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Scriptures Help
Bishop Lyke, the new apostolic administrator, hopes to
be able to write in The Georgia Bulletin regularly. This
opening column on what it means to be a Catholic
Christian is the first portion of a keynote talk given by him
at the 15 th annual Galveston Houston Congress sponsored
by the Continuing Education Office of that diocese on
Feb. 17,1990.
BISHOP JAMES P. LYKE, OFM, Ph.D
When I first accepted the invitation to address the
subject of “Who are we as Catholic Christians?” I was
most enthused about the topic. “Ah,” I thought, “now is
my opportunity to offer a clear, explicit, unquestioning,
and apologetic presentation of the Catholic faith, one that
would so arouse the listener’s deep religious interest and
sensibilities that she or he would immediately make
banners and tee shirts proclaiming, “I’m Catholic and I’m
proud!”
Then, I began reviewing a number of books on my
shelf. In particular, I picked up Avery Dulles’ fine work,
The Catholicity of the Church, in which he discusses such
topics as, “The Concept of Catholicity from Below,”
“Catholicity in Breadth,” “Catholicism in Length,” “The
Structures of Catholicism,” and “Catholic and Protestant:
Contrary or Complementary” - all topics of voluminous
possibilities.
Bishop Lyke
After reading this 184-
page book, which Father
Dulles would consider a
very rudimentary discus
sion, I felt a sense of awe
before this mystery we call
Church, this many
splendored community of
believers and disciples
with such a rich history
and splendid teachings.
My mind returned to my
childhood, when my moth
er at the age of 50 encoun
tered the Church when she
enrolled me in the nearby
Catholic school. From that
moment on, she became
fascinated with the Church
and drawn to its boundless
treasury of spirituality and thought and the great examples
of holiness among its people. Moved by the sacramentality
of its ritual and the great gift of the Eucharist and the then
host of “catholic ways” of living and doing, she had
found a new home and was comfortable. Subsequently,
my other sisters and brothers followed her lead.
How am I to approach this vast and many-flavored
subject with you? I am reminded of the wise mother
whose first-bom had gone off to the local college to begin
higher studies. The mother observed the daughter sitting
down with her textbooks, yellow marker in hand,
“highlighting” the important passages - which meant that
virtually every sentence was ending up highlighted in
yellow. The mother watched for a while, then observed
simply, “Girl, if you underline everything, you ain’t
underlined nothing!” So trying to remember not to
underline absolutely everything, I will try to propose some
of the main elements in the identity of a Catholic Chris
tian.
Re-Claim Jesus Christ
I. To be a Catholic Christian means, most obviously and
fundamentally, to actively claim and re-claim Jesus Christ
as the Lord of life and history and the lord of my life and
my history. This thought, I believe, contains three ele
ments:
A. To be a Catholic means first and foremost to be a
Christian. While I trust that to this group that is a
“truism” that need not be stated, it’s important for us to
remember that to many members of our church this is still
a concept not fully understood. And similarly, there are
still some churches within the Protestant tradition that
have a hard time acknowledging us as a “Christian”
church.
When we say we are first and foremost Christian, this
means that our faith is rooted before all else in the person
of Jesus Christ and in the Scriptures that present Jesus to
us. Again, this is not always as obvious to everyone as we
might assume it to be. We need to re-claim the title,
“Bible Church” for ourselves, because our faith', as much
as anyone’s, is rooted in the Scriptures and centers around
PAGE 5 - The Georgia Bulletin, August 2, 1990
To Shape Us As Catholic Christians
Lord of Life And History.
the person of Jesus.
B. To be a Catholic means fundamentally to take Christ
as our personal savior, to borrow a phrase used more by
other churches, but whose meaning applies as much to us
as to other Christians. There are many other dimensions to
an authentic Christian faith, such as orthodoxy in doctrinal
beliefs, fidelity to the moral teaching of Jesus, participa
tion in the communal life of the church, authenticity in
liturgical worship, mission outreach and evangelization.
But all of these flow from the basic faith-commitment to
Jesus. Similarly, we may find other people who share
much of the world-view we embrace as Christians, but
unless they believe in Jesus as Lord, their faith is not
really a Christian faith.
