Friday, June 15, 2007 at 2:02am
Catholics and the church-world problem
Column: God Said What?
In the 20th century one of the big problems in Christian life has been what's called the "church-world" problem.
That is, the question of the relationship between the church and the outside world. Some ecclesial bodies, like the ultra-conservative wings of Evangelicals and Pentecostals, have declared war on the secular world and have little use for modernity. They see little to gain from a heathen world of secularizers and liberal Christians.
Other ecclesial bodies, like the ultra-liberal wings of the mainline Protestant churches, accept much of what the modern world has to offer with little criticism. They almost disappear into the world as they embrace it.
Although the Catholic Church has sects that fit both of these categories, it generally tries to reside in the world but with the intention of dialogue with and transformation of it. We try to affirm and adopt what can mediate and reveal God's self and purposes in the world at large. However, we Catholics also try to position ourselves critically against the excesses and destructive practices of the world. At least in theory.
And many of the main sources that explain what the Catholic Church teaches about the church-world problem are the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). In particular, the document entitled Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes directly wrestles with this issue.
In Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council declared that there should be a genuine relationship between the church and the world. Each should inform and critique the practices and self-understandings of the other. In other words, the two should always be in critical dialogue. This is greatly different from the stance of the First Vatican Council that declared that there could be no beneficial relationship between the church and the world other than one of conquest and conversion.
Gaudium et Spes, however, rethought the stance of Vatican I. Instead of condemning the world by erecting a wall between the church and the world, this document of Vatican II called for a pathway of mutual enrichment and criticism that blurred the boundaries just a bit.
For example, in Chapter IV, Gaudium et Spes claims that the church "travels the same journey as all of humanity and shares the same earthly lot with the world: it is to be a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God." In other words the church, the pilgrim people of God who are organized as an institutional ecclesial body, is to be in relation with the world in order to transform it and to reveal the saving presence of Christ that is already there.
As Gaudium et Spes goes on, the Council states: "In pursuing its own salvific purpose not only does the church communicate divine life to humanity but in a certain sense it casts the reflected light of that divine life over all the earth, notably in the way it heals and elevates the dignity of the human person, in the way it consolidates society, and endows people's daily activity with a deeper sense and meaning. The church, then, believes that through each of its members and its community as a whole it can help to make the human family and its history still more human."
This means that the church not only reveals God in the world but it also reveals the true nature of humankind: that each woman and man is made in God's own image. In doing this the church reminds us that the mystery of God in Jesus is the final destiny of us all and that the good news of God's free gift of Self to the world gives the most profound meaning to our lives. In addition, God's free action in our lives teaches us to choose life over death.
This divine grace is open to everybody, and thus we all have the capability to reveal the divine to others. This is why everyone is called to be part of Christ's Church. We are clergy and laypeople, sinners all of us, yet as we meet the Risen Christ and participate in God's self-revelation, we are given the gift of becoming small sacraments.
In this case, by the word "sacrament" I refer not to the ritual distribution of grace but rather to the mystery of how human beings, individually and socially, are able to make God present in the world in small ways. It's a tall order, but Gaudium et Spes challenges Christians, especially of the Catholic variety, to become small sacraments that reveal the divine to others and to be humbled by having others reveal the divine to us.
In this way, we as small sacraments become small imitations of Jesus. We make manifest God's justice and truth that calls for repentance, God's love and mercy that heals and redeems, God's humbleness that challenges us to learn from the world and God's joy and hope at the promise of a better world that has already started to break into this one. As sacraments, we bind the world to the church and reveal that God is greater than any one of us alone could ever fathom.
Now Gaudium et Spes is a lengthy, complicated document. And it has much more to say than just this small strand that I've fleshed out here. Yet, this is one theological thread within the document that I've found helpful in thinking about the how the church and the world relate. As Christians, Catholic and otherwise, we are to embrace our role in the community of Jesus' disciples that is called church and in this role to begin to know God and make God known to others through our lives.
As Gaudium et Spes states: "Whether it aids the world or whether it benefits from it, the church has but one sole purpose — that the kingdom of God may come and the salvation of the human race may be accomplished. Every benefit the people of God can confer on humanity during its earthly pilgrimage is rooted in the church's being 'the universal sacrament of salvation,' at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God's love for humanity."
The world isn't always pretty. But then again, at times neither is the church. After all, we are still sinners, even though we aim to be Christ-like. Still, the optimism of this document is a hope-filled call to take our faith seriously. And we as the church can serve the world and reveal God's presence by taking this challenge to heart.
For the full text of Gaudium et Spes, see: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html.
— — —
Kevin Considine is a graduate student at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Recently, he was married to a most wonderful woman who keeps him in line and reads his columns to see if they make sense. He and his wife live on the South Side of Chicago. He welcomes comments, feedback or fits of anger and can be reached at {email considkp@yahoo.com}considkp@yahoo.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Kevin Considine.
