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DIOCESE of TYLER. Diaconal Formation Program. As we begin our journey together. Dear Students, I am Fr. Tim Kelly, pastor at St. Mary M agdalene Parish in Flint.
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DIOCESE of TYLER • Diaconal Formation Program
As we begin our journey together • Dear Students, • I am Fr. Tim Kelly, pastor at St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Flint. • As well as the standard Master of Divinity, I also hold a licence in the history of theology and in patristic studies S.T.L. from the Gregorian University in Rome. I have a M.A. in Church history from the University of St. Thomas in Houston TX. • My particular interest is in the ecclesiology of the author of the Fourth Gospel. How did early Christian bishops read and preach the fourth Gospel and what did it tell them about the nature and purpose of the Church?
Using our limited time together • We have four sessions of 270 minutes each. • You have already had 4hrs and 30 minutes of Canon Law today. • I will give you handouts to help you with assignments and in understanding the themes of the course. • We will stop three times for five minutes so that we can all get a little refreshed.
Our student teacher interaction • If you do not understand some word or phrase I use, you may ask there and then. • If however, you need to ask a more general question, write it down and give it to me at coffee break. • Each week, I will allow 30 minutes for classroom discussion. 4:00pm – 4:30pm • You may email me if you want to clarify any matter in the course lismakeera@embarqmail.com
A few ground rules • Assignments are expected on time. If you need my advice on assignments feel free to call me or email me. I will be glad to help you. • You may take notes. Please do not use recorders or your Iphone to record what I teach. A few days after each class, I will send you a transcript of the class lecture.
We must hasten slowlyFestinalente • You are all busy people, with jobs and families. • I studied theology with little distractions for 7 years. • So I appreciate how difficult this is for you. • But we must try to get enough understanding of the nature and purpose of the Church that you, as deacons, understand the different roles played by Catholics within the Church, the reasons behind nowledge.
AUGUST 25th 2012 • The four marks of the Church (30 mins) • The Church as the locus for the ‘regula fidei’. (15 mins) • 1:30pm • Biblical background and references. • O. T. precedent. • New Testament references to Church. • Johannine ecclesiology. • 2:30pm Holy Orders. • i. The historical development of the Episcopal order. Acts of the Apostles, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch,
ECCLESIOLOGY • Ecclesiology is the study of the nature and purpose of the Christian Church
Ecclesiology discusses our relationship with Christ • Because ecclesiology is a study based on the Christian faith that the church is the Bride of Christ who is still alive and rules the church, it also discusses her relationship with her spouse Jesus Christ and his activity with our present world through the Church consisting of his own people under the guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit. • Jürgen Moltmann - , "every statement about the church will be a statement about Christ. Every statement about Christ also implies a statement about the church,"
PATRISTIC WRITERS???? • Generally we say that the patristic writers or Patristic fathers are those who succeed the Apostles. • This is somewhat simplistic but will be fine as a definition to begin with • The earliest writer who is not an apostle was said to be Clement of Rome. • Ignatius of Antioch is a major early Patristic Father and writer • Polycarp of Smyrna knew Ignatius and received a letter from him. Polycarp knew the Beloved Disciple
Patristic ecclesiology • The early and patristic Church –up to the 8th century approx. believed and wrote of the Church as a community based on Word and Spirit. • The Word had entered into human history at the Creation. • As the Western Church comes into contact with Charlemagne and Leo and the Holy Roman Empire, the centrality of the Spirit tends to give way to law.
The Church Unfinished; ecclesiology through the centuries. • Bernard P. Prusak is professor of Ecclesiology in Villanova university often refers to the patristic idea that the Church can become young again. • That image was mentioned in Lumen Gentium 4:"the Spirit by the power of the Gospel rejuvenates the Church.“ The Council's view reflects the second-century apocalyptic work, The Shepherd of Hermas, which portrayed the Church as a haggard old woman who gradually becomes younger and more beautiful. • Venerable Bede (England circa 800 ad) had a similar idea about the continuous growth of the Church when he wrote that "every day the Church gives birth to the Church"(PL93: 166). Leonardo Boff in our own day speaks often of "ecclesiogenesis."
List of terms and biobliography • Ecclesiology enjoyed a renewal in the 20th century, having been largely overshadowed by systematic and moral theology for several centuries. • I want to give you a few names and terms which may help you to grasp better what I am saying. • Henri de Lubac. French Jesuit one of the most important figures in the revival of patristic theology and studies. He was involved in the movement known as “resourcement””- literally ‘going back to the original sources. He was made a cardinal in old age.
Congar • Yves Congar O.P. was a French Dominican priest/theologian. He was part of the movement to seek out and translate the writings of the Church Fathers. • He was silenced in the 1950’s. • Congar was particularly interested in the development of the liturgy. • John XXIII made him an expert advisor, a ‘peritus’ at Vatican II. • He was created a Cardinal by Pope John Paul II.
BOUYER • Louis Bouyer was a French Oratorian priest and scholar. In 1970 he published a classic text on ecclesiology, “L’Eglise de Dieu”, or “The Church of God: Body of Christ and Temple of the Spirit.”
Historical movement of the 20th century • 20th century has been distinguished by a determination to explore historical sources and to distinguish the authentic early Christian teaching from what comes about later, especially in the Middle Ages. • Historical research was not approved of by the Church at first and de Lubac and others were forbidden to publish or speak in public. • Angelo GiuseppiRoncaliwas one of the teachers who was warned to stop teaching Church history based on real sources in the reign of Pius X. Cardinal der Lai personally told him to stop using Duchesne’s history of the Church. He would later become Pope John XXIII in 1958. • The history that was taught for centuries in seminaries was really hagiography, a highly political charged version of events, in which the facts were less important than the indoctrination of the students with what the magisterium wanted the seminarian to hear.
The historian as Pope • Angelo Giuseppi Roncali was a teacher of History at the seminary in Bergamo in northern Italy in the first decade of the 20th century. • During the reign of Pius X (1903 – 1914) he was warned to stop teaching Church history based on real sources. Cardinal der Lai, prefect of the Holy Office personally told him to stop using Duchesne’s History of the Church. • He would later become Pope John XXIII in 1958. • His view of the world and of the Church stems from his academic training as a historian.
The mother of the sciences - history • The history that was taught for centuries in seminaries was really hagiography, a highly political charged version of events, in which the facts were less important than the indoctrination of the students with what the magisterium wanted the seminarian to hear. • This same attitude dominated the study and teaching of ecclesiology. • There was little mention of the process by which the Church came slowly to some point of understanding. • The arrival of historical awareness has changed the way we look at the Church and at the world.
LUMEN GENTIUM • Lumen Gentium is the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. It is one of the four Constitutions promulgated at the Second Vatican Council. • It is concerned with the nature and purpose of the Church. • It is a document on ecclesiology.
Marks of Church: In the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, we profess, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”. In the Apostles Creed, we profess “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church….”
ONE • Christ founded only one Church, based on the Apostles. Through many trials and troubles, that ‘people of God’ has survived. • It was in Antioch that they were first called Christians. • Do all Christians worship the same way? • Do all Christians believe exactly the same things? • What is the relationship between the universal Church and the local Church? • Does unity depend on uniformity?
Unity of the Church • Two words that need clarification • Unity • Uniformity • It is difficult to talk about Unity without talking about Catholicity in the same breath.
Peace and UnityPax et Unitas • In the Mass during the Communion, the priest prays a prayer to Jesus; “Lord Jesus Christ you said to your Apostles ….. And graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will, who lives and reigns, forever and ever. Amen. • The plea represents a constant concern within the ancient Church that survives to this day. • The peace and unity of the Church are about her internal condition, rather than concern about any outside attack. • Unity does not imply control or domination by one part of the Church. • The unity of the Church can exist as long as the Tradition and the Scriptures are followed.
Patristic insistence on Unity • The Fathers had an abhorrence of schism; their great goal was unity in Christ. In this they followed Paul’s lead as outlined in his letters to the Corinthians. Cyril of Jerusalem, writing in the middle of the fourth century, warns his new converts that they must beware of those who claim to be of the Church, but whose ecclesia is not of the Catholic Church. • “And if you are ever sojourning in cities, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is (for the other sects of the profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Onlybegotten Son of God.” Cyril of Jerusalem. Catechesis XXVIII, Chapter 27,2.
St. Cyprian of Carthage and the Unity of the Church • Influence of St. Cyprian. Circa 250 ad • St. Cyprian’s writings helped create a particularly African theology and ecclesiology which may have shaped some of Augustine’s ecclesiology. • His famous dictum that “One cannot have God for Father, who does not have the Church for his Mother.” • “Habere iam non potest Deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem.”
North African rigorism • Cyprian seems, at first reading to be a very rigorous theologian and bishop. However, extreme rigor was a mark of the North African Church. He was less rigorous that others of his time and place. • One of the abiding influences of Cyprian on the Church in North Africa was his insistence that all sins could eventually be forgiven, except the sin of schism. • To destroy the Unity of the Church – schism - was an unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit.
Cyprian’s legacy • Cyprian’s legacy to the original Donatists was exactly this attitude towards those who were believed to be responsible for ecclesial schism. Heretics, by rebellion against the Church and their violation of ecclesiastical unity, stand deprived of all authority over the Church’s sacraments. • Yet it was Cyprian who accepted that baptism outside the Church, though it should be avoided, was, nevertheless, effective in distinguishing a person as a Christian. • Augustine writes in Baptism against the Donatists Book VII, 13 that even Cyprian did not fail to recognize the necklace of the bridegroom even on the neck of an adulteress.
Cyprian on Schism • One of the abiding influences of Cyprian on the Church in North Africa was his insistence that all sins could eventually be forgiven, except the sin of schism. • To destroy the Unity of the Church was an unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit.
Ecclesial Unity celebrated in the Eucharist • Ecclesial unity is one of the concerns of Ignatius of Antioch in his letters. • “Take care to keep only one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup to unite us in his blood; one sanctuary; one bishop, together with the presbyters and the deacons.” Letter to the Philadelphians
HOLY • The Church is holy because Christ is holy. • Israel was holy because God is holy. • Maureen Tilley – well respected patristic theologian has written recently “The predominant use of the word ‘holy’ concerned the Holy Spirit. …Holiness was not so much an individual attribute as a communal one. …It is the Church and not the individual that is called ‘holy’ in the New Testament.
Maureen Tilley on ‘holy’ • We can gather a little about the patristic usage of the word ‘holy’ by the manner in which patristic bishops began their letters, their manner of addressing their recipients. “To God’s holy people who sojourn at Corinth, grace and peace…..” • Or ‘beloved of God, grace and peace….’ • It was intimately connected to being in the Church which was one and catholic.
Holiness in the Old Testament • In the O.T. God is holy. “for the Lord, your God is holy’. So holiness is participation in the life of God. • In the Old Testament ‘holiness’ was an attribute of a community or nation in communion or covenant with God. • All holiness was a gift given by God to some individual for the sake of the community or nation of Israel. • The prophets called for holiness, but it was a plea for national holiness, not personal piety.
Holiness in Gospels • At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, we find a saying closely paralleling those of Leviticus. Jesus says: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” • The same word ‘teleios’ is used to the rich young man who desired to gain eternal life when he asked Jesus about being good or, as we might say, being a saint (Mt 19:16-22 and parallels: Mk 10:17-22 and Lk 18:18-23). • That holiness and unity are intimately related is revealed in John 17:2
Holiness where sin is present among members of the Church • What happened when the reality of sin among members of the early Church is plainly visible? • In the Acts of the Apostles there were persons within the Christian community whose claim to holiness was less than stellar, e.g., Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus. • But it seems that if you had been baptized and not formally excluded, you could claim to be a member of the holy Church and thus, ipso facto, holy. • You shared the same Spirit in the holy kiss. • You ate at the same table of the Eucharist. • These were so much the signs of unity that refusing the kiss or the Eucharist to someone was a sign of their outsider, and therefore, unholy character.
St. Cyprian on holiness in the Church • St. Cyprian of Carthage, in the early 250s taught that the Church was a pure and pristine entity that was completely dependent on the Holy Spirit for that holiness. • North African pneumatology was very literal as indeed were most of their theological standpoints. • The bishop who himself possessed the Holy Spirit called down the Spirit on the baptismal water, the Eucharistic elements, and on ordinands. Evil had no place in this church. The ministers were sharers in the Holy Spirit’s holiness which pervaded the Church. • Even those who were baptized and claimed to be Christians but committed some grave sin were not part of that Church the same way other Christians were. This is the beginning of the understanding of the visible and invisible Church which is part of Augustine’s theology.
Clergy who had committed the sin of apostasy, for example, were estranged. They were outsiders to the holiness of the Church, because an unworthy vessel cannot be a temple of the Holy Spirit. • The Spirit literally fled apostate bishops. Their sacraments conveyed not grace, only the contagion of sin. By their sin they had transgressed the boundary and were outside the Church, where there was no salvation for them. • If they wanted to come back in, they needed to show repentance publicly so as not to corrupt holy Mother Church.
The Church and sinners • Cyprian’s theology had some serious errors. He allowed re-baptism early on during the first persecutions. • This was a grave error, one which he did correct later. • He and others believed that the Holy Spirit’s presence within a baptized person depended on a holy and good life. • This what many Christians believe today. • That is why we hear of non-practising Catholics being spoken of as ‘ex-Catholics’ or ‘former Catholics’
Church and sinners in our culture. • Cyprian fell into the same error as many modern people in deciding that sinners cannot be members of the Church. The sinner belongs to the public Church just as much as the saint. • Sinners join with the saints in worship. That is how we hope for their conversion. • Here in Texas and all over the South, the Christianity of the Great Revival of the 1890’s and again in the 1920’s made a serious theological error in allowing for the rebaptism of sinners who repented. • That mistaken belief makes its way into Catholic mind-sets also.
