centuries by the Fathers of the East and the West in the image of the mysterium Lunae, the mystery of the moon, an expression that re-emerged in the studies of Hugo Rahner, the Jesuit patrologist who is so dear to Bergoglio. “Fulget Ecclesia non suo sed Christi lumine”, St. Ambrose wrote. Like the moon, the Church does not possess its own light, but receives it from Christ. Meanwhile, for Cyril of Alexandria, “the Church is bathed in the divine light of Christ, which is the only light in the realm of souls. Thus there is one single light: in this single light, however, the Church also shines, but it is not Christ himself however”. The same perception of the mystery of Christ was expressed by the Second Vatican Council, starting from the text on which the Constitution Lumen gentium was based. “The light of the Gentiles radiates not from her but from her divine Founder: yet, the Church well knows, that being reflected on her countenance, this irradiation reaches the whole of humanity,” wrote the theologian Gérard Philips, who was chief drafter of the Constitution Lumen gentium, in his comment on the text.
According to Pope Francis, the rediscovery of the nature of the Church as “reflected light”, is also linked to the present and future of the mission Christ entrusted his disciples with. The image of the Church as moon was at the centre of the brief address Bergoglio gave in the run up to the Conclave, which impressed many cardinals. On that occasion, the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires talked about the self-referential nature of the Church’s institutions and the “theological narcissism” as disorders that develop when the Church “believes she has her own light”. When this occurs, the Church ceases to be “the mysterium lunae”, it “gives way to that very serious evil, spiritual worldliness”, which means the Church then “lives to give glory only to one another”.
Francis is now Pope and more than two years on from his election, his magisterium still does not consider Jesus’ words: “you can do nothing without me” as simply a manner of speaking. The Argentinian Pope insists on driving home the fact that the unique nature of the Church as a reflection of Christ’s grace, continues to be contradicted in all speeches and plans that see the Church as a body that is committed to building and claiming from itself its relevance through history. A tendency which Bergoglio had noticed and spoke out against, even in its “neoclericalist” Latin American guises, when he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Now, as Successor of Peter, he has continuously repeated that the apostolic courage that should be requested for the Church, is not a plan for proselytism. Much less a plan of cultural dominance. If a new familiarity with the nature of the Church - as a body kept alive by grace - does not emerge, then even discussions regarding the reform of Church structures and workings, risk becoming questions of pure institutional engineering, based on the example of innovation programmes for multinational companies.
With his reference to the light and grace of Christ as a source of power for the Christian mission and the denunciation of self-referentialism as a sign of the failure of true ecclesiastical dynamism, Bergoglio continues to proclaim the concrete and “destabilising” consequences on the tranquillity of self-satisfied ecclesiastical apparatuses. Last 30 November, returning from his visit to the Turkish city of Istanbul, where the embrace with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew took place, Pope Francis attributed the end to Christian unity to the loss of familiarity with the Church’s “Mysterium Lunae”; “The problem is that the Church has the shortcoming, the sinful habit of focusing too much on herself, as if she believes she shines her own light. The Church does not have her own light. She needs to look to Jesus Christ...And when the Church focuses too much on herself, divisions arise.”
Even looking back at Pope Francis’ most recent public addresses, one notices that constant references are made to the dependence on grace as the unavoidable factor in the mystery that allows the Church to live on. “The Church does not belong to Popes, bishops, priests, nor the lay faithful; the Church in every moment belongs solely to Christ. Only the one who lives in Christ promotes and defends the Church by holiness of life, after the example of Peter and Paul,” Francis said in the homily he pronounced on the Feast of the patron saints of Rome. Last Friday, at his meeting with charismatic movements in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope warned against the temptation of leaders to imagine that they are indispensable. There is a great temptation for leaders to believe they are irreplaceable”, forgetting that “the only irreplaceable in the Church is the Holy Spirit”.
In his addresses to the masses of people he will meeting in the three Latin American countries he is visiting over the next week, Francis will yet again describe and celebrate the faith of a Church that does not feel self-sufficient. Seeking comfort in the tenderness that unites many Christians of these lands to Jesus and His Mother, a tenderness expressed in the emotional and moving traits of popular devotion. May the coming days make all of us ever more clearly aware of how close is the sun which “dawns upon us from on high” (cfr. 1:78). May each of us be a true reflection of His light and His love," the Bishop of Rome said upon landing in Quito.
