Joint Declaration on the Doctrine
A momentous event was the Joint Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation on the Doctrine of Justification formally signed on 31 October in the church of St Anne. This Joint Declaration marks the collapse of the supporting pillar of division between the two Churches. The controversy regarding justification was unleashed 450 years ago in a dispute which led to reciprocal condemnations lasting till today. It was one of the fundamental causes of separation. Thirty years of work carried out by the International Lutheran-Catholic Theological Commission, and the prayers and commitment of many, finally made it possible to overcome any remaining hurdles. The Joint Declaration affirms, among other things, that “a consensus has been reached between Lutherans and Catholics in the fundamental truths of the Doctrine of Justification”. Thus, the mutual condemnations of the past on the issue of justification no longer apply. Cardinal Ratzinger has affirmed that “the document announces that the excommunications of the Council of Trent, regarding this point, do not apply to the doctrine as it is understood today.” (Interview published in the Italian Catholic magazine “30 Days”, June 1999) “The past is not being denied,” explains a statement released by the Pontifical Council Promoting Christian Unity on 21 June 1999, “but rather it is a step forward in our understanding of the mystery of salvation in Christ, made possible in an atmosphere of mutual trust.” The Joint Declaration is not simply dealing with a 16th century theological dispute irrelevant to us today. It deals with an issue which is current and which responds to many crucial questions of mankind today: What is it that renders Christians “just” in front of God? Who saves us and fulfills us? Is being “just” simply the fruit of our own good will? What is the meaning of salvation promised by Christian faith? The documents – “The Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” (1997), the “Official Common Statement of the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church” and the “Annex” (11 June 1999) – were signed by Card. E. I. Cassidy and Bishop W. Kasper, President and Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, representing the Roman Catholic Church, and by Bishop Ch. Krause and Dr. Ishmael Noko, President and Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, and other six vice-presidents of the Federation, representing the Lutheran Church.
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine
A common concern expressed by many, including Cardinal Ratzinger, Bishop Krause and Bishop Kasper, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, was the issue of how Justification could be explained to the people of today, and especially to young people. A meeting held on the vigil of the event, in St Ulrich’s Lutheran Church in Augsburg, provided the first response to this problem. 1700 young people attended the meeting promoted by the Ottmaring Ecumenical Centre. Bishop Kasper was also present. A young woman doctor, who had distanced herself from the faith, said: “Tonight’s rich program revealed a whole new face of the Church to me”. The style of the evening was definitely youthful. This is how the local daily newspaper, Augsburger Allgemeine, reported the event: “Rainbow-coloured balloons festooned the balustrade. Young people on stilts displayed a huge banner of welcome. Rock rhythms and other lively musical items displaced the solemn notes of the organ. The Lutheran Church, which was filled to capacity, hosted a forum for people of different Christian traditions. It made a lasting impression on those present. It was a profound meeting, open, sincere and to the point.” In the light of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, the meeting focussed on the burning issue of: “What gives value to our life?” A thunderous applause followed Chiara Lubich’s impassioned appeal: “If we love one another – Catholic Christians and Lutherans – then the Christian revolution will begin in Augsburg.” The founder of the Focolare Movement spoke passionately of God who is Love, revealing the beauty, the power and the harmony of a life immersed in His love which frees us and saves us from every great or small abyss we might have fallen into. Andrea Riccardi, founder of the St Egidio Community, gave a convincing example: “Imagine some prisoners on death row. The time has come for their execution. Suddenly a guard turns up, saying: ‘You have been given an amnesty! You’re all saved, all free, all pardoned!’ We too are prisoners of anguish, of selfishness, of wealth and of loneliness. We too need Someone to tell us: ‘You’re free, loved, justified’.” The Lutheran Bishop of Lübeck, Ulrich Wilckens, gave his own personal experience to illustrate this. He was 17 years old, a soldier living through the last days of the war in 1945. He found himself alone in a trench, ‘overcome by fear’. But as if ‘by a miracle’ the fear passed due to the faith confirmed in a pocket-size copy of the Sacred Scriptures he had taken with him. The whole evening was a real celebration, a historic moment defined by Bishop Wilckens as “a reconciliation of a family where the parents were divorced and now were re-united”. These young people showed themselves, in a sense, to be the most sensitive of all to this reconciliation which was symbolised by the embrace of Pastor Noko and Bishop Kasper of the Catholic Church at the moment of the historic signing. The gesture moved everyone very profoundly. A young person from the Lutheran church expressed the certainty that “a piece of the wall between Churches has fallen and from now on the era of unity will accelerate at a great pace.”
October 1999
These words can also be found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus responds to a tricky question by placing himself in the context of the great prophetic and rabbinical traditional which was in search of the unifying principle of the Torah, that is, the teaching of God contained in the Bible. Rabbi Hillel, one of his contemporaries, had said: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is all there is in the Torah. All the rest is mere commentary.” For the teachers of Hebraism love of neighbor derives from love of God who created man in his image and likeness. Therefore, it is not possible to love God without loving his creature: this is the true motive for love of neighbor, and it is “a great and general principle in the law.” Jesus repeated this principle and added that the command to love one’s neighbor is similar to the first and greatest commandment, namely, to love God with all one’s heart, mind and soul. In affirming the likeness of the two commandments, Jesus definitively bound them together, as will all of Christian tradition. As the apostle John said with incisive clarity: “Whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
«You shall love your neighbor as yourself.»
