Entrance of the church on Lauriston Street
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Apr 14, 2010 – The hymns of Father James Quinn SJ are
found in almost every contemporary English language hymnal, taken from the
collection New Hymns ...
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For other people of the same name, see James Quinn (disambiguation). James J.Quinn SJ (21 April 1919 – 8 April 2010) was a Scottish Jesuit
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Salve Regina: James Quinn SJ.
Ecuminism 1987
The Clergy Review January 1987
Editor, Questions raised by the present state of ecumenism, 11
Articles
The Church, The Churches and the World
By James
Quinn, S.J.
Church of the Sacred Heart, 28 Lauriston Street, Edinburgh, Scotland
I The Church
The
manifold life of the Church
THE
CHURCH is the creation of the Holy Spirit, the covenanted sphere of his
operations in the world. The Church is essentially a mystery, not simply
an object of study as a 'religious phenomenon'. It is a mystery of faith, part
of the mystery of faith that is Christ, true God and true man, the one mediator
between God and mankind, the Head of his mystical Body which is the Church.
The Church can indeed be studied as a religious society. Part
of its organization is time conditioned, subject to change: this is what we may
call its ecclesiastical life. But its true life, what makes it
distinctively ecclesia or Church, is its God-given endowment as the
foretaste, the promise and the instrument of its final fulfilment in heaven. We
may call this its ecclesial life. This is not open to change.
The Church is therefore at once visible and invisible: one may say
that it is sacramental. Like Christ, the great and original sacrament,
revealing and communicating the divine life, the Church reveals and
communicates God's truth and love and life through outward signs. The church is
not wholly invisible, though its true life can be recognized only by the eyes
of faith.
To stress the human, visible side of the Church can result in a
false understanding of the meaning of the people of God, as if the
Church were modelled on a human community essentially unstructured and
democratic. The Church is a unique creation, 'not of this world', though composed
of human beings with all their frailty. But sinful humanity is called by God
into a special relationship with himself: they are a people brought into being
in the Holy Spirit, a covenanted community whose members are given an
individual vocation to holiness and assigned different functions within the one
Church, in particular the essential functions of Pope, bishops, priests,
deacons and the unordained faithful.
But we must not underestimate the ecclesiastical life of
the Church. Human beings need structures. There is a particular human value in
a certain degree of uniformity: in ritual, in the discipline of Christian life,
in customary devotions .. These 'incarnate' the Gospel in a living and human
way, but they can degenerate into lifeless routine. Change is important when
the pattern ceases to be a true expression of the essential life of the Church,
when the routine no longer supports and deepens the living of the Christian
life in fidelity to the Gospel.
The
formula of the Nicene Creed
The Creed drawn up by the Councils of Nicaea (325 A.D.) and
Constantinople (381 A.D.) is ir, regular and frequent use in the Catholic
Church. It contains a summary of the 'marks' of the Church: 'We believe in one
holy catholic and apostolic Church'.
The Church is one. Its unity is a reflection or. a sharing
in, the unity of the Blessed Trinity. The Church is a supernatural communion
of faith, hope and love. This communion is basically sacramental, centred
on Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Order. These sacraments create the eucharistic
community: that is the simplest and most profound description of the nature
of the Church. The Church gathered at the Eucharist ;, the fullest expression
of the Church's life, where Word and Eucharist together form the source of the
Church's vitality and the high point of its activity. The Eucharist is the
celebration of the Church's unity.
The Church is holy. The holiness of the Church is not only
the holiness of its members but tr.; holiness that is her essential endowment:
she is 'our holy Mother the Church'. The Holy Spirit entrusts her with the
distribution of his many", gifts: faith, hope and charity; prayer; the
sacraments; the prayerful study and authentic, proclamation of God's Word; the
means to h: the Christian life in fidelity to God's plan for human nature; the
many and varied 'charisms' of individuals
and communities,
The Church is catholic. It is catholic. i.e. universal, in
its mission, in its teaching (embracing the fullness of the faith). There is an
identity, an equation, between the local Church (i,e, the diocese) and the
universal (i.e. the catholic) Church. The local Church is catholic because of its
sacramental relationship to the Pope and the college of bishops (of which the
Pope is the head) through the person of its own bishop.
The Church is apostolic. It is in continuity with the
apostolic Church through its possession of the same apostolic authority, the
same content of faith, the same power of sanctification. There can be
development, but without addition, subtraction or distortion.
The
Church and the Eucharist
The great activity of the Church (i.e. of the Body of Christ in
head and members) is the Eucharist, the apex and the source of the Christian
life.
Before the Eucharist can be celebrated there must be formed the
priestly people through Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Order.
Baptism creates the active priesthood of the whole people of God.
Confirmation reinforces this.
