Ekklesia, Part IV

This is the fourth article in an eight-part series on the nature and mission of the Church in the world today. As Roman Catholics, we believe that being a disciple of Jesus means living out our commitment through active involvement in the community called Church. In this series, we are exploring the origins and characteristics of the Christian community, as well as some of the challenges that the Church faces in the contemporary world.

The Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was a watershed event in the life of the Catholic Church. During the sessions of this ecumenical council, the bishops of the world considered themes and issues that touch on almost every area of the lives of Catholic Christians. To name just a few, they discussed divine revelation, the Church’s liturgy, modern culture and science, communications, war and peace, and religious freedom. It may be said, however, that the dimension of the Catholic faith that received the most sustained attention at Vatican II was ecclesiology, i.e., the understanding of the nature and mission of the Church. The bishops, along with the two popes who presided at this council (John XXIII and Paul VI), knew that they needed to say some important things about what it means to be Church today.

The bishops’ discussions about Church bore fruit in two very significant documents of the Council: the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (known in Latin as Lumen Gentium) and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes). In this part of our Ekklesia series, I will highlight a few of the salient features of Lumen Gentium.

When bishops meet in an ecumenical council or a synod, they usually do not create documents “from scratch.” Rather, drafts of “working documents” are prepared beforehand which are then considered by the bishops and amended as necessary. So, before Vatican II a preparatory commission engaged in extensive consultation around the world with bishops and theologians in order to produce a draft of a constitution on the Church. Something unusual took place, however, when the bishops discussed this initial draft at the opening session of the council in the fall of 1962. Many bishops expressed serious concerns about the draft that had been prepared. They thought that it did not have a sufficiently pastoral tone. Some claimed that it was too legalistic, overly focused on the clergy with insufficient attention given to the laity, and rather triumphalistic in its tone. The bishops at Vatican II took upon themselves the responsibility to “start over” in order to compose a credible and compelling statement about the nature and mission of the Church. A number of new drafts followed, with very vigorous discussion of each one, until the Constitution was finally approved in November of 1964.

If you have never read Lumen Gentium, I would encourage you to do so. While some parts of it may strike you as a little “heavy,” much of it is quite inspirational and makes for inspiring reading. Let me just highlight a couple of the major features of this important statement of the Church’s magisterium. First of all, the order of the chapters in the Constitution says something important. The first two chapters are entitled “The Mystery of the Church” and “The People of God.” Before delving into distinctions between members of the Church, such as the distinction between the clergy and the laity, the Council focused on what unites Catholic Christians in the community of faith. The first chapter is very biblical in tone, with many quotes from Scripture that shed light on different facets of the mystery of the Church. In a theme dear to some of the earliest Christian theologians, the origin of the Church is traced back to the blood and water flowing forth from the open side of the crucified Jesus, as depicted in the Gospel of John (19:34). The Constitution lifts up the biblical images of the sheepfold, a flock, a field, a vineyard, the building of God, the Jerusalem from above, and the Body of Christ. The bishops chose not to synthesize all of these images into one systematic account. Rather, they simply presented them so that they could evoke the richness of the reality that the Church is because of Christ. No single image is enough to exhaust the mystery of the Church.

In the second chapter, the phrase “the people of God” refers to the entire Church: lay women and men, clergy, and religious. This phrase recalls the covenant between God and the people of Israel in the Old Testament. It roots the life of the Church in God’s revelation to Israel, and it reminds us of the Jewish roots of Jesus and of the Christian community. We continue to have a close kinship with our Jewish brothers and sisters. Very importantly, the Constitution speaks of “the common priesthood of the faithful” at this early point in the document. Because of our common baptism, all Christians “are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood,” so that by our very lives we may give praise to the One who has called us out of darkness into his own marvelous light (see 1 Peter 2:4-10). The Constitution notes that this common priesthood of all the baptized and the ministerial priesthood of the ordained “differ essentially and not only in degree.” At the same time, these two priesthoods are ordered to one another, each sharing in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ. All Christians share in the priesthood of Christ and, in different ways, they are called to participate in the mission that Jesus gave to his disciples. These two “priesthoods” are not to be seen as competitive but as complementary.

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Robin Ryan, CP