THE CHURCH:
An Attempt of Understanding the Mystery
Church is a movement lead by benevolent God through human assistance; to share the experience of God with fellow person; and so to prepare them for the kingdom of God, which is among us. The first part of this descriptive definition, “Church is movement lead by benevolent God through human assistance” pictures the basic characteristics of the Church. Church is movement, which means it can never be an institution. But the history of the Church for several centuries until Vatican II portrays that it was fully institutionalized. Today, Church is interested in building up family Churches in the grass-root level, than a mega organization.
Another characteristic of the Church is, that it is lead by benevolent God through human assistance. This implies that the Church has both human and divine natures. There is perfection, in divine nature. But human nature is often packed with limitation. As the principle of contradiction advocates, these divine nature and human nature can’t exist at a time in the Church. It means when human nature remains an upper dog divine nature appears to be standing out, and when divine nature is dominant the latter disappears.
As far as India is concern, we must keep in mind that India is a union of countries with in a country that screens the multi diverse nature of the landscape. As the Church steps towards 21st century she feels, that her path is quiet rough and the wind is unfavourable. Still she continues her spiritual odyssey hoping that you and I would take a share in her labour-pain. Hence today the Church is in need of prophets and martyrs than poojaries to strengthen the faith and to proclaim Christ’s love, justice and peace.
The latter part of the definition “…to share the experience of God with the fellow person and so to prepare them for the kingdom of God, which is among us” describes the ultimate motivation of the Church and its vital role in the third millennium.
The immediate role of the Church is to bring rigourous changes in areas like administration, theology and pastoral methods. In the administration level, it is the need of the time to establish a democratic set up or a synodal than priest centered or hierarchical. The Church must train lay people and initiate them in the administration. Ministers of the Church need not be after money and power and so they can dedicate themselves fully for the mission of Christ. In the pastoral level, we need to train ourselves to be more a friend and a colleague than a boss. The Church is supposed to give special pastoral care to the modern problems like divorce and various types of sexual deviations. In the theological level, official Church must take appropriate steps to bring up Indian theology in this juncture of ideological transition. Inculturation, Ecumenism, Inter religious dialogue, Basic Christian Communities, and Basic Human Communities should be widely encouraged.
The ultimate aim of the Church is to prepare people for the kingdom of God. Kingdom of God seems to be a refrain merely that very often loses its true meaning. What’s this kingdom of God? Jesus explains this concept of Kingdom of God very often in the Gospels (cf. Mk 25, Lk 17,18). When it’ll be realized fully? May be in hundred years, or thousand years or in ten thousand years. Where is it? It’s not hanging somewhere. But it’s within you and me, and it is among us in other words among the people of God (cf. Lk 17). We can realize the Kingdom of God, if only we open ourselves to God.
Today, we often don’t want to listen to God, because if we listen, God will pour the spirit on us and commission us (as He did to Baptist, Paul, Peter, Isaiah…) and make us to take part in the suffering of Christ. So better we prefer to be far away, blind and deaf to Him. But the Church can’t keep mum and be stagnant, since it has the divine mission to be executed, rather to be fully with vigour. It has to undergo labour pain until Christ is being formed in each one of us. Therefore people who have received a divine vocation can alone take part in the pain-taking process. A day will come, may be in thousand years, or ten thousand years… when there will be total perfection in Christ. God’s benevolence will cover the world with love, justice and peace. Kingdom of God will be realized in its fullness. Meanwhile thousands of Sisters’ congregations will vanish. S.D.B.s and S.J.s, will be no more and official Church will also wither automatically as the flower withers after the fertilization.
We have content for thousands of years, and therefore we the members of the Church having received the divine vocation will work for this cause with spirit and total dedication for the Kingdom of God.
G. Robert John Kennedy, I Philosophy
* This paper was presented in the public speaking class on 31.08.1997 in the presence of Rev. Fr Joy Painadath. It was purely my own reflections on the Church with out any introduction to any sort of Ecclesiology.
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