Benedict XVI speaks to the members of the Neocatechumenal Way

The Neocatechumenal Way in Religious Articles Brabander

In Religious Articles Brabander we have always admired the work of the members of the Neocatechumenal Way , popularly known as the Kikos. For this reason we have developed a large number of religious articles to facilitate your evangelizing work.

Today, as a tribute to all the members of the Neocatechumenal Way, we want to reproduce these beautiful words that Pope Benedict XVI dedicated to them:

Dear brothers and sisters:

Also this year I have the joy of being able to meet with you and share this moment of being sent on mission. A special greeting goes to Kiko Argüello, Carmen Hernández and the priest Mario Pezzi , along with an affectionate greeting to all of you, priests, seminarians, families, formators and members of the Neocatechumenal Way . Your presence today is a visible testimony of your joyful determination to live the faith, in communion with the whole Church and with the Successor of Peter, and to be courageous heralds of the Gospel.

In the passage from Saint Matthew that we have heard, the Apostles receive a precise mandate from Jesus: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Mt 28, 19). Initially they had hesitated; in his heart there was still uncertainty, stupor before the event of the Resurrection. And it is Jesus himself, the Risen One –as the Evangelist emphasizes–, who approaches them, makes them perceive his presence and sends them to teach everything he has communicated to them, giving them a certainty that accompanies every herald of Christ: And know that I am with you every day, until the end of time (Mt 28, 21). These are words that resonate powerfully in your heart. You have sung Resurrexit, which expresses faith in the Living One, in him who, in a supreme act of love, overcame sin and death and gives man –gives us– the fervor of God's love, the hope of to be saved, a future of eternity.

During these decades of life of the Neocatechumenal Way, one of your firm commitments has been to proclaim the risen Christ , to respond to his words with generosity, often abandoning personal and material securities, even leaving your own country, facing difficult situations. new and not always easy. Bringing Christ to men and men to Christ : this is what animates all evangelizing work. You carry it out in a way that helps those who have already received baptism to rediscover the beauty of the life of faith, the joy of being a Christian. Following Christ demands the personal adventure of seeking him, of walking with him, but it also always implies leaving the closedness of the self, breaking the individualism that frequently characterizes our time, to replace selfishness with the community of the new man in Jesus Christ . And this happens in a deep relationship with him, in listening to his word, in traveling the path he has indicated to us; but it also happens, inseparably, by believing with his Church, with the saints, in whom the true face of the Bride of Christ is always revealed, over and over again.

It is, as we know, a commitment that is not always easy. Sometimes you are present in places where a first proclamation of the Gospel is needed, the missio ad gentes ; instead, you often find yourself in areas that, even having known Christ, have become indifferent towards the faith, because secularism has eclipsed in them the sense of God and overshadowed Christian values. There, your commitment and your testimony must be like yeast, which, with patience, respecting the times, with sensus Ecclesiæ , makes the whole dough rise. The Church has recognized in the Neocatechumenal Way a special gift that the Holy Spirit has bestowed on our times , and the approval of its Statutes and its Catechetical Directory attest to this. I encourage you to make your original contribution to the cause of the Gospel. In your valuable work, always seek deep communion with the Apostolic See and with the pastors of the particular Churches in which you are inserted: the unity and harmony of the ecclesial body constitute an important testimony of Christ and his Gospel in the world in that we live.

Dear Families:

The Church thanks you; He needs you for the new evangelization. The family is an important cell for the ecclesial community in which it is formed with a view to human and Christian life . I see your children with great joy, so many children who look at you, dear parents, and who look at your example. One hundred families will leave for twelve missions ad gentes. I invite you not to be afraid: whoever carries the Gospel is never alone . I greet with affection the priests and the seminarians: love Christ and the Church, communicate the joy of having found him and the beauty of having given him everything. I also greet the itinerants, those responsible and all the communities of the Neocatechumenal Way. Continue to be generous with the Lord, who will not let you lack his consolation!

Recently, the Decree approving the celebrations present in the Catechetical Directory of the Neocatechumenal Way was read to you, which, without being strictly liturgical, are part of the itinerary of growth in faith. It is one more element that shows you how the Church carefully accompanies you in a patient discernment that understands your wealth, but also attends to the communion and harmony of the entire Corpus Ecclesiæ.

This fact gives me the opportunity to formulate a brief reflection on the value of the liturgy. The Second Vatican Council defines it as the work of Christ the priest and of his Body, which is the Church (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 7). At first glance, this might sound strange, since the work of Christ seems to designate the historical redemptive actions of Jesus: his passion, death, and resurrection. In what sense, then, is the liturgy the work of Christ? The passion, death and resurrection of Jesus are not only historical events: they reach and penetrate history, but they transcend it and remain always present in the heart of Christ . In the liturgical action of the Church there is the active presence of the risen Christ, who makes the same Paschal mystery present and effective for us today, for our salvation; He draws us to that act of self-giving that is always present in his heart and allows us to participate in that presence of the Paschal mystery. This work of the Lord Jesus, which is the authentic content of the liturgy – entering into the presence of the paschal mystery – is also the work of the Church, which, being his body, is a single subject with Christ – Christus totus caput et corpus as Saint Augustine says. By celebrating the sacraments, Christ immerses us in the paschal mystery to make us pass from death to life, from sin to a new existence in Christ.

This applies in a very special way to the celebration of the Eucharist, which, being the summit of Christian life, is also the axis of its rediscovery, towards which the Neocatechumenate tends. As your Statutes say, the Eucharist is essential to the Neocatechumenate , as a post-baptismal catechumenate, lived in a small community (art. 13 § 1). Precisely with a view to favoring a new approach to the richness of the sacramental life by people who have distanced themselves from the Church or who have not received adequate formation, the Neocatechumenals can celebrate the Sunday Eucharist in the small community, after the First Vespers on Sunday, in accordance with the provisions of the diocesan bishop (cf. Statutes, art. 13 § 2). But every Eucharistic celebration is the action of the one Christ in union with his one Church, and is therefore open to all who belong to his Church. This public character of the Holy Eucharist finds expression in the fact that every celebration of Holy Mass is ultimately directed by the Bishop, in his capacity as a member of the Episcopal College, as head of a particular local Church (cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, No. 26). The celebration in small communities, regulated by the liturgical books –which must be followed faithfully– and with the particularities approved in the Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way , has the function of helping those who travel the neocatechumenal itinerary to perceive the grace of being inserted in the salvific mystery of Christ, which makes possible a Christian witness capable of assuming even the traits of radicalism. At the same time, the progressive maturation in the faith of the individual and of the small community must favor their insertion in the life of the great ecclesial community, which has in the parish liturgical celebration – in which and for which the Neocatechumenate is realized (cf. Statutes, article 6) – its ordinary form. But also during the journey it is important not to separate from the parish community precisely in the celebration of the Eucharist, which is the authentic place of the unity of all, where the Lord embraces us in the different states of our spiritual maturity and unites us in the only bread that makes us one body (cf. 1 Cor 10, 16s).

Cheer up! The Lord does not stop accompanying you, and I too assure you of my prayers and I thank you for your many signs of closeness. I ask that you also remember me in your prayers. May the Holy Virgin assist you with her maternal gaze and may my Apostolic Blessing sustain you, which I extend to all the members of the Neocatechumenal Way.

Thank you!