Holy Order creates the specific priesthood of the ordained, which
enables the baptized (and the confirmed) to exercise their 'common' priesthood
in union with Christ and the ordained priest. Holy Order makes the priest an
instrument in the hands of Christ (in persona Christi in offering (as
part of the whole Church) the sacrifice of Christ the High Priest.
The Eucharist is the sacramental celebration of the Paschal
Mystery of Christ. The presence of Christ the High Priest is the key to
understanding the sacrifice of the Mass. There is an upward movement of
self-offering (of Christ, of the Church, of the priest, of the congregation)
before there is the downward movement in which the Father returns to us in
Communion the gift of his Son. The Eucharist is not only God's gift to us but
also our gift to God through, with and in Christ. 'Our gift' is
the gift of the totus Christus, of the whole Christ, of the whole
Church.
11
The Churches
The will of Christ
At the Last Supper Christ prayed for his Church, that it might be
one. Unity among all his .followers is clearly his great desire. This unity is to
be complete and perfect, having as its source and model the unity of Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
But Christians, though accepting Christ as their Lord, find
themselves divided from each other in different ways. In obedience to Christ we
must do all in our power to undo division- among Christians, and in their place
to build up true Christian unity.
The Second Vatican
Council, in its Decree on Ecumenism, points out that work for Christian unity
is a duty of every Catholic. It is a work for the whole Church, not for bishops
and priests only. Each parish should have its own contribution to make towards
the Church's commitment in this field.
The ecumenical
movement is essentially a meeting of Churches, through their members.
But it must not be simply the enthusiasm of the few: it must be the
responsibility of all, according to each one's talents and opportunities.
The
way of renewal
The Decree on Ecumenism also points out that the way to Christian
unity is through spiritual renewal within each Church, and in the life of every
Christian.
The unity of the Church is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the bond
of love. It is therefore a work that demands our co-operation through prayer.
Prayer is the first and necessary condition of work for Christian unity.
Work for Christian unity requires also the fruits of prayer in our
individual lives and in the life of the whole Church. It demands spiritual
renewal, holiness of life, fidelity to Christ.
It asks for a spirit of penitence for sins against charity. There
arc many personal and community barriers - suspicion, prejudice, lack of
charity, bad example - which must be removed before the Holy Spirit can heal
our divisions.
The spirit of unity
If we are to grow
together into the fullness of unity, we must first want unity. We must
want it, not for our own glory but in humble obedience to Christ.
We should want other
Christians to be one with us because we miss their presence and feel somehow
incomplete without them. We must see them, not as rivals or strangers, still
less as enemies, but as fellow-pilgrims who belong to us in a very real sense,
through our spiritual kinship with them by baptism.
There should be a
spirit of forgiveness where we may think that other Christians have wronged us. There should be a spirit of
repentance for our own sins against other Christians.
Above all, we should
not live in the past but in the reality of the present, and in hope of a more
Christian future.
The Eucharist and Christian unity
The Church is
essentially a communion of faith, hope and love. It is a communion with Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, as well as a communion with all its members in the Body
of Christ.
Baptism is the basic,
initial sacrament of Christian unity. It establishes a sacramental bond among
all who have been baptized.
Holy Communion is the
crowning sacrament of Christian unity, setting the seal on perfect unity.
The supernatural
communion which is the Church must be seen as a true community in itself, but
also as a community seeking to welcome into its unity the whole family of
mankind.
The Church can be its true self, the community of love, only
through its own unity in the Spirit, centred above all on the Eucharist, the
sign and focus of love, and the goal of Christian unity.
It is at the Eucharist that all prayer for Christian unity must
begin, and in God's good time receive its perfect answer.
III
The World
All things made one in
Christ
Christ was sent by his Father into the world to reveal the
Father's love for the world, and at the same time to bring that love into the,
hearts of all.
Christ founded his Church to continue his work of reconciliation.
Like Christ, the Church is a sign of God's reconciling love, and the appointed
means of spreading that love.
The Church shares the vocation of Christ: of reconciling all
things, in heaven and on earth, of uniting all mankind in one community of
faith and love.
This truth is a powerful incentive to our work for Christian
unity. If the Church is to be the perfect instrument of reconciliation and
unity in the world, it must first have found reconciliation and unity within
itself.
In praying and working for Christian unity we renew our vision of
what the Chruch is, and what it is called to be. Our vision as Christians is
nothing less than the vision of all things made one in Christ.
Church
and Kingdom
The Final Report of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops (24th
November-8th December, 1985) speaks of the relationship between human history
and the history of salvation in the light of the paschal mystery. 'There is
excluded the merely facile adjustment that would lead to the secularization of
the Church. There is also excluded a rigid closing of the community of the
faithful upon itself. What is affirmed is a missionary opening-up for the
integral salvation of the world. Through this all truly human values are not
only accepted, but fiercely defended: the dignity of the human person; the
fundamental rights of men; peace, freedom from oppression, misery and
injustice. Integral salvation, however, is obtained only if these human
realities arc purified and further raised by grace to familiarity with God
through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit' (D. 2-3).