Our neighbor – as the entire Gospel clearly states – is every human being, man or woman, friend or enemy, to whom we owe respect, consideration, and esteem. Love of neighbor is both universal and personal. It embraces all humanity and it is expressed concretely in the person next to you. But who can give us such a big heart, who can inspire in us such kindness as to make us feel close – a neighbor – also to those who are distant, to make us overcome self-love, to recognize this “self” in others? It’s a gift of God. Indeed, it is the very love of God that has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Therefore, it is not an ordinary love, not a simple friendship, not only philanthropy, but that love which has been poured into our hearts at baptism: that love which is the life of God himself, of the blessed Trinity, which we can share in. Thus love is everything, but in order to love in an authentic way we need to know some of its qualities which emerge from the Gospel and from Scripture in general. We feel that they can be summed up in a few fundamental aspects. First of all, Jesus, who died for everyone, loving everyone, teaches us that true love should bring us to love everyone. Unlike the simply human love we usually have in our hearts which is limited to relatives, friends and a few others… the authentic love that Jesus wants does not admit discrimination. It does not look too much at whether the other person is kind or unkind, beautiful or not so beautiful, an adult or a child, a fellow countryman or a foreigner, a member of my Church or of another, of my religion or of another. It is a love that is directed toward everyone. And we must do the same: love everyone. The second quality of true love is that it leads us to being the first to love, not waiting for the other person to love us. Generally speaking, we love because we are loved. Instead, authentic love takes the initiative, as the Father was the first to love everyone. When men and women were still sinners, and therefore were not loving, the Father sent the Son to save us. Therefore: to love everyone and to be the first to love. Another quality: true love sees Jesus in every neighbor: “You did it to me,” Jesus will say to us at the final judgement. And this will apply to the good that we did and also, unfortunately, to the evil we did. Authentic love leads us to love a friend and also an enemy: to do good and pray for him or her. Jesus also wants the love that he brought on earth to become mutual: that one person loves the other and vice-versa, in order to achieve unity. All these qualities of love help us to us understand and live the Word of Life for this month.
«You shall love your neighbor as yourself.»
Yes, true love leads us to loving the other person as we love ourselves. And this is to be taken to the letter: we must really see the other person as another self and do for the other person what we would do for ourselves. True love leads us to suffer with those who are suffering, to rejoice with those who are rejoicing, to carry the burdens of others. As Paul says, it leads us to making ourselves one with the person loved. Therefore, it is not a love that is made up only of feelings or beautiful words, but of concrete facts. Those of other religious creeds also seek to do this by living the so-called “Golden Rule” which can be found in all religions. It wants us to do to others what we would like others to do to us. Gandhi explains it in a very simple and effective way: “I cannot harm the other without hurting myself.” This month could be an opportunity, then, to re-focus on love of neighbor. Our neighbor has so many faces: the person next-door, a classmate, the friend of a close relative. But there are also the faces of the anguished humanity that the television brings into our homes from war-torn cities and natural disasters. Once they were unknown to us and thousands of miles away. Now they too have become our neighbors. Love will suggest what we should do in each situation, and little by little it will expand our hearts to the greatness of the heart of Jesus. Chiara Lubich
September 1999
Jesus addressed these words to Peter who, after listening to the marvelous things he was saying, put this question to him: “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?” Jesus replied:
«Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven times.»
Most likely, Peter had been deeply struck by the Lord’s preaching, and being a good and generous person, he had decided to throw himself into the new course of action which Jesus was advocating. He was ready to do something he thought exceptional for him, to forgive even seven times. In fact, Judaism accepted the idea of forgiving two, three, at the most four times.
But by responding, “seventy times seven times,” Jesus is saying that the kind of forgiveness he wants has no limits. We must forgive always.
«Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven times.»
This phrase calls to mind the biblical song of Lamech, a descendent of Adam: “Sevenfold vengeance is taken for Cain, but seventy-seven fold for Lamech” (Gen. 4:24). Thus hatred began to spread among the people of the world, swelling like a river at flood time into an ever-growing sea of hate.
Against this spreading of evil, Jesus proposes an unlimited and unconditional forgiveness that is capable of breaking the cycle of violence.
Only forgiveness can stem this tide of ill will and offer the human race a future that promises something other than self-destruction.
«Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven times.»
We need to forgive, to forgive always. Forgiving is not the same as forgetting, which often indicates a reluctance to face the situation. Nor is forgiveness a sign of weakness; it does not mean ignoring a wrong which we might have suffered, simply out of fear of the stronger person who committed it. Forgiveness does not consist in calling what is serious, trivial, or what is evil, good. Forgiveness is not indifference. Forgiveness is a conscious act of the will, and therefore a free act. It consists in accepting our neighbors as they are, notwithstanding the wrong done to us, just as God accepts us sinners, notwithstanding our faults. Forgiveness consists in not returning one offense for another, but in doing what St. Paul tells us: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).
