Dear People Whom God Loves,

VII

REFLECTIONS ON

VATICAN COUNCIL II

Continuing.   The same document says that the priest serves the baptismal priesthood through the pastoral leadership of empowering the people of God and ordering the many gifts of the baptized in a way that those gifts will help the church in its mission to the world.

How does the priest preach the Good News?  In word by reminding the community that the Good News is the self-emptying love revealed in Jesus that is for all of us and that we are all to grow in that kind of love.

More importantly.   If the priest does not exemplify that kind of love—in his own frail way—his words will ring hollow.

As leader of the Eucharist, he himself is to remember—and remind the community as well—that when we celebrate and partake in the Eucharist, we are in personal contact with that self-emptying Love…also, to remind us that that Love is understanding, merciful, forgiving, challenging, energizing, and wanting our good and happiness more than we do ourselves.

Finally, baptismal status is not  a status of pride, honor, or power but a call to serve.  In the same way, ordained status is not a status of pride, honor, or power but a call to serve.

We are all in this together as a whole church and as a whole world.  God is the creator and lover of everyone and everything.

Smile, God Loves You,

Father Clay

Dear People Whom God Loves,

VIII

Reflections on

Vatican Council II

In chapter 10 of this book, Keys to the Council , Gaillardetz and Clifford give the background to council document “On the Church in the Modern World”.  This is a summary of their thoughts.

•           The early Christians saw the world as messy and broken by sin, but it was also the place where God comes to us in Jesus.

•           When the church was made legal under the emperor Constantine, we were called to live in the world but to be aware of the need of redemption.

•           Then came Christendom, a kind of partnership between the church and civil society.

•           Christendom was not able to survive with the rise of modern science and the nation-state.

•           With the Enlightenment came the emphasis on human reason and its challenge to church authority.

•           Consequently, came the church’s attitude of hostility to and fear of the world.  This attitude increased with the French Revolution.

•           The church called this development “liberalism” and attacked them in the middle of the 19th century.

•           At the end of that century, Pope Leo XIII engaged the world in a more positive way, though very cautiously.

•           However, with the rise of fascist and communist states, suspicion of the world grew worse.  The church could not see that God’s grace could be active in the world.

•           With the encyclicals of Pope John XXIII in the early 1960’s, the vision of the world turned positive.  Now, positive engagement with the world is encouraged.

•           Pope Paul VI, who presided over the last three years of the council, spoke of this positive engagement as dialogue.

Next time we will continue with their thoughts on the document itself.

Smile, God Loves You

Father Clay

Dear People Whom God Loves,

IX

REFLECTIONS ON

VATICAN COUNCIL II

Originally, there was to be one document on the church.  Then, with the lead of Cardinal Leo Suenens, the council saw the need for a separate document on the church’s relationship to the world.  He was joined by Archbishop Dom Helder Camara of Brazil who asked, “Are we to spend our whole [time] discussing internal church problems while two-thirds of humankind is dying of hunger?”

— Part I of the document brought in something new.  That is…“the biblical notion of the human person created in the image and likeness of God”.

— Part II dealt with the practical question about marriage and family, economics and social life, and the fostering of peace and international relations.

— Some bishops were influenced by a more Augustinian theology.  That is…by the need for the grace of Christ which comes only from the church.

— Others were influenced more by a Thomistic theology.  That is…the grace of Christ is necessary; but it recognized the positive though limited potential of humans and human societies.

— Both perspectives are present in the document, but most agree that the more optimistic Thomistic approach is dominant.

— The original title of the document was “On the Church and the Modern World”.  This was changed to “On the Church in the Modern World Today”.

— This change suggests that the church is not entirely separate from the world and certainly not opposed to it.

— Dialogue.  The church has much to learn from the world as well as from the sciences and the various cultures of the world.  At the same time, the church can offer the world the good news of Jesus.  That news is the merciful healing that God is and has for all human kind.

— “Finally, the whole church is the “leaven” for the world.  This says two things.  First, the clergy are not in “some self-enclosed ecclesiastical/spiritual sphere”.  We are all in this together.  Second, “leaven” works from within.  We must join with all people of good will to improve the human condition.

Smile, God Loves You,

Father Clay