Pope Francis writes of dreams in his post-synodal exhortation. Paragraphs 5 through 7 outline it. This is important:
Everything that the Church has to offer must become incarnate in a distinctive way in each part of the world, so that the Bride of Christ can take on a variety of faces that better manifest the inexhaustible riches of God’s grace. (QA 6)
What is incarnation? Simply bringing flesh to what we offer. Not just ideas or even just dreams. The Church needs to offer tangible, material, and visible aspects so people within and outside of it can sense what we are about.
- Preaching must become incarnate,
- spirituality must become incarnate,
- ecclesial structures must become incarnate.
What exactly does this mean? My sense would be concrete, applicable, active in the world, visible and tangible, and attempting to cooperate with God to make a difference, through grace.
Here are the Holy Father’s “dreams”:
I dream of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original peoples and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be heard and their dignity advanced.
I dream of an Amazon region that can preserve its distinctive cultural riches, where the beauty of our humanity shines forth in so many varied ways.
I dream of an Amazon region that can jealously preserve its overwhelming natural beauty and the superabundant life teeming in its rivers and forests.
I dream of Christian communities capable of generous commitment, incarnate in the Amazon region, and giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features.
All Ignatian dreams, what we’ve seen attempted and accomplished in many places around the world. Comments?
Catholic Sensibility 