While recognizing a proper autonomy of the secular world (cf.
Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, n.36),
the Church sees that her mission includes the renewal of the temporal order in
Christ (ibid., Decree on the Lay Apostolate, n.7). This renewal of the
temporal order is a particular work of the laity in virtue of the priesthood of
baptism. The Church is not only the dispenser of 'the mysteries of God' (1 Cor.
4. I): she is also the healer of a broken world.
There is no sharp distinction between Church and Kingdom, as if
the Church were separated from the world or wholly preoccupied with her own
'ecclesiastical' life. But the Kingdom of Christ - the Church of Christ - is
the preparation, through the gifts of the Spirit, for the Kingdom of heaven: it
is the anticipation, the foretaste and the instrument of the future 'Kingdom of
God' (sec I Cor. 15.24-28).
The Church exists not only to bring salvation to each individual,
but 'integral' salvation to the whole world, to bring the whole world within
the community of salvation, the new Israel. Its ultimate goal is to unite every
individual, every Christian body and the whole world in the one Church, to the
glory of God. The vision of the Church is the consecration of the world, so
that the world may be the Kingdom of Christ.
The quest for Christian unity is the identification, acceptance
and integration of all the elements that arc essential to the Church. In the
same way the Church's mission to the world is to bring the world into the one
community where it can find 'integral' salvation in the one Body of Christ. The
unity of the Church and the unity of the world find their common centre in the
Body of Christ.
Note
1: Some Sources of Misunderstandings
I.The
term 'Church' is a shorthand expression for a very rich complex of ideas:
-
the activity of God in creation: 'the Church' is the sacrament of
salvation for al!, i.e. the sign, promise and means of the fulfilment of God's
universal plan of transfiguration in Christ of the whole universe;
-
the partnership between Christ and his people in effecting this
universal plan;
-
the active partnership of the whole Christ (Christ
as head and the members of the his Body) in effecting this plan.
2.The
Christian is associated with Christ through membership of his Body, the Church.
This membership is begun through the justification given in Baptism.
-
All justification is a gift of God through Christ;
-
justification is not only received: it enables one to respond;
-
justification enables one to be an active member of the
Church in the order of grace.
3. 'Grace' is also a shorthand expression:
-
grace is primarily the activity of God,
-
mediated through Christ,
-
by which the Christian acts in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
4.The
Christian acting in Christ is part of the totus Christus, the
whole Christ, i.c. Christ as head and in his members, the tota redempta
civitas (the whole redeemed city) of St Augustine.
Note II: The Catholic Church and the One Church of Christ
In the course of the discussion on the Constitution on the Church (Lumen
Gentium) the Second Vatican Council changed a word in the draft text of n.8
from est to subsistit in. The text as promulgated reads as
follows:
'This
is the unique Church of Christ which we profess in the Creed to be one, holy,
catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour after his resurrection entrusted to
Peter as shepherd, and committed to him and the rest of the apostles to spread
abroad and rule, and established it for ever as 'the pillar and ground of
truth'. This Church, constituted and organized in this world as a society,
subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the
bishops in communion with him, though outside its structure many elements of
sanctification and truth may be found, which, as gifts proper to the Church of
Christ, give an impulse towards Catholic unity' .
This change of text was not intended to mark an opposition between
the Church of Christ and the Catholic Church, but was made in recognition of
the fact that outside the visible framework of the Catholic Church there are
important clement which are 'ecclesial', i.e. arc part of the essential
endowment of the Church of Christ. The existence of these elements in other
communions does not make them other Churches, but relates them to the Catholic
Church, though in imperfect communion. The text makes it clear that there can
be only one Church, and that is the Catholic Church.
'Gifts proper to the Church of Christ' - such as Baptism, the
Scriptures, the Creeds, the life of grace - are so many areas of communion with
the Catholic Church, growth-points of unity, incentives to building up the
fullness of unity in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
These gifts are found in their entirety in the Catholic Church,
where everything necessary to the Church of Christ finds its home. Other Churches
may possess these gifts to a greater or less degree, but only the Catholic
Church possesses them in their totality.
Some indeed of these gifts may be more valued in other communities
than in the Catholic Church: this is a very important field for ecumenical
exploration.
The text underlines the fact that the Catholic Church is a more
complex reality than would at first appear, with areas of communion throughout
the whole Christian world.
Church
of the Sacred Heart, 28 Lauriston Street, Edinburgh, Scotland
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