Community
When I think of the word community, I
break it down to its root words: common and unity. Common means: of, relating
to, or being; belonging to or shared by two or more individuals or things or by
all members of a group; of the best known or most frequently seen kind, (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/common)
to name a few. Then I looked up unity. A totality of related parts: an entity
that is a complex or systematic whole; a condition of harmony; the quality or
state of not being multiple (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/common).
The reason for me doing this is because I needed clarification of my mind and
Spirit. In the readings, I was taken aback when I read on the bottom of page
23, “All those that have detached themselves from it must recognize it, and
return to it” (Sullivan, 23). I thought to myself, could I be that far off
course in my faith? God has given me such great gifts, and revelation…I kept reading, and began to see hope for my state of confusion. At the bottom of page 26 to the beginning of page 27, spoke of how the term “the church of Christ is the Catholic Church was changed to “the church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church. Also as I understand it that it was to ensure that we know the historic applications of the Catholic Church and the Church of Christ. This clarified the true teachings in my mind, because I had just read Lumen Gentium, Chapters 2, paragraph 14 which stated: “Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ would refuse to enter or remain in it, could not be saved. I take my salvation so seriously that I was completely shaken.
I really received a lot of understanding from this week’s readings. It was not just about a dogmatic approach, but about bringing God’s people to an understanding that as His children, we must forget about our own agendas, and work together towards spreading the Gospels of Jesus Christ. Scripture puts it better than I can, so I will leave you guys with this Luke 9:23 NKJV. “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+9%3A23&version=NKJV).
Dear Simone, these are excellent honest initial reflections for this important conversation. Given that we experience church today as multiple denominations, we have to grapple with the question of what unites and want divides us. Along with this is the role of the church's self understanding vis-a-vis other communities that profess the faith but maintain differences in theology, practice, structure, etc. This is a hard but Spirit-led conversation and I am looking forward to it. Blessings, Daniella
ReplyDeleteSimone you brought up some very important topics from the reading. I agree with your final reflection that as a Church we need to be working together to be spreading the Gospel of Christ, which was a Gospel of inclusion and healing. What meaning does our idea of Church take on when we think about these two terms of inclusion and healing. This is something I was thinking about as I read your reflection. How we do live out our catholicity in a way that brings everyone to the fullness of who Christ is and who God intends us to be as Church...The readings from Rausch resonated with me in this regard, "A church that excluded others on the basis of race, social status, or culture would not be catholic" (140). He also goes on to say on page 142 that a in order to claim fullness of catholicity we need to include other churches in that fullness. I find myself reflecting on how I can enter into this fullness through engaging in interfaith dialogue. I have been a part of faith groups within the Archdiocese of New Orleans but they were not interfaith groups and I think that is one thing that would enrich my understanding of catholicity and bring me to a deeper meaning of what church is about in its fullness. Faith is such an intimate and deep part of ourselves but it is also something that many of us share, and in my experience, sharing faith and beliefs also strengthens our understanding of Church and helps us to better understand one another in faith. This understanding of catholicity is not one I had studied before and so it has produced a lot to reflect on in terms of what it means to be a catholic church.
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