Cyprian’s serious error on re-baptism • Cyprian’s errors on baptism were caused by a siege mentality, a belief that the Church had to circle the wagons to protect its holiness. • The influx of new, perhaps less committed Christians also frightened some people. They feared the dilution of the corporate holiness of the Church through the contamination by sinful Christians. Their fear shows how far they had fallen away from the earlier view of holiness as an attribute of the holy Spirit.
CYPRIAN’S REVISED THEOLOGY • Later in life, Cyprian realizes his mistake. • He regrets that some Christians, while in the rigorous process of repentance and reconciliation, had died without the sacraments. • He began to speak of the Church as a place where reconcilaition was more readily available and where re-baptism was not necessary. • “We must fortify them with the Body of Christ.””he said, referring to returning Christians still on the journey back to full membership.
YVES CONGAR O.P on the holiness of the Church • Congar defined holiness as orientation to God, origin from God, belonging to God, and total reference to God. • The objective holiness of the apostolic institution of the church, is not due to any human goodness but rather because Jesus Christ, the Holy One, established the church as holy. • He presented the church in biblical terms as both the ‘holy temple’ (Ephesians 2:21) and the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:26-27). • He drew upon Thomas Aquinas’s explanation of the Spirit working holiness in the church by washing away sin, by anointing the faithful, by dwelling within them, and by inviting them to invoke God’s name.
Catholic • To be catholic implies universal. But that is not to say that the catholic nature or ‘mark’ of the church depends on being really present and working in every part of the world. • Catholicity is an attitude of Christian generosity, a willingness, and indeed a determination to go out and teach all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • The Church is catholic primarily because we all share a single revelation through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. • St. Paul placed this essential universality in context when he wrote of the Body of Christ. All the members need to play a part in the life of the Body and all those parts form part of the same Body. • In the first centuries of Christianity, travel and communication was poor. Thus, the various Christian communities developed according to the culture and way of life of the local country or city.
CATHOLIC • Where does the word originate? • It appears that Christians began to use the word in the second century. • The first evidence occurs in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch, his letter to the Smyrnaeans; “Wherever the bishop is, let the people be there, wherever Christ is, there is the catholic church.” • Universality was probably stressed because the early Church wanted its various outposts and far flung communities to be joined together as a single Body of Christ. • Polycarp of Smyrna wrote to the Church at Philomylium (2nd Cuntury) “To the Church of God dwelling as a pilgrim in Smyrna to the Church of God living as a pilgrim in Philomylium, and to all the people in all the holy and catholic church in every place. May the mercy and peace and love of God our father, and of Our lord jesus Christ be multiplied.”
CATHOLIC • There is a long history of Christian churches coming to believe that their manner of worship, derived from Revelation and their own customs and culture, is greater than the ways in which other Christians worship. • The most famous example of this denial of universality was when the majority Christian Church in North Africa, the Donatists, insisted that they alone were the true Christians, and that the other churches of the world were out of communion with them. • St. Augustine once teased them for their provinciality
Augustine defends the universality of the Church • “The clouds of heaven thunder their witness that God's dwelling is being constructed throughout the world, and yet all the while frogs are croaking from the swamp, "We are the only Christians"! • En. in ps. 95, 11
Universality/Catholic What weakens the universality of the Church? • Racism • Nationalism/Provincialism • Abandonment of missionary spirit • Schism • National or tribal exceptionalism
CATHOLIC • In the early Church, a Christian travelling away from home might take with him a letter from his own bishop confirming his Christian identity, so that he might then participate in the Eucharist in his host church. • Catholicity was also expressed by the gathering of bishops together in synods to discuss mutual problems and to share their common faith. • Catholicity is often associated with “çommunion’’. The fact that local churches shared the same sacraments, the same faith and the same desire for the conversion of the world brought them into a spiritual and indeed physical communion with each other. • This catholicity or communio ensured a delicate unity that was above the racial, language and cultural differences that were real among them.
CYRIL OF JERUSALEM ON CATHOLICITY • There is no explanation of the term until the mid-fourth century with Cyril of Jerusalem. (CatechesIs18:23) • The Church is catholic, he said, for five reasons: • “it extends to the ends of the earth; • it teaches all the doctrines needed for salvation; • it brings every sort of human being under obedience. • it cures every kind of sin; • and it possesses every form of virtue.”
CATHOLIC • In virtue of this catholicity, each individual part contributes through its own special gifts to the good of the other parts and of the whole Church. Lumen Gentium 13
APOSTOLIC • The Church is founded on the Apostles. • The variety of the patristic church was a large part of its wealth of theological expression. • By the 3rd century, a definite hierarchy of bishops had evolved. Patriarchal sees were revered more than others. • Rome was the primary patriarchal see of the West. This status was based upon her claim to her foundation by Peter and Paul. No other Church could claim two apostles as its founders. Peter’s accepted role as the leader of the Apostles also gave Rome immense prestige.
