The internal life of the ecclesial community

27. It is important to consider also the very life of the ecclesial community which is its innermost quality. Firstly, it is necessary to see how the Second Vatican Council has been accepted in the Church, and how it has borne fruit. The great conciliar documents have not remained a dead letter: their effects are widely acknowledged. The four constitutions (Sacrosanctum Concilium, Lumen Gentium, Dei Verbum and Gaudium et Spes) have indeed enriched the Church. In fact:

– liturgical life is more profoundly understood as the source and summit of ecclesial life;

– the people of God has acquired a keener awareness of the "common priesthood" (⁵⁰) founded on Baptism, and is rediscovering evermore the universal call to holiness and a livelier sense of mutual service in charity;

– the ecclesial community has acquired a livelier sense of the word of God. Sacred Scripture, for example, is read, savoured and meditated upon more intensely;

– the mission of the Church in the world is perceived in a new way: on the basis of interior renewal, the Second Vatican Council has opened Catholics to the demands of evangelization as necessarily linked to dialogue with the world, to human development, to different cultures and religions as well as to the urgent quest for Christian unity.

28. It must be recognized, however, that in the midst of this richness there also occur "difficulties about the acceptance of the Council".(⁵¹) Despite so comprehensive and profound an ecclesiology, the sense of belonging to the Church has weakened and "a certain disaffection towards the Church is frequently noted".(⁵²) Thus the Church is often regarded in a one-dimensional way as a mere institution and deprived of her mystery. In some instances tendentious positions have been adopted and set in opposition to the interpretation and application of the renewal sought in the Church by the Second Vatican Council. Such ideologies and conduct have led to divisions which damage that witness of communion indispensable to evangelization. The evangelizing activity of the Church, catechesis included, must tend all the more decisively toward solid ecclesial cohesion. To this end it is urgent that an authentic ecclesiology of communion,(⁵³) be promoted and deepened in order to arouse in Christians a deep ecclesial spirituality.