Coming Clean

Part of what I’ve been so busy doing lately is studying the documents from Vatican II and presenting a small subset of them to members of my parish as part of a whole parish catechesis program (fancy name for sunday school for people of all ages). In particular, I’ve been focusing on the documents that affect the Mission of the Church and the laity’s involvement in that. In total, I cover 5 documents:

Dignitatis Humanae DECLARATION ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Nostra Aetate DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS
Unitatis Redintegratio DECREE ON ECUMENISM
Orientalium Ecclesiarum DECREE ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCHES OF THE EASTERN RITE
Ad Gentese DECREE ON THE MISSION ACTIVITY OF THE CHURCH

Together the documents repaint the picture of the Church’s place in and relationship with the world. This is something of a rough sketch of what I’ve been dialoguing with my fellow parishoners the past few days.

Firstly, the Church acknowledges and affirms the need for religous freedom in the world. Religion is suppose to be an honest pursuit of Truth: answers to whence we come, where are we going, how we’re getting there, and above all else why? As such, each man must be free to be honest in himself, to who he is, and what it is he knows and believes to be true. That is not to say that the Church denies that all men are bound to come to the Truth of the Church, but rather that each man must come to the Truth of the Church himself, in honesty and sincerity. There is to be no coercion of people, whether it be by religion, state, or individuals. There is to be freedom and honesty and dialogue - an open society of religous ideas, striving in common purpose if not to common ends and conclusions.

Secondly, the Church realizes and acknowledges that She is not the only religion in the world. There are many other great religions in the world, and there are many things in common between these religions. With the Buddhists, the Church acknowledges and affirms a common contemplative life. With the Muslims, She acknowledges a common ancestry with Abraham and belief in the God of Abraham. With the Jews, the Church acknowledges Her full ancestry rooted in that great religion. It acknowledges the many moral precepts that all these religions and more share with the Church. In all these things, the Church seeks a kind of solidarity and common encouragement for the purposes of pursuing true, free religion.

But the Church also wishes all of mankind and especially these religions that She is the first and foremost and fullness of all Divine Revelation. Though there not be immediate agreement on this, the Church is ever ready to study with the peoples of these great religions and enter into honest and open dialogue. The ideas of commonality that is seen amongst the great religions, the Church sees as seeds of God’s grace, waiting and ripening for the coming of the Gospel. The people of the Church are ever called and are to be found ready to share the Gospel of Christ with all men so that God’s grace, that has been given to and received by men outside the Church, can come into its fullness of life.

As to its special relationship with others who claim Christ as their own, the Church acknowledges all who are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as proper owners of the title Christian and members of the universal Church. The Church again maintains its foremost position as bearer of the fullness of faith and revelation in this world but also wishes to begin and continue dialogue with those Christian groups outside of Her communion.

In Her relationship with the Churches of the Eastern rite, the Church acknowledges the validity of their history, their existence, and their Sacraments. Her members are to feel free, while remaining faithful to their local parish and diocese, to participate in the Eastern Traditions, especially during special occasions.

Lastly, all members of the Church, keeping in mind all that has been said beforehand, are to participate in the great work of the Church in the world: Mission, to go out. The Missionary work of the Church has long been co-opted by the ideas of travel to far-off lands of destitution and poverty; however, any work that would inspire the Christian life truly begins in the individual and in their family. The Missionary work must begin first in the home with parents rearing children - to teach the faith, encourage engagement in the faith, and to live faith’s works of love. And in these things, to live our faith externally as much as live it internally - let it indeed be an all encompassing passion. In this way, when families of faith join together in worship and common faith, greater encouragement and engagement can be found, and greater deeds be made manifest in the world for the glory of God. And finally, through the solid base of faith found in the whole community, the distant and far-off missionary work of the Church will become that more effective and lasting.

Missionary work is about identifying common purpose, participation, encouragement, and dialogue. The Missionary work should not be viewed as a kind of colonization motivated by a kind of manifest destiny. It is a life of love, not simply duty and obligation. Without love born of a life of faith, the Missionary work of the Churh will not be as lasting and potent as possible if it is successful at all.

And quit trying to tell me that I am! I want to go for a walk! I feel happy!! I feeel happyyyy!!!

Ugh … real life has made a nice attempt at killing all forms of hobby cyber time. I’m simply stunned I have the luxury to make this post. Between work, home, and church I’ve been uber-busy.

Unfortunately, I don’t see this trend coming to an end any time soon. I’ll be out of town again in a week, and Lord only knows what will happen after that. I think that things are going very good, professionally speaking, at work; however, the luxury of elbow room in my schedule up until now has always been a plus. Allowed me the time to do this kind of stuff or stuff that would allow for this time later in the day. As it is, I’m in the groundbreaking activities for a program of work they tell me is likely to carry me through retirement and beyond … and so, with such a scope in view, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done and the more done now, the happier the bosses are. Professionally speaking, this is all well and good.

God knows it’s making use of my talents, but I don’t know if it’s really what I ought to be doing. ‘Course, I don’t have very many other options at the moment except to up and quit (which really is no option unless the antichrist becomes in some way my boss - Bush and/or America haters, this is your cue).

So, feel sorry for me. Because that’s the only reason I’m writing this. Oh, and to say that I’m really sorry for not posting much of anything lately. I’ve got a number of interesting things I’ve been doing at Church I’d like to share … unfortunately, just not the time to really get it all written out. Such is life. Hope all is well with the rest of you. I’ve had very little time to follow along