SOME people feel uncertain about the changes, past and present, in the Church. They feel that liturgy is too much a matter of taste and that teachings (doctrine) are less than clear in a society where liberal values and free thinking are paramount.
We are reassured that the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church and that pessimism is inconsistent with a faithful and confident spirit that believes and trusts in God.
More recently, Pope Francis has addressed the idea of a comprehensive vision for the Catholic Church. In a meeting with the Assembly of the Italian Church the Pope advocated a deeply merciful Catholicism that is unafraid of change.
In a 49 minute speech to the meeting – which brought together some 2200 people from 220 dioceses – the Pope said that Catholics must realise: “We are not living an era of change but a change of era. Before the problems of the Church it is not useful to search for solutions in conservatism or fundamentalism, in the restoration of obsolete conduct and forms that no longer have the capacity of being significant culturally.”
He reminded his listeners that: “Christian doctrine is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts, interrogatives – but is alive, knows being unsettled, enlivened……It has a face that is not rigid, it has a body that moves and grows, it has a soft flesh: it is called Jesus Christ.”
The reform of the church then, and the Church is semper reformanda (always reforming), that is it does not end in the umpteenth plan to change structures.
The Pope added: “It means instead grafting yourself to and rooting yourself in Christ, leaving yourself to be guided by the Spirit, so that all will be possible with genius and creativity.”
The Pope’s comments seem to me to be wide and forward thinking. He warned the gathered assembly against two specific temptations that afflict modern people and that parallel the ancient heresies of Pelagianism and Gnosticism.
Speaking to Pelagianism, which holds that human beings can achieve salvation on their own without divine help, the Pope said that in the modern day it “brings us to have trust in structures, in organisations, in perfect plans, however abstract.” Often it brings us to assume a style of control, of hardness and of normalcy in what we create.
The norm gives to the Pelagian the feeling of superiority, of having a precise orientation. In this is found its force, not in the lightness of the breath of the Spirit.
“Assume always the Spirit of the great explorers, that on the sea were passionate for navigation in open waters and were not frightened by borders or of storms. May it be a free Church and open to the challenges of the present, never in defence for fear of losing something.”
Speaking of Gnosticism, which widely held that people should shun the material world in favour of the spiritual realm, the Pope identified such thinking today with that which “brings us to trust in logical and clear reasoning – which however loses the tenderness of the flesh of the brother.”
The difference between Christian transcendence and any form of Gnostic spiritualism remains in the mystery of the Incarnation. “Not putting it in practice, not guiding the Word to reality, means building on sand, remaining in pure idea…which does not give fruit, which makes sterile God’s dynamism.”
Quoting twice from Matthew’s gospel, the Pope said that we could imagine Jesus saying either: “I was thirsty and you gave me drink”, or “I was thirst and you did not give me anything to drink.”
The Beatitudes and its words help us to live the Christian life to the level of sainthood. “They are few words, simple, but practical. May the Lord give us the grace to understand this – the message of Jesus.” In the eight blessings of the Beatitudes, Jesus shows us the way.
We must be on guard against these two temptations – Pelagian and Gnostic – and dream of a Church that is free. Believe in this Church, innovate for it and remain faithful to such a Church.