THEOLOGY 4: CHURCH AND THE SACRAMENTS

OBJECTIVES:

> Introduction into the issues in the theology of the church.

> Analyses of the tides of reforms made as the Church grows in its self-understanding
> Critical constructive reading on the magisterial texts on the Church with an eye on
contextual multidisciplinary issues.
> Critical insights into how the dynamics of the Church’s self-reflection impact the local
church of the Philippines in general. ?
> Critical understanding of the sacraments with application to the life of the Christian
community and the local church.

CONTEXT:

< Church as field hospital for mercy. – Pope Francis

“The need for forgiveness and for God’s mercy have been his dominant theological
refrains, both before and after he became Pope,” and Francis speaks about the subject
with a depth of emotion that comes from his years ministering to the poor in the slums
of Buenos Aires.
The centrality of mercy, Francis says, is “Jesus’ most important message.” Mercy is
essential because all men are sinners, in need of God’s forgiveness and grace, and it’s
especially necessary today, at a time when “humanity is wounded,” suffering from “the
many slaveries of the third millennium” — not just war and poverty and social
exclusion, but also fatalism, hard-heartedness and self-righteousness.
The theme of mercy, it turns out, also provides Francis with a metaphor for articulating
his broader aim of shaking up the Church, which he laid out in detail in a voluminous
document called Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”) that was issued in
November 2013. That document — a manifesto, really — advocated decentralising
power in the Church, condemned economic injustice and called for focusing on the
needs of the marginalized and disenfranchised.

Echoing the beliefs of St Francis, whose name he took, it called for a Church devoted to
the poor, a Church that returned to its roots and the original healing ministry of Jesus.
It was critical of self-righteous bureaucrats who would glorify themselves rather than
Christ, and deplored those “dour judges bent on rooting out every threat and deviation”
from doctrine.
Dour= relentlessly severe; stern harsh; unfriendly; unsmiling
THE REMARKS OF POPE FRANCIS ARISING FROM:

> Crisis of leadership

> Crisis of integrity
> Crisis of identity = What kind of Church should we be? Ecclesiastical or Pastoral
> Crisis of priority = Do we prioritizes self-preservation or joyful evangelization?

Ecclesiology = is a question what are we as a Church?

= a question of being Church.

Quote from Johannes B. Metz:

“The Church…cannot solve the crisis of its historical identity and its societal
legitimation in a purely interpretative or hermeneutical manner, but only by practical
identification. The problem of her identity is fundamentally a theory-praxis problem.
That praxis whose intelligible and identity-securing power cannot be replaced by
interpretation is called discipleship. The Church’s crisis is due to a deficit in discipleship
and to difficulties in adapting to Jesus.” (J.B. Metz)

> Practical identification in Jesus – discipleship

> Discipleship moves us away from religion of prosperity to religion of the cross.
> Discipleship is not to withdraw to cozy communities but to go to the peripheries.

> Religion of prosperity = financial prosperity (x) [not the focused]

> Discipleship is discipleship of the cross of Jesus Christ.
> Going to the peripheries entails going out from comfort zone go to the learning
zone and growth zone.

DIAGRAM OF DISCIPLESHIP

DISCIPLESHIP

A) Practical = (x) pragmatic (utilitarian)

= (/) “praxis” = change of practice; behavioral change
B) Identification = Jesus Christ

Social Vision Communities of Disciples

Rooted in the Old Testament ex. Exodus Story

Formation of the Israelite community LIBERATION

> Discipleship of Jesus Christ is to go back to the roots how social vision of Jesus was
being form.

SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATIONS:

Exodus Story = God’s intervention in the liberation of Israel.

Numbers 20:15 = lived and mistreated in Egypt

Deuteronomy 26:5-9 = sufferings in Egypt and God’s promise to His people
Dynamics:
a) Distress
b) Crying out to God
c) God hears their cry
d) God alleviates suffering

DIFFERENCES:

> The dynamic is common to religious in Ancient Near East but Israel is different:

1. In ANE (Ancient Near East) the social system, which they lived and which might have
been the source of their poverty, was not expected to be changed by the gods in favor
of the poor. It would remain the same.

2. In ANE poverty is recognized as the product of human action. Poverty is economic

exploitation and social degradation. It was created by the social system represented by
Pharaoh; not as will of God.

3. God removes the poor from the oppressive situation.

4. God creates something new --- new people/new society.

Pharaoh Society oppression, exploitation,

mistreatment of poor

a new community
Egypt Israel (Contrast Society)

constitutes a SOCIAL VISION of what a presents an alternative social reality

community willed by God should be liked. (JUSTICE & COMPASSION)
JUSTICE & COMPASSION in the course of history is translated for a social vision of
PURITY and HOLINESS. God’s Holiness (Lev. 19:2) - “Speak to the entire
assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your
God, am holy.

THE CONTRAST SOCIETY THAT WAS ISRAEL

> Yahweh extends to create a society

*DYNAMIC OF ISRAEL AND PHARAOH SOCIETY*

> Israel’s history failed constantly: broken covenant: the leaders always tended to
return to the pharaoh society from which God rescued them.
> Demonstrated by stories of the prophets
> Nathan, Hosea, Amos, etc.

