Charity Builds the Church Carlo Maria Martini Cardinal Archbishop of Milan We should endear ourselves to the Bible's

message on the centrality of charity (with its characteristics of personal sharing, gratuitiousness, total and unconditional dedication, and dependence of one's whole being on God) in the life of the Christian and the life of the Church. In so doing, we should see how this bbiblical message was heard and interpreted in the different ages of Christian tradition, so that we can better apply it to the problems we face today. We shpould assume this patient and loving study by limiting ourselves to several summary enunciations which come more from the difficulties and problems that we've experienced in our lived faith in the Church. It is necessary to clearly confirm that charity occupies a decisive place in the constitution of the Church and the formation of the Christian life. The Word and the Sacraments, in which the Father's love is made present in Jesus and communicated by the Spirit, objectively and constitutionally aim towards charity by which the whole Church truly, really and actively acts "in memory of Jesus." Every Christian becomes capable of goving himself, body and blood (that is, totally and personally) for the good of his brothers and sisters. Therefore, the entire prophetic, liturgical, ministerial and charismatic life of the Church aims toward that charism which is above all other charisms (1 Cor 13) and becomes authentic and unchangeable. The service of love, whether within in the community or in its missionary expression, cannot be considered something to delegate to someone else. Rather, it demands everyone's participation, even though it finds only in some that prophetic and stimulating proposition which would benefit all the others.