Sr. Margarita Bareika

R e f l e c t i o n s

The Church and People’s Realities

Being an ecclesial Christian, my interest is to focus on some aspects of realities in this modern world that we live in and relate them to teachings of the Church. Simultaneously, how teachings of the Church relate to modern-day living also stir certain thoughts.

We saw that our Church had three epochs of Church history: the original Judeo-Christian, then Greco-Roman, and subsequently European world. Now we are entering the time of the World Church. We have not really understood all that was involved in the shift from the first to the second period. So, we are not clear about what is entailed in the birth of the World Church. The question is placed; will the Church see and recognize these essential differences of the other cultures into which it has to enter as a World Church, and accept with "Pauline" boldness the necessary consequences of this recognition, or will it remain a Western Church?

We see that ministry is not just an historical reality, but it has its own specific sacramental meaning in our Church. Historical research teaches that, on the basis of the sacramental reality of the community of God, theological ministerial offices in the Church have experienced changing forces. At the same time, we see that during different periods of history, various forms of ministry became rigid and were no longer suitable for changed situations.

Changes in forms of ministry never seem to come first, but are the results of social changes in the Church and world. Though a newly developed spirituality changed visions of the church, society and world; such changes may be necessary for the evangelical life of modern Christian communities, too.

It is fair to say that only recently have Catholics begun to recover, in any significant way, a sense of the enormous dignity associated with being baptized a member of the body of Christ. A certain priority to the Church as the people of God and as the sacrament of the world salvation is attributed to all baptized in Vatican 11’s "Lumen Gentium".

Recently, feminists have argued that the objective norms of the traditional theology are inadequate to the contemporary experience. When one examines some of these theologies, there result some striking parallels. Far from being the best, our only perspective from which to order our human experience, the scientific view values some expressions and devalues, or even ignores, other expressions of human experience because they are not adequate to its established criteria. For example, some feminists argue that the theology of original sin, as interpreted by theologians from Augustine on, has been based upon the male experience of excessive pride and aggressiveness. These traits are not characteristic of woman’s sinfulness as much as man’s is.

No language, no cultural expression is neutral. Nor can any theological statement claim neutrality or objectivity; since, it is always culturally bound. Rituals and symbols indeed express human limitations, have the power to stir the imagination, and arouse us out of our stagnation. Symbols transform the way we see reality.

All of our recent attempts at reform have involved some recognition of the incompleteness of our traditional expressions. To revive and to reform our sacramental practice is not a question of simply substituting new and updated symbols and rituals. Rather, the orientation of our thought needs to shift direction. We come to recognize the importance of continuity between our thinking and practice. We need to reexamine each sacrament for its expression of the human condition: what does this sacrament say about human life? How does it relate to the Lord? What constitutes involvement of the priestly people with this sacrament? What constitutes an honest and truthful expression of this sacrament in a baptized person?

The Church must preach the gospel to the people who exist in the real world today. Therefore, She must not only come to understand the gospel in the light of today’s world; she must also understand today’s world. She must also understand today’s people who are called to live the gospel in terms of the present historical conditions. So, in her teaching, the Church must ever be challenging and prophetic calling us to change our minds and hearts, to change our way of living, to struggle to grow.

The teachings of the Church concentrate on what ought to be and how people ought to live -- all things being equal. In the flesh and blood reality of people’s daily lives and situations, often all things are not equal. Thus, the translation of Church teaching into the lived reality of people’s lives is an extremely important and necessary stage which the teaching itself cannot accomplish.

Theologians, by the very nature of their work, keep in touch with scriptures, tradition, the lived experience of people, the findings of philosophy, and the behavioral sciences. For the step towards the birth of a World Church, theologians will have to interpret the Church’s teachings to reconcile people with the Church. This will allow people to feel the all-encompassing power of the word of the Lord applicable for not only times past, but for future generations living in their "realities".

The Church announced the coming of Paschal Season: The Forty Days of Lent with February 17th being Ash Wednesday.

The days between the Baptism of the Lord and Ash Wednesday are known throughout the western world as Carnaval, merry-making before the Lent begins. We are invited by the Church to enjoy these days between the feast and the fast, and look for Paschal Mission to guide us through the days of Lent and Easter.

Pope John Paul II has asked that Catholics view the time leading up to the year 2000 "of the presence of Jesus Christ in human history and not as an apocalyptic time, but two thousand years as the time for self-examination, expectation and intense prayer."