JESUS’ MISSION
> Broken covenant as its context
> Covenant is re-inscribed
> From a social vision of holiness and purity that alienates
> To a vision of justice, inclusivity and compassion.

Kingdom and Church in the Gospels

>Mt. 16:18-19 = Kingdom and Church together

“You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church…I will give you the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you
loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

This is “Gemeindebildung” = interpretation of the community projected on the lips of

Jesus.

>Jesus mentioned church 2X (Mt. 16:18/18:17)

> The phrase Kingdom of God was mentioned by Jesus 92X
> “ecclesia” appears 114X in the New Testament (65X in Paul; 23X in Acts; 20X in
Revelation; twice in Matthew)

In the article Church: Community for the Kingdom (CCK), the Kingdom and the
church are two key New Testament concepts, both are crucial for the understanding of
God’s plan for humanity. While the Church cannot be identified with the Kingdom, for
the latter is a larger and more comprehensive term, the two are nevertheless is such
close correlation that they cannot be separated either.

The other issue related to the question of Jesus and the Church is the relationship
between Jesus and Israel. For some exegetes, like Lohfink, the question whether or not
Jesus founded a Church is superfluous. Jesus did not have to found a Church; it existed
already for many centuries as the people of Israel. For this reason Jesus addressed
himself exclusively to the Jewish nation. Israel would constitute the definite people of
God that was to come to power soon. Jesus’ intention was to reassemble his people in
the light of the imminent Kingdom by making them into the true people of God, faithful
to the real intentions of their Covenant with God.

The early Christian community understood itself in the context of Israel and had no
intention of separating itself from the Covenant people. Only the resistance and
rejection of the Jewish people forced the followers of Jesus to go to the pagans in the
power of the Risen One’s Spirit.

KINGDOM VISION AND THE CHURCH

a.) Church mediates
b.) Church images the vision
c.) It is the sign and symbol

Bruno Forte = The Church is the Icon of the Trinity.

Vat. II = The Church is the sacrament of salvation.

Avery Dulles = Symbols transform the horizons of man’s life, integrate his perception of
reality. After his scale of value, reorient his loyalties, attachments, and aspirations in a
manner far exceeding the powers of abstract conceptual thoughts.

JESUS AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH

--- The most common positions today ---

Hans Kϋng = Jesus did not found a church

Karl Rahner = the foundation of the church trace back to Jesus

Gerhard Lohfink = The foundation of the community begins in the Old Testament

Karl Rahner = Foundation (not institution). Institution entails a juridical act. Life and the
Ministry of Jesus serves as the foundation of the church.

Gerhard Lohfink = the church Jesus founded long existed already as Israel, in Old
Testament. He connects Jesus movement with the earlier Old Testament community.

Walter Kirchschläger = Focuses on Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. There

was already a structure and a leader Cephas. Hierarchy or structure of the Church is
divinely ordained.
Leonardo Boff = He presented in his book, Church, Charisma and Power, that
hierarchy is a result of an historical need.

Most of the authors or theologians believe that the Church is a post Easter reality.

While the different authors may stress particular aspects, the common points that
emerge from these different views can be summarized as follows:

1. Jesus preached the Kingdom of God’s final coming to save his people. To this
proclamation of the end-time belongs the eschatological community to which the
Kingdom will belong. This community was expected to be Israel, gathered and restored.
Only then would the nations be taken into God’s saving activity.

2. The gathering of Israel began in Jesus’ ministry to the disciples, whom he invited to
follow him and participate in his mission (see Mt 10:5-6). They were the first fruits to
which all of Israel would soon be joined.

3. Jesus’ death for his people and his resurrection changed the whole situation. His
death is now preached as the basis of the possibility of new repentance of Israel’s part.
Salvation is again offered first to Israel, but now it includes the demand to accept it as
accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus. An individual can enter the
new eschatological community only through baptism in the name of Jesus.

4. Israel’s refusal to accept the Kingdom of God, originating in Jesus’ death and
resurrection, leads the disciples to go to the gentiles. The NO to Jesus creates a new
situation. The insight then starts emerging that God was now calling into existence a
“New People” made up of believing Israel and of many nations. This new perception
comes through the concrete events in which the Spirit of Jesus reveals the direction the
community has to take.

5. While remaining rooted in the Old People of God (“grafted into the olive tree of
Israel” Rm 11:17), this New People of God will be the new agent and carrier of God’s
universal will of salvation for all. They will continue the mission of Jesus by being sent
by the crucified and Risen Lord. The content of their mission will remain the Kingdom of
God as it has been realized through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

CONCLUSION:

With the words of Joachim Gnilka we conclude: “The Church originated from the death
and resurrection of Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit. It remains a provisional
entity. What is ultimate is the Kingdom of God. The better the Church understands it
interim status and is determined by the ultimate [the Kingdom], the more it will be able
to correspond with Jesus’ ministry”.
 MARTIN LUTHER

 Augustinian monk published his Ninety-Five Theses, on October 31, 1517, calling for
a public disputation on the matter of indulgences, “out of love and concern for the
truth.”
 Indulgences (pilgrimages, visitation of churches, money). Commercialization of the
indulgences during this time.
 Salvation and eternal life are not “earned” they are received as free gift from God.
 Thesis #27 “There is no divine authority for preaching that the soul springs out of
purgatory immediately when the money rings in the bottom of the chest”, which
was preached by the monk Johann Tetzel on 1516.
 Thesis #86 “Again, Why does not the pope, whose wealth is today greater than the
wealth of the richest Crassus, build this one basilica of St. Peter with his own money
rather than with the money of poor believers?'' or “Why does the pope, whose
wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of
St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?”

LUTHER’S Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation , written in
August 1520, spoke of demolishing three walls.

THE FIRST WALL involved calling the pope, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns the
spiritual or religious class, but princes, lords, artisans, and farmers the secular or
temporal class.
LUTHER BROKE DOWN THE FIRST WALL by declaring that all Christians belong to
the religious class by one baptism, one gospel, and one faith: “We are all consecrated
priests through baptism, as St. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a royal priesthood
and a priestly realm. We have ONE BAPTISM as Christians.

THE SECOND WALL the claim that only Rome could interpret the scriptures.
LUTHER BROKE DOWN THE SECOND WALL by declaring that Scriptures is for
everyone.

THE THIRD WALL Papacy’s pretensions to absolute power that only Papal authority
can call a Council.
LUTHER BROKE DOWN THE THIRD WALL by declaring that anyone can call a
council.

LUTHER: AIM
1. To destroy spiritual elitism
= Everyone is a priest
= Through baptism we are equal
= Priesthood of all the believers
= Ordained priests mainly functionaries

2. Destroy the idea that Rome is the only interpreter of the Bible.
= Luther translated the Bible to German
= Sacred Scripture no longer at what Rome intend.

3. Destroy the idea that Papal authority has the only authority to call a council.
= Others should also be able to call a council.
= Shift of authority from the Pope to German Nobility.

DESPITE LUTHER’S CRITIQUE:

“We confess that under the papacy there has been much, even all Christian treasure,
and that it also came to us from there, because we confess that in the papacy there is
the true holy scripture, the true baptism, the true sacrament of the altar, the true key
to the forgiveness of sins, true preaching office, true catechism such as the Ten
Commandments, the articles of faith, and the Our Father….I say that under the pope
there is true Christianity, even the model of Christianity, and many devout great
saints….We are not fanatics like the sectarians who reject everything to do with the
papacy, for thus we would also reject Christianity, with all it has in Christ.”

 If 1517 marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, then 1540 (the
founding of the Jesuit order) and 1545 (the opening of the Council of Trent)
mark also the beginning of bishops residing in their dioceses: preaching and
teaching in their dioceses.
 When Luther sounded the call for reform, not all Catholics, fled their church and
became Protestants. Instead, many stayed, hoping for renewal.
 Paul III (1534-1549), appointed a commission to examine the state of the
church. The commission’s report, concerning the Reform of the Church, was
appointed: Popes and cardinals had become too worldly, bribery to gain church
office was widespread, monasteries had lost their discipline, and the selling of
indulgences was widely abused.
 The council brought together a variety of competing agenda.
 Some churchmen, particularly members of the papal curia, resisted any reforms
that would hinder their lifestyles.
 Bishops from Spain and France wanted a stronger, independent role.

RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT:

 MORALS
 Reform was high on the agenda. On the issue that had sparked the
Reformation---the selling of indulgences---the council abolished indulgence
sellers and halted some of the worst abuses. In addition, the council passed
numerous measures, to halt clerical corruption. Acknowledging that Luther’s
revolt had been prompted by the “ambition, avarice, and cupidity” of clergy, it
 called for leaders to avoid “even the smallest faults.” Many abuses condemned,
such as holding several cathedral churches, offering favors.

CRITICAL POINTS:
 The Council held, that there are seven sacraments, not two as the Protestants
claimed, and that these are necessary for salvation. All the Protestant
interpretations of Communion were condemned, and transubstantiation (the
belief that the bread and wine become in substance the body and blood of
Christ) was reaffirmed. Protestants were worshipping in their own languages, but
the council upheld the Latin Mass, and it defined more precisely the sacrificial
understanding of the Mass.
 On the critical issue of justification, the council could not support the
Reformation understanding of salvation by faith alone. It affirmed that no person
can know for certain he or she is justified, and that good works do contribute to
a right standing with God.
 On the issues of Scripture and authority, the Catholic Church moved further from
Protestants. Reformers such as Luther had been translating the Bible into the
common language of the people. The council held instead that the only official
version of the Bible was the Latin Vulgate, and that no private interpretations of
Scripture could depart from the church’s teachings. It also rejected the
Protestant view of “Scripture alone” and declared that along with the Scriptures,
tradition as preserved by the church was a source of authority.
 The Council of Trent helped to bring much-needed reform to the Catholic
Church. It also refined the church’s structure and marshalled its forces for the
years ahead.
 On matters of doctrine, however, the council made the gulf between Catholics
and Protestants deep and lasting. Only remaining hopes of reunion were dashed.