Church, Sacraments and Liturgy
February 2, 2015
Lumen Gentium 3, 4, 6
Understanding the
history of the Roman Catholic Church, from Vatican I to Vatican II, in
particular, Lumen Gentium provides an
image of amazing growth and risk taking by a formidable world institution. The
depth of the document establishes its richness while still being unfolded in
the Church and world over 50 years later. The largest and slowest change I have
witnessed is the style or language of the Church that communicates inspiring a
change in one’s behavior or a conversion to choose living the Way of Christ,
rather than ordering behavior and consequential punishment, as in the Canons of
Vatican I. It seems to have taken a generation or two before clergy began shaping
their homilies to mirror the invitation of Jesus to follow Him, and to cease
using language of force to get the flock in line. In the confusion and/or
rejection of Vatican II and/or the Catholic Church, many members and their
children fell away from the Church. Unfortunately, one or two generations of
young laity “in formation” has missed hearing of the tenderness of God. It will
take much work for all to re-do the formation of those educated by pre-Vatican
II Church representatives and parents and their children who never received the
primary formation grounded in invitation, but, rather, “my way or the highway.”
The open invitation to all to God’s plan for humanity issues hope for those who
may change their self-centered ways and choose a mature growth for human
flourishing based on graciousness and gratuitousness when God is their
priority.
The document beautifully invites all the
faithful to live as examples to all human beings of being fully human and alive
as designed to be so by God. In doing so, the faithful share in the prophetic
office that “man is made for communion with Holiness itself....”All the
faithful support and “share in the Church’s mission to the world” (Rausch, Towards, 33). The Church and the world
are meeting each other at a time when so many, though not all, advocate for
unity in diversity rather than uniformity. Like all groups, the different
Church communities take on a characteristically Catholic aspect that is shaped
by its individual members that make up their community. The slightly different
make-up of each community yields different chrisms and their respective uses
and emphasis in a diversity of ways all for the benefit of the whole Church.
May those who have inspired us to walk with Christ, encourage us to inspire
others to share the journey. I hope to foster to my family,
friends and those who I encounter for even a short time a sense of being a part
of a wonderful diversity of people who choose to act in love and tenderness
worthy of my humanity from God.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post -it was thoughtful and well said. Like you, I was very inspired by this week’s readings about the church’s “amazing growth and risk taking” from its infancy until present times. Steering an institution as large as the Catholic Church has proven a difficult task; but, a task that the church has taken up, time and time again throughout the ages. It is my humble opinion that the beautiful, all inclusive language of Lumen Gentium was ahead-of-the-times and partly for that very reason, it has taken a lifetime for some of us who were born before Vatican II to assimilate its teachings, and yes, some Catholics have “fallen away” from the church because of it. Changing the mindset of a community and instituting sweeping change is bound to cause resistance. The societal prejudices and ingrained pre-Vatican II church teachings may also have been impediments to accepting the liturgical changes brought about by these documents. But, change has come, and will continue to blossom through the efforts of a formidable army that includes, lay persons, religious, theologians, bishops, the magisterium, and the pope. As Rausch maintains, “the Spirit is limited to neither hierarchy nor text; it is present in the whole church” (Rausch, Towards, 130).
I would like to offer my perspective in answer to Kathy’s question in her blog post, “But is this view of the leadership in the Catholic Church, as more inclusive instead of exclusive, the working practice of the Church, or is the Pope still viewed as the infallible ultimate leader by most practicing Catholics?” As a cradle Catholic and someone who has lived both before and after Vatican II, I would answer emphatically that “yes” the view of the leadership in the Catholic Church is more inclusive than exclusive. Has the church made mistakes and have there been some Popes that were not the best role models? Yes, both are true. But that has nothing to do with the infallibility of the Pope on issues of faith and morals. In addition, “for Lumen Gentium, hierarchical authority is grounded sacramentally, not on delegation from the pope” (Rausch 122). There is a very good article about infallibility on the New Advent website, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07790a.htm#V.
In my practice of spiritual direction it is apparent that a person’s age has a lot to do with their perspectives about the church leadership and teaching office. The younger generation is more inclined to see the magisterium as a teaching presence in the church that helps them to, as Rausch puts it, “ensure that the Catholic tradition remains a living tradition, able to reinterpret traditional teachings in language more appropriate to the time, address new questions, and occasionally reach new answers” (Rausch 126). Yet, there are many of the elderly people I minister to who still view the church as a hierarchy where whatever is said by them is law, rather than “an office through which the faith entrusted to the entire Church comes to expression” (Rausch 127). Just like the church, we are all a “work in progress.”
Sorry, I cannot get my links to New Advent or Lumen Gentium to work properly.
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