THE RUMOR OF GOD

(Deutsch erstmals als:
Das Gottesgerücht. Bausteine für eine Kirche der Zukunft, Düsseldorf 1987, Patmos-Verlag).

Translated in English by Gudrun Boehm, Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada.

Wien, 1991(2022)

Content

THE RUMOR OF GOD 1

CONTENT 2

I.
CHURCH VISION 10

II.
CONNECTIONS 14

l. People 17

2. Basic Course for Community Faith 20

3. People of God 28

4. God's Vision of the Church 32

III.
MYSTICISM 36

1. An Old Promise 37

2. A Credited Yearning for God 41

3. The Need of God Today 45

4. The Anonymous Longing for God 47

5. Longing for a Purpose 50

6. The Mystical Church 52

7. The Deciding Question 54

IV.
ECCLESIASTICAL ATHEISM? 56

1. Images of the Church 58

2. Image of God 60

3. The Ideal Church 62

4. The Real Church 64

5. Expectations of the Church 66

6. Is God Alive in the Church? 69

7. The Presence of God in the Church 71

V.
GIVE LEGS TO THE RUMOR OF GOD 73

1. Rumors of the Church 75

a) Frustration with the Church 76

b) Dreams of the church 77

2. No idle talk of Got 79

3. Mysticism, Brotherhood-Sisterhood, Politics 83

4. Rules of Thumb 85

5. Ecclesiology as a Theology 86

VI. BROTHER-SISTERHOOD 88

1. Longing for Community 90

2. Brotherly-Sisterly Dwelling Places 94

3. Concerning the Culture of the „People-of-God-Brother-Sisterhood“ 98

VII. POLITICS 104

1. Longing for Justice 107

2. Political Church(es) 110

(a) Sin which cries to heaven 110

(b) The Liberation Praxis of Jesus 113

(c) Liberating Church Praxis 118

3. Elements of a New Political Culture 120

ROLF ZERFASS:
WHEN GOD RADIATES THROUGH OUR ACTIONS 123

I 125

II 128

To Be in Touch with Human Misery 128

Without Pious Ulterior Motives 130

Symbol of the Entire Church 133

III 136

Foreword

Three experiences have given me cause to propose in this book a Church vision, a Church dream, based on the Scriptures:

1. At pastoral workshops and continuing education courses in various parishes, as well as in working with officials in our Church, with full-time personnel, with experts in pastoral care, with deacons, pastors, dignitaries in pastoral affairs (occasionally even a bishop will take time from his administrative overload) I have noticed that we are quite knowledgeable as far as pastoral methodology is concerned; we also have sufficient knowledge about the critical situation in which we find faith and the Church in our highly modern societies which have been caught up in a transition crisis. What is lacking in us, however, is a concept of how things can continue in our Church and with her praxis. Many officials, but recently even voluntarily active (unpaid) Christians are groaning from under an enormous work overload. Some are getting out of it because they can no longer meet the demands in addition to those of job and family. And we are capable of putting together an endless list of possible activities in a parish, at the same time having difficulty in selecting the most important and thus establishing priorities. As a result, we wear ourselves out and still have the conviction that nothing is progressing, that, at best, we could only delay the downfall of the conventional Church at large. But there is no new territory to be gained. All of these symptoms emphasize the fact that we have no visions, no dependable goals to guide us in choosing where to invest our limited strength and which would unburden us at the same time because they would give us the feeling of at least having invested our limited strength responsibly and thus not always having to derive satisfaction from tangible success.

Subsequently I regard it as the primary task of pastoraltheology not simply to analyze the situation (in other words achieve a „kairology“), nor to merely ask for methodological steps (something which is taking place in „praxeology“), but rather, and above all, to ascertain that our praxis remains sure of its goals (I call this aspect of the pastoraltheological groundwork „criteriology“). The first volume on pastoraltheology which was published shortly after this book (P. M. Zulehner together with J. Haas, A. Heller, R. Stadler and M.K. Widl: Fundamentalpastoral, Kirche zwischen Auftrag und Erwartung: Düsseldorf, 1989) is dealing extensively with this criteriological task. Main objectives, as well as secondary motives, are analyzed; key words dealing with the issues at hand are examined. The experiences of this loosely-constructed work are flowing into this book. The Church vision is designed with three key words in mind: mysticism, brother-sisterhood and politics. Accordingly, the main objective is a Church in which God himself is the living focal point of ecclesiastic life and work (a fact which will permit the Church to take part in the mystery of God, which will not only make her into the people of God, but which will also cause her to be rooted in God – mystical). Yet, in the Scriptures it is said of this God, who is the living focal point of the Church (if he is not, the Church very menacingly becomes ecclesiastically atheistic), that he has joined mankind together to become brothers and sisters, and that he has chosen a highly political option in favor of those who have become victims of an unjust distribution of opportunities: those people who have become poor from oppression. The praxis of this God is transferred to the Church if the „Lord is among them“ (Ex 18:7). Therefore, wherever God is the living focal point of the Church, she is authorized to become a brotherly-sisterly and political church.

2. The second experience which has moved me to write this book is a series of courses which I have given together with Josef Brandner, who is responsible for the continuing education of the clergy in pastoral care in the archdiocese of Munich. Josef Brandner has disclosed to me pertinent biblical texts for my pastoral-theological studies. Accordingly, I am indebted to him for pointing out to me the brief quotation from the prophet Zechariah, which has become the aphorism of this text as far as its vision of the Church is concerned: „In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a man from Judah saying, 'We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you!'” (Zach 8:23)

„We have heard“: In its place one might use the word „report“, as it is found in the gospel of Luke in its illustration of the works of Jesus, when it says, „A report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country.“ (Lk 4:14) However, we have decided in favor of the word „rumor“ for etymological purposes. The word „rumor“ has its roots in the Latin for noise, to call, or call out. News of great importance, tidings of help in distress are disseminated. According to Zechariah, this noise or rumor is „the rumor of God“. It is the task of the Church to keep this report, the rumor of God alive. And this task does not merely consist of additional preaching of God, but rather of the practical interpretation of the word of God, in the manner in which the people in the Church live together (in a brotherly-sisterly fashion) and how they make themselves strong (politically) for those who have too little to survive. Accordingly, brotherhood-sisterhood and politics are two important means used in interpreting God through the Church.

3. The third experience deals with the „Basic Course in Parish Faith“ which was set in motion quite some time ago in the diocese of Passau, at the birth of which I was personally able to give pastoral-theological assistance and which has been raised and nurtured by Josef Fischer, pastor and parish consultant in Dommelstadl. Josef Fischer (he has also made available to me texts which have developed around such basic courses) and I, together with the director of the office for pastoral care of Passau, Max Huber, in a co-authored text, have already commented on the fundamental principles and primary experiences with this basic course (P. M. Zulehner, J. Fischer, M. Huber, Sie werden mein Volk sein. Grundkurs gemeindlichen Glaubens: Düsseldorf, 1987).

Under the heading „III. Connections“, the main positions which are a necessary background for the blueprint of the Church vision, are once again assembled. After all, the basic course is a mystagogical pathway of faith toward those spiritual vocations into the Church, through which God himself builds the Church. For those who walk this unswerving path of „spiritual calling“ (and there is in the Church nobody who has not been called!) and those others who accompany them on this basic course as mystagogues, it is helpful to „see“ whereto the road is leading: The kind of Church that is possible if women and men arrive at the mystery which has basically always been the essence of their lives, namely the mystery of the God who chooses. It is essential that they thereby learn to ask what God inalterably „wants“ from them in order that even today his people arise and become capable of action. Accordingly this book is also dedicated to those who have participated in this „ecclesiogenesis“, by raising the fallow spiritual (Church) vocations, particularly the vocations of the ordinary people in the Church. The sisters and brothers who have gathered around Josef Fischer following his basic course in Dommelstadl, and with whom I know myself to be very sincerely associated, who go into parishes in groups of two (Mk 6:7) in order to accompany people on basic courses, should find affirmation and support in this book. This work is also dedicated to the women and men from other areas who allowed themselves to be convinced that this model for ecclesiological promotion in the shape of basic courses to promote the spiritual vocations of so many people in the Church is a reliable path into the future of the Church.

I wish to extend my sincere thanks to Rolf Zerfass from whom I have met with a great deal of support in my scholastic endeavors. He has made available for this book a meditation for the political „diakonia“ of the Church, to conclude this volume.

Vienna, February 6, 1987. Paul M. Zulehner

I. Church Vision

1. There is a chanson from the sixties by Helmut Qualtinger which describes a youth who is driving around aimlessly on his moped. In the process he utters, „Although I don't know where I'm going, at least I'll be there sooner.“ Symbol of a life which is without goal and vision. Image of many a parish?

2. In a conversation with the director of a management firm, I asked him what was essential in order that an enterprise would thrive and be dynamic. The answer: that an undertaking has a vision; for a vision gives direction (orientation), brings about a strong forward motion (motivation), at the same time pointing out the futility of certain actions. Thus the available but always limited forces can be put to work more purposefully.

3. „Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days: there were no frequent visions. At that time Eli was lying down in his own place: his eyesight had begun to grow aim, so that he could not see.“ (1 Sam 3:1-2) Following this text, the famous story of the calling of young Samuel is told of how he hears his name several times, believing it to be Eli who had called him, until the blind and old Eli is able to tell the boy, who is inexperienced in the words of the Lord, that it is the Lord who has called him.

4. There were ho frequent visions then, but today we are missing them as well. Is this the reason why? We have such difficulty making progress in our old churches. Why there is no surging ahead, but rather a building of bulwarks. Is not even in our day and age old Eli, the leaders, blind? Or why is it that nobody will risk anything, that nobody is willing to learn from the mistakes of those who are prepared to take risks, but would rather dead silence them or show them out. What we need today for our Church and, above all, for our Christian life, is a vision, a Church vision. This little book is risking to introduce one. Its source is old. The vision springs from the unspent founding deeds of the people of God…

For the Church vision which I would like to introduce here, I have found a picture from the Middle Ages. It items from the time about the year 1007 and is taken from the Pericope Book of the Emperor Henry II. It shows all three building blocks which are indispensable: mysticism, brother-sisterhood, and politics.

– Central to both adjoining themes is the figure of Jesus, the Immanuel (Zech 8:23: Mt 1:23), in whom God himself became one of us. For the Church this means that the mystery of God himself is the centre of her existence, a fact which makes her into a people rooted in God, and in this sense a mystical people. A church which is not mystical ceases to be the people of God.

– As soon, however, as the Church allows God – as he became one of us in Jesus – into her midst out of which she derives her sustenance, this will shape her life and actions. Jesus gathers people around himself and joins them together from a final core into a brotherly-sisterly community. At the Last Supper his disciples consume him in reality, as well as symbolically, and by incorporating the body of Christ in themselves, they themselves become part of the body of Christ. Rooted in God we are empowered to become the children of God, his daughters and sons, a fact which causes us to become brothers and sisters among ourselves.

– The church which permits God, who approached us in Jesus, to become her core, becomes a church of the washing of feet. She is attentive to those who in their lives have „lost their footing“. Above all she bows down in front of those who become victims of an unfair distribution of opportunities. Thus, from the very beginning, political diacony is part of the substance of the church which knows God to be in her midst.

The Washing of Feet and The Last Supper. Pericope Book of Emperor Henry II, about 1007. Munich, Bavarian State Library, Clm 4452, fol. 105, Ars liturgica Kunstverlag Maria Laach, No. 5557.

II. Connections

At Vatican II the Catholic Church put the biblical image of the People of God at its centre.¹ There is a pastoral-historical reason for this: A church which consists of clergy only is suffering from an enormous lack of credibility – particularly since within the last decade – it has imperceptibly developed into a church of experts, especially in the rich Church territories² – in addition to being perceived by the people primarily from its bureaucratic side. For our society is always more skeptical³ toward paid experts. Credibility is not the attribute of a polished pastoral service establishment.⁴ Credibility is gained by Christian people within Christian parishes who live together and serve together from the force of the Gospel: Truth is convincing if it is acted upon (1 Jn 3:18). In such a pastoral situation those unused biblical experiences which once again have been advanced into the consciousness of the Church by the Council, gain a novel actuality. They relate that Jesus did not first and foremost appoint pastoral laborers, but rather that he gathered about him a people: God's holy people. With reference to Old Testament experiences (Ex 19:5f; 23:22; Is 43:22f.; Hos 16-9; 2:3-23), the first letter of Peter can thus dignify this people:

„But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not his people but now you are God's people: once you had not received mercy but now you have found mercy.“ (1 Pt 2:9)

l. People

The Council did not just snatch up a biblical image which for ongoing time already had begun to direct the lives and actions of Christians in many renewal groups of the Church (youth movements, Bible movements, liturgical movements). It is simultaneously responsible for the fact that in the years following Vatican II much imagination any time was spent in changing the Church to a (as the Council called it) „brotherly people“. The limbs or members of the people („laikos“, therefore the laós), the „laymen“ were to become aware of their dignity and from there on to agree to be responsible for furthering the faith and the life of the Church, primarily in a concrete Church parish, but also in corresponding organizations. In order to protect and promote the co-operation of the members who were hitherto relatively uninvolved in the life of the Church⁵, frameworks of participation were institutionalized. A series of committees on the various levels of the Church was established: parish, or rather parish community councils, diocesan councils, lay councils. Laymen were also involved in the basic apostolic task of the Church, the imparting of the faith to the following generation. The institution of parish catechesis was developed.

WE THANK YOU

FOR HAVING CALLED US

TO STAND BEFORE YOU AND SERVE YOU.

That's what you're saying about yourself, Reverend Father, isn't it? After all, you can't be talking about us, for we're kneeling down at this point of the Eucharistic Prayer! That the Reverend Father means „I“ when he says „we“ how did such a misunderstanding ever come about? That only he could have a reason to be thankful – how did people get such an idea. That a vocation is something exclusive to a professorship, to the cathedral, to the priesthood? That serving in such a capacity isn't even that difficult it's always a case of who's saying it? Annoying questions! Where would you still find them around? When in 1955 the last 10 000 German prisoners of war returned home, the throngs in the reception camp sang – it was a mighty choir: Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices (even though we didn't have the revised song and prayer book yet). Nowadays the pastor thanks the people: I thank you for joining me in the celebration of the mass! Was it by any chance he who invited us? Did people come to his mass? The reason may be they only „went along“ with the service!

And following a pilgrimage, the participants are told by the highest-ranking lay person who had invited them: Thank you so much for joining us and for taking part so beautifully! Who in this case is „us“? Whom did people actually join? That anyone would thank me for taking part in a pilgrimage, I didn't expect that! The Church (Church?) is overdoing it from sheer gratefulness toward her co-workers (...workers?). Is she perhaps afraid that they would no longer join in this business, if they were not kept in a good mood, or rather entertained desperately/circus-like? When will those who were called. Jews as well as Greeks, get up, stand up tall, and say: We thank you, yes, „Thanks be to God who in his grace has called me into his Church; never shall I depart from her.“ This song, by the way, has been omitted from the revised version of our song and prayer book. It was a song which sang of thanks-to-the-Lord, and of the proximity of the individual to God. It sang of an obliging grace, of his Church, and the calling into her. When will we again feel a compulsion to sing this song.

