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gennaio 2013

 

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The evangelical radicalism in our time
 

  by BARTOLOMEO SORGE
 

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"Evangelical radicalism" means detachment (first of all with the heart) of everything for the Gospel, even by loved ones, even from his own life: "Since many people went with him, he turned and said: If anyone comes to me, and hate not his father, his mother, his wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even his own life, he can not be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me can not be my disciple” (Lk 14.25 to 27).
The "evangelical radicalism", secondly, is not reserved only for a select few, but it is a necessity for anyone who wants to follow Jesus: "A scribe came up and said: Master, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus replied: Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. And another of his disciples said: Lord, let me go first and bury my father. Jesus said to him: Follow me and let the dead bury their dead” (Mt 8,19.22). John Paul II said: "For all Christians, without exception, the radicalism of the Gospel is a basic and indispensable requirement, which flows from Christ to follow Him and imitate Him in the intimate communion of life with Him wrought by the Spirit".
[1]1


The "Gospel’s radicalism", finally, not only is about the personal life of the individual Christian, but - as Jesus insists - must shine above all in the living testimony of the Church: "You are the light of the world can not be hidden a city set on a mountain [...], let your light shine before men" (Matthew 14:16). So, instead of making a speech on the general vocation of all Christians to perfection, the celebration of the 50th anniversary since the beginning of Vatican II suggests rather to ask how the Church has understood the call to reconcile the "evangelical radicalism." This is what is also called the card. Martini’s interview- testament, released a few days before he died. "The Church - says Archbishop - has lagged behind 200 years. Why do not you shake? We afraid of? Fear instead of courage? Faith is the foundation of the Church. Faith, trust, courage".[2]
2 With what credibility - we add - we can speak of  "Gospel’s radicalism" in our time, if the Church does not give first witness? That is why it is important to brush up on the subject of the Council on the need for a prophetic Church, poor and free.


A prophetic Church


The Council, shifting the focus from the corporate to the ecclesiology of communion, led the Church to rediscover the prophetic nature of her mission of proclaiming and witnessing to the "evangelical radicalism”. For this reason, today she no longer appears as a "perfect society", nor is deemed no longer a closed temple reserved for Catholics; she is defined, however, "the People of God journeying through history," that is, open community, which, in different ways, belong or are ordered both the Catholic, and Christians of other denominations, and all men  that God saved without distinction” (cf. LG 13). The Church of the Council, that is, goes out of the closed walls of the temple and becomes prophecy: is near to all and is in every place where people lives, works, builds the focus the city, suffers and dies.

This obviously has profoundly changed the relationship of the Church with the world: you think, for example, to  the changing relations with the State, to the numerous initiatives of intercultural and interreligious dialogue, to the positions taken in front of the application of new technologies in medicine and to human life or the challenges of justice and peace, hunger, and economic development.

Less brave, however, (not to mention insufficient) is the commitment of the Church - in the past 50 years - in view of the renewal of her inner life, on which the Council had insisted. Indeed, the Council was very clear: the ecclesiology of communion - he said – cuts to the root all forms of "clericalism", so that in the Church there are not Christians of Series A (the clergy) and of Series B (the laity), but "is a common dignity of members deriving from their rebirth in Christ, a common grace of children, a common vocation to perfection"(LG 32).

As a result - further he specifies - the authority in the Church is not bureaucracy or administration, but service and witness; Hierarchy lies not above but within the People of God; the successor of Peter is not an emperor, but he is the "servant of the servants of God," in the mystical body of Christ; the  faithful lay are not minors or "missed priests" or delegates of the clergy, but they receive directly by Christ, in Baptism and Confirmation, the unique mission, typical of the whole People of God, as they also - in their own way - participate in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ (cf LG 31).

For this reason, on the basis of communion ecclesiology , the Council was able to request that the "collegial spirit" is extended to the whole life of the Church, beyond the collegiality in the strict legal sense, as provided in the relations between the Pope and the bishops. The "collegial spirit", therefore, should have informed all forms of collaboration and participation between the different components of the Church; not only for reasons of organizational efficiency, but for a deeper ecclesiological and prophetic reason.

