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?
Certainly, it involves bringing the Gospel to more people. But it is more than this. Quoting Paul VI, JP II says:
"The Church evangelizes when she seeks to convert, solely through the divine power of the message she proclaims (cf. Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18; 2:4), both the personal and collective consciences of people, the activities in which they engage, and the lives and concrete milieux which are theirs. Strata of humanity are transformed: for the Church it is a question not only of preaching the Gospel in ever-wider geographic areas or to ever-greater numbers of people, but also of affecting and as it were challenging through the power of the Gospel, mankind's criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation. "
Being a fallen people and attracted to sin, our culture can develop error. It is part of the mission of the Church to make the Gospel present in culture so as to "[combat] and [remove] the error and evil which flow from the attraction of sin which are a perpetual threat. She never ceases to purify and to elevate the morality of peoples.... In this way the Church carries out her mission and in that very act she stimulates and makes her contribution to human and civic culture."
To accomplish this, there must be more than bishops and priests preaching what the Church teaches. There must be the faithful living it in the midst of the world. And most of all, this is a mission given to the lay faithful who have the opportunity to be present "in the privileged places of culture, that is, the world of education—school and university—in places of scientific and technological research, the areas of artistic creativity and work in the humanities." That presence is to be one of "courage" and "intellectual creativity". It cannot merely be deconstructionist, but must also be positive:
"Such a presence is destined not only for the recognition and possible purification of the elements that critically burden existing culture, but also for the elevation of these cultures through the riches which have their source in the Gospel and the Christian faith."
To this end, the late pontiff makes a particular call to those involved in the media, or social communications. Why? The Church rightly recognizes the "privileged way at present" that the media plays in "the creation and transmission of culture". This fact should be obvious. Just think of the power that movies have had on shaping the aspirations of the young (Star Wars anyone?). Consider the image of America that has been transmitted around the globe by our television shows and films, and the change it has created in other nations. One only needs to look at the view of America in the Islamic world to see the truth that culture, actual and perceived, good and bad, is transmitted by media.
(For our country, I think Cardinal George would add the law as the other great transmitter of culture.)
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