Members of the ecclesial communion
Every ecclesial community has the characteristic of being a group of believers in Christ who meet or who live together as a family to live baptism and its consequences, according to the vocation of each one and according to the most concrete objectives of the group. In every ecclesial community, the communion of the entire Church must be reflected, especially when it comes to the particular or local Church. Each believer and the entire community grows through love, in an itinerary that is configuration with Christ “Embracing the truth, let us grow in charity in everything, reaching out to him who is our head, Christ” (Eph 4:15).
As a community that lives the “unity of the Spirit”, it reflects the reality of “one body” (Eph 4,3-6). The graces received by each one are for sharing, since they are given “according to the measure of Christ’s donation” (Eph 4,7), “to build up the body of Christ” (Eph 4,12). “Everyone, members of one another, should help each other according to the variety of gifts that have been conferred on them” (GS 32).
Christ in the middle, under ecclesial signs
Christ is “in the midst” of those who gather “in his name” (Mt 18:20). The community is essentially a “communion” of those who have been called to become “relatives of God”, as a spiritual building, whose “foundations are the Apostles” and whose “cornerstone is Jesus Christ” (Eph 2:19-20). . Every ecclesial community is in communion with the successor of Peter who “presides over universal charity” (Saint Ignatius of Antioch). Then the ecclesial community is “theological space in which the mystical presence of the Risen Lord can be experienced (cf. Mt 18,20)” (VC 42).
Every ecclesial community is built with the preaching of the Word as a continuation of the apostolic preaching, with the Eucharistic celebration as a sacrament of unity and with the solidarity of sharing goods as a sign of fraternity (cf. Acts 2:42-47). To be authentically Church and not sect, “each community must live united to the particular and universal Church” (RMi 51). The Word contemplated and celebrated unifies the community making it transparent of the gospel; the celebration of the mysteries of Christ (especially in the Eucharist) unifies the community by making it an oblation with Christ; the mandate of love, expressed in services or ministries, makes the community transparent of the very person of Jesus who “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). Then the action of the Holy Spirit unifies the heart to become donation to the brothers and universal mission.
Communion missionary itinerary
The community carries out an itinerary of communion that is inspired by the Trinitarian life of God Love. The community is renewed by the communion of God Love and, therefore, enabled to build communion in all hearts and in all humanity. This is the Trinitarian and missionary greeting at the beginning of the Eucharistic celebration “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2Cor 13:13).
“Communion” (“coinonia”) indicates living and sharing. For this reason it is related to sharing the body and blood of Christ (1Cor 10,16). All the goods received from God are shared (life of faith, life in Christ, gifts of the Spirit), as those who form “one heart and one soul” (Acts 4,32). Through the communion lived in the community, the Church presents itself as the “visible sacrament of unity” (LG 9), that is, as “sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind” , until reaching “the complete unit” (LG 1).
When the community lives its reality of communion, it becomes a school of mission for all its components. It is already “an evangelizing fact” (Puebla 663). “Love is and remains the strength of the mission” (RMi 60).
References Charisms, basic ecclesial communities, communion of saints, family, Church communion, particular Church, revision of life, unity of the Church, community life.
Reading of documents AG 15; EN23; RMi 48-51.
Bibliography S. BLANCO etc, Community, in Theological Dictionary of Consecrated Life (Madrid, Pub. Claretianas, 1989) 263-317; J. DELICATE BAEZA, The apostolic fraternity (Madrid, PPC, 1986); J. ESQUERDA BIFET, Living Communities (Barcelona, Balmes, 1981); C. GONZALEZ VALLEZ, Living together (Santander, Sal Terrae, 1985); A. MANRIQUE, Gospel and community (Madrid, Bible and Faith, 1978); JL SECOND, That community called Church (Buenos Aires 1973); J. VANIER, Community place of forgiveness and party (Madrid, Narcea, 1980).
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization