True to Christ

by Michael Shackleton · January 22, 2003

It is a fact that our age is experiencing a growing secularisation of society that goes hand in hand with the explosion of our amazing technological skills. Science can control, reshape or cope with situations that a mere decade ago baffled the experts or were considered impossible to predict.

Children growing up in this milieu, and also their parents and peers, do not necessarily find the Catholic faith dull and unattractive. However, a common complaint of theirs is the perception of the Church as an ultra-conservative institution that lags behind modern developments or even disapproves of them.

The Church has a role to play in all ages. Because it is founded by Christ our Lord, it must be true to his teaching and authority. And because the pace of modern advancement has accelerated to a speed unheard of in the past, the Church finds itself expected to give its approval to modern methods, systems and procedures for which even medical and social ethicists have found themselves ill-prepared.

Although the Church’s immediate guidance may appear to be slow in coming, the Church is categorical in its teaching that human life is sacred, and that all the faithful must take responsibility before God in their respect for that life and for families in which it is nurtured.

Sadly, as the world moves ahead with technologies, it goes backwards in its concern for the poor, the rejected and the neglected. The Third World’s objections to the West’s pursuit of globalisation is an example of this alarming trend.

It is in this context that the Church has to manifest its relevance to life today. It continues to show compassion and understanding for Aids/HIV patients and for all the ailing and needy, to feed the hungry, to comfort those that mourn and to visit the lonely and desolate.

South African Catholics often forget the local Church’s strides in coping with these social problems. This has been achieved through careful planning and dedication, despite the uphill struggle worsened by shortage of personnel and funding. Indeed, there is a pressing need for increasing energy to be devoted to the situation.

Children at school frequently get together to work on social outreach programmes in the poorer areas, helping to uplift the residents there in many practical ways. This kind of activity should be encouraged by education authorities, youth groups and also by pastoral and parish councils. Young people are generally filled with ardour for a good cause, and this can give them the nerve to continue this kind of useful involvement in later years. If that involvement is within the Church, as it should be, so much the better for the Church.

English uses the Greek term hoi polloi in a derogatory way to refer to the masses of people who are considered ignorant, poor and unproductive. Yet it is among the hoi polloi that the Church must primarily operate and share its membership, because it was among them that Christ concentrated his ministry.