III.- THE PRAXIS OF COMMUNION

            If we are speaking of mutual relations it is, most of all, while thinking of the Church’s raison d’etre, which is evangelisation. Communion and mission require one another. The power of communion makes the Church grow in breadth and depth⁵⁰.

            There are many challenges, according to the last chapter of the IL, that have an impact on the ministry of Bishops. The broad horizons opened up before the Bishops are yet other challenges to the quality of our life and evangelising activity. Although no explicit reference is made, as consecrated persons we are implicated, as active subjects, on all these fronts of evangelisation. How can we contribute, from our charisms, to a response to the new religious situation, to ecumenical dialogue, to the explicit proclamation of the Gospel, to missionary activity and co-operation, to inter-religious dialogue, to dialogue with persons of other convictions, to the problems of society and the marginalised, to those who are suffering, to the promotion of justice and peace? It asks us for an unequivocal witness of hope, and to make people believe that there is hope for the world. It is here that, on the one hand, the power of communion comes into play and, on the other hand, our capacity for resourcefulness and creativity.

            In the life of the Christian communities there are other dimensions that are also postulating a form of thinking, speaking and acting in organic communion: for example, vocations ministry, initial and ongoing formation, the ministry of spirituality.

            The credibility of communion is not so much an effect of the statements or words that we say about the mutual relations, but of the way we act in communion. It is in the convergence of the government of the particular Churches and of the government of our Institutes that our communion becomes a credible sign or a prophecy of hope in this complex, globalised world, filled with opportunities and signs of contradiction.