Prof.Bruno Forte, Roma/Italia

In the Church, that is a complex reality, the Second Vatican Council, - "the Council of the Church" insists on a key element, which is the relation between the Trinity and the Church. We may say that the ecclesiology of the Council and starting from it is ever more consciousness of this Trinitarian depth. By receiving the expectations of the " ecclesiological renovation", which had prepared the new spring of the Church, the Council rediscovers the interior and supernatural dimension of the Church its self, beyond the exasperating accentuation of the visible aspects, juridical and institutional, that had characterized the ecclesiology of the Counter Reformation. The renewed attention to the biblical category of "people of God " allows then the increase in value of the historical dimension of the Church, the way it is "in the times " between its origin from the divine missions of the Son and the Spirit and its fulfillment in the Glory of God who is every thing in every body. By treasuring these sources, the second Vatican gives back to the catholic ecclesiology the consciousness that God gives birth and content to the Trinity, together with that the people of God wonders through the History towards the "éschaton". The Ecclesiology of the Council has three main questions and three sorts of answers rooted in the Trinitarian faith.

WHERE DOES THE CHURCH COME FROM?

The answer of the Council could find in the formula "de Trinitate Ecclesia": the Church is "oriens ex alto"; its origin is not on the earth in a flux of human interests or in the impulse of some generous heart but it is high, by God, where his son has come in the body and in the Spirit. By this appeal of the Trinitarian origin the Church results to be mystery, glory which is hidden and revealed by the evidences of the History It is object of the necessary and incessant pastoral judgment. It is a gift which we can not invent or create, but we can receive it. The supremacy of the Church in being and doing, belongs to the contemplative dimension of life. But the gift, performs in the History, as the words became body, touching the real contradictions of the human existence and in the death, in this the Church will have to be present in all the human situations, in order to give them strength and peace of the Redeemer of mankind. The Church resulting from the Trinity is above all the Church that lives the supremacy of the charity. ....

WHAT IS THE CHURCH?

The Church which is raised from the Trinity during the time, is , in the history, the icon of the Trinity, communion and image of the divine communion: it share the only Spirit ("communio sancti") those who are baptized are enriched by the variety of his gifts, that are all orientated to the common utility, in this way they form the "communio sanctorum", that is the communion of saints. In this communion no one can dispense, because anyone is himself rich of charisms to be lived in the service and in the communion. No one has the right of division, because the charisms come from the only Lord and they are orientated to the creation of the unique Body which is the Church (cf.1 Cor 12,4-7). No one has the right to the standstill and to the nostalgia of the past, because the Spirit is always a life and operates. The "communio" is performed in the joint responsibility, in the talk that respects the difference and permanent tension to meet to the calling of God: this is the way the Church is icon of the Trinity, participation in the time to the eternal "pericoresi". And the universal communion of the local or particular churches gathers around the Church that is in love, the Church of Rome, whose Bishop is the sign and the serve of the unity of all the Catholic Church. This Church communion reveals its -self takes origin in the celebration of the Eucharist, end and source of all the sacramentality of the Church: the Eucharist does the Church! if the Eucharist does the Church it is also true that the Church does the Eucharist: the Word is not proclaimed, if there is no one who can announce it; the memorial of Easter is not celebrated if there is not who can do it by obeying to the charge of Lord. Word and Sacrament imply the ministeriality of the Church, the service of the announce, the one of the celebration of the sacrificial memorial, and the one of the recapitulation of the human family which is spread in the unity oif the holy people of God. The Church commitment is all in this triple prophetical priestly and real duty, it is all ministerial, around the minister of unity of his shepherds, in order to constitute an image of the Trinitarian community ("ecclesiological pericoresi")

WHERE DOES THE CHURCH GO?

The ecclesial communion, source from above, from the Father, for Christ, in the Spirit, and it is constituted in its unity and in the difference of the gifts and services in the likeness of the Trinitarian communion, it does not aim to its -self: it tends towards the source she comes from, it is pilgrim towards the home of the Trinity. This appeal of the Trinitarian destination teaches the Church to relativize itself: it finds out that it is not an absolute but an instrument, not the goal, but the mean, it is poor and servant, that must permanently live in conversion and reformation. Moreover the appeal of the end teaches the Church the relativization of the greatness of this world in the name of its biggest goal, it will have to be critical regard to all the short-sighted realizations of this world. Here lies the profound inspiration of the Christian presence in the different cultural political and social contests: in the name of "its escatological reserve", the Church cannot identify with any ideology, and any party-political power, with any system, but it must be critical consciousness of all, the appeal of the origin and the end, it must be incitement until it tends to develop the complete man in every man. In the end the appeal of the Trinitarian home fills up the Church of joy: it already rejoices in the hope that the promise has roused in it. It knows that it is the militant anticipation of what has been promised in the Resurrection of the Holy Cross, the icon of the Trinity in the time, until the time goes towards the total meeting with the Trinity, when God will be all in every one and all the world will be the home of God.