The Church in our times
Nothing that is genuinely human fails to raise an echo in the hearts of Christians.
These are the sentiments of the pastoral document of Vatican II known as The Church in the Modern World. They are expressed in its first lines, and sum up the Vatican Council’s determination to abide by Pope John XXIII’s desire for the Church to be open to those influences of the modern world which contribute to the common good of humanity.
In effect, The Church in the Modern World laid stress on growing human interdependence, realising that the Church cannot distance itself from the problems, failings and triumphs of human experience today. It counselled that we must not only be a beacon of Christ’s saving love for the world. We must also make use of the good things that the world possesses, in order to help us let that beacon shine out in an ever-widening, ever-warming glow.
There is an opinion that Vatican II opened up the Church too much, making itself vulnerable to worldly norms and values. This opinion is invoked to explain the loss of Church membership and the scandals that are now rocking the establishment.
Vatican II declared that, to promote a living exchange between the Church and the world, the Church “must rely on those who live in the world, are versed in different institutions and specialities, and grasp their innermost significance in the eyes of both believers and unbelievers” (The Church in the Modern World, 44).
The Church, the same document states, has a visible and social structure. It ought to be enriched by the development of human social life, and this is not because the constitution given it by Christ is defective but so that it may understand that consitution more penetratingly and express it better, adjusting it more successfully to our times.
This applies to many areas where the Church has to function according to civil law and in relation to the legal, scientific, economic or academic professions.
It is possible that many of the problems the Church faces today are of its own making. Pastorally trained people have not been open enough to the world, have shrugged off the world’s professional and experienced agencies and relied on persons and methods that are dismally unequal to today’s challenges.
Without compromising Christ and his saving love for humanity, and bearing in mind that the Church carries his light in fragile earthernware pots, we should not hesitate to be even more open to the world and let that light shine brightly.
- What is the Church’s Teaching on Original Sin? - December 7, 2024
- Three Are One: How Can I Explain the Holy Trinity? - July 2, 2024
- Where Did the Teaching of the Holy Trinity Come From? - May 21, 2024