C. To be Catholic means to stand before Jesus as the
Alpha and Omega of life and history. That is to say, for
Catholics, while we respect the religious beliefs of others,
Jesus commands our conscience in such a way that we
believe this earth cries for transformation in Christ.
Catholics unashamedly proclaim that Jesus “rules over”
our innermost thoughts and inspires our actions toward the
building of the reign of God.
View Shaped By Scriptures
II. Having said all this, however, it is important to
emphasize that to be a Catholic Christian does imply a
certain world-view shaped by the Scriptures. As Jesus
points out in the gospel, “Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven but only
the one who does the will of the Father (cf. Matthew
7:21). To understand the will of the Father we must look
at the whole range of truths proclaimed in the Scriptures
and unfolding in the lived experience of the Christian
Church down through the ages. Some elements in this
world-view would include:
A. A sense of God’s plan and purpose for all of
creation. As Catholic Christians we believe in divine
providence, in an overall plan which unfolds in and
through the ebb and flow of events, especially events
shaped over time by the free choices of people guided by
the Holy Spirit. This “providence” is expressed repeated
ly by Paul in the Scriptures. In the first chapter of Ephe
sians, Saint Paul writes:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual
blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the
foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish
before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself
through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will
for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us
in the beloved. In him we have redemption by his blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches
of his grace that he lavished upon us. In all wisdom and
insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will
in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan
for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in
heaven and on earth.”
Ephesians 1:3-10
B. Yes, a certain world-view! Because we see God’s
hand at work in and through human history, a Catholic-
Christian view of reality sees Jesus as the Lord and Center
of history. Again, let me just read from the Scriptures. In
the first chapter of Colossians, Paul writes:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the first bom of
all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on
earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that all things he himself might be pre-eminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the blood of of cross
(through him), whether those on earth or those in
heaven.”
Colossians 1:15-20
Although we as Catholic Christians should and must
become fully involved in the events of the world here and
now, we believe that the most decisive moment in human
history has already taken place, and that the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate point of reference
for everything else that occurs in our history.
Jesus the First Source
C. A certain world-view! Because we believe Jesus and
his life and ministry stand at the center of human history,
we look to the teaching of Jesus, known to us through the
Scriptures, as the first source of moral ideals to guide our
lives. Jesus is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life,” for his
followers. While these ideals often must still be interpreted
and applied to new and changing situations in order to
make specific moral judgments, they nevertheless are the
foundation upon which we build a moral and ethical
system to guide our lives.
D. Again, a certain world-view! Because Jesus called
together a community and gave them a mission to go out
into the whole world and call others to faith and commu
nity, Catholic Christians believe that the call to be a
follower of Christ is at the same time a call to be a
member of a church community. Disciples of Jesus Christ
are necessarily incorporated into the Church. A strong
ecclesiology is one of our distinctive characteristics.
E. A certain world-view! Because the Father willed that
his Son would be bom of a woman, a chosen maiden with
an intimate role in the drama of redemption, this church
community includes Mary, the Virgin Mother of Jesus, the
Messiah,and the Mother of the Mystical Body, the Church.
It includes also the men and women of the past who lived
by the Spirit of Christ and are saints; and this Church
reaches into the future to all who will ever be bom.
F. A certain world-view! Because Jesus gave himself up
“so that sins might be forgiven,” Catholic Christians have
an unusual confidence in God reaching out to us and in
our ability to return to God in our most shattered mo
ments. Every Catholic Christian knows that our humanity
and our world were seriously flawed by sin. When we
were broken and could not repair ourselves, the love of
God, revealed in Jesus’ fiery moment of truth on the
Cross, lifted us and sanctified us.
G. Indeed, a certain world-view. Within the church
community, Catholic Christians see the sacraments as the
most basic and essential signs of the Lord’s continuing
presence and action in our midst - not signs cast upon a
movie screen for us to watch, but action-signs, ritual acts
of which we are part and in which we play a part. In the
basic Scriptural signs of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper,
and in the additional ritual acts which enflesh Jesus’
ministry of healing, of forgiveness, of calling to different
forms of discipleship - in all these signs, these sacraments,
Catholic Christians find visible, concrete expression of the
faith in Jesus who is the bedrock of our whole system of
belief.
The conclusion of this talk will be carried in the Aug.
16 issue of The Georgia Bulletin.