That is, the question of the relationship between the church and the outside world. Some ecclesial bodies, like the ultra-conservative wings of Evangelicals and Pentecostals, have declared war on the secular world and have little use for modernity. They see little to gain from a heathen world of secularizers and liberal Christians.
Other ecclesial bodies, like the ultra-liberal wings of the mainline Protestant churches, accept much of what the modern world has to offer with little criticism. They almost disappear into the world as they embrace it.
Although the Catholic Church has sects that fit both of these categories, it generally tries to reside in the world but with the intention of dialogue with and transformation of it. We try to affirm and adopt what can mediate and reveal God's self and purposes in the world at large. However, we Catholics also try to position ourselves critically against the excesses and destructive practices of the world. At least in theory.
And many of the main sources that explain what the Catholic Church teaches about the church-world problem are the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). In particular, the document entitled Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes directly wrestles with this issue.
In Gaudium et Spes, the Second Vatican Council declared that there should be a genuine relationship between the church and the world. Each should inform and critique the practices and self-understandings of the other. In other words, the two should always be in critical dialogue. This is greatly different from the stance of the First Vatican Council that declared that there could be no beneficial relationship between the church and the world other than one of conquest and conversion.
Gaudium et Spes, however, rethought the stance of Vatican I. Instead of condemning the world by erecting a wall between the church and the world, this document of Vatican II called for a pathway of mutual enrichment and criticism that blurred the boundaries just a bit.
For example, in Chapter IV, Gaudium et Spes claims that the church "travels the same journey as all of humanity and shares the same earthly lot with the world: it is to be a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God." In other words the church, the pilgrim people of God who are organized as an institutional ecclesial body, is to be in relation with the world in order to transform it and to reveal the saving presence of Christ that is already there.
As Gaudium et Spes goes on, the Council states: "In pursuing its own salvific purpose not only does the church communicate divine life to humanity but in a certain sense it casts the reflected light of that divine life over all the earth, notably in the way it heals and elevates the dignity of the human person, in the way it consolidates society, and endows people's daily activity with a deeper sense and meaning. The church, then, believes that through each of its members and its community as a whole it can help to make the human family and its history still more human."
This means that the church not only reveals God in the world but it also reveals the true nature of humankind: that each woman and man is made in God's own image. In doing this the church reminds us that the mystery of God in Jesus is the final destiny of us all and that the good news of God's free gift of Self to the world gives the most profound meaning to our lives. In addition, God's free action in our lives teaches us to choose life over death.
This divine grace is open to everybody, and thus we all have the capability to reveal the divine to others. This is why everyone is called to be part of Christ's Church. We are clergy and laypeople, sinners all of us, yet as we meet the Risen Christ and participate in God's self-revelation, we are given the gift of becoming small sacraments.
In this case, by the word "sacrament" I refer not to the ritual distribution of grace but rather to the mystery of how human beings, individually and socially, are able to make God present in the world in small ways. It's a tall order, but Gaudium et Spes challenges Christians, especially of the Catholic variety, to become small sacraments that reveal the divine to others and to be humbled by having others reveal the divine to us.
In this way, we as small sacraments become small imitations of Jesus. We make manifest God's justice and truth that calls for repentance, God's love and mercy that heals and redeems, God's humbleness that challenges us to learn from the world and God's joy and hope at the promise of a better world that has already started to break into this one. As sacraments, we bind the world to the church and reveal that God is greater than any one of us alone could ever fathom.
Now Gaudium et Spes is a lengthy, complicated document. And it has much more to say than just this small strand that I've fleshed out here. Yet, this is one theological thread within the document that I've found helpful in thinking about the how the church and the world relate. As Christians, Catholic and otherwise, we are to embrace our role in the community of Jesus' disciples that is called church and in this role to begin to know God and make God known to others through our lives.
As Gaudium et Spes states: "Whether it aids the world or whether it benefits from it, the church has but one sole purpose — that the kingdom of God may come and the salvation of the human race may be accomplished. Every benefit the people of God can confer on humanity during its earthly pilgrimage is rooted in the church's being 'the universal sacrament of salvation,' at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God's love for humanity."
The world isn't always pretty. But then again, at times neither is the church. After all, we are still sinners, even though we aim to be Christ-like. Still, the optimism of this document is a hope-filled call to take our faith seriously. And we as the church can serve the world and reveal God's presence by taking this challenge to heart.
For the full text of Gaudium et Spes, see: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html.
— — —
Kevin Considine is a graduate student at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Recently, he was married to a most wonderful woman who keeps him in line and reads his columns to see if they make sense. He and his wife live on the South Side of Chicago. He welcomes comments, feedback or fits of anger and can be reached at {email considkp@yahoo.com}considkp@yahoo.com{/email}. © copyright 2007 by Kevin Considine.