Josef Fischer

In the past few years since Vatican II, truly a great deal has been done to promote the people. Probably never before has the Church had as many active women and men who were prepared to participate in the faith and the life of the Church with an irreplaceable sense of personal responsibility, in order that the Church would grow and remain active on her course into the future. Whoever overlooks this fact in his evaluation of the pastoral development in the past twenty years is altering the truth either from a lack of insight, or from deliberate negligence. Naturally nobody will deny the fact that Church parishes could grow more extensively in their development. Many parishes carry with them a hidden „Church treasure“, those many-faceted talents which God himself, the actual Church contractor, has given them. It would be good if the Church parishes would annually, in a special service, thank God for those Christians whom he has „added“ (Acts 2:41. 47: 4:4) to their ranks in the course of the past year. A passage from the second Eucharistic Prayer would then become more meaningful: „We thank you for having called us to stand before you and to serve you.“

2. Basic Course for Community Faith

Together with Josef Fischer, Max Huber and many other Christian women and men from the diocese of Passau, I devised in the past years a basic course for the development of parish faith.⁶ It is designed to promote the people. Following is a brief outline of its fundamental theological assumptions:

1. The premise is that even in this day and age the builder of the Church is (the Threefold) God himself: God, who in Jesus, the Christ, became one of us, and who remains with us in history with his Holy Spirit. For this truth, which is sometimes forgotten in the everyday life of the Church (a forgetfulness which is the major cause of the dismay on behalf of the Church), stands the old honorable word for Church, namely „ecclesia“, the „community of those who were called forth“. Church, therefore, is a community of men and women whom God calls forth from humanity to shape them into his people: and this is a primary reason for the fact that this people, with all its pride in serving him, can call itself the „People of God“. However, these men and women were not only called forth for their own salvation (although this is, thank God, a further reason), but primarily to make visible and be the driving force in whatever God has planned for all of humanity by the example of their lives and actions. For this reason Vatican II calls the Church the universal sacrament of salvation, whereby salvation is circumscribed with the great old themes of love of God and one's neighbor:

„The Church is indeed in Christ, as it were, the sacrament, that is to say the symbol and tool for the innermost unity with God as well as for the unity of all humanity.“⁷

2. The Church, therefore, comes into being primarily through the fact that those who were chosen y God should be aware of their calling and accept it, in order that they can then bring it to fruition for the life and the operation of the Church (1 Cor 12:4-7). In order for the People of God to become alive and dynamic in the spirit of Vatican II. it is therefore imperative that we promote „vocations“ of the many parishioners (among whom, by the way. there will be more „vocations to the priesthood“ in the future: for without the vocations of many, we are not providing the fertile soil necessary for the vocation of priests and members of religious orders).

BASIC COURSE IN PARISH FAITH

People take basic courses because they are somewhat familiar with the subject, but too superficially. Those, however, who take a basic course only because they are not taking the time to deal with it in its entirety and are satisfied with a few so-called basics, have no notion of a basic course. No, not even a notion. Would you like to get to the bottom of this? You remember: cursus (lat.) means as much as a walk. a run, a trip, a start, motion, expedition, enterprise, investment: all of these may be associated. A basic course therefore is: a motion to the bottom (to founder?) a run to the bottom (to run aground?) a trip to the bottom (mining below the surface?) A basic course: To go to the origins of my life.
To find a basis for my life To find out on what my life is founded My founding deed.
To find / decipher / read.
To become fundamental
To have good foundations.
If, however, as has already been surmised in brackets, one should recall in the process: There is reason to fear that I – seeing that I am a little skiff of life shall not only run aground, but that I shall founder! Possibly because the weights have been distributed incorrectly and I am generally overloaded?!

When this comes to mind, you will say, „Now we have arrived at baptism.“ This, for a good reason, is the drowning of the old person, foundering in the Flood and the Dead Sea, beaching of the overloaded ship, casting off of ballast. Subsequently: In a basic course one can drown, founder, be beached, have to let go? One will even get wet! Oh yes, as yet, no one has perished who didn't get wet in the process. No one, as yet, has become a new person who did not first drown the old one in baptism. The matter is rather deep, downright abysmal. Basic Course in Parish Faith. The reeling ship of faith takes its course to the bottom: it runs aground. The polluted Church current is searching for its good sources, and its overflow is spouting forth. The confused path gropes its way back to the exit; there a sign will be posted. To run aground can make you wet – Tears (of contrition) have never hurt anybody, and even less so tears of joy. And whoever has listened to and told basic stories, will become thirsty and be in need of a good drop. To run aground means: I discover my good supporting foundation: I reassure myself: I re-member that upon which my life is based. To run aground means: I rise (once again) (from the dead) because Christ is my foundation.

Josef Fischer

3. A basic course in parish faith is a collection of experiences aimed at awakening the many spiritual vocations which have been lying fallow (and also outside) the Church. Foremost it is a matter of being together with people (initially it will be a case chiefly of baptized members of the Church) in such a way that they will learn to ask the question (!) with what God has entrusted them. In this case one is presupposing that God has always been present in the lives of these people. The history of each person is therefore from the very beginning the history of an unwaveringly faithful God (Dtn 32:4; 2 Tim 2:13) with him, with her. For the pastoral work of the Church ensues the comforting guiding principle that God will anticipate all of our pastoral efforts with his grace.⁸ The task of those who attend such basic courses is easily recognizable in the role which was played by the old and blind priest Eli at the calling of young Samuel (1 Sam 3:1-19). The former taught the boy, who was inexperienced in the knowledge of God, to say „It is God who is calling me.“ To learn to ask what God's designs are in relation to me: As a result I might heed my vocation more attentively. God does not call everyone to the Church, as a glance at the long history of humanity will ascertain without difficulty. This inquiry into that which God wants for me can, however, lead to a vocation to the Church, more precisely to the construction and co-support of the life and works of the Church on location. It is, in professional terms, a vocation to the ecclesiogenesis.⁹ Accordingly, there are in the Church no „uncalled“ members! Thus, if a vocation has been recognized, the person summoned will unfold it on his own accord. He will not be able to act contrary to his calling: a type of „existential inability to act differently“¹⁰ will result. People who have been thus summoned will not be defeated by obstacles. Rather, they will take charge, in order to ensure the successful pursuit of their vocation.

They know, literally speaking, that God himself will ask them at the end of their lives: What have you done with you „spiritual vocation“? (comp. Mt 25:14-30).

4. According to experience, there are some routes which lead to the evolvement of a „spiritual vocation“.

– It is good to drive away from the noisy everyday life (Exodus is taking place) and to hold communion with oneself in the tranquility (of the desert), to contemplate one's own history and to learn to read and understand it as the history of God with me, and my history with him. Thereby it can already become obvious that my very history with God is also permanently interwoven within the history of other people (with God).

– Consequently it is beneficial to tell others there of. On the one hand, will benefit me in getting to know myself even better in the reflection of others. On the other hand, the formation of the Church is thus initiated. For the term „church“ is only qualified by people sharing their faith and by their nourishing each other with the bread of their faith. The Church, therefore, does not consist of „people who bake their own bread“ („Eigenbrötler“). Rather, she comes into being through mutual participation in faith. People then not only read the „great Holy Scriptures“: instead they will recite from the often unknown „small holy scriptures“ which have been written by their own lives. In the process, each and every one comes to realize a unique authority of faith. Wherever this is taking place, the hidden treasure of the Church will be brought to light: the great things which God has done for the lowly.¹¹

– These personal histories of faith will hence be expressed in an established biblical picture or text. This will intensify the personal faith experience: at the same time, the personal history will be tied in with the great chronicle of faith of the Church (comp. Acts 4:23-31).

– The reading of the Bible in groups has a further purpose. Through this encounter with opposing biblical images of faith, as well as texts dealing with various faith experiences, the temptation to fashion the Bible according to our own inclination, with the result that we will not allow ourselves to be changed or „shaped“ by its power, is thus counteracted. Accordingly, the community of believers will gain in consequence. It will not only grow in that some individuals will recognize and accept their unmistaken vocation to the establishment of the Church, but also in that the biblical experiences which are related among the various members will have a formative effect on the personal experiences of the individual adherents.¹² As far as the awakening of the spiritual vocation, particularly of ordinary people, is concerned, biblical accounts of callings are especially important.

– If in such a basic course in which a person ventures to the true basis of his life (and thus learns to recognize it as the chronicle of the choosing God with her/him), somebody discovers his spiritual vocation to the establishment of the Church, the first response is an „adsum“, a „Lord, here I am“. Such an „adsum“ will hence be spoken not only by priests and members of religious orders as far as the ecclesiastic public is concerned, but also by everyone who has commenced to redeem the prophecy of his incorporation into the Church (through baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist). It is the grateful response to man's being honored with a vocation by God. The (dicrete!¹³) celebration of one's calling is, at all events, the first appropriate answer. Possibly the fearful concern of not being equal to the situation, of being overburdened, will be voiced.

From here on, further steps on the path to the revelation of this vocation will result. These steps should be taken in such a way that confidence in one's own and irreplaceable vocation will grow. At the same time, the potential which comes with the vocation will be instrumental in the construction of the church community, thus becoming „ecclesiogenically“ active. Accordingly, it is beneficial if, in the spirit of their potential, those who have been called will initially gather their first experiences independently. These experiences can then be related to people who have had similar experiences, thus making it possible to benefit from the store of each other's practical knowledge. Should it be necessary, they can temporarily consult an expert¹⁴ in order to go over aspects of their work which they cannot solve on their own.

3. People of God

All these experiences take seriously the fact that God himself is the „contractor“ of his Church If the Church can be built in such a mystical fashion¹⁵ by means of the spiritual calling of many „lowly“ people, truly that people, which may adorn itself with the unmistaken name of honor of „The People of God“, will have been established. The concern which has been expressed by many, that Vatican II with its image of The People of God has advocated a „socialization“ or a false „democratization“¹⁶, is then without foundation.

THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK

Psalm 63. To be sung on Sunday morning. God, my God, I search for you.

The first psalm on the first day of the week.
That is my foremost word,
knowing the order of the Liturgy of the Hours.

The first day of the week
- here I pause already!
Surely Monday is the first day of the week!
On all calendars!
Even if only in the past few years.
A change which took place without being noticed.
A structure which had lasted for a millennium was toppled and turned upside down.

Among brothers and sisters and in the missal Sunday has always been the first day of the week:

„Therefore we come before you
To celebrate in communion with the entire Church
The first day of the week as the day
On which Christ rose from the dead.“

Divine concession.
Heavenly providence.
A one-sided disarmament.
A day to be celebrated.
Presented to Christianity as a bonus and a bridal gift: Sunday.
Lord's day.
Church day.
Little Easter celebration.

„Haec dies, quam fecit dominus.
Exsultemus et laetemur in ea.“

Work after rest.
Weekday after the holiday.
Image of man according to the image of God.
A glimpse of the divine blueprint of the world.
Now it has vanished. What? The blueprint? The glimpse? Sunday?...
HE?

For this the people and the Church work (themselves to death), starting with Monday, they turn Sunday into the last day (of the weekend):
„A nice weekend“
is what the pastor wishes his (?) parishioners.
Forsaken are the Liturgy of the Hour and the missal put away in the sacristy and bookshelf,
singing their psalms up against an entire weekend world and weekend Church, dauntless on the first day of the week:

God, my God, I search for you.

Basic melody of the soul. her innermost song.
My foremost word?
The question remains, in which sense?
Bursting out joyfully?
Or laboriously extracted?
Murmured weakly? Blasted out noisily?
Whispered ethereally?
Sworn angrily?
Whatever!
Who really cares to know that specifically!

God, my God, I search for you.

The first psalm on the first day of the week.
That is my foremost word, the ecclesiastic contemporary remarks with surprise.

Josef Fischer

Accordingly, the proposal to forfeit the image of a People of God in favor of a discussion of the mystery of the Church is equally inappropriate. For, if the Church mandates God himself to build from the many spiritual vocations and the resulting charismas (even) of the „lowly“ people, if she herself bears his signature, then she is, by virtue of this fact alone, taking part in the mystery of God.

Only if she is built differently (possibly through pastoral technocracy or even a type of rule by priestly potentate), if the works of the Contractor are interfered with and his Church architecture is disfiguring, is it possible that a different Church will result, different from the one that God himself has in mind, the one of whom he has been dreaming since time immemorial (Eph 1:4). Subsequently the Church will cease to be a mystery; at best she will become a mysterious institution administered by clerical or laical pastoral bureaucrats. Hence, in each case the following adage is applicable: „Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.“ (Ps 127:1)

4. God's Vision of the Church

What, however, will this church, that will come into being, look like at close range, if God is the builder? What is God's dream concerning this church? To put it more precisely: What is God's dream concerning the humanity of today on its way into a future which is pregnant with hope and at the same time in mortal jeopardy? Which characteristics are common to this people, when the many „spiritual vocations“, which God bestows on his Church in unwavering loyalty, come to pass? How do this people live; how will it be functioning? And above all: From which sources will the Church be sustained and capable of action? This is the central question of the following pages, the question dealing with God's vision of the Church, his designs for us, his People, today.

LORD, REMEMBER YOUR CHURCH THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AND MAKE US GROW IN LOVE!

– Is God asleep in order that he can dream?

Did he grow tired of his Church? Does he want to push us aside? – After all, we're not that great looking: we don't look like a totally successful Church. But do we haunt him regardless, even in his sleep right into his dreams? Do we find accommodation in sleep?

– Is ne not done with us yet? Does he need to go over what's left from the previous day? Does God dream of us. his Church?

– Dreams, however, have always made a future possible. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, „The Lord has done great things for them.“ We are glad.

The Babylonian prisoners are setting out.

The magi are returning to their own country by a different route.

Joseph is fleeing to Egypt with the child and his mother

Life goes on. But not just on (somehow it will go on all right). Dreams will disclose a new perspective, the revelation into the promised land.

If God were to dream of us, then things would go on with us: then HE would go on with us into a new year!

People, even Christian people, like to indulge in the pain of acknowledging that God has forgotten them.

In order not to forget herself, the Church therefore calls out in the Eucharistic Prayer: Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in live. The Church thus becomes the responsibility of the Lord himself, and she believes, that she must remind him Sunday after Sunday.

Remember your Church! You have loved her and sacrificed yourself for her. She came into being from the wound in your side. She is the apple of your eye, your pride and joy. Just as a mother will not forget her child, no more will you forget your Church.

Throughout the world! There cannot be churches forgotten by God, no matter how much they themselves have left God behind. There cannot be churches forgotten by God, no matter how much they themselves have forgotten God. There cannot be godless churches. no matter how much they themselves have tried to rid themselves of God or would have almost been rid of him unwittingly in their worldly intoxication,

had not HE thought of his Church
and visited her with tribulations
and had not he himself disseminated into their nights removed from God
the dream of the Father.

Josef Fischer

What the Church, which God is creating as a result of the many spiritual vocations, will look like in detail, can in principle not be prognosticated. We shall know when those who have been called have recognized and accepted their irreplaceable spiritual vocation and have followed their „ecclesiogenic“ calling. Through them God builds his holy People. The outlines, nevertheless, are recognizable: in the large perspectives which have been given to us through the old biblical texts of the Old and New Testament, as well as through signs of the time through which God indicates what demands he is making on his Church as far as her function is concerned and for the fulfillment of which he is giving her abundant spiritual vocations. It is this loose framework only which is to be sketched on the following pages. Three essential building blocks for a Church of the future are brought together. Three tasks are addressed to which God has elected his entire people; three characteristics are described, which will adorn the Church of tomorrow: She will be a mystical (1) Church, and subsequently a brotherly-sisterly (2) and a political (3) Church. At the description of these three building blocks, mysticism, brotherliness and politics, we are going to join two „texts“: the texts of the old and inexhaustible biblical founding deeds of the Church, and the (con-)text of the present history of mankind. The context gives us the opportunity to fathom the hopes by which the present humanity is motivated and what causes it to feel threatened. From the old texts of faith of the Old Testament, indeed, we can find solace for a humanity which is, in a strange manner, both hopeful and despondent at the same time.

III. Mysticism

1. An Old Promise

„Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a man from Judah, saying: ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’“ (Zech 8:28).

This text is probably taken from the time of the early exile, approximately 520 B.C. The Chosen People of God, Israel, has been torn apart, and even the remaining tripe. Judah is left behind in a situation devoid of hope. It is scattered. For the devout Israelite this was a great strain as far as his faith in Yahweh was concerned. Did not God abandon his people, whom he had chosen to be his own obsession (Ex 19:5) and did he not thereby surrender it to the scorn of its enemies? Into this situation devoid of hope, Yahweh appoints the prophet Zecharian to deliver to his people a message of hope. And this is his most important news:

– God will act for his people: He will be with them. Then his people will no longer be scorned by their enemies. The reverse will be the case. The decimated people will be multiplied transfold: Ten men from all nations will each take held of the robe of a man from Judah, will cling to him and say: „We want to go with you.“

The entire world will thus be following this surviving people of Judah: „Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities; the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, 'Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I am going.' Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of the Lord.“ (Zech 8:20-22)

– This will take place „in those days“: consequently at a time when God will make himself strong for his people: when he will interfere with or involve himself in the seemingly hopeless history of his people. According to God's promise, the Israelite anticipated this event to take place in the immediate future. For the young Church it was obvious that this promise was in reference to Jesus and the People of God as it was once again assembled by him. Consequently we have before us, from the viewpoint of the young Church, a Messianic promise.¹⁷

-The Messiah, however was always viewed in connection with the Messianic people, both in the Old and New Testament. He, who died on the cross, albeit whom God did not leave in death, is with his spirit present in his people. Thus his people become the Messianic People, the people which can rightfully call itself the People of God, since God is with it. Therefore the old Messianic promises apply to the Messianic People. The prophesy of Zechariah thus goes not only refer to Jesus as the man from Judah, but also to the „Messianic People“ as it was reassembled by him, hence the Church. Similarly, a passage from the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Christian community in Corinth is reminiscent of the promise of the Prophet Zechariah (8:23): „But if all prophecy, and an unbeliever or outsider entered, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you!“ (1 Cor 14:24-25)

– Ten men from the nations of every tongue shall now (each) take hold of the robe of a man from Judah, saying, Let us go with you. „To take hold of a robe“ is the legal expression symbolizing a person's surrender to the protection of someone; by this gesture a person became a practicing Jew (comp. Is 4:1; 1 Sam 15:27).

– And as a reason for this movement of the nations toward a People of God, we are given a „rumor“, a report¹⁸, which goes out through all the surrounding country: the rumor that God is on his way with his people. I shall hereafter refer to this rumor as „the rumor of God“¹⁹

Two statements of great significance are contained in this text:

– On the one hand, the premise is that the nations are seeking God: thus they are assumed to be in need of God. For what other reason should they be seeking a people of whom it is said that God is with it? Thereby it is important to note that the Old Testament differentiates clearly between God and Yahweh. God is the God of the heathens, the „ one ones“: it is the very God who was worshipped by the men of Niniveh, for example. Yahweh, on the other hand, is God as he has revealed himself to his people, as he is accompanying them.

– By the same token the tribe of Judah, and with it the Church, is described as a focal point in which the longing of the nations for God can be anchored and where they, too, can get to know God as Yahweh. That, however, would indicate that the nations are not following the Church, but rather God, about whom it is rumored that he is with this people. To begin with, we shall dwell on the assumption that the nations are in need of God.

2. A Credited Yearning for God

It is not difficult to verify from a long Christian tradition of faith that the shortest definition of man could very well read: in need of God. According to the Catechism²⁰ this can be summarized in the following statements: – Our God is within himself overabundant love, an unimaginably wealthy source of love, the „threefold“ kindred God. – God is unbounded love. Something which we cannot explain is the fact that he has „determined“ to give himself lovingly to somebody who is not Himself. And in this gesture of love from within himself (how can we comprehend this?) he also calls us into being, the recipients of his love. This is creation for us Christians: to be a part of the infinite gesture of love of God himself, an expression of the longing of God for man, the result of a primordial affinity for us, indestructible original salvation which is stronger than the inescapable tragedy of Original Sin. Thus God has created the world and us not only „ex nihilo“ (from nothing), but also „ex amore“ (out of love):

„For you love all things that are
and loathe nothing that you have made;
for what you hated,
you would not have fashioned.
And how could a thing remain,
unless you willed it;
or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?
But you spare all things,
because they are yours,
O Lord and lover of souls,
for your imperishable spirit is in all things!”
(Wis 11:24-26; 12:1)

THE YEARNING FOR GOD

Biblical Experiences

My soul thirsts for you, my God.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, „Give me a drink.“ For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, „How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?“ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, „If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me drink.', you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. „ The woman said to him, „Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?“ Jesus said to her, „Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.“ The woman said to him, „Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.“ (John 4:7-14)

Psalm 63: Yearning for God

1. O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee.

2. My flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is.

3. So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory.

4. Because thy steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise thee.

5. So I will praise thee as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on thy name.

6. My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat, and my mouth praises thee with joyful lips.

7. I think of thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the watches of the night.

8. For thou hast been my help, and in the shadow of thy wings I sing for joy.

9. My soul clings to thee; thy right hand upholds me.

10. Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

11. as it was in the beginning and forever shall be world without end. Amen.

– God's intention to give himself to us shapes us, the partners of his love, the „hearers of his (loving) word“ (K. Rahner). Of what use is it, pictorially speaking, to transmit, when nobody is able to receive? Of what purpose would be God's loving gift of himself, i f we were not responsive to it? Subsequently, the most profound reason for man's ineradicable need of God is the fact that there is a God who has an ineradicable longing for man. And God will not rest, ere he has come to rest at the heart of man, for which reason the heart of man will not find peace so long as it has not come to rest at the heart of God.

– In this context the central mystery of our Christian faith, the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, becomes comprehensible. Jesus is one of us. He is human. With him God unites himself in a manner which cannot be fathomed and which can be summarized in the formula, „He is the Son of God.“ Regardless of how we express it, one thing is obvious: In „him“ God has begun to reach the destination of his creative longing. God is resting at the heart of a man.

– Because Jesus is one of us and we are united with him in deep solidarity as human beings (for this reason the Bible calls him the new Adam: Rom 5:12-21), God has thereby begun to reach his destination in us also. Our destiny, our fate, is realized in Jesus, the Christ. Moreover, he becomes the path for us. Whoever is (mystically) united with him, will on this path reach the object of his true longing. Just for this reason the Church is responsible for keeping alive and advancing all this in the memory of mankind in order that we may represent that which God has started in Jesus: He is with us, thus making us the People of God.

3. The Need of God Today

„But where is this need of God among our contemporaries, among the young people?“, is a question asked by many (at least among those who feel responsible for the transmission of faith). Are they really in search of God? Is their need of God ineradicable indeed? Has it not been smothered by a culture which defines man quite differently, namely as a bundle of taxable and computable needs?

Subsequently, many studies have shown that more young people than commonly assumed are battling with the question of God.²¹ The belief in God among this age group, however, is particularly fragile. Furthermore there is evidence that it is difficult for a religious awareness to take hold among persons who have been shaped in the institutions of our economy. It is more likely to be outshone by a consumer consciousness.²² It is also indisputable that in our everyday culture such topics as Religion (as well as human themes such as Age, Death, Sorrow) do not occur expressly. Accordingly, this culture may be classified as being „god-free“, „god-less“, „a-theistic“. Inasmuch as man will become that which he will become in his association with „significant others“²³, how can his (even ineradicable) need of God take hold? Is it not to be assumed that it will at least be buried, possibly „choked by thorns“ (Mt 13:7)? How is it with the ineradicable need of God, as we Christians like to see it, in a culture which has abandoned God and which has shaped us, as well as the presently-emerging generation, since early childhood?

4. The Anonymous Longing for God

The believer will at this point keep on searching imperturbably. He will not take it with resignation that God cannot get through with his yearning for man, with man thus deviating from his final destination. „It may be“, says the imperturbable believer, „that the longing for God in man will not reach its ultimate objective (unhindered) in a culture free of God. „ One must not deduce, however, that this longing no longer exists. Rather, one is to assume that it continues to move man as in the past, that each man is therefore in search of the immeasurable, the unknown, the totally exceptional. Or is all of this to remain fallacious? Nevertheless, pertinent questions are mounting among expert circles:

– How is it possible that the contemporary French psychotherapist Jacques Lacan²⁴ defines man as „infinite desire“, and because this desire is practically immoderately unrestricted, it will leave an experience of „manque“, a lack of something, since our yearning is perpetually greater than the fulfillment which we experience?

– How is it possible that man, as described by the atheistic sociologist Henri Lefebvre²⁵, experiences satisfaction and peace during isolated moments (such as games, a job well done, recognition, love), but that these celebrations „miscarry“, are transitory? This failing does not render the moments in question useless; after all, they do make it possible for us to overcome the monotony of everyday life. As well, they cause us to aspire for new moments. But even here the disparity between desire and fulfillment remains altogether.

– Could it therefore not be that our credited yearning for God in a god-forgetting cultural context presents itself only in the infinity of the yearning? In other words, is it not possible that this suffering caused by the limitations of our happiness, this constant „utopian surplus” in our human lives, is God's way of keeping his memory alive in those who either do not know him or deem it necessary to emphatically deny him?

– Is the restless hectic of our contemporaries – even we Christians are not exempt from it – in search of the final, ultimate happiness (we sense it, like Don Giovanni, already in advance) not once again an expression of our unlimited yearning? Is behind it all not the tragic attempt, doomed to fail, to anchor our unlimited yearning in limited goods? In goods, power, eroticism and sexuality? Is man not obligingly ready to have himself reduced to a bundle of taxable and gratifiable needs, if caught in such a cultural predicament?

– Do not some contemporaries, once they have suffered the chasm between the unlimited yearning and the limited fulfillment, attempt to reduce their desires, possibly to destroy them?

The poet Hermann Hesse has written the following lines:

As long as you pursue happiness,
You lack the means to be happy,
Even if everything dear were yours.

As long as you bemoan
that which is lost and have goals, and are restless,
You will not yet know the meaning of peace.

Only if you deny yourself all wishes,
Know neither destination, nor desire,
When you no longer call Fortune by name,
Then the flood of events
Will no longer reach your heart,
and your soul will come to rest.

Is the Austrian poetess, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, on the other hand, not right when she says that he not to be pitied, whose longing does not find fulfillment, but rather he, who no longer has the ability to dream?

„Don't call yourself poor,
because your dreams have not been fulfilled;
call yourself poor, if you have never dreamed.“

And Khalil Gibran, who may be ranked among the great sages of our century, says,

„The significance of man is not to be found in that
which he has accomplished,
but much rather in that
which he yearns to accomplish.”

5. Longing for a Purpose

In such a position it would be a relief to many people to rediscover their true greatness and to find the path to their yearning for God. For the price which an increasing number of people are paying for our godforgetting (un-)culture is high, too high, as is claimed by many. Typical for this age, which is rich in material goods, is its lack of purpose. Many people have been haunted by the „noogene neurosis“, once it took the place of the formerly prevailing sexual or authority neuroses. We have a great deal, but to what purpose? New values are sought after; the change of values is acclaimed. But the exit from the cul-de-sac does not seem maneuverable. Much more frequent are the many types of escape, whereby the common denominator of these escape attempts is the fact that the consciousness has been subdued or possibly even killed. For this purpose, alcohol, drugs, overconsumption of television, the escape into sickness, into criminal activity, the immersion into isolated sane worlds (such as sectoid groups), and, in extreme cases, into suicide, are useful methods.

Particularly the reduction of man into a bundle of taxable and satisfiable needs, however, meets with an increasing degree of opposition. Man is tired of being just a building block in the grand accounts of production and consumption. The statement, „Man is more than just a capital investment“ is gaining momentum. Yet, man is „more“ primarily because of his relation to God. For that very reason, it is impermissible that one human being should rule over another, that man should forfeit his dignity to capital gain, or various offices.

This greater truth about man could be kept alive by the Church if the rumor concerning her would circulate, namely that God is with her. Could it not be that this church would then be held by her „robes“ by those people who are covertly in need of God, that she should then be seized by them and that they would say, „We want to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you“? This, of course, is conditional on the assumption that the rumor of God is spread throughout the land. The prerequisite for this, on the other hand, is that God is truly with us, that he is the centre of the Church, that the Church therefore is the People of God.

6. The Mystical Church

Hence, we are going to call a church which can claim that God is with her a mystical church. Her centre of life is God himself, a fact which makes the church herself rooted in God. „Rooted in God“, by the way, is a legitimate translation of the word „mystical“. a word which has acquired many definitions in the course of the history of Christian spirituality.²⁶ Subsequently, we shall equate the term „People of God“ with „mystical Church“, since it is our belief that the Church will become a mystery in that she partakes of the mystery of God himself. In that respect the distinction between the Church as a Mystery, and the Church as the People of God, a distinction which was both advocated and feared at the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in 1985, is at best artificial, at its worst an attempt to protect specific practices of ecclesiastic bureaucrats from criticism. Objectively speaking there can be no contradiction, if the Church is truly the People of God.

Rather, following the years after Vatican II. one might ask if the People-of-God-Theology of the Church Council was taken sufficiently seriously. It could very well be that again for historically understandable reasons, as a counterdevelopement to the representation without a people of a Church of clerics – in the thrust of the reception of Vatican II. only the first part of the concept was initially emphasized. As was the case then and is now, the emphasis is on a suitable participation of all members of the Church in the faith and the life of the Church in their parishes. Justifiably, the promotion of the people became the primary concern, a task which can by no means be considered to have been accomplished in its entirety. But, in all these very justifiable attempts to promote the people, was the fact that we are dealing with the People of God not occasionally overlooked? That only if God becomes the centre of life of this people, only if it will accept God (John 1:17), and when God, as its centre of life, will determine both the design and the actors of the Church, that only then will the Church become truly the People of God?

7. The Deciding Question

Consequently we are in a position to paraphrase more accurately the question arising from this pastoral-theological reflection. This is a question which is not foreign to the Old Testament. On the way between the misery of slavery in Egypt and the country teeming with life, Canaan, the People is at the mercy of the hardships of the desert.

There is no water. The people are overcome with doubts whether God is really with them, and the Israelites ask at Massah and Meribah, „Is the Lord in our midst or not?“ (Ex 17:7).

Could it not be that in the past years fewer and fewer people have taken hold of „our robes“ and said. „Let us go with you“, since they can no longer discern that God is with us? How is it that, according to one of the surveys with which we are about to deal in detail, 15% of the population of the Federal Republic of Germany claim to have no trust and a further 41% claim to have very little trust in the Church? To what extent is the rumor of God alive today? Can God „become visible“? Or is the Church possibly in extensive areas as though God were not with us? Is she therefore godless, atheistic? We might thus ask, along with Josef Fischer, if there is not, in many regards, a widespread incidence of „ecclesiastical atheism“²⁷ In a modified way we might pose the Massah and Meribah question concerning our everyday practices in the Church. „Is the Lord among us or not?“

IV. Ecclesiastical Atheism?

Before we deal with the preceding question in a theological sense, we will take a look at an empirical study. It was conducted by the ZDF („Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen“, a German television program) in preparation for a program for the opening of the Convention of Catholics in Aachen, commissioned and carried out by the Institute of Allensbach in August 1986.²⁸ The core theme was the impact of religion and Church on German Catholics and Protestants. I played a major role in drawing up the research hypotheses, as well as the questionnaire. I was concerned with determining what connection people see between God and the Church: if the suspicion of an ecclesiastical atheism has taken root among people in general; and what gives substance to this suspicion. I shall present in the following graph, beside the statistics for the total population of the Federal Republic of Germany, the numbers of the Catholics, whereby I again differentiated between lapsed and practicing Catholics. The following are important results:

1. Images of the Church

The overwhelming majority of people connects the word „Church“ primarily with God, as the list on the following page indicates. Thus it is believed that the Church is dealing with God. Is she then judged from his perspective?

In thinking of specific words, various concepts which we tend to associate with this thought may come to mind. If you now think of the word „church“, what above all, do you relate with it? Could you tell me according to this list?

(List is brought to attention)

Total Population of the Federal Republic of Germany

CATH-OLICS

All Practicing

Non-practi sing

GOD

75%

78%

89%

75%

Pastor

78%

78%

83%

75%

Pope

67%

79%

79%

78%

Church bells

67%

65%

67%

63%

Sunday service

66%

74%

88%

65%

Magnificent church buildingsMagnificent church buildingsMagnificent church buildings

61%

63%

61%

64%

Church taxes

59%

57%

47%

64%

Church congregation

59%

65%

80%

55%

Bishops

51%

59%

63%

56%

People who attend church

50%

51%

60%

45%

Death

51%

50%

61%

43%

Morality

41%

50%

62%

42%

Marriage

41%

44%

51%

40%

Power

31%

34%

22%

42%

Redemption, forgiving of sins

39%

48%

72%

31%

Old people

30%

27%

34%

22%

Myself

18%

25%

49%

9%

Guilty conscience

12%

16%

19%

13%

a) In this survey, those Catholics who attend church every Sunday or almost every Sunday were defined as „practicing”

b) „distant-Catholics” make up the group which attend only now and then, rarely, or never.²⁹

2. Image of God

In order to explain these conjectures, to begin with, it is necessary to recognize the important characteristics of the common concept of God. In the process, I met with two major traits: It is assumed of God, that he unifies people and that he sides with the poor and with justice:

Everybody has his own definite image of God. If you look through this list one more time, what do you think of, when you speak of God? Which concepts do you associate with God? Please choose from the list.

The following are the responses of Catholics to the survey.

(a) God unifies

Compels people to care for others

42%

Gives security

54%

Is forgiving

58%

Is benevolent

53%

Makes sure that people treat each other with kindness and understanding

28%

(b) God is just

Is just

53%

Sides with the poor

46%

The first comparison between this common image of God with the biblical God leaves room for three conjectures:

1. Noticeably the concept of God for many people is to be educated with a bulletin board on which they can fasten their major hopes and expectations: whereby the longing for security and their search for more justice are predominant.

2. In a commanding minority there is a pronounced wish to be supported by God in their concept of living. but not to be disturbed by him. If confronted with the true biblical God. these people could lament along with Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor:

Why did you come to disturb us? A rather bourgeois concept of God becomes evident here, a God of enlightenment, a God who does not get involved, neither in private, nor in political life. 3. In spite of these differences between the God of the people and the God of the Bible, it cannot be overlooked that the two principal traits (God unifies. God brings about justice) are very biblical indeed and of vital importance in the Scriptures. This fact will be dealt with further in the following reflections.

3. The Ideal Church

Many of the traits of the „People God“ can be found. visibly stressed, in the idealized vision which people have of the Church. From the Church it is also expected that she will bring people together and that she will act strongly in the interest of more justice. In visualizing the ideal Church, a Church as you would like to see it, which of the characteristics from this list would your ideal Church have to incorporate? The following responses were given by Catholics.

God

Ideal Church

(a) unifies

Will cause people to care for others

42%

64%

Gives security

54%

67%

Is forgiving

58%

63%

Is benevolent

53%

60%

Will make certain that people treat each other with kind understanding

28%

64%

(b) just

Is just

53%

76%

Takes up the cause of the poor

646%

70%

There are characteristics of the „People God“ which are not present to an equal degree in the ideal Church, according to the people surveyed; holy (God 50%, ideal Church 27%) ; advocates a specific lifestyle (God 49%, Church 25%) ; mysterious (God 30%, Church 5%) ; mighty (God 38%, Church 8%) In total, however, it is not surprising that it is said of such an ideal Church that she is close to God (63%).

4. The Real Church

Quite frequently one associates very specific notions with certain establishments. In thinking of the Catholic Church as it appears to you in our present day, what would you associate with it? – Please make your selection from this list. Please choose all the characteristics which could be applied to the Catholic Church at present.

The following are the answers of Catholics surveyed:

God

Ideal Church

Real Church

Is close to God

-

63%

64%

(a) Community

Causes people to care for others

42%

64%

37%

Gives feeling of security

54%

67%

35%

Is forgiving

58%

63%

32%

Is benevolent

53%

60%

25%

Makes certain that people treat each other with understandingMakes certain that people treat each other with understandingMakes certain that people treat each other with understanding

28%

64%

36%

(b) Justice

Is just

53%

67%

30%

Takes up the cause of the poor

46%

70%

39%

Averages for (a+b)

48%

65%

33%

Practicing Catholics

67%

72%

52%

Non-practicing Catholics

37%

60%

19%

IMAGES OF GOD AND IMAGES OF THE CHURCH

(ZDF- Questionnaire, Allensbach, 1986)

And the real Church? It would be naive to assume that the Church could live up to the great expectations of the people, since there is a perpetual chasm between ideal and reality, between what should be and what is. Furthermore, there is the theological statement that the Church is also a sinful Church, thus lagging behind that ideal to which she was called by God. But it is important to know in which respects she is approaching the ideal, and in which she is not living up to expectations. As a result of the survey, it cannot be denied that the Church is believed to be close to God (64%). But in those concrete character traits which the ideal Church has in common with the People-God, the Church is lagging far behind the expectations of the people. Notwithstanding, we are keeping in mind that the shortcomings are noted to a much greater extent by the lapsed Catholics than the practicing ones.

5. Expectations of the Church

According to the results of the survey, the Church has done too little to promote community and justice among people. As is illustrated in the following graph, we come to a similar conclusion when we analyze the answers to the questions asking which tasks should be the major objectives of the Church, and whether she is attempting them with sufficient application or not. Again the expectations are very high, but too little effort has gone into fulfilling them, according to the estimations of many people. There is, however, one significant exception: The Church is very emphatically credited with doing a great deal to promote the faith, in other words, with speaking about God.

On these cards are written various issues relating to the Church. Would you please choose all the cards dealing with causes with which, in your opinion, the Church should be particularly concerned.

Would you now please look over the cards which you have chosen once again, and distribute them on this sheet to indicate whether the Church does indeed get involved in these important issues or not.

TASKS OF THE CHURCH (According to Catholics)

Ought to be

(-) Promotion of faith
That people can have faith

75%

(a) Community

That people do not become lonesome

85%

That old and young people understand each otherThat old and young people understand each otherThat old and young people understand each other

72%

(b) Justice

That entire nations will no longer be oppressed

72%

That the causes of poverty will be eliminated

70%

That the distance between poor and rich peoples will be reduced

68%

Average Values(a+b)

73%

Practicing Catholics

78%

Non-practicing Catholics

70%

From this survey it is evident that a large majority of the people asked is of the opinion that „in the Church there should be more talk of man and less talk of God“, as the answers to the following two questions will indicate. Accordingly, what is really lacking as far as the Church is concerned is not God, but God's concern for people. This is reflected in the fact that, according to expectations, the Church is much in arrears in her concern for humanity (ideal Church: 54%; real Church 29%).

If somebody says that in the Church there should be more talk of God and less talk of people, would you agree with that statement, or not?

Total Population

Catholics

Practicing

Non-Practicing

agree

20%

22%

31%

17%

undecided

48%

33%

39%

29%

disagree

48%

44%

48%

51%

If somebody says that in the Church there should be more talk of people and less talk of God, would you agree with that statement or not?

Total Population

Catholics

Practicing

Non-Practicing

agree

48%

43%

23%

58%

undecided

31%

32%

43%

24%

disagree

31%

25%

34%

18%

6. Is God Alive in the Church?

The results of this survey culminate in the answer to the direct question whether God is alive in the Church of today. In this focal issue the opinions are divided into three groups: One party believes that God is indeed alive in our Church; one group denies this; and the final group is undecided on the issue.

Again the opinions of practicing Catholics differ substantially from those of non-practicing Catholics. A commanding majority of those who feel close to the Church support the claim that God is indeed alive in (their) Church. A considerable number of those who do not attend church regularly, however, are of the opinion that this is not the case. As much as those who are not close to the Church say that she ought to be close to God (50%), and at the same time feel that she is just that (49%); as much as they feel that it is the task of the Church „to help people believe“ (66%), and that she is indeed making an effort to do so (72%), these facts still do not suffice to support the claim that „God is alive in the Church“ (only 23% believe that to be the case).

A very general question – Do you believe that God is alive in the Church of today, or do you not believe that?

Total Population

Catholics

Practicing

Non-Practicing

I believe that

48%

43%

23%

58%

I am undecided

31%

32%

43%

24%

I do not believe that

31%

25%

34%

18%

A very general question – Do you believe that God is alive in the Church of today, or do you not believe that?

7. The Presence of God in the Church

Of what significance is it for the Church that only 36% of the total population, and only 43% of the Catholics, are certain, that God is alive in the Church, and that the remaining people suspect or expressly voice the opinion that he is not alive, consequently that he is dead?

In processing these results, it is important to keep in mind that the Church of today talks as much and as manifold of God – in the churches, in the schools, in the media – in all probability as frequently as never before. How is it then to be explained that the suspicion of an ecclesiastical atheism has become so widespread?

1. One might interject, once again, that this suspicion is shared by those who no longer know the Church from the inside, in other words, by the non-practicing Catholics, who do not participate in the life of the Church. Does the accusation of a God-less Church, of an ecclesiastical atheism, possibly serve as a justification for the non-practicing Catholics for keeping themselves distant from the Church? Such connections are not to be dismissed perfunctorily.

2. It would be too simple, however, to reduce the discrepancy in the rating of the relationship of the Church to her God solely to the need of the non-practicing Catholics to justify themselves. The question remains: how is it socially possible to make the accusation that God is not alive in the Church? This can only be the case, if the rumor of God is simply not kept alive by the Church. Consequently, the central pastoral issue to be dealt with by the Church is how to once again bring the rumor of God into circulation. People are entitled to make many accusations concerning the Church's shortcomings but one: the Church should not permit it to be said of her that God is not with her.

V. Give Legs to the Rumor of God

The major question for the following section has thus been asked: How is our Church to appear, what can she do today, in order to bring the rumor of God back into circulation? How can we motivate people to once again take hold of our robes, to hold on tightly, and to say, „We want to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”?

1. Rumors of the Church

The urgency of this question becomes apparent in examining the rumor which the concrete Church of today is spreading.

In some courses I have put the promising words of the prophet Zechariah in front of the participants. For didactic reasons, however, I capped and left open the text shortly before the end:

„Thus says the Lord of hosts:

In those days

ten men from the nations of every tongue

shall take hold of the robe

of a man from Judah,

saying,

'Let us go with you,

for we have heard

---“

Based on this open-ended text, I gave people two questions and asked them to make personal notes and subsequently bring them to the plenum. One of the questions was, „What kind of a rumor are we spreading as a church today?“, and the other was, „What (conceivably) is the text of this quotation (which was unknown to most participants) in its entirety, what is Zechariah saying will be heard of us once God's promise has been fulfilled?

a) Frustration with the Church

The answers to the first question are depressing. People use it as an excuse to rid themselves of their disappointment with our church.

Here are examples which were brought up by the people:

-The Church confines through her commandments, does not set people free, does not encourage.

-Christians are thought of as being stupid, they do not think for themselves.

-The Church is powerful.

-She does not have the courage to make decisive statements.

-Values are transmitted only verbally.

-Christians aren't any better either.

-.The Church is harmless, not political enough.

-She is just as harmless as all the others, does not set on fire, is unattractive.

-She does not comply with the New Testament.

After a long time, I stopped with the collection of Church rumors. As a group we made ourselves aware of the fact that the majority of rumors mentioned are negative. Yet gradually the good rumors about our church started to surface: She promotes community life, is a place of joy, disseminates hope, gives an orientation to life. Therefore it is evident that, in spite of various disappointments, the hopes with regard to the Church are not totally lost.

b) Dreams of the church

The fact that people still fasten their hopes on their Church became even more apparent in the answers to the second question. Following are some examples of the completions given to the statement, „For we have heard…”:

-You have the kind of community of which we have been dreaming. .

-You live without fear.

-With you originates an alternative.

-Among you love reigns; for God is among you.

-You want to go in search of God.

-You walk in the way of the Lord, the paths of justice and peace.

-You have found God.

-Your God is the great and good Lord who helps you and protects you.

These few examples, however, do not only indicate which hopes people associate, now as before, with the Church, but also that these expectations are brought in connection with the Church because she is seen in a relationship with God.

Accordingly, our question, which will continue to keep us occupied, receives support from two directions: The biblical promise challenges us, the Church, to keep alive the rumor of God; people, on their part, expect this of our Church. Quite justly, a pastor from northern Germany has thus summarized his obligations: „I want to keep alive the rumor of God.“³⁰ Yet this is not just the obligation of the pastor, but also of the entire Church, as she is happening in the parishes.

How then can we keep alive the rumor of God?

