The topic for our readings centered on notion of “The One
Church.” During Catholic liturgies,
the congregation recites the Nicene Creed
after the homily. It is a
profession of faith that has a line that announces and affirms belief in “one,
holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”
Francis A. Sullivan S.J. seeks to establish what is meant by “one” as
understood in Scripture and official church teachings. He speaks particularly well about the
issues that the early Christians faced in terms of unity. During his ministry, Paul wrote letters
addressing the tension between Jewish Christians who kept Jewish laws and
believed in Christ with the Gentile converts who did not follow the customary
Jewish traditions but still believed in the gospel. This was a great challenge for Paul, as the two groups did
not have much in common outside of their being newly converted. This led me to consider my own ministry as an educator - am
I promoting a vision of unity in the classroom and what lengths do I go to in
order to promote it? Am I extending an invitation to all students of all
backgrounds and abilities to full and active participation not just in the
classroom and school community, but in the larger context of the Church? According to Lumen Gentium describes
the visible bonds and unity of the people of the Church “through profession of
faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion” (p 14). What of these can apply to my classroom?
In addition to having a shared faith as grounds for being united as "One Church," I especially liked how Sullivan points out Paul’s sense of
communion included in sharing of gifts, especially to the poor. From Sullivan’s perspective, the
sharing was not a one-sided distribution of gifts. He calls it “mutual sharing-of spiritual goods coming from
the older Jerusalem church, and of material goods, coming from the richer
Gentile churches” (43). I am sure
that in this case, each group valued what they received and felt worthy knowing
that they could contribute something important to the overall Christian
community. In the spirit of sharing, I came across this video, an experiment
that recorded the reactions of children when they realized they received
unequal food portions. Perhaps in the Christian world there would be no need for the experiment as it should be an expectation. I do not think the makers of the video were necessarily promoting the idea of Church, but I thought I would share the video nonetheless as it does make a point and is cute! As for my
praxis, I can ask myself what mutual sharing and exchanges occur in the
contexts of my ministry? What are
the implications of a shared faith in the gospel by the various members of my
school community, including my colleagues, administration, students, and
parents?
What readings and thoughts prompted reflection for you in
your own ministries that connect to the idea of “One Church?”
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| How do you others perceive "One Church?" |
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog Moe! You really brought the reading to life for me when you asked the question about how we promote unity in our own lives..in the workplace, classroom, and relationships. This is something that I would really like to take more time and reflect on and I really appreciate you posing that question. It resonated with something in the Sullivan reading for this week that really stood out to me. This idea of unity that you posed had me reflecting as I read. Sullivan wrote, "It is not hard to see why the term 'communion' became especially associated with the Eucharist, in which Christians share the same body and blood of Christ, thus forming and strengthening their bond of unity with the Lord and with one another”. (38). I have always thought of the sacrament of the Eucharist as a very special uniting of ourselves with Christ but I had never really reflected on how the sacrament unites us to one another when we receive it. As I spent time meditating on Sullivan’s words I realized just how much communion really does bring us all together in many symbolic and spiritual ways, we all drink from the same cup and we are all united to the one Christ who died for all of us as St. Paul points out many times in the early Church.
This idea of unity in the Eucharist with one another and with Christ has given me a new challenge in living out the sacrament of the Eucharist by striving to live in unity with those who are a part of our Church community, and also to reach out to those who may feel excluded because all are one in Christ and we need to work in a way that makes all people feel included and loved.
In your writing on the sharing of gifts Moe I was reminded of something else Sullivan wrote that touched me. Although he was referring to being inclusive and aware of the gifts of non- Catholic communities, I think it also applies to how we use our gifts and talents that God has given us. “The means of grace have to be used well to achieve their full affect, and possession of a fullness of means is no guarantee of how well they will be used” (28). I think this quote is beautiful and speaks to how we need to share all the gifts and graces that God has endowed us with to their fullest potential. There are some who do not have much but do extraordinary things with what they have…I am reminded by this passage to examine what I am doing for others and how well I am using the gifts and talents I have for the common good of the community. These readings and your blog Moe really inspire a lot of reflection!
Rose and Moe, I appreciate the point you make about community->communion->Eucharist->sharing of gifts. You are right in identifying the intimate connection there, and I see this powerfully in the video of the children. This little experiment shows two kids with one sandwich, and naturally, they split it and share. In the Eucharist, we gather in communion to express, experience and nourish our communion. We have the one sandwich in that. In some ways, I see the ethical imperative to " go in peace and glorify the Lord by our lives" (words of the dismissal) as the taking of that sandwich and sharing it with those who yearn for the Good News, for fellowship, meaning, hope, peace, belonging in the world. Blessings, Daniella
ReplyDeleteDear Class,
ReplyDelete“The One Church” theme of reading for this week is certainly one of the most enduring sources of contentious interpretation in the history of God’s people, perhaps because it embodies one of the most illusive of dichotomies: inclusion/exclusion. On one hand it is evocative of the most serene harmonies, that of unity and on the other, the dissonance of duality. Subjectively it appears that all corners aspire to the same ‘oneness of the church’, yet the depictions of thus are as varied as the voices that seek to express it. Insofar as it has been referenced by virtually every source in our course materials this semester, it is apparent to me that this pursuit is scripturally rooted in Galatians 3:28 wherein we find Paul admonishing Peter in one of the earliest and most important of all theological contestations. From that day and to this day the same struggle continues between and within every Christian denomination on earth. From my perspective, on the perimeter, these sound like testimonials of self-fulfilling espousals of righteous authenticity and these inherently biased systems keep us from the underlying reality that we are in essence One in the Spirit, no matter how emphatically we avert our awareness of such. He fact that this religious rivalry has been so fervently sustained is evidence in and of itself that these disparities surely cannot be the will of God. Even more to the point one finds Sullivan on page 65 purporting, “the Catholic Church is the ‘one true church of Christ,’ provided that by ‘true church of Christ’ we mean the church that has preserved the unity and institutional integrity that Christ wants his church to have.”
If one in good faith accepts this premise, then one must also be prepared to respond to the following questions which this
thought invokes:
1) To what extent and by what methodology is the church unified?
2) To what extent and to what degree of transparency has the church maintained institutional integrity?
3) What substantiation exists that Christ even wanted us to have a church?
Peace ~ Walter