Forgiveness consists in offering the one who has wronged you the opportunity to have a new relationship with you. It makes it possible for both of you to start life over again, and to experience a future in which evil will not have the last word.
«Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy times seven times.»
How shall we live these words.
Peter had asked Jesus: “How often must I forgive my brother?” Peter speaks of “my brother.” When answering him, then, Jesus had in mind above all the relationships among Christians, among members of the same community.
Therefore, we must act in this way first of all toward those who share our faith – in our family, at work, at school, and so on.
We know that someone who is offended is often tempted to respond with a similar word or act. And we know that even persons who live in the same household often fail in loving because of differences in personality, irritability, or other causes. Therefore, we must never forget that only a constantly renewed attitude of forgiveness can maintain peace and unity.
We will always be tempted to think of the others’ imperfections, to remember their past, to wish that they were different than they are. But we need to acquire the habit of looking at them with new eyes, and seeing them as new persons, always accepting them immediately and without reservation, even if they do not repent.
You might say: “But that’s hard!” And you are right. This is the challenge posed by Christianity. We are, after all, following a God who, as he was dying on the cross, asked his Father to forgive those who had caused his death. And he rose.
Let’s take courage. Let’s begin to live like this. We will find a peace we have never before experienced, and a joy we have never known.
Chiara Lubich
August 1999
«Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord» (Luke 1:45)
These words belong to an event which is simple and sublime at the same time: it is the encounter between two expecting mothers whose spiritual and physical symbiosis with their sons is total. They lend them their lips, their sentiments. When Mary speaks, Elizabeth’s son leaps with joy in her womb. When Elizabeth speaks, it seems that her words are put on her lips by the Precursor. But while the first words of her hymn of praise to Mary are addressed personally to the mother of the Lord, the final ones are in the third person: “Blessed is she who believed.”
Thus her “affirmation acquires the character of universal truth: beatitude applies to all believers; it concerns those who accept the Word of God and put it into practice, and who find in Mary their model.” (1)
«Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.»
It is the first beatitude of the Gospel in reference to Mary, but also to all those who want to follow her and imitate her.
In Mary, there is a close bond between faith and maternity, as a consequence of listening to the Word. And in this passage Luke suggests something that concerns us too. Further ahead in his Gospel, Jesus says: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Lk 8:21).
Almost anticipating these words, Elizabeth, moved by the Holy Spirit, announces to us that every disciple can become “mother” of the Lord. The condition is that he or she believe in the Word of God and live it.
«Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.»
After Jesus, Mary is the one who best and most perfectly said “yes” to God. Her sanctity and greatness lies, above all, in this. If Jesus is the Word, the incarnate Word, Mary, because of her faith in the Word, is the Word lived, but a created being like us, just like us.
Mary’s role as the mother of God is lofty and magnificent. But the Virgin is not the only one God calls to generate Christ. Every Christian has a similar task, even though in a different way: to incarnate Christ to the point of repeating, like St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
How can we accomplish this? By approaching the Word of God as Mary did, that is, by being totally open to it. Therefore, to believe, as Mary did, that all the promises contained in the Word of Jesus will be fulfilled, and if necessary, to risk the consequences which his Word can sometimes imply, as Mary did. Wonderful things always happen to those who believe in the Word – big things, little things. We could fill books with facts that prove this.
We will never forget the experience we made when, in the midst of the war, believing in the words of Jesus: “Ask and it will be given to you” (Mt. 7:7), we asked for all that the many poor in the city needed, and we saw sacks of flour, boxes of powdered milk, jam, firewood, and clothes arrive.
Things like this happen today, too. “Give and gifts will be given to you” (Lk. 6:38), and the cupboards of provisions to be shared is always full because it is regularly emptied.
But what is most striking is to see that the words of Jesus are true always and everywhere. God’s help arrives on time, even in the most impossible circumstances and in the most isolated points on earth, as happened a short time ago to a mother who lives in dire poverty. One day she gave the little money she had left to someone who was in greater need. She believed in that “Give and gifts will be given to you” of the Gospel. And she felt at peace. Shortly afterwards, her youngest daughter showed her a gift she had just received from an elderly relative who happened to be in the neighborhood that day: in her little hand was double the amount that the mother had given.
A “small” experience like this encourages us to believe in the Gospel. Each one of us can experience the joy, the beatitude that comes from seeing the promises of Jesus come true.
When we come in contact with the Word of God, through the everyday circumstances of our life, by reading from Sacred Scripture, let us open our heart and listen, believing that what Jesus is asking us and promising will come true. We will soon discover, like Mary and like that mother, that he keeps his promises.
Chiara Lubich
1) G. Rossé, Il Vangelo di Luca, Rome, 1992, p. 67.