Integrity

Evangelizing Culture

Reflections on CFL:  Paragraph 44

In Paragraph 44 of CFL, the late Holy Father turns his attention to the need to evangelize the cultures of the world and the important role the laity must play in accomplishing this.

What is culture?  Quoting Vatican II, JP II writes that culture includes:

"..all those factors which go to the refining and developing of humanity's diverse spiritual and physical endowments. It means the efforts of the human family to bring the world under its control through its knowledge and its labor; to humanize social life both in the family and in the whole civic community through the improvement of customs and institutions; to express through its works the great spiritual experiences and aspirations of all peoples throughout the ages; finally, to communicate and to preserve them to be an inspiration for the progress of many, indeed of the whole human race."

Culture, in essense, is the expression of humanity throughout history.  Thus, "only from within and through culture does the Christian faith become a part of history and the creator of history."  As I said recently to the folks over at Emerging SBC Leaders, this seems to me inherent to the Incarnation.   After all, God became man and dwelt among us.  Why would our carrying forth of the Gospel take a different method?  No, the Church must make the Gospel incarnate in the world's cultures.

Although not unique to our time, a dilemma of our age is the separation of culture from its Christian patrimony.  But what does it mean to evangelize culture? 

Co-Responsibility Of Lay Faithful In The Church As Mission

Reflections on CFL:  Paragraphs 32-34

As we await the election of our next pontiff, Integrity will continue to reflect upon the gift to the Church that was Pope John Paul II.   I can think of no better way to pay respect to our late Holy Father than to return to our reflections on CFL.  Inspired by a couple of posts over at Reformissionary and Emerging SBC Leaders, two SBC blogs I visit periodically, today we will focus on what the Holy Father has to say about the Church as mission and the laity's role and responsibility for that.

By mission we are referring to the Great Commission, that Jesus has sent us forth to preach the Gospel to all the ends of the earth.  For the Holy Father, being in communion with Jesus necessitates being missional.

"Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other to the point that communion represents both the source and fruit of mission:  communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion."

(See also 1 Jn 1:3.)  This mission of the Church isn't entrusted just to the clergy.  In fact, the Pope emphasizes that "the Lord entrusts a great part of the responsibility to the lay faithful, in communion with all other members of the People of God."  Quoting the Second Vatican Council, the Holy Father writes:

Acknowledge, O Christian, Your Dignity!

(Reprinted from Integrity's Vault of Records.)

Reflections on CFL:  Paragraphs 16 and 17

JPII concludes his introduction to the dignity of the lay faithful by focusing on our "prime and fundamental vocation":  "the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity."

As the pope rightly states, this isn't just a moral command. It stems from our connection to the Church and its great mystery. As "branches" of the "choice vine", we are to grow "with the same holy and life-giving energies that come from Christ."  But we must cooperate with the Spirit to grow in holiness.

How many of us contemplate whether we are striving to live out this call? If we aren't, we are doing the Church a disservice. For:

Serving The Person And Society

Reflections on CFL:  Paragraph 36

In this section, the Holy Father is beginning to discuss the mission of the Church and the way in which the lay faithful play a unique role in carrying out that mission.  But before the pope gets into specific ways, he writes:

"Having received the responsibility of manifesting to the world the mystery of God that shines forth in Jesus Christ, the Church likewise awakens one person to another, giving a sense of one's existence, opening each to the whole truth about the individual and of each person's final destiny.  From this perspective the Church is called, in virtue of her very mission of evangelization, to serve all humanity. Such service is rooted primarily in the extraordinary and profound fact that 'through the Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion to every person.'

For this reason the person 'is the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission: the individual is the primary and fundamental way for the Church, the way traced out by Christ himself, the way that leads invariably through the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption.'"

Go Into The Whole World

Reflections on CFL:  Paragraph 35

The Holy Father begins this part of CFL by reminding us all of the Church's fundamental mission:  to bring the Gospel to those who do not yet know Christ the Redeemer of man.

