Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale292

- here in America we can think of Nathaniel Hawthorne - have used the

image of stained glass to illustrate the mystery of the Church herself. It is

only from the inside, from the experience of faith and ecclesial life, that we

see the Church as she truly is: flooded with grace, resplendent in beauty,

adorned by the manifold gifts of the Spirit. It follows that we, who live the

life of grace within the Church's communion, are called to draw all people

into this mystery of light.

This is no easy task in a world which can tend to look at the Church, like

those stained glass windows, ''from the outside'': a world which deeply senses

a need for spirituality, yet finds it difficult to ''enter into'' the mystery of the

Church. Even for those of us within, the light of faith can be dimmed by

routine, and the splendor of the Church obscured by the sins and weaknesses

of her members. It can be dimmed too, by the obstacles encountered in a

society which sometimes seems to have forgotten God and to resent even the

most elementary demands of Christian morality. You, who have devoted

your lives to bearing witness to the love of Christ and the building up of

his Body, know from your daily contact with the world around us how

tempting it is at times to give way to frustration, disappointment and even

pessimism about the future. In a word, it is not always easy to see the light of

the Spirit all about us, the splendor of the Risen Lord illuminating our lives

and instilling renewed hope in his victory over the world.6

Yet the word of God reminds us that, in faith, we see the heavens opened,

and the grace of the Holy Spirit lighting up the Church and bringing sure

hope to our world. ''O Lord, my God,'' the Psalmist sings, ''when you send

forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth''.7

These words evoke the first creation, when the Spirit of God hovered over the

deep.8 And they look forward to the new creation, at Pentecost, when the

Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and established the Church as the

first fruits of a redeemed humanity.9 These words summon us to ever deeper

faith in God's infinite power to transform every human situation, to create

life from death, and to light up even the darkest night. And they make us

think of another magnificent phrase of Saint Irenaeus: ''where the Church is,

6 Cf. Jn 16:33. 7 Ps 104:30. 8 Cf. Gen 1:2. 9 Cf. Jn 20:22-23.