2. The image of the Good Shepherd sheds light on the spirituality of communion

There is also a novel element in the IL, one that places it in a line of continuity with that other novel element of the Exhortation “Vita Consecrata,” and that is the reference to the “filokalia,” that is, the love of the divine beauty, which is an irradiation of the divine goodness³⁷.

The IL presents the mystery and the grace of the Episcopate from the perspective of beauty, or the theological aestheticism. The image that – following the progress made in some recent documents – proposed to shed light on the spiritual figure of the Bishop is the image of Christ, the Good Shepherd.

In explaining this image, the IL says: “Jesus Christ, therefore, is the Shepherd who joins in his person the truth, goodness and beauty of the gift of himself for the flock. The beauty of the Good Shepherd consists in the love with which he gives himself for each of his sheep and the love which creates a knowing and loving relationship with each one ….. The beauty of the Shepherd shines in the beauty of a Church who loves and serves; a Church who is the reason of hope for a humanity which is driven by the divine inner stirrings of the heart towards what is beautiful and saves, as seen in the face of the Lamb-Shepherd.” ³⁸

The spirituality of the Bishop finds its image and goal in this image: he does not replace the Good Shepherd, but makes him sacramentally present within his particular Church!

The vocation of a Bishop is beautiful, as the liturgy of episcopal ordination expresses step by step. It is good for us, in a spirituality of communion, to appreciate the beauty of the other vocations and this beauty arouses in us love, appreciation, and a desire for communion.

The beauty of the episcopal vocation is seen, first of all, in its Trinitarian stamp³⁹. The Bishop receives the seal, the stamp of the beauty of the Trinity: he is an image of the Father-Mother⁴⁰, a living image of the Lord Jesus, as head and spouse of the Church and anointed by the Spirit⁴¹. The insistence on the words “image,” “icon,” “sacrament” makes us see that the episcopal vocation is, first of all, a “symbolic,” vocation, one that is “representative” and referential. In the same way that since Vatican II the vocation to the consecrated life has been seen fundamentally in terms of symbol, sign value, representation, so too the vocation to the episcopal ministry is presented in the same perspective, not only as a charismatic element, but as a sacramental, charismatic-constituitive  element, that is part and parcel of being Church.

Rediscovering our vocation as a “sign” and “symbol” in the Church and in the world in correlation with the similarly symbolic and representative vocation of the ordained ministers and of the Christian community, will open up new horizons for a symbolic ecclesiology that will do justice to the classic expression of “Ecclesia, Sacramentum Mundi.”

The ordained episcopal ministry shapes the spiritual reality of the Bishop, who is called to be a living image of Jesus, the Pastor and Spouse. The result is that, first of all, it fosters within his person a love for the Church and a passion for the communion of all (reunites the children of God who have been scattered⁴². All this is summed up in the “pastoral charity,” the soul and root of ministry and of his particular spirituality⁴³. We religious also feel called to live “perfecta caritas,” or the main commandment that shapes our life as a life of obedience to the Covenant. We too participate, in varying degrees, in the “pastoral charity” of the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. We make it present in our many forms of ministry, by which we carry on the Church’s mission, led and encouraged by our Pastors.

Here it is good to recall that which we say about all types of particular spirituality: when that which is “proper” becomes unique, exclusive, isolated, affirmed as superior, the spirituality turns into idolatry. It is only in the communion of the Spirit, in the “mutua relatio” that all the particular types of spirituality receive their ecclesial stamp and perfection. The exchange of gifts is an essential element of the spirituality of communion. No one, no group, can of themselves make progress on the spiritual journey without a correlation with other types of spirituality.