2. No idle talk of Got

In preparation for the Diocesan Synod in Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Bishop Georg Moser asked young people to write letters to him concerning their experiences with God and the Church. One of these letters will get us a step ahead as far as our question is concerned:

„I am seventeen years old and work as a seamstress. I can't say much on the topic ‘Church and God’. I don't (really) believe in it. I only go to church if there is a wedding or a christening. Why should I go to church every Sunday? It doesn't do anything for me. That idle talk makes you fall asleep. Who can prove to me that what the priest is saying is right? Is there really a God?! Sometimes, when I have problems, I think to myself, „Dear God, please help me. „ Did this God help me when I moved out of the house two years ago? Did he help me to get my father away from alcohol? No, nobody helped me. Faith in God doesn't get me anywhere either in these things. I do believe in a life after death, but one thing's for sure, God and the Church don't have anything to do with that. That's another dimension for me, a different world. It didn't matter to my parents whether I went to church or not, but sometimes I'm scared. Really scared. The way I think about God, I ask myself sometimes if that isn't bad. I think about Jesus; after all, it's a proven fact that he existed. Will he forgive me some day? I'm scared of the unknown. What will come in the future? What happened in the past? Will the world come to an end and go back to nothing? Faith, faith to me means that I can trust a person who's close. Like trusting my boyfriend who helps me with all my problems. But can God help me? Did he punish me with a mother who hates me and can't be bothered with me?“³¹

This letter gives us the first indication in which direction the Church should reinforce her pastoral work if she wants to bring the rumor of God into circulation. The word (alone) obviously is no longer sufficient; therefore catechisms (alone) will not suffice, even though in the past years we have invested in them an enormous amount of imagination, manpower, time, and money; and many people have incredibly high hopes concerning them. The young girl distrusts the official speech of the priest. And many lay people think similarly in regard to the paid pastoral experts, the priests included. They don't seem to be credible. Already in 1970, 59% of people surveyed in (Upper) Austria agreed to the statement, „I often think that a priest would talk quite differently, if the Church did not mandate everything so precisely.” Whether God will become credible for this girl (and for her many contemporaries), is not so dependent on the encumbered and overused spoken word, but rather on the actions based on the Word of God of those who take God seriously. Even the most recent study about „ecclesiastical atheism“ in the Federal Republic of Germany points in that direction (as can be seen in the following graph). Whether somebody takes God seriously is not only visible in the liturgy and in prayer, according to the people surveyed. A sense of togetherness as well as one's actions on behalf of justice play an equally important role. It is expected that religious believers are seriously committed to these concepts. Yet, in reality, it is these very people, the religious ones, the faithful ones, who seem to disappoint these expectations. From the perspective of the people, therefore, the co-operation among people, a sense of community, and a commitment to justice characterize a devout person's dealings with his God. The very same standards apply to the Church. Whether God is alive within her, whether the Church really takes her God seriously, whether she is truly close to him, is not only visible in words and rituals, but also in the manner in which Christians treat each other in the Church, and in the causes they support. Community and justice thus become the two presently vital aspects of the exegesis of God.

– In thinking very generally of people who are religious, who believe in God, – according to you, which characteristics should apply to such people?

– In thinking of people whom you know personally, who believe in God, who are religious,

– what kind of people are they, generally speaking? Which character traits and attitudes can be found with them particularly frequently? Could you tell me according to this list?

-In thinking of people who do not believe in God, – what applies to them, how can they be described quite frequently?

Answers of Catholics surveyed:

Ideal Believers

Actual Believers

Atheists

(a) COMMUNITY

Reliable

71%

42%

12%

Interested in other people

66%

39%

17%

(b) JUSTICE

Take up the cause of justice

75%

39%

14%

Do a great deal for the poor

73%

37%

7%

Fight against oppression

51%

15%

15%

3. Mysticism, Brotherhood-Sisterhood, Politics

Before we transpose these findings to practical guidelines, it is necessary to deal with three concepts more specifically: mysticism, brother-sisterhood, and politics.

– Mysticism, in the following text, means to become rooted in to become submerged in God. When Paul says of himself, „I have been crucified with Jesus; it is no longer I who live, but Jesus who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me“ (Gal 2:19-20), this is then a mystical statement. In this sense, each Christian is a mystic. I am using the term „mysticism“ in that fundamental biblical sense. „Mystical“ is thus to be equated with „rooted in God“.

– „Brother-Sisterhood“ is a term which, in recent years, has gained importance in the area of practical-theological discussions. It is a further development of the concept of brotherhood which was stressed during Vatican II. This evolution, on the one hand, has to do with the growing awareness of women of their role in society, as well as their increasing role in the Church, and, on the other hand, with the growing readiness of the Church to recognize in this growing awareness the functioning of the Spirit of God on behalf of humanity. More femininity is equivalent to more humanity. In its capacity, the term brother-sisterhood represents the type of relationship between people which is stamped with a respect for true equality of dignity; for the self-determination, the autonomy of each person; and, at the same time, with a sincere mutual commitment.

– „Politics“, in conclusion, in the following paragraphs, refers to any effort made on behalf of justice. Inasmuch as the conditions of today's humanity are characterized by a sea of injustice, with the unjust distribution of opportunities in life, the aim of politics is to distribute more justly the increasingly reduced chances of survival on our earth.

4. Rules of Thumb

The principles of action which we are about to formulate, again have their origin in the vision of the Church of Zechariah, a Church vision which Vatican II has newly brought into focus: Church is the People of God, and this she can only be, if she is rooted in God, who is present with his Holy Spirit and who approached us in Jesus. Whoever then uses the term „People of God“, is claiming, first of all, that this people is „mystical“. Accordingly, our first principle, our first rule of thumb, is as follows:

1. As the People of God, the Church is mystical. An unmystical Church cannot be the People of God. The following two principles of action, therefore, embody what it means for the Church to be mystical, when God is alive within her. The actions of God himself, in whom his Church is mystically rooted, will then become the determining factor for the Church. But these will be actions which will join together people to a brotherly-sisterly community which will become aware of the flagrant injustices on this earth. Thus we can formulate:

2. The more our Church is mystical, the more she will become brotherly-sisterly.

3. The more mystical our Church is, the more she will be political. Both principles apply in reverse: A notoriously unbrotherly-unsisterly Church will acquire the reputation of being godless, atheistic. Equally so, an apolitical Church will become suspect to being godless, atheistic.

5. Ecclesiology as a Theology

From these reflections it becomes obvious how the Church appears and how she functions. Whether she permits herself to be shaped by God into his People cannot be disassociated from the type of God that she pursues in her history. In any event, God's affinity for man should come about and become visible in the practices of the Church. Therefore there is no such thing as a study of the Church without a study of God: Ecclesiology is synonymous with theology. God, however, as we will point out with the aid of biblical experience texts, is someone who unites people and who fortifies himself on behalf of the oppressed. A church in which God is the (mystical) centre of life will, therefore, become brotherly-sisterly, as well as political, with an intrinsic consistency.

That the political option of the Church on behalf of the poor is not coincidental, for example, is expressed by Gustavo Gutierrez, one of the founders of the Liberation Theology, in the following manner: When he is giving lectures in the United States or in Europe about the option of the Church in Latin America on behalf of the poor, many will respond sympathetically, „ Well, yes, after all. you are from Latin America where there is much poverty and oppression. But with us, in wealthy North America or Europe, it is quite different: we have other priorities.“ According to Gutierrez, his answer is that this option does not (solely) depend on circumstances, namely the poverty and oppression of the people. The true origin of the option is to be found in God himself, of whom it is said in biblical texts that he would opt in favor of the poor who were crying out to him. The option of the Church on behalf of the poor, therefore, is not a question of historical (and therefore transient) circumstances, but rather a consequence of the mysticism of the Church: Because God himself is opting in favor of the poor, the Church has no alternative but to share his option. If she will not do that, she is not the People of God: she will become godless; she will rid herself of God.

VI. Brother-Sisterhood

The word „brotherhood-sisterhood“ (Geschwisterlichkeit) has been chosen with deliberation. A little incident will make its choice more meaningful: At the Faculty of Theology in Vienna we had a pastoral-theological seminary about „key Words in Church Practices – under Biblical-Theological Scrutiny“. Among other topics the Church concept of the significant word „brotherhood“ of Vatican II was dealt with. One female student spoke up at this point to let us know that she did not wish to be addressed by the word „brother“, even if it was used in place of the familiar „thou“ for both women and men in the Old and the New Testament. A candidate for the priesthood answered that she was included anyhow, whenever „brothers“ were mentioned in a biblical sense. Following this, the female student suggested that we try addressing each other as „sisters“ in the remaining seminar sessions. „And thou art included“, she said to the prospective priest. This he did not want either.

„Do not call us brothers“, today's women demand rightfully, even in the churches which are participating in the social upheaval of the status of women. Indeed, in the Church we have every reason to refrain from all conceivable language discrimination in regard to women. in recognition of the fact that through language, reality is being portrayed and perpetuated. Speech which „in-cludes“ women, entails an assessment of women which is not in accordance with a socially growing self-awareness. nor the perspectives of the Bible.

A brotherly-sisterly Church fulfills the longing of many (not only young) people for community. She will grow from an intrinsic necessity as soon as God becomes the centre of life for the Church.

1. Longing for Community

The longing of people for community can be recognized by many symptoms; accordingly, it is important for people to find a partner with whom they feel secure, in whose company they can unfold their talents, with whom they have the feeling of being important, of being precious, of being unique. Regardless of the question whether they dare marry such a person, they look for him and consider it to be important that he is faithful and dependable. And because the need to be accepted, to be able to unfold one's talents, to be at home, in many cases does not find adequate recognition in the place of work, the private sphere of the dwelling place becomes more significant. Many people relate the accomplishments of their lives to the achievements in their „little sphere of living“. To grow old in serenity with a loved person would be beautiful, is a wish expressed by many people. Of course just as many people today doubt that this dream can find fulfillment. And they have good cause for their doubts. What young people experience. particularly with their relatives, is not encouraging. Because of their short life history, they themselves often do not bring along sufficient prerequisites for reliability and faithfulness. Our everyday culture is even less favorable as far as the ability of people to relate to each other is concerned. Rather, their lifelong conditioning to accomplish a great deal in order to be able to afford a great deal is gradually undermining our ability to identify with others. Although we have succeeded in practically eliminating former shortages of material requirements, including items necessary for survival as well as luxury items, we have long ago exchanged them for new shortages, above all shortages in faithfulness and reliability. What has grown in the sphere of this culturally induced striving for material and social rewards is a broadened, depressed individualism which is expressed in such statements as, „You can't depend on others“, or, „Everybody has to look after himself“.³² An „unrelated“ self-realization was recommended as a concept of life, in anticipation of the fact that the egocentric, solitary, „unsolidary“ citizen brings the best conditions for becoming a reliable and predictable consumer.

In such a culture – it would be better to call it an un-culture – it is difficult to weave a net of relationships. This net is in the process of being torn everywhere, and where it continues to be woven, this is happening very loosely and with a great deal of hesitation. In all this longing for permanence and reliability, the self-doubt’s and the doubts of others are being transcribed into reservations. The partnerships for life which evolve under these circumstances take place under the strange tension between the ineradicable wish for faithfulness and obligation on the one hand, and the resigned suspicion that such a thing is no longer possible, on the other.

Possibly the same thing applies to the net of social intercourse, as has been clearly established in the debate concerning our ecology and the relationship that people have with creation: the fact that as a result of an exploitation of our limited resources, which has its origin in man's phantasm of being almighty, our ecological system is threatened with a total collapse. Are not human resources of relationships also finite and limited? But do we not deal with the finite resources of relationships as if they were infinite? Did we not assume naively that we had unlimited possibilities to start relationships and to keep them alive? We then began to denounce traditional culturally acceptable relationships (such as the confining rules of conduct of the Church. or humanistic circles) precipitately as inhibiting and repressive. In their place we have put open models (and often heard something different from what had been intended by the inventor of such images)i. We thought we could deal with relationships equally ruthlessly, exploitively, and relentlessly as we dealt with the processes of the remaining ecological system. However, are we today not paying too high a price for that? Is our system of social intercourse not in the process of being shattered? There are many indicators which support such a conjecture.

– The divorce rate, as a result of which we have the permanently damaged divorce orphans (there are, nonetheless, many children who grow up in outwardly intact families who are orphaned as well); -the declining readiness to embark on a partnership of destiny with another person for better or worse, in anticipation of the future (in spite of his limitations and transience). Also to be counted among the symptoms are definitely those who become victims of the increasingly shorter relationship arrangements, who live through the suffering of a „divorce“ (in reality it is a separation) without ever having been married (which is not really the case since they lived as if they had been married), and who not only grow in these separation proceedings, but who also experience more and more often that they are not good enough for anybody and thus end up under merciless pressure to perform, as far as their relationships are concerned, with the result that they are often finally driven to inescapable, despondent loneliness. Where, in today's society, are those reserves of hope for people in search of community? is a question asked by many!

2. Brotherly-Sisterly Dwelling Places

If the Church is that to which she has been called, she can become a place of hope for people in search of community, faithfulness, dependability. approval, harmony, and solidarity. Biblical texts, in any case, show that where there are people who respond to the call to follow, a brotherly-sisterly abode will ensue. This can be illustrated by an excerpt from a dialogue between Jesus and Peter.

Peter began to say to him,

„Lord, we have left everything

Jesus said,

„Truly, I say to you,

there is no one

who has left house or brothers or sisters

or mother or father or children or lands,

for my sake and for the gospel,

who will not receive a hundredfold

now in this time,

houses and brothers

and sisters and mothers

and children and lands,

with persecutions,

and in the age to come eternal life.“

(Mk 10:28-30)

-The theme here is „to follow“. To follow, in the course of the history of Christian spirituality, has become one of the key words in the process of becoming a Christian. „To follow Jesus“, to use him as a yardstick, to learn from him, to be united with him (comp. 1 John 2:6), these are the important procedures, experiences on the path of the Christian. But that also means that a Christian way of lifs is a path. Jesus marks the beginning and the destination of this path with the words „leave“ and „receive“. A departure is taking place, an exodus.

– „Left behind“ is the traditional dwelling place of the Israelite. Such an habitation is labeled by the word „house“, which has been in use even in our world for a long time (particularly among the aristocracy it was/is customary to say, „He married someone from the House of ...). Such a house is inhabited by people who are related by blood, by „brothers and sisters“, by mothers and children. The centre of life is the father. Those who are not under the protection of such a patriarchally organized family, count among the socially weak (the widows, the orphans, the strangers). The economic foundation for this domicile is the „lands“.

– To be „received“ is not only eternal life to come, but a new abode „now in this time“. Whoever becomes a Christian, will thus receive a new group of social relations, a new extended family. According to the rites of Baptism for adults, he will become incorporated in the holy People of God. And that people is well provided for. There are houses, as well as lands. There are „mothers“ in faith, and „children“ in faith. Above all there are „brothers“ and „sisters“. And at first glance the „father“ is missing.

leave

receive

house

now: houses

brothers

brothers

sisters

sisters

mother

mothers

FATHER

(Mt 23:9)

children

children

lands

lands

and in the age to come: eternal life

– Only at a casual glance is the father missing. Here the exhortations of Jesus are met:

„But you are not to be called rabbi, for you nave one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one father, who is in heaven.“ (Mt 23:8-9)

In the new domicile of the People of God, therefore. God himself is the protective „fatherly“ centre of life. A „change of power“ with important consequences is taking place: from the human domain of power into the domain of God, from patriarchal fatherhood to the characteristically new fatherhood of God.33³³

– Some people might point out that the Bible also speaks of fathers. Paul writes to Philemon that he became a father to the escaped slave, Onesimos (Philem 10). Indeed, we are speaking of „begetting“ faith, thus creating an image of life being procreated. In the process of begetting faith children of faith are being procreated; accordingly, those who inhabit the dwelling places of the People of God are rightfully called children. Of course, one cannot derive from this fact a principle of structure for the Church. For these children are meant to outgrow their childhood shoes. They should not be in need of the milk of faith (1 Cor 3:2) nor in need of being taught (1 John 2:27). They should stop being children, wherewith the apostolic fatherhood of faith is being terminated. What remains as far as the structure of the Church is concerned, are brothers and sisters. Wherever God is the protective centre of life, a brotherly-sisterly Church comes into being. – In the process of leaving one habitation on the pant to the dwelling place of the People of God, it is important for the brothers and sisters to see that they experience a deeply moving change. They are now no longer related by blood, but rather related through much more binding ties, namely through God. For the Children of God are not just born of the „will of man, but of God“ (John 1:13). Therefore, because Christians submerge themselves into the mystery of God among us (into the resurrected Jesus, into his spirit), we are children, sons and daughters of this God (Comp. Deut 14:1-2: Mt 5:44). – It is our duty as Christians, however, not to just sit back and experience the blessings of such a brotherly-sisterly community, but to bring to the attention of all people their vocation to participate in one humanity, and to promote it. The Church thus becomes the sacrament of brother-sisterhood, of the unity among all people. Because there is only one God, each person becomes one of us.