More and more, the Pope sees the lay faithful as important to this work.  On the one hand, the Pope sees this as a matter of necessity: 

"However, at present the missionary concern is taking on such extensive and serious proportions for the Church that only a truly consolidated effort to assume responsibility by all members of the Church, both individuals and communities, can lead to the hope for a more fruitful response."

But there is more to it than that.

Unique And Irrepeatable

(Reprinted from Integrity's Vault of Records.)

Reflections on CFL:  Paragraphs 28 and 29

In this section of CFL the pope explores the ways the laity participate in the life of the Church, both individually and as a group.

But his introduction to the section is of particular note. For it shows once again the personalist philosophy that is the foundation for JPII's understanding of the world. The pope tells us that:

"each Christian as an individual is 'unique and irrepeatable.'"

This is a resounding theme of the pope's philosophical writings.  Weigel, in his biography Witness To Hope, quotes a letter from JPII to Lubac, in which he writes that the "evil of our times consists in the first place in a kind of degradation, indeed in a pulverization, of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person." One can surmise that this conviction, in part, is drawn from JPII's familiarity with Auschwitz. (Knowing its impact on me when I visited there a few years ago, I can only imagine the influence of what happened there has had on those who were in Poland during WWII.) It is also why JPII believes St. Maximilian Kolbe is such an important witness. Rocco Buttiglione, in his book Karol Wojtyla: The Thought of the Man Who Became Pope John Paul II, reflects on a homily of JPII that makes my point:

The Hour Has Come For A Re-evangelization

Reflections on CFL:  Paragraph 34

Integrity's Vault of Records shows that our sequential reflections on CFL left off with paragraph 32.  As I said below, I don't intend to follow the same rigorous approach of before, but I figured it would be nice to continue our reflections on CFL with sections we haven't previously covered.

The Holy Father has long stressed (and I think most Christians readily agree with his read of the signs of the times) that:

"The present situation, not only of the world but also of many parts of the Church, absolutely demands that the words of Christ receive a more ready and generous obedience.  Every disciple is personally called by name; no disciple can withhold making a response."

These words immediately precede Pope John Paul II's discussion call for a re-evangelization of the world.  I think this is quite striking.   It is abundantly clear that the Holy Father does not see this re-evangelization of the world as just something that the laity can participate in, but as utterly dependent upon the laity's involvement.  With that, let's take a look at paragraph 34 of CFL.

A Prayer For The Lay Faithful

Seeing as Integrity is more of a devotional than news-oriented blog, I thought it only appropriate to share a prayer and invite all of Integrity's readers to join in that prayer.   (Add a comment to this post to signify that you have joined in this prayer.)

And who better to offer a prayer for the lay faithful than the Holy Father.  From the close of CFL: 

Does This Sound Like Your Parish?

A Reflection On Paragraphs 26 And 27 Of CFL

For those new to this blog, Integrity began as a paragraph by paragraph commentary on the Pope's Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici (The Lay Member's of Christ's Faithful People).   I don't plan to  rely on that approach as exclusively as I once did, but reflecting on CFL will remain a key element of Integrity.  Today, we will look at what CFL has to say about the parish.

For most of us, the parish is the primary way in which we experience and participate in Church life.    Unfortunately, most committed Catholics have nothing but complaints about the state of their parish.  Not all of those complaints are probably deserved, but there is no denying that the reality of parish life seen in the United States falls well short of the ideal.  What is the parish?  Consider Pope John Paul II's description in CFL: 

Evangelization

Keith over at Take Your Place is having an interesting discussion about why Catholics have such a viscerally negative reaction to the word evangelization.

It reminds me of an experience I had shortly after my "jump-start conversion" my freshman year of college.  That summer, my family drove to Alaska for vacation.  As anyone who has taking long road trips before knows, Christian radio stations dot the landscape.  On one of the days of the drive, my Dad tuned the radio to a new station that to anyone familiar with CCM would be recognized as a Christian station.  Well, my parents probably just thought it was a nice song.  But as soon as the DJ came back on and said the word Jesus both of their hands raced for the dash to change the channel.