What is the parish (Lesson 2)
The ne Code of Canon Law defines the parish as "a community of faithful".[1]
It is interesting to go back to the original meaning of the word "community".
Some authors say that this word derives from the latin word communus: to put together one's gifts. The parish is a community where the sharing of goods and talents is lived and where this communion is given to the world.[2]
In fact "the original vocation and mission" of the parish is "to be a place of communion of believers in the world, and together a sign and an instrument of the vocation of all to communion".[3]
The parish is a community if, as in a family, goods are circulated, everyone puts in common his capabilities, everyone lives for each other, everyone helps one another and there is mutual love.
Hence the word "community" underlines the need for a collective spirituality, which stimulates living in reciprocity and communion on the model of the life of the Holy Trinity.
If we want to understand better what the parish is we must refer back to the deep reality of the Church. "It is necessary - we read once more in Christifidelis laici - that we all rediscover the true face of the parish, or rather the "mystery" itself of the church present and active in it".[4]
- The Church is Christ who lives on through the ages, His Mystical Body! We recall St.Bonaventure's saying: "Where two or three are gathered in the name of Christ, there is the Church".[5] And there Jesus is present.
Parish therefore is the presence of Christ among men.[6] It is a portion of God's people, which enjoys the presence of Jesus and of his Spirit, because it is united in his name. "The parish - writes Paul VI - brings about His (Jesus') presence in the midst of the believers, and in this way the same Christian people becomes, we can say, a sacrament, a sacred sign that is, of the Lord's presence".[7]
And John Paul II explains: "You are a parish above all, thanks to the fact that Christ is here, in your midst, with you, in you".[8]
It is also beautiful what Gerard Rossé says in this regard: "the community of Christians is, on earth, today's way by which the Risen Jesus relates to mankind, by which he enters in contact with humanity, and acts in history." It "constitutes for the world of men the visible presence of the person of the Risen Lord".[9]
The church invited us to make the parish a living community, that it may be truly God's Kingdom being lived.
A parish which is "God's Kingdom" is a community where the life of Heaven is lived, the life of the Holy Trinity which is a life of mutual love, and where the presence of God is felt. A community where one can breathe - as has been said- a breath of fresh air from Paradise, and the atmosphere of Paradise is Love, The Holy Spirit.[10]
[1] Cfr. Code of Canon Law, can. 515, ss 1.
[2] Other authors say it derives from cum-moenio (defend oneself together), and this brings to mind the walled cities built on mountain tops, to defend themselves from the enemies. Even there a community is created, but for defence. This is not what a parish should be. Cfr. D. Pecile, "The Parish, a missionary community". Elle Di Ci, Torino 1988, p.11.
[3] Christifideles Laici 27.
[4] Christifideles Laici, 26. Says Lumen Gentium, 26: "The Church of Christ is truly present in the legitimate local communities of the faithful, who, in as far as they adhere to their pastors, are also called the Church in the New Testament...In these communities, even though small and dispersed, Christ is present"
[5] St. Bonaventure, Coll. in Hex. I, 5, Quaracchi, Firenze 1934, p.2;.Quoted by C. Lubich, "Scritti Spirituali"/2, Città Nuova, Rome 1978, p. 144.
[6] Cfr. John Paul II: "The Parish means: the presence of Christ among men". Speech given on 18.2.1979, "Gen's", Feb-Mar 1987, p.24
[7] To the Parish Church of All Saints, (Rome), 7 March 1965; Paul VI, "Encicliche e discorsi", Ed Paoline, Rome 1965, p.250
[8] John Paul II, to a parish in Madrid, on the 3.11.1982, "Gen's", Feb-Mar 1987, p.24.
[9] Cfr. G. Rossé, "You are the Body of Christ", Città Nuova, Rome 1986, p.25.
[10] Often the Church (and a parish is the Church on location) is defined as "icon of the Trinity" that is a living reproduction on earth of the communion of love of the three divine Persons. Tertulliano said: "Where the Three are, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, there is the Church" (quoted in 'The Church in its mystery', Course in Theology, III/1. Città Nuova, Rome 1983, p. 165). Cfr. Lumen Gentium, 4; Ad Gentes, 2.