No one doubts obedience to the Magisterium and the Hierarchy set by Christ himself as the foundation of the Church. However, the same Holy Spirit, which relies on the Hierarchy the mission of guiding the People of God, also distributes among the ordinary faithful of every rank, gifts or gifts for the renewal and growth of the Church, which must be recognized and received with gratitude (cf. LG 12). Obedience therefore does not exclude, but presupposes dialogue within the Church, animated by a sincere "collegial spirit" or synod, at all levels of community life.

All these things the Council has told and asked very clearly 50 years ago. Yet, we are still far from having put into practice. There is no doubt that, with regard to internal reform, the Church is long overdue.


A poor Church


Another essential aspect of the "evangelical radicalism", about which so much has insisted the Council, it is poverty: "as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and oppression, so the Church is called to follow the same path in communicating to men the fruits of salvation [...]; although to accomplish her mission he needs human resources, she is not up to seek the glory of the earth, but to spread, even by her own example, humility and self-denial"(LG 8).

The "renewed" Church of the Council, that is, has to be poor and to love the poor of preferential love. Is this not a demagogic or ideological choice, but of the Gospel. Poverty, in fact, shows the gratuitousness of God's salvation, who, though He was rich, became poor that we might become rich through His poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). About the radical nature of poverty Jesus is explicit: "Do not carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes" (Lk 10:4), that is to say: use, yes, the goods you need and that are necessary, but do not put your trust in them. The preferential option for the poor stems not only from the fact that Christ has taken the face and the wounds of the poor, but also by the knowledge that they not only need help, but they also have much to give: they are carriers, in fact, of a message of great importance for the life of the Church, and for the social and political life. Their cry while on the one hand reports what they lack and which they are entitled, on the other hand indicates the priority decisions to be done to build a society worthy of man.

The "evangelical radicalism”, therefore, goes beyond the duty of benevolence and almsgiving to the poor and requires that we share their problems, that we are walking with them, we do ours their problems, their fears and hopes. If we serve the rich, the rich can reward us, which makes less clear our witness; but if we serve the poor, who can not repay, then the evangelical witness is without shadows:  really love appeared in the world!


A Free Church


The Council has said explicitly: "the Church does not place her hope in privileges offerred by the civil authority. Indeed she will renounce the exercise of certain rights legitimately acquired, where she shoul find that their use could cast doubt on the sincerity of her testimony or new circumstances demand other provisions" (GS 76). Of course the Church is not denying the right and the duty to maintain cordial relations with political institutions, but the Council recalls the danger that diplomacy limits and curbs prophecy. The concordats and the exchange of diplomatic missions between the Church and the States belonging to the old regime of Christianity, are old wineskins, which obscure to the eyes of our time the "evangelical radicalism." It is important that the Church is and appears free from any attachment to power, humble and helpless witness of the Gospel, which puts her trust only in God's Word, in the sanctity of her children and serving the poor, avoiding -as the Council suggests- even the only appearance on the privileges granted by the powers that be.

Nor we can forget that the "poor", according to the Gospel, are also those who are suffering because of their irregular situation and exclusion in which they often are. Among them the card. Martini recalls, in his spiritual testament, the divorced and remarried and extended families, often left to fend for themselves even within the Church. Why - Cardinal asks- rather than discussing whether the divorced can take Communion, we ask how the Church can help with the power of the sacraments, the "poor in spirit", which are in complex family situations? The sacraments are not a tool to restore the violated discipline, but an aid to the most "needy" in the difficult moments of the journey and weaknesses of life.

In conclusion, 50 years after the Council, it is time to reopen with courage the discussion on "evangelical radicalism" and on his testimony in the Church. The Year of Faith, called by Benedict XVI, may be a good opportunity to shoot with confidence the path of renewal, undertaken with the Council, but stopped in the middle.
 


 

[1]  JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (25 March 1992),  n. 27.

[2]  C.M. MARTINI, L’ultima intervista, in "Il Corriere della Sera," 1st September 2012.

 


Bartolomeo Sorge sj
Director of
«Aggiornamenti sociali»
Piazza San Fedele, 4 - 20121 Milano

 

 

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