3 January
The Christ like face of the Church

The first Constitution on the Church clarifies that the Council does not consider the Church as a reality closed in on itself, but in reference to Christ. “Christ is the light of peoples, and this sacred Council, met together in the Holy Spirit, ardently desires that the light of Christ, reflected on the face of the Church, should illuminate all men and women…”
In the background we recognise an image from the theology of the Fathers, which sees the Church as the moon, not giving off its own light, but transmitting the light of Christ’s sun. Ecclesiology is shown to be dependent on Christology, and linked to it.
Seeing as no one can speak correctly about Christ, about the Son, without at the same time speaking of the Father, and seeing that we cannot speak correctly about the Father and the Son without listening to the Holy Spirit, the Christological vision of the Church is necessarily broadened into a Trinitarian ecclesiology (LG 2-4). The discourse on the Church is a discourse about God, and only in this way is it correct.

Card. Joseph Ratzinger

L’ecclesiologia della Costituzione Lumen gentium
Nuova Umanità 22 (2000/3-4) p. 396

(published by the Priestly Branch of the Focolare Movement)

1月3日
教会展现基督的面容

《教会宪章》开宗明义指出:大公会议认为,教会不应该如同一个自我封闭的团体,但应从基督出发看教会:“基督为万民之光,本届神圣大公会议,因天主圣神而集合,切愿使教会面目上反映的基督之光,照耀到每一个人……”。
在此背景下,我们认同教父神学中的教会形象,把教会喻为月亮,但她自身并不发光,而是反映基督太阳的光芒。教会神学归属于基督神学,与其紧密相连。因为任何人谈论子基督而不同时提到父,或者论及父与子而不去聆听圣神都是不对的,教会的基督神学幅度必须延伸到圣三神学的幅度中去(教会宪章 2-4),有关教会的探讨应该是有关天主的探讨,只有如此,才是正确的。

拉辛格枢机

《教会宪章》中的教会论
新人类22(2000/3-4),396页。