3. Concerning the Culture of the „People-of-God-Brother-Sisterhood“

Wherever the image of a brotherly-sisterly Church is brought up in conversation, it generally finds acceptance readily. Perhaps too readily. Words can be learned without difficulty, but the suitable consciousness and actions take longer; a cultural transaction is necessary. Subsequently we are going to put together a few suggestions on how to nurture the culture of a new brother-sisterhood. – This new brother-sisterhood grows in the sphere of God. It will grow particularly well if people gather in the eyes of God to celebrate (Comp. Deut 16:9-12). The people become brotherly-sisterly as they celebrate. This was the experience of the People of Israel: Into the feast went a socially disjointed people, free men and slaves, women and men, orphans and widows. In the celebration they became a people in the eyes of God, each receiving the honorable title „thou“, the decorative address of „brother“. The feast in the eyes of God became the place for the social regrouping of a people equal in dignity. A social revolution was taking place. What is happening in our church services? The new Canon Law (CIC 1983, can.208) says: „Flowing from their rebirth in Christ, there is a genuine equality of dignity and action among all of Christ's faithful...“ The path to achieve this goal is long. Equality of dignity between clerics (the „reverends“ and „honorable“) and lay people, between men and women, between rich and poor, between children, older people, young people! Whoever believes that it is simply a question of the clerics being ready to acknowledge the dignity of the other members of the Church, is mistaken. It is better to ask what concepts of dignity our members have of themselves. Are they aware of the fact that God himself has „dignified“ them by calling them to be his holy, his priestly people? How do Christians perceive their baptism? -How do the „officials“ of the Church, the priests and other „dignitaries“, perceive their individual roles? Perhaps one might formulate. „Theoretically speaking, the priest must necessarily become very proud in view of his dignity“.³⁴

Official administrators must ask themselves if they base their lives on being as „equally-dignified“ as other members of the Church. This will be the case only if officials orient their self-esteem primarily by their baptism. The calling to an office is (like all other sacramentally represented vocations such as the one to marriage or the one to witness of suffering in illness) a special vocation within the framework of the basic calling to the „incorporation“ into the holy, priestly People of God. Whether it is still appropriate, contrary to Matthew 23:9, to provide officials with honorable titles associated with the word „father“ (Father, Abbot, Pope), is a question which we might rightfully ask along with Francis of Assisi. Perhaps we should be speaking of „Brother Pope“, and perhaps we should wish that this „Brother Pope“ would not address the remaining Christians as his sons and daughters (this is God's way of addressing us), but rather as adult, and equally dignified, sisters and brothers. – The important question remains: how in a brotherly-sisterly Church an office, how authority, can be carried out in such a way that in the process the equality of dignity and occupation will not be impaired, but rather that it will be promoted. Many people already see in such questioning an uncatholic threat to the office. But what is really threatened is not the office, but rather the concept of the office, and, along with it, a bequeathed style of office which, for example, can be found in a church lexicon from the year 1SS4. Under the term „lay people“ can be read lapidary, „See clergy“. The people were to conform to the office. Today, ion the basis of the People-of-God-Theology, as well as the Church theology of Vatican II, which takes its orientation from it, the rule can no longer be, „The people belong to the office“, but rather, „The office belongs to the people“. And both belong to God. Thus it is obvious that the performance of the office must be carried out in such a way that the dignity of the people, as well as its brother-sisterhood, will not be impaired. The „ordination“ of one may not become the „subordination“ of the other. To put it positively, an office is always to be carried out in such a way, that, as a result of it, the People of God will become brotherly-sisterly, or, as it is expressed in the letter to the Ephesians:

Saint Gilles-du-Gard, Eglise abbatiale XIIeme siecle. Photo: A. Allemand, Orsay.

In the Abbey Saint-Gilles-du-Gard the washing of the feet is depicted on one of the capitals: The guide for administering an office in the Church of Jesus. And Peter? With his forefinger he points at his forehead. He obviously thinks the actions of Jesus are crazy. Indeed, they are „crazy“, not only in the world in which we live, but also, too often, for those who are in authority and hold office in the Church parents, educators, church councilors, pastoral experts, deacons, priests. . . Certainly it is often said that holding an office means to serve. The deciding factor is whether we administer an office or authority in such a way that others beside us will be able to heave a sigh of relief, hold their heads up high, unfold their talents, acquire the full knowledge of their dignity, and find the confidence to use their abilities to the fullest.

„But grace was given to each of us

according to the measure of Christ's gift.

And his gifts were that some should be apostles,

some prophets,

some evangelists,

some pastors and teachers,

for the equipment of the saints,

for the work of ministry,

for building up the body of Christ.“

(Eph 4: 7, 11-12)

– An important aspect of the new brother-sisterhood is the type of binding force that evolves from the faithful union of brothers and sisters in God. It is simply not enough if the majority of members of the Church think of themselves at best as church visitors. The question remains how (even perception-wise) church visitors can evolve into members of the Church, into „Church inhabitants“.

This question is identical with the recovery of the ancient awareness of Christian baptism, which at present only seems to be obvious in the „religious virtuosi „ (the priests, members of religious orders, and a few lay people).

Therefore, if they do not participate actively in the life and services of their parishes, the question whether they will be missed in their church communities does not seem to come up for most of our church members.

If, on the other hand, Christians can cultivate some of the original sense of belonging to the People of God, possibly even learn that their existential primary habitation is with that very People of God, and that their bourgeois existence is subordinate to this primary sense of belonging, what will be the consequences for the relationship between the bourgeois family to the Church community? How much time, how much energy will a Christian then invest in his church community? To what extent will his life become integrated with it? These questions come up with all those who have understood something of the following of Christ. They are interwoven into the net of the brotherly-sisterly Church.

They are carried by this net and they help to carry others. And if Christians who live in marriage plummet from the tightrope of marriage, they will be caught by the brotherly-sisterly net. Possibly they will then (and only then) be free to continue life in peace, without getting remarried, because they are not plunging from marriage into bottomless loneliness. Perhaps this is the reason why Jesus trusts those people, who follow him and who inhabit the dwelling place of the People of God, to be faithful, and why he deems faithfulness livable.

– Such examples point out how the abode of a brotherly-sisterly Church could become a haven of hope for the man of our society. His longing for a dependable community could be fulfilled in this social setting. The Church would become a haven of hope for a society in which the net of relationships is filled to the bursting point.

VII. Politics

Many members of the Church, but also many people outside the Christian communities, are having a difficult time bringing together the concepts of God, religion, the Church, and politics. The options „devout or political“ are much more valid than the rule of thumb which we here advocate: „Because it is mystical, therefore it must be political“. It is foreign to us to say that our God, whom we get to know in biblical texts, is a „highly political“ God. And many people take exception to a political Church, possibly because they basically hold the Church responsible for intrinsic values and the world to come, or because they reject certain political practices of the Church. Many people also tend to confine the term „politics“ to political parties. Therefore, in order to understand the following text, it is important to see that under the term „politics“, based on a very old tradition, we understand all attempts to bring about the co-operation among people in a just manner with the objective to distribute justly the (increasingly less available) opportunities of life in our one humanity. In this sense both God and his people are „political“. The political practices of large areas of the Church have been captured in the term „option in favor of the poor“. This means that the victims of an unjust distribution of opportunities are referred to as the „poor“. In the Bible the word „poor“, however, does not only refer to the victims of injustice, at least not the type of injustice which they suffer because they do not abandon their God. The poor of Israel to a large extent not only suffer from economic oppression, but from religious persecution as well. The word „poor“ also serves as a decorative label for a person who can accept his limitations and who has learned to receive his life solely from the hand of God.

For that very reason it is the „poor in spirit“, those who are poor in front of God, who are blessed (Mt 5:3). 35 Consequently, as far as the inner Church debate is concerned, other words such as „the oppressed“, „the exploited“, are more appropriate in calling attention to the aims of the political practices of the Church.

1. Longing for Justice

The longing for a just distribution of opportunities is growing among today's humanity; more and more people become afflicted with it. The underlying reason may be found in the fact, that a sea of injustice is threatening the survival of all humanity today. The list of injustices is long:

– The rich countries are becoming richer on the backs of the poor: Already 20% of the rich of this earth are in control of 80% of all the food. Many types of development aid are simply disguised detours of the riches from the so-called developing countries or „doorstep“ countries into the „helper countries“. Included in this theme is the criminal misuse of goods, which are already much too scarce, as a result of the insanity of the arms race. Peace and justice evidently are tightly intertwined.

– Opportunities between men and women (both in society and in the Church) are unjustly divided. This is not only the case in our society. This will presumably become the social issue of the next millennium (if we should reach it). There is in our part of the world a vastly concealed sexual exploitation of women, and not only in advertising. Rather, it is from these economically powerful countries that groups travel into the poor regions to use their economic head start for sexual business with people who are economically dependent. Sexploitation is taking place.

– Unjustly distributed are the opportunities among people of different racial origins. Blacks in the forcefully erected homelands of South Africa, for example, have an average life expectancy of 45 years, whereas the white population of that country lives to an average of 70 years. Three quarters of the students at the universities are white, even though Caucasians only make up 16% of the total population. Racial discrimination can also be felt in the treatment of guest laborers and refugees in the affluent countries.

– Unjustly distributed are the opportunities between generations, between young people during and after their years of training and those who have found employment, between the present generation and the generation to come, between those who have been born and those who have not been born.

– Unjustly distributed in favor of man are the opportunities among the various forms of life on this one earth. Man, who has put himself in the centre of creation, and who has abdicated all responsibility toward God, from a shared planet in need of protection has made an environment to be exploited. In adopting this course, however, we are in the process of destroying our own means of survival.

– Unjustly distributed are the opportunities between those who are employed, and those who are unemployed, even in our affluent countries. The question whether we are going to run out of work is becoming more urgent. How then is the social wealth which has been amassed by the industrial robots to be distributed, if the distribution is no longer taking place through socially managed work? Is there going to be a basic income without work?

– Unjustly distributed are the opportunities based on religion: Devout Christians in countries of the real existing socialism – recently to a decreasingly lesser extent in some cases – as well as in western dictatorships, have lesser opportunities. The list can be continued further, if we add to it the various types of cultural impoverishment, particularly of the people in the affluent countries. There are many who, in the process of production and consumption, have allowed themselves to be reduced to a bundle of taxable and qratifiable needs.

– Many people are suffering from a notorious case of „unemployment“ of the soul. Materially speaking they have a great deal, but on a human scale they have very little: They are poor.

– Unjust are the opportunities for education among the various social strata, even in our country. The children of the upper middle classes and the upper classes still have by far more opportunities to be well educated and, as a result, greater opportunities to be socially successful than the children of laborers.

– Also victims of unjustly distributed opportunities are all those who fail in our success-oriented society: the aged, children, the weak, those who are ill, the handicapped.

2. Political Church(es)

Again it can be pointed out that the Church, if she is truly the very people of God with which the Bible has made us familiar, can be a haven of hope for the many victims of an unjust distribution of opportunities. In the process of orienting ourselves as a Church according to this God, we do not simply let him exist (we actually give wings to the rumor), but rather we become the potential of hope in a humanity suffering from a sea of injustices.

(a) Sin which cries to heaven

Again the question concerns the kind of God that is revealed to us in the biblical texts. The answer is as follows: It is a God who hears the cries of the oppressed, who has an „ear“ for them, and, in case that they cannot find an advocate among people, he will make himself strong on their behalf in order to release them from their oppression. The traditional European educational theology has assembled this knowledge under the heading „Flagrant Sin“. For quite some time now this concept has been taught as a European liberation theology, the social effects of which, however, have diminished because of the spreading inwardness and escape into the other world of the Bible message in our parts of the world. On the following pages we are going to look at the most important texts dealing with such „flagrant sins“:

Then the Lord said, „I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.“ (Ex 3:7)

– Shown in this text, in a speech filled with imagery, is a God who is in touch with the suffering of his people. The original text is more powerful than our standard translation „Seen, yes seen have I“; „Heard, yes heard have I“. And above all: „I know their suffering“. He uses the same verb „to know“ as in the sentence, „Adam knew his wife and she bore him a son“. (Gen 4:1) God is „intimate“ with the suffering of his people.

– The suffering of the people is depicted in striking images The topic is oppression. In a later chapter (Ex 22:20) the words „to exploit“ and „to afflict“ are being used. The vocabulary sounds „Marxist“ to our ears. But this is only an indication that the biblical terminology is more foreign to us Christians than it is to the Marxists! Is it a part of the Marxist role to have kept alive the biblical language and analytical tradition for us middle class-liberal Christians? The fact that Karl Marx was familiar with this wordplay is not surprising: He himself came from the Jewish tradition. Because of his disappointment in the socially abused pietistic Christianity, however, he has incorporated this biblical tradition in an anticlerical-atheistic context. Since, as Christians, we once again have a better relationship with the biblical traditions, we may very well use this type of analytical language in the traditional context of our faith.

– The Bible familiarizes us with a God who is in opposition to the oppression of people by the rich and powerful. God is known to take sides. He opts in favor of the poor. We find him on the side of the exploited, the oppressed. And because he makes himself strong (by summoning Moses and leading his people out of Egypt), he is becoming „political“ in the traditional sense of the word, active on behalf of a just distribution of opportunities.

„You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you do afflict them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” (Ex 22:21-24)

– God is the advocate of those who are socially weak because they are not part of a protective extended family: the situation of the widows and orphans. Equally in need of protection are the strangers, those who seek asylum, and the „Gastarbeiter“.

On the basis of these first biblical texts it is evident that God is not indifferent to the injustice which is occurring among people. It is important to take note, however, that the sin that cries to heaven is always a social sin, a sin which manifests itself in structures of injustice, and which holds down or stamps down on the opportunities of people to live in dignity. For that very reason, Cains murder of his brother Abel is crying out to heaven (Gen 4:10). This theme dominates the book of the prophet Amos. In it, man's relationship with God (sadik=God's justice) and the relationship of people with each other (mishpat=Justice of people)i are put into perspective. According to Amos, without justice among people, man cannot be justified before God. Yet it is the mission of the people of Israel to make visible, through their own just actions, the sense of justice of God.

„Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith for ever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners, he upholds the widow and the fatherless; but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.” (Ps 146:5-9)

(b) The Liberation Praxis of Jesus

Jesus continues the praxis of God as it is described in the Old Testament. This is already manifested in his „inauguration“ sermon, the speech in the synagogue of Nazareth, which is used by Luke to introduce the public life and activities of Jesus programmatically:

„And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 'The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives i and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. ' And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. '” (Lk 4:16-21)

Initially, the proclaimed liberation praxis of Jesus was authored according to the old institution of justice of „the year of the Lord“. God had led his people into a land in which everybody found enough to live, to have his fill of life (which is expressed in the matriarchal images of milk and honey). God also gave his people the living guidelines o the Ten Commandments, the sole purpose of which is to keep the people in the perimeter of this liberating God and to liberate them in turn, by having them be considerate of the opportunities of others (those of their aging parents, of physical life, of reputation, of the indispensable position of marriage and family, of possessions). Of course, in Israel, as well, unjust distribution practices have taken hold by stealth, practices which have destroyed for all the balance of justice which had been created in the beginning by God. In opposition to them there now was the legal institution of the year of the Lord. It was introduced by blowing a long horn (jobel). It was to take place every fifty years with the aim of restoring the original just relations. Debts were cancelled; land had to be returned to its rightful owner.

Jesus now assumes the role of representative of the year of the Lord. He establishes conditions in accordance with the intentions of God: Justice for all, welcome news for the poor, those who are imprisoned and broken in spirit, those who have been robbed of their freedom. How much Jesus discharges his program of liberation is shown by his actions. In him the year of „jobelation“ has found a very definite beginning.³⁵ The many miracles are all, without exception' liberating transitions from death experiences to more life: from sickness, from death, from sinful isolation to a life as a free person surrounded by the people. To lead all men back into the living community of his people was a basic concern of Jesus.

This can be demonstrated by the biblical narrative of the healing of the leper (Mt 8:1-4), along with the „exegesis“ of this story as found in an eleventh century illustration:

– Jesus is descending the mountain; Matthew's account is reminiscent of Mount Sinai, on which God gave his people directions for the life in Canaan. Just like Moses, Jesus comes from God to his people. What he is doing is interpreting God. In him, in his manner of meeting, God's way of dealing with us, his people, becomes visible. Jesus is simply the interpretation of God.

Healing of the Leper. Evangelistary from Echternach, around 1040; Brussels, Bibliotheque royale, MS 9428, fol. 23 recto; Ars liturgica Kunstverlag Maria Laach, Nr. 5610.

„When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.' And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will: be clean!' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him. 'See that you say nothing to any one; but go. Show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof (of your healing) to the people.” (Mt 8: 1-4)

– Jesus is interested in meeting with the leper (and vice versa). The leper, at the time of Jesus, was considered to be socially dead. Indeed, the situation of the leper was marked by deadly deprivations: a lack of companionship, a lack of creative freedom, a lack of the feeling of belonging.

– Jesus does not shun death. He is not afraid of physical contact. And this stands in opposition to the laws of his day which prohibited meetings with lepers. For the sake of the people he becomes an „outlaw“: because the first law of God is called „life“.³⁶

Thus he reaches into wretchedness, looks at the leper. gives him his attention and creates (the extended hand, in the story of creation. has become the symbol for the creation of the world) the conditions necessary for the leper (who is now clean in body. as well) to resume life with the people. Accordingly, Jesus is freeing the leper from his deadly situation. A transition from death to life is taking place. For this purpose the Bible is manifesting the faith image of the resurrection. The healing of the leper is an Easter narrative.

(c) Liberating Church Praxis

This basic liberating attitude of Jesus has been passed from him to the movement started by him, the Church. In the letter of James „the sin which cries to heaven“ is isolated and addressed in very harsh words:

„Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.“ (Jas 5:1-4)

This socially critical tradition was never forgotten by the Church. The social praxis of the Church and her social teachings bear witness to that fact. But it cannot be denied that in the more recent history of our European Church, her social consciousness has diminished. Her main concern became centered on spirituality and the next world, God and the soul, more on the life after death than the life before death.

Counter to that, a powerful movement has developed in the world Church of today which sees itself in a praxis of liberation, as acting out the role of the Church in the context of suppression. Theologically speaking, this praxis of liberation, which can be found primarily in the „southern Church“ (Latin America, (South) Africa³⁷. South East Asia, the Philippines³⁸), is reflected in the theology of liberation. In the meantime this theology has found worldwide esteem and recognition in an engaged dialogue without precedent between the Church of Brazil and Rome.³⁹ All these churches have learned that they cannot but opt for the poor, because, prior to this, God himself already opted for the poor, the oppressed. If a church refuses to make this key decision, she is denying herself to her God. A church which is neutral in the face of injustice becomes atheistic, god-forsaken. Subsequently she is no longer in a position to bring the rumor of God into circulation. The praxis of the churches of the south, on the other hand, indicates that their option in favor of the oppressed and the poor is giving the people more than just hope. The prediction of the prophet Zechariah is being fulfilled:

„Thus says the Lord of hosts: 'In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a man from Judah, saying. 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'„ (Zech 8:23)

3. Elements of a New Political Culture

The knotting together of mysticism and politics is an uncommon and monstrous concept for those educated in the Catholic tradition. When the former archbishop of Salzburg is passing on the dismay of young mothers over the life obstacles created for their young children as a result of the atomic disaster in Chernobyl, his colleague from Regensburg writes him a cool letter, and the premier of Bavaria accuses him of abusing his official position. The Church is not meant to make waves, at least not according to the high and mighty. She is supposed to stay out of it. And those bishops who are concerned with peace and harmony within the Church (and who are not aware how this peacefulness can very often be unbiblical because it is reminiscent of a graveyard repose which has grown from a catastrophic unconcern with the gospel), are trying very hard on their part not to let political themes come up. Whoever is working for the Church should concern himself with politics in his spare time at most. Politics are not a component of Church business.

There is, of course, some validity to these concerns. There are people in the Church who would like to use the Bible as a political handbook. In the process, they skip over (referred to as fundamentally, but the implications are „irrationally“ and „dreamily“) the complicated issues. We have no pleadings on that behalf. The Bible is no substitute for expert knowledge. The opposite is the case: Whoever has understood the Bible does not turn to phantasmas; instead he will turn to misery which is very concrete and difficult to alleviate. But even the accusation that someone is not sufficiently knowledgeable is to be looked at more closely. For this accusation, as justified as it may be, can also mean that the Bible really should not effect any consequences for the political praxis of Christians.

In conclusion we are putting up for discussion some building blocks for a „new“ Bible-oriented political culture.

– Christians and church communities, which have understood the praxis of God, become „intimate“ with the many visible and hidden histories of suffering. Typical for Christians, therefore, is their attentiveness. They see; they hear; they research; they analyze. They don't keep the peace, and they are not afraid of physical contact with misery.

– Christians who have understood the praxis of God won't know immediately what to do. But they will leave no doubt as to where they stand. They have made a choice: they have made a decision. In any case, we will find them on the side of those who have become victims of an unjust distribution of opportunities. An examination of my conscience can begin with my reminding myself once again of the long list of victims: the poor nations, women (and also men who have become victims of their own patriarchal system), blacks, „Gastarbeiter“, refugees, those who haven't been born, the next generation, other forms of life on our earth, those without a place of work, those who are persecuted for their faith, the victims of overconsumption, those who are suffering from unemployment of the soul, those who are shortchanged because of their lack of education, the many people who fail in a success oriented society because they are not sufficiently productive, the aged, the children, the weak, the sick, the dying, the handicapped. In addition there are the divorced and the single parents. Finally there are those who can no longer find meaning in this life. Christians are to be found foremost, acting on their behalf.

– This option will not be easy, least of all for us who are rich in opportunities. Should we stop being rich? Does God not also love the rich? He loves them. But he expects of them he expects of us, to step with him to the side of the poor, and – in solidarity with them – to look for ways which lead to a more just distribution of opportunities for all.

– If our Church, if Christians make such political choices, they can expect this to result in friends among the poor: whereas the rich and powerful will meet such an option with suspicion. They will advise us, contrary to our consciences, to be unpolitical, to stay out of it. If we do not follow their advice, they will persecute us, if necessary to the blood. The decision in favor of God's option has its price. The fate of Jesus is witness to that.

Rolf Zerfass: When God Radiates through Our Actions

Perhaps we are just too complicated. Perhaps that is the very reason why God has few opportunities in his Church, because we think too much about effectively translating his word into the language of modern man, while We understand too little of the language which is spoken by all people this language of Love, when Jesus says to his disciples that they are the light or the Wo.rld, ne is not thinking of their clever sermons or their illuminated theology, but obviously of the rays which are emitted by their good deeds: „Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to al, the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven“ (Mt 5: 15,16).

I

A document from the Old Church might help us to translate this Word of Jesus into the reality of our parishes. It describes the duties of the parish deacon, but it is immediately apparent that we are dealing with something other that the profile of a specific office in the Church. we are dealing with the Church as a whole. We are dealing with the manner in which God is occurring in the Church. We are dealing With the type of God that is being represented in this World by a parish community.

(1) The seat of the priest and the deacons is to be behind the presbytery. Next to the church there is to be a hostel where the archdeacon can receive strangers.

(8) As is right and appropriate, the priest, together with the deacon, is to go into the homes of the sick to visit them. He carefully thinks about what he might say to them that is appropriate and useful. particularly in the case of the believers.

(10) The deacon only performs those duties and only makes those announcements that have been commissioned by the bishop. He is advisor to the entire clergy and something like a symbol of the entire Church. He cares for the sick, looks after strangers, is the helper of widows. He assumes responsibility for orphans in a fatherly fashion, and he regularly goes into the homes of the poor in order to determine if there are any people who have been reduces to fearfulness, illness or deprivation. He will go into the homes of the catechumens in order to give encouragement to those who are hesitant, and to instruct those who are ignorant. He clothes and „adorns“ the men who have died: H buries strangers: he assumes responsibility for those who Have left their homeland or who have been banished. He makes known to the parish the names of those who are in need of help in the process has is not to inconvenience the bishop. He must make his report on Sundays only. in order that the latter is kept informed about everything,

(12) When the deacon is occupied in a city which is y the sea, he is to carefully search along the snore to see whether the body of a shipwrecked person has been washed ashore. He is to clothe and bury it. In the shooter for strange its his to make inquiries whether there are any sick people. any paupers, or any deceased. and he will keep the parish informed thereof, in order that it will do whatever is necessary for each of these. He will baths the paralyzed and the sick, in order that they will find some relief in their illness. He will make certain that their needs ars met through the parish.

(13) For every community there are to be appointed twelve priests, seven deacons, and fourteen subdeacons, and the widows to whom (for the service) is issued a place of privilege (behind the priests), are to be thirteen in number. Whoever, among the deacons, is the most diligent and the best administrator, should be chosen to welcome strangers. He should always be available in the guest house of the church, wear white clothes and a stole across the shoulder.

(14) The deacon shall be like the eye of the Church in everything; he will take pains to be a model of piety.

The text is taken from a Syrian set of Church regulations from the fifth century which was passed off to be the „Bequest of the Lord“ (Testamentum domini)⁴⁰ with a relatively well-developed city church in mind: Under the leadership of their bishop, twelve priests, seven deacons. and thirteen widows are operating (13). The pastoral care has not been organized into parishes but is carried out co-operatively from individual churches. Accordingly, the deacon is not subordinate to a pastor, but rather to the bishop who is head of the city jurisdiction (10). We are passing over those regulations dealing with catechetical and liturgical obligations, and are concentrating on the rules dealing with charity and parish life, two aspects which are personified to a certain extent in this document.

II

To Be in Touch with Human Misery

The deacon „regularly goes into the homes of the poor in order to determine if there are any people who have been reduced to fearfulness, illness, or deprivation“ (3). He will act in person, where there is a need: „He will bathe the paralyzed and the sick, in order that they will find some relief in their illness“ (12). He washes the bodies of the men who have died, and gets them ready for burial; he assumes responsibility for the orphans, and helps the widows (10) ; and he builds the bridge to the parish community: „He makes known to the parish the names of those who are in need of help“ (10), and „He will make certain that their needs are met through the parish“ (12). Accordingly, there is no fear of physical contact. Poverty and misery are realities, in the face of which the parish does not encapsulate itself. but rather opens up. This will become particularly visible if faced with a group of ‘asocials’ with which it is most difficult to deal in an ancient big city, „those who have left their homeland or who have been banished“ (10). They are particularly dubious: There are no passports and no police who would eliminate the criminals on the run: one can't know whether they are carriers of contagious diseases. or whether they will be more of a nuisance than of benefit to the city. There are no hotels, only brothels and the notorious „insulae“, huge apartment buildings in which they are needed together under appalling conditions. That is where the parish sends her deacon: ((In the shelter for strangers ne is to make endures Whether there are any sick people. any paupers. or any deceased. and ne will keep the parish informed thereof. in order that it will do whatever is necessary for each of these. He will bathe the paralyzed and the sick, in order that they will find some relief in their illness. He will make certain that their needs are met through the parish (12).

But the community is also looking for a long-term solution to the problems in her. Who accord it has public kitchens and hostels installed: „Next to the church there is to be a hostel (where the archdeacon can receive strangers“ (1). „Whoever, among the deacons, is the most diligent and the best administrator, should be chosen to welcome strangers. He should always be available in the guest house of the church“ (13).

This determination of the Christian parishes to meet wretchedness „head-on“ wherever it should appear, must have made an unheard-of impression on the heathen world.

One may assume that in the ancient cities this action on behalf of the poor won the Church more followers than her sermons about the Gospel. Indeed, her charity work represented the inner momentum of her proclamation, an expression of the new brotherliness, to which they saw themselves brought together and which they celebrated in the Eucharist. The hostel and the church buildings, charity and worship, inseparably belonged together. They were speaking of a different God from the one which had been formerly represented by the heathen priesthood: of a God of people, not a god who was primarily concerned with the welfare of the state, of „the public hand“. Because the proclamation of the Gospel is in co-operation with a living brotherliness and this selfless action on behalf of the poor, an environment is created which illustrates who God really is: someone who is anxious to see that those who are bowed down will be able to walk tall again, that those who are imprisoned will once again find their way to the light, and that the poor receive the Glad Tidings that they are God's beloved children (Lk 4:18-19). Thereby the Church community will become „a letter from Christ. to be known and read by all men, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.“ (2 Cor 3:3)

Without Pious Ulterior Motives

Is it possible that this attentiveness toward the poor was a „missionary strategy“? This suspicion was raised, indeed. in the ancient world. and it is still being fed in the Church of today wherever charity is put on the level of „pre-fieldwork“ which would then have to be followed up by „the actual pastoral care“. Our Church ordinances substantiate the opposite view. They are a moving witness to the fact that the love that comes from God (1 John 4:16) will not be in need of subsequent re-evaluation: „When the deacon is occupied in a city which is by the sea. he is to carefully search along the shore to see whether the body of a shipwrecked person has been washed ashore. He is to clothe and bury it.“ (12) What a moving picture! Nothing remains to be „missionized“! There is no longer a member to be won, and there are no further Church tithes to be hoped for. This is simply a case dealing with the dignity of man, the dignity of the dead: that his nakedness is covered, that the body is not left to the stray dogs on the beach. Here we are seriously dealing with the fact that all people, even strangers, even the nameless, even heathens, even the dead, are God's property, are sheltered in his benevolence: „You are powerful enough to do anything, but you are merciful to everyone; you overlook our sins and give us time to repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls“ (Wis 11:23-26).

The deacon who leans over a strange corpse stands for the God of the living and the death. He realizes Gods faithfulness – until after the death. When he goes then together with the priest into the houses of the sick persons and one thinks over, when one „can tell them suitable and useful, particularly the believer“ (8), we assume that in the houses of the unbelieving, in which one apparently goes, no bad advertisement will be done. Who goes in the houses of the poor, this one also is authorized „to go to the catechumens into their flats,“ to give the hesitant courage and teach the ignorant ones“ (10). ⁴¹

„Let love be without dissimulation“ (Rom 12:9). This might very well mean to deliberately dispense with religious instructions or missionary work. Mother Teresa does not run a mission in the charnel houses of Calcutta; no final rites are being administered. In answer to the question what her purpose was in being there, she responded, „I want to give every human being the feeling that he is welcome.” Someday, even if it is during the last days of his life, even the poorest is to feel that he has been welcome in this world. Accordingly, God reveals himself to us in the actions of Mother Teresa.

This is how he is „happening „ in our actions. That the dying may smile and cry on their mats because they know themselves to be sheltered, is a reflection of his light. Thus it is obvious that charity is not another word for „pre-fieldwork“, but that it means divine service, a revelation of the glory of God in the world, a sacrament.

The actions of Mother Teresa are unreasonable, unprofitable. They do not benefit society or the Church. For that very reason they are capable of showing who God is He radiates through these works. They are his epiphany. For God himself is unreasonable. Like a mother (Is 49:15) and like a father (Lk 15:20) he has compassion against all logic. He knows that he should punish, but compassion – in the Hebrew language it has the same meaning as „bowels” and „womb“ – overcomes him: „My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy my people; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to destroy.“ (Hos 11:8-9) This God has been revealed to us by Jesus through his irresponsible piety on sinners, publicans, and prostitutes (Mk 3:4: 9:36; Mt 9:10; 19:14: 20:30: Lk 7:44: 19:5: John 8:11; a. o.) – right up to the irrational-effusive gesture of washing the feet at the Last Supper (John 13:1-20: Lk 22:27). If our charity had nothing of the folly of this love in it because it had become totally subject to the logic and bureaucratic reasoning of the laws of social welfare, then, of course, we would have put our light under a bushel...

Symbol of the Entire Church

Eventually one becomes very much aware of the honorable titles awarded to the deacon: „He is advisor to the entire clergy and something like a symbol of the entire Church (10).

One must be able to discern the critical undertone: for it is not a recent occurrence that the Church has been identified with the pastor „without whom nothing can be run“. They may very well represent the Church, but her „symbol“ is the deacon. In him, who visits the homes of the poor regularly, who bathes their sick in order that they may find some relief, who lays the dead to rest in the earth, the purpose of the Church finds its expression. „The way of the Church is man“ (John Paul II); for he is the destination of all the paths of God. Her only right to exist is to be found in her service to mankind; for the God who has taken her in his service, in an inexplicable way is a God of people, „for us and for our salvation he descended onto earth“, as we confess in the Apostles' Creed. Whether we believe in this God is therefore decided by our belief in mankind – in the name of God! Whoever does not run away from the misery of mankind. therefore is deemed worthy of a primordial authority. Whoever is familiar with the suffering of man is in the image of God who says. „I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings“ (Ex 3:7). He who carries the sorrows of people into the parish community, who „makes known to the parish the names of those who are in need of help“ (10), deserves to be heard in the Church. By strongly urging the parish to make the afflictions of the people its priority – the Turkish children in the Catholic nursery school, the refugees who are temporarily housed in the school building, the misery of the aged who never get to leave the nursing home because there is no one who will take them for an hour's walk – he prevents the parish from only dealing with itself and thus failing in its calling. Accordingly he will become the „advisor to the entire clergy“.

That such advice is not always welcome, is evident by the document in itself: There is a series of related Church ordinances which emphatically stipulate that the deacon is not the advisor to the entire clergy. Therefore our text is all the more noteworthy! Without any doubt, it insists on the role of charity for the life of the Church when it ends with the formula:

„The deacon shall be like the eye of the Church in everything“ (14).

Only in serving, does the Church become aware of the people. And only if she serves, does she keep her eyes open. Only those who love will give reality a chance:

It's nonsense

says Reason

It is what it is

says Love

It's misfortune

says Logic lt's nothing but pain

says Fear

lt's hopeless

says Insight

It is what it is

says Love

It's ridiculous

says Pride

It's reckless

says Caution

lt's impossible

says Experience

It is what it is

says Love

Erich Fried

What will become of the Church if this eye goes blind? What will she look at, squint at, if she does not keep the poor in her field of vision?

III

„Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven“ (Mt 5:16). Which concrete steps can we take in order that these words of Jesus will be fulfilled in our parishes?

It all starts with the recognition of the fact that courageous action on behalf of people who are basically of no concern to us is not only a cause for a generous resolution which some individuals may have made. and it is not an issue for the social welfare task force which concerns itself with such causes with the aid of specialists. but it is a concern to be dealt with by every parish community which does not want to create the impression of being a church for Catholics or people who attend church regularly. All the borderline cases with which the experts of our welfare organizations are dealing – the drug addicts and the homeless, the foreigners and the handicapped, the aged and the mentally ill, the single mothers and the refugees – have a right to take up residence in our parish communities. This is not up to the good will of the parish council: it is Gods will. That is the purpose of the Church!

Why are we so little disquieted by the fact that they do not show up at our place? Are they hiding from us as much as they are hiding f.rom society? Do they accredit us with nothing because they sense that we are not interested in their life experiences, because we are preoccupied with celebrating divine services and church picnics among ourselves? Then of course if they watch our festivities from the sidelines they have no reason to praise God. After all this is not meant for them they are left out in the cold...

Possibly a first step would be for a parish to get in touch with the social agency people who liye or work in that particular area. They too feel ittle recognition and respect in their parishes for the risks which they have set out to do for the destitute on behalf of the Church: much less are they consulted as (advisors of the entire clergy“ (!). And yet we are in desperate need for them to serve as our „eyes“, in order that we will not overlook the poor and in them Christ -(and not get into the embarrassing situation on Judgment Day of asking, „ Lord, when did we see you naked and a stranger, hungry and in prison and not visit you? (comp. Mt 25:37). We cannot say to these eyes. „We don't need you (comp. 1 Cor 12:14-27), for we have a charity committee (Caritasausschuss) and lately an honorary deacon! The situation in our society has become so complex, misery has acquired so many faces, that it can only be alleviated in the determined and trusting co-operation of the professional social (Caritas) workers, the local basic initiatives, the „Caritas“ committees in the parish communities, and the ordained deacons.

For this very reason, the chasm between social welfare programs and the parishes has become increasingly wider in the past thirty years, possibly one of the hidden festering wounds of the Church in Germany hidden behind the great apparatus of the Caritasassociation and an equally efficiently organized pastoral care program.⁴² The loss is great on both sides. The „Caritas“ people in their conference rooms and homes as just as isolated as their clients: they are missing the solidarity of the community of believers: nowhere is there anyone to be seen who is interested in extreme case histories, who is willing to catch them as they are being dragged downward, who is willing to help them carry their conflicts. (Does one lose the Church as a home base, once she becomes an employer?) The parishes, on the other hand, are missing out on the problem consciousness, the anxiety, the social conscience. Their Reconciliation rites are harmless, their petitions tedious – read from a book. The religious services are not within a framework wherein it is mentioned in front of God what a parish is experiencing. But rather the religious services are the life of the parish in its entirety. They are the substitute for the life of the parish.

However, it is not necessary that we should be so deprived. Wherever we – in the name of God and in the following of Jesus – respond courageously to the needs of the people in our vicinity, we are in a position to make a wonderful discovery. that we ourselves are healing in the process, that our own darkness is turning to light, that the sources within us which seem to have been dead for a long time, once again are starting to gush forth.

„When you see the naked and you cover him, and you do not hide yourself from your brother, then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer: you shall cry, and he will say: Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of wickedness, if you put yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noon day. And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong: and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring, whose waters fail not.“ (Is 58:7-11)

1)

Dogmatische Konstitution über die Kirche – Lumen Gentium No. 9-7: „Das Volk Gottes“.  ↵

2)

A. Heller – P. M. Zulehner: Jenseits der Klerus- und Expertenkirche, in: M. Albus und P. M. Zulehner (publ.), Nur der Geist macht lebendig, Mainz, 1985 , pp. 119-129.  ↵

3)

I. Illich, Entmündigung durch Experten. Zur Kritik der Dienstleistungsberufe, Reinbeck, 1979.  ↵

4)

Kirche und Priester zwischen dem Auftrag Jesu und den Erwartungen der Menschen, Linz 1974, p. 262.  ↵

5)

Pastoral-historically speaking in this context there is talk of a „basic schism“: P. Audet: Priester und Laie in der christlichen Gemeinde. Der Weg in die gegenseitige Entfremdung, in: Der priesterliche Dienst, I, Freiburg, 1970, pp. 115-175. – P. Wess, Ihr alle seid Geschwister. Gemeinde und Priester, Mainz, 1983.  ↵

6)

P. M. Zulehner, J. Fischer. M. Huber: Sie werden mein Volk sein. Grundkurs gemeindlichen Glaubens; Düsseldorf 1987.  ↵

7)

Dogmatic Constitution Concerning the Church“, Lumen gentium 1.  ↵

8)

P. M. Zulehner, „Denn du kommst uns mit deiner Gnade zuvor...“ Zur Theologie der Seelsorge heute. P. M. – 3 Zulehner in a dialogue with K. Rahner, Duesseldorf3, 1987.  ↵

9)

L. Boff, Die Neuentdeckung der Kirche. Basisgemeinden in Lateinamerika, Mainz, 1980.  ↵

10)

E. Schillebeeckx, Amtszölibat, Düsseldorf, 1964.  ↵

11)

Therein is shown the resemblance between Mary and the Church (comp. Lk 1:49). Compare to this chapter eight of the Church constitution of Vatican II, Lumen gentium. No. 52-69.  ↵

12)

M. Schulz, Eine Gemeinde spricht über ihren Glauben. Predigt als Wegbegleitung, Mainz 1983, 40.  ↵

13)

„It is questionable when in the religious services of many renewal groups everybody is required to step up front to profess himself in panegyric to his vocation. After all, who is to say that this is the time chosen by God in which a person has truly recognized his calling? Many a staging of the awakening of spiritual vocations is subject to being tempted into tearing away from God the management of the history of one's calling and to become violent, contrary to his actions.“ K. G. Rey, Gotteserlebnisse im Schnellverfahren. Suggestion als Gefahr und Charisma, München, 1985.  ↵

14)

„Expert“ in this case refers to women and men who are knowledgeable in the field of pastoral proceedings. They have training in pastoral care: Comp. P. M. Zulehner, Priestermangel praktisch, Munich 1983, 175-200.  ↵

15)

The mystery of the evolution of the Church is symbolically represented in the sacraments of the incorporation of the individual into the Church, consequently in Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist. Thereby it becomes obvious in the conception of the sacraments that God himself, as he became one with us in Christ, is creating his people. Accordingly, theology rightfully teaches that it is Christ who baptizes, confirms us, gives his body, in order that we may be his body.  ↵

16)

J. Ratzinger, Zur Lage des Glaubens. Ein Gespräch mit v. Messori, Munich 1985.- In addition: F. König, Der Weg der Kirche. Ein Gespräch mit G. Licheri, Düsseldorf 1986. 130-135. – Schlussdokument der Außerordentlichen Bischofssynode 1985 und Botschaft an die Christen in der Welt (Verlautbarungen des Apostolischen Stuhls, Nr. 63), Bonn 1986.  ↵

17)

17 G. Lohfink. Wie hat Jesus Gemeinde gewollt. Freiburg. 1982. 196-203.  ↵

18)

18 Thus it is written about the first public appearance of Jesus in Galilee, „And a report concerning him went out through the surrounding country“ (Lk 4:14-15).  ↵

19)

19 In modern usage the word „rumor“ has the relatively negative connotation of hearsay or gossip. Its origin, however. is Latin, rumor, -oris, meaning „a dull noise“, „a report“, or „tidings“.  ↵

20)

Compare to K. Rahner, Grundkurs des Glaubens. Einführung in den Begriff des Christentums, Freiburg 1976. – Katholischer Erwachsenenkatechismus. Das Glaubensbekenntnis der Kirche, published by the German Bishops' Conference, Bonn 1985.  ↵

21)

R. Schuster, Was sie glauben. Texte von Jugendlichen, Stuttgart, 1989.  ↵

22)

22 F.X. Kaufmann – W. Kerber – P.M. Zulehner, Ethos und Religion bei Führungskräften, München, 1986  ↵

23)

23 P.L. Berger – T. Luckmann, Die gesellschaftliche Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit, Frankfurt, 1969, p. 51.  ↵

24)

24 Quoted from F. Dolto, Dynamik des Evangeliums, Olten, 1980  ↵

25)

25 H. Lefebvre, Das Alltagsleben in der modernen Welt, Frankfurt, 1972. By the same author: Kritik des Alltagslebens, München, 1975, pp. 175-193  ↵

26)

For the history of the term „mysticism“ and the relationship between different types of mysticism and politics: P. Neuner. Religion zwischen Kirche und Mystik. Friedrich von Hügel und der Modernismus. Frankfurt. 1977. – E. Troeltsch. Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen, Tübingen. 1912. K. E. Apfelbacher. Frömmigkeit und Wissenschaft. Ernst Troeltsch und sein theologisches Programm. München. 1978. – D. Mieth. Mystik, in: Neues Handbuch theologischer Grundbegriffe. publ. by P. Eicher. vol. 3, München, 1985, pp. 151-162  ↵

27)

Literature on the topic of „ecclesiastical atheism“: J. Fischer. Über das Gottvorkommen in der heutigen Kirche. Wider den ekklesialen Atheismus. in: Nur der Geist macht lebendig. publ. by M. Albus and P. M. Zulehner. Mainz 1986. 29-37. – P. M. Zulehner. Von der (Gott) fernstehenden Kirche: „Oder einem ekklesialen Atheismus, in: Erfahrungen mit Randchristen. Neue Horizonte für die Seelsorge, publ. by the Katholischen Glaubensinformation. Freiburg. 1986. 164-175.  ↵

28)

The Understanding of the Church and Religion among Catholics and Protestants. A representative questionnaire commissioned by the editorial staff of „Kirche und Leben“ on the ZDF. Allensbach. 1986  ↵

29)

Various new studies demonstrate that church attendance is one of the most prominent indicators of the tendency of a person to participate in the faith and life of the Church. Comp. P. M. Zulehner, Religion im Leben der Österreicher, Vienna, 1981.  ↵

30)

C. Schönhoff, „. . .als 'Landpfarrer' an der Westküste“, in Eins sein in der Zerstreuung. Katholiken aus Schleswig-Holstein erzählen von ihrem Christsein in der Diaspora, publ. by the director of education for Schleswig-Holstein in the Department of Schools and Universities of the Episcopal General Vicarate of Osnabrück, Kiel, 1986, p, 51  ↵

31)

Campaign by the German Catholic Youth Organization for the Diocesan Synod, Wernau, 1985.- Mit der Jugend Gott suchen, publ. by R. Bleistein – P. M. Zulehner, Munich, 1987  ↵

32)

P. M. Zulehner, Religion im Leben der Österreicher. Wien, 1981.  ↵

33)

G. Lohfink, Wie hat Jesus Gemeinde gewollt, p. 57  ↵

34)

From an article entitled „Clerus“ in Wetzer und Welte's Kirchenlexikon, Freiburg, 1884. pp. 537-547.  ↵

35)

N. Lohfink, „Gottes Reich und die Wirtschaft in der Bibel“, in Internationale katholische Zeitschrift Communio 15 (19S6), 110-123.  ↵

36)

J. Brandner – P. M. Zulehner, Lebe! Das Anliegen Got als punk der Pastoral seiner Kirche, Freising 1984.  ↵

37)

x The KAIROS Document. A Challenge to the Church. A theological commentary to the political crisis in South Africa, rebrinted in: Weltkirche, Dokumente aus Afrika, Asien und Lateinamerika. published by ADVENIAT. MISEREOR. MