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GEORGIA
GEORGIA BULLETIN
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BOOK SECTION
THEOLOGIANS VIEW
Sunday Morning Crisis In Church
BY REV. ROBERT W. HOVDA
What is the Church?
The Church, in the Catholic
view, is a worshiping commun
ity. Both words are important.
It is not merely a place or an
atmosphere which lends itself
to worship, nor is it* merely
a community of men and women
who worship God in their pri
vate and individual ways. If it
were the latter, it would not
be essentially different from a
city all of whose inhabitants
happened to be believers. The
Church is different from such a
city because it is divine gift
rather than human political ac
hievement, and because it dis
covers itself as community and
nourishes its very nature as a
community in the activity we
call liturgy or public worship.
This in not easily seen, even'
by Catholics, in our time. In
The Christian Failure, Ignace
Lepp observes: "It loo its as if
the five hundred odd people who
assemble at Mass meet there
purely by chance and the more
1 see of this the more I real
ize the gulf between the prese
nt day parish and the Chris
tian communities of the first
centuries." Father Lepp's co
mment summarizes the pro
blems which will be considered
by this volume. For those who
believe in Jesus Christ and in
his mystical Body are lacking
in experience of its reality, and
are consequently inarticulate in
describing and oommunicating
it, what is to be expected of the
unbeliever? Why should one be
surprised that the Church is ev
erywhere rilscnssed and defin
ed as everything but what it
really is?
This article by Father Robert
W. Hodva, one of our weekly
columnists, is taken from a
new book published by Helicon
Press of Baltimore ($3.95) un
der the title SUNDAY MORNING
CRISIS. The book edited by Fa
ther Hodva is a series of essays
on renewal in Catholic worship
done by some of the nation's
leading liturgists.
lies believe certain things ab
out God and man which other
men do not believe only in part
—we have the illusion of dog
mas without end; we know of
creeds and catechisms.
We know these things. It is
of these things we think when
we think of the Church. We
invest these activities, talents,
folkways, prejudices (however
we view them) with a corpo
rate dimension. They are not
only things that Catholics do,
they are things "the Church"
does* they are not only attri
butes of Catholics, they are at
tributes of "the Church.” When
we seek to define the Church,
we tend to define it in these
terms.
So the Catholic Church turns
up in newspaper stories, in
tavern conversations and in phi
losophical soliloquies as a great
moral force, as a bastion of hu
man dignity, as a distinguish
ed educator; as a befuddled an
achronism, as an interesting
museum, as the religious con-
terpart to political totalitarln-
ism and man's thirst for easy
answers. From all this we can
safely conclude only that, what
ever the Catholic Church is, it
is a perennially fascinating phe
nomenon. But these references,
flattering or not, do not penc
il hardly occurs to us that it
is possible, in discussing an
subject as familiar as the
Catholic Church, to miss die
point completely. We assume
that we understand what is fam
iliar. And so the beauty of a
tree, the warmth of the sun,
the dignity of a dance fade in
our minds and leave us pleas
ureless. And the holy Catholic
Church, from covenanted com
mon prayer, sinks to die level
to dull instruction, tedious mor
alizing, soulless institution.
We know that Catholics are
interested in education—a vast
parochical school system im
presses this concern on our
minds. We know that Catholics
are good businessmen—parish
and diocesan properties of
every kind make us aware that
clergy as well as laity are no
innocents in the world of fin
ance. We know that Catholics
have certain real, if narrow,
moral sensiticities—there are
'legions** and crusades," at-
taks on "birth control** and st
erilization. We know that Cahto-
trate.
They do not penetrate, and
they mislead. They divert our
minds from die real Church,
the worshiping community. We
may think that this is an ex
aggeration, for we are fully aw
are that Catholics worship, they
pray, they "attend Mass" with
a regularity which is admirable
or puzzling according to the vie
wer's disposition. But this is
precisely the point 1 want to
make. The important nodon
here is not one's idea of what
individual Catholics do, or even
of their most important deed.
It is rather one's idea of what
the Chrch does and of a whole,
when we use the word “Ch
urch," we do not think immed
iately and primarily of a wors
hiping community.
And we are wrong. We could
not be more wrong. We are wr
ong whenever we place second
ary or even accidental aspects
of the Church of Jesus Christ
alongside or above its primary
and essential reality. Whenever
THE GOSPELS ARE ENTHRONED. One of the most impressive ceremonies connected with
Vatican Council II is the enthionement of the Book of the Gospels. Each day, before the
start of council deliberations, the Book of the Gospels is carried in solemn procession
between the rows of council Fathers, and set in a place of honor in their midst. A dif
ferent bishop is selected each day for the honor of carrying the Gospels in procession.
"the Church as educator** or
"the Church as good influence
in die community** or "the Ch
urch as bulwark against Com
munism" or "the Church as
custodian of culture" or "the
Church as pope and bishops
and priests" — whenever any
of these notions (some of them,
like the last, downright errors,
the rest accidental) get the
upper hand over the Church as
community gathered in wor
ship we are mistaken.
Not that we haven't been
wrong before and won't be ag
ain. But our being wrong in
this matter is a disaster. It
is the source of countless spi
ritual problems and confusion,
and a font of skepticism. It is
the origin of a false dichot
omy, division, separation betw
een Jesus and the Church, bet
ween the Savious and the com
munity of salvation.
For there is no doubting
Christ's aim, whatever hesita
tions the aspect of his Church
at any given moment may in
vite. He is the way to God, the
truth about God, the life of
God. And all the power of the
Word made flesh was directed
to the forging of a community
f* that they may be one**)
sharing the way, the truth, the
life in worship. This is the
messianic kingdom, as much of
it as thin earth will see until
judgment day.
At Sinai God had constitut
ed the children of Abraham as
a chosen people, a nation of
kings and priests. He gathered
them there, through Moses
prophetic leadership, as a
worshiping community. As such
he met them, made his cove
nant with them, gave them the
Law. Different, separate from
other men, their pure worship
of the living God would be a
sacrament, a sign, for ail the
nations to see. So primary was
public worship as mark of this
people that they were revealed
to be altogether a priestly peo
ple. Minute prescriptions for
the celebration of the liturgy
were a part of their very con
stitutions.
Nor did Jesus in fulfilling
the Father's promise and the
hopes and aspirations of this
people change the character of
the chosen community as a wor
shiping and priestly congrega
tion. The Church is the new
Israel, the fulfillment of Isr
ael's covenant, the kingdom wh
ich Israel prefigured, no longer
marked by circumcision but by
a baptism of male and fe
male alike, no longer protected
by a nationalism but by an in
dwelling Spirit who knows no
earthly barriers.
We are Christians baniaarwe
accept Jesus Christ as our Sa
vior, because we believe he has
a unique significance for every
human being, because we re
gard his moment on earth as
the master key to the meaning
of every moment and of all
time. Man's pilgrimage toward
the open end of eternity had
been foiled, confused, baffled
by the realities of sin, of ex
ile, of death. He knew him
self as sinner, as guilty, as
• somehow radically powerless to
attain the happiness, the one
ness the completion that his
being craved. He faced death,
a prospect so repugnant, so
utterly at odds with his self-
awareness and his knowledge of
God's love, that the futility of
human power in the face of it
was all the more crushing. He
was alone, in exile, conscious
of the realities of isolation and
incompleteness.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4