Constitutional text - Chapter Tree - Our Community life

words prov1CLe such an excellent sununary of the faith foundation,
that he is "orth quoting at length:
It is the risen Jesus who carried in himself the brotherhood
of people, their connnunion with the Father and with
one another. Tue Holy Spirit, given to us by .Jesus, has
precisely this mission - to make present throughout humanity
this mystery of connnunion whose only real source
is the Lord Jesus. When, through baptism, we enter into
salvation, it is into this comnunity and brotherhood
made present in Jesus that we enter: we are made "adopted
sons" of the Father when we become "members of the Church",
''brothers of the saints''. •.. and this is based on the
free gift of God - the Spirit ••• and the principle gift
of the Spirit is love ••. in fact, the internal cohesion
and unity of the corrnrunity of believers is made firm in
this love that comes from the Spirit. (J.M.R. -Tillard,
O.P., "Les Grandes Lois de la Rénovation ...." p. 153,
"Cornunita: Aspetto teologico", p. 1368.)
Unity - love - corrmunion - connnunity: key words in the mission of
Reconciliation as it is continued in the life of the Church. This
is well expressed in the underlying theology of the Better World
Movernent.
Tue Church is the mystery of connnunion of men who believe
God is love; hope in the love of God; come together to
celebrate the love of God in joyful celebration; share
with one another the love of God, and so manifesting to
the world t hat God is love . . •. there is connnunion with
the Trinity through grace, with Christ's body in the Eucharist,
with the mernbers of His body by service: all
these are one corrnnunion. When lived with constancy, it
forrns connnunity. (Dimensions to Dialogue, pp. 13,10)
Co~JTIUnity life, therefore, is an evangelical witness, an existential
proclamation and manifestation that Jesus has come from the Father
and His presence in tJ1e Spirit gives the power to end humanity' s
dividedness and to bring about reconciliation. It i s the unity of
the Christian community that calls the world to the love possible
in Christ through the Spirit - a love that is stronger than the sin
of our divisiveness and the tendency to remain aloof from one another.
All Christians are called to express this unity - connnunion
- comrrnmity. But the Church looks to religious to bear a special
witness to this reality.
An earlier draft of this text: "Calling to mind that brotherly unity
shows that Christ has come ••• " was a reflection of Perfectae Caritatis,
15, that says, "the unity of the brethren is a symbol of--
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