When the Second Vatican council was taking place, one of the points of contention was newness. Some of the Bishops and Cardinals were calling for it in the Church, but many were resisting it. ' Why Change a formula that's been,working for 2000 years' or to put it bluntly, 'if it ain't broke...don't fix it'. Thankfully, wiser minds understood that it wasn't a question of the Church being 'broken', but a more of a question of her needing to cooperate with the world at some basic level, or at the very least, it was a question of allowing the Church to openly dialog with the world around her, which would lead to something new. But in the end, the newness that the Church seeks is often misunderstood by many, no matter what their beliefs or lack of beliefs are. Some fear the new, because they assume New means compromising, or even disposing of the old; on the other side, some -especially those outside the Church- expect the Church to conform to what is new. This is why it's always good to pray with the idea of the new.
Popes in general are good in helping with this process, and Francis is no different: The focus in the year of faith had been a renewal of the way in which we communicate our faith. Continuing with this theme, Francis asserts that a renewal of preaching can offer all people, new joy in the faith.(EG 11) New Joy in the faith...this may seem like an enigmatic sentence to some. Does faith bring new joy, or is the old joy we received constantly growing? A bit of both perhaps. The bottom line is that God never abandons us. " those who wait for the lord shall renew their strength.." (Is 40:31)
I think what Pope Francis is emphasizing is that God is permanent, Christ is always the same, yet what we gain from our relationship with the Lord can't be exhausted, because God remains a source of newness in our lives ( EG 11) . This also may be a little enigmatic. Many people may be more comfortable seeing God as the unchanging, the constant, the trustworthy that brings goodness and lets us stay in that goodness forever. But if we stay in the same place all the time, we become stagnant, and let's be clear here: God is many things, but stagnant is not one of them.
I guess a question that comes to me at this point is," are we afraid of newness in our faith?" Once we 'become converted', once we fall in love and go through changes and deepen our communion with God and others...do we assume 'hey that's it. I made it through all this. Now I can a quiet life of graces and blessings!"? If so, Pope Francis' words will challenge us (what else is new!). In Quoting St Irenaeus, he states that what Jesus brings with him is salvation, but also newness. (EG 11) What this implies is that we're never done walking with Jesus. We can label him, rationalize him, study him, think we understand everything there is to understand...and he'll still manage to break through " the categories with which we enclose him and...amaze us with divine creativity" (11) This is why authentic evangelization, no matter what form it takes, will connect with this newness. The question, as it has been from the start in this blog series, is 'how do we respond to it'?
This question is the scary part for some Christians. It implies, something is required of us here. This is scary because, it's easy for us to get comfortable in our faith. Once we've experienced conversion, once we've discovered divine love, and have found quiet little ways to express that love in our lives with some volunteering and acts of kindness, we assume our task is done. Jesus would say, it's just begun. Pope Francis echoes that in saying that the mission demands great generosity on our part...but that it's not about Our Work, what We Do...how good We are. No. Our response remains first and foremost, the Lord's work...all we're called to is cooperate with God. (EG 12) This is an important sentiment, reminding us that the Life of the Church 'should always reveal that God takes the initiative in us. (12).
So the real newness is not something we should fear: It's something we see all around us in Spring, or all year round in births; It's something that happens around us in people, things, and places. Change is never easy or pleasant, but always necessary. And as the Pope says in this section, yes it's our duty to respond to the call to change and newness, but God brings it about, inspires and provokes it, and guides it along the thousands of ways it will take (EG 12) When we know this, when we understand that God and God alone gives growth, the spirit of joy in us should be maintained, because it is then that we know " god asks everything of us, and ...offers everything to us."(12)
Eternal newness
11. A renewal of preaching can offer
believers, as well as the lukewarm and the non-practising, new joy in the faith
and fruitfulness in the work of evangelization. The heart of its message will
always be the same: the God who revealed his immense love in the crucified and
risen Christ. God constantly renews his faithful ones, whatever their age:
“They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not be faint” (Is 40:31). Christ is the
“eternal Gospel” (Rev 14:6); he “is the same yesterday and today
and forever” (Heb 13:8), yet his riches and beauty are
inexhaustible. He is for ever young and a constant source of newness. The
Church never fails to be amazed at “the depth of the riches and wisdom and
knowledge of God” (Rom 11:33). Saint John of the Cross says that
“the thicket of God’s wisdom and knowledge is so deep and so broad that the
soul, however much it has come to know of it, can always penetrate deeper
within it”.[7] Or
as Saint Irenaeus writes: “By his coming, Christ brought with him all newness”.[8] With
this freshness he is always able to renew our lives and our communities, and
even if the Christian message has known periods of darkness and ecclesial
weakness, it will never grow old. Jesus can also break through the dull
categories with which we would enclose him and he constantly amazes us by his
divine creativity. Whenever we make the effort to return to the source and to
recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of
creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and
words with new meaning for today’s world. Every form of authentic
evangelization is always “new”.
12. Though it is true that this
mission demands great generosity on our part, it would be wrong to see it as a
heroic individual undertaking, for it is first and foremost the Lord’s work,
surpassing anything which we can see and understand. Jesus is “the first and
greatest evangelizer”.[9] In
every activity of evangelization, the primacy always belongs to God, who has
called us to cooperate with him and who leads us on by by the power of his
Spirit. The real newness is the newness which God himself mysteriously brings
about and inspires, provokes, guides and accompanies in a thousand ways. The
life of the Church should always reveal clearly that God takes the initiative,
that “he has loved us first” (1 Jn 4:19) and that he alone “gives
the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). This conviction enables us to maintain a
spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it
engages our entire life. God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he
offers everything to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment