Among the many significant events in the life of the Church during the Year of Our Lord 2005 --- the passing of John Paul II, the election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, the Synod on the Eucharist, the conclusion of the Year of the Eucharist --- we should not forget that 2005 also marked the 40th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council.
In our local Church, there were commemorative celebrations of two of the Council's documents: Nostra Aetatae, the Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, and Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. The importance of these two documents for the life of the Church can only be properly understood when seen in relationship to the two documents that provide the theological foundation for everything the Council sought to accomplish.
In all, there are 16 document of the Second Vatican Council. Of these, only four bear the designation "constitution," which gives them a weight the others do not carry: Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy; Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World; Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, and Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.
While the first two of these deal with more pastoral considerations, the latter two deal with doctrinal matters. As dogmatic constitutions, they are of greater import than any of the other Council documents. They provide the basic, foundational theology to support the efforts of the Council Fathers as expressed in the other 14 documents. Dei Verbum provides a theology of God's revelation; Lumen Gentium, a theology of the Church. Conciliar and post-conciliar developments rest on the insights developed in these two dogmatic constitutions.
Addressing thousands of pilgrims gathered recently in the rain for the midday Angelus in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI said the Word of God is Christ himself.
The Holy Father spoke about Dei Verbum and its "fundamental importance" for the life of the Church. In his remarks the pope recalled how, thanks to Dei Verbum, there has been a veritable "biblical spring" in the Church, which has placed the Word of God right in the center of preaching, teaching and community life. He urged the faithful to imitate Mary, who was distinguished by a continuous and "reverent hearing of the Word of God," able to bring hope and love to the world.
Even though there had been earlier attempts to open up the possibility of biblical study for Catholics, it was only with the promulgation of Dei Verbum that the "biblical spring" was tapped. Earlier approaches to the Word of God were often far too narrowly focused on Scripture texts as providing proof for doctrines taught. The achievement of Dei Verbum is, in part, in the corrective it offered to such an approach by providing an understanding of revelation itself.
According to Dei Verbum, revelation is a historical event. God enters history in order to establish a relationship with human beings. Sacred Scripture offers an account of the event(s) of God's initiative in our regard and our response, an interpretation of the various ways in which the interpersonal relationship between God and human beings has been and is lived out. God is active in and present to history, not just in order to do things, but to establish a relationship.
This may sound like yesterday's news 40 years after the Council, but it was an orienting doctrinal conviction about who and how God is, which, in turn underpins so much of the Council's achievement and its enduring legacy.
The impact of Dei Verbum at the practical level is seen in the flourishing of Bible study groups at the parish level, the deep desire on the part of the faithful to hear homilies that open up the message of the Scripture as it relates to the concerns of their lives, and the deep awareness that any Christian spirituality in the post-conciliar Church must informed and formed by the Word of God in Sacred Scripture.
The key to understanding the doctrinal significance of Lumen Gentium is found in its second chapter. Here there is a clear shift in the understanding of the Church. Rather than viewing the Church principally as a hierarchical body, in chapter two of Lumen Gentium the basic, foundational theology of the Church rests on an understanding of the Church as the People of God. While later chapters of Lumen Gentium do introduce distinctions that seem to re-introduce a hierarchical view of the Church, this cannot undo the foundation that is set in the second chapter. This provides a different sense of how we are to live our various callings, our diverse vocations in the Church. In brief, Lumen Gentium has provided a different sense of what it means for all the baptized to be and to build the Church as the Body of Christ, whose members we are.
If Dei Verbum has brought about a fresh understanding of the nature of revelation, and a new awareness of the centrality of Scripture in Catholic life, practice and spirituality, Lumen Gentium has prompted a greater measure of participation and involvement in the life of the Church, especially on the part of the lay faithful.
In our local Church this is seen in the flourishing of diverse ministries in the various spheres of the Church's life. The recent Archdiocesan Synod, concluded in 2003, involved clergy, consecrated religious and lay faithful in charting out the pastoral initiatives that shape the vision of the Church in Los Angeles and its pastoral priorities for the foreseeable future.
More recently, at the national level, at its annual meeting in November 2005, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved Co-workers in the Vineyard of the Lord, a resource for guiding the development of lay ecclesial ministry.
This document recognizes a range of ministries exercised by the lay faithful which are vitally important to meet the pastoral needs of the Church today. The lay ecclesial minister has a unique vocation in the Church, a call to service in the name of the Church. "Lay ecclesial ministry" does not describe one kind of service or work, but refers to the ministries of committed persons, women and men, married or single, which are exercised in a stable, public, recognized, and authorized way. This is Church ministry in the strict and formal sense.
Changes in Church life and practice such as these are due in no small measure to the renewed understanding of the Church as a pilgrim People of God expressed in Lumen Gentium. The other 14 documents build on this core insight together with an understanding of revelation as historical event(s) in which God establishes an enduring interpersonal relationship with this Holy People who all too often err on their pilgrim way. Dr. Michael Downey is the Cardinal's Theologian for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, professor of theology at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, and the author of numerous spiritual books, most recently "The Heart of Hope: Contemplating Life, Awakening Love" (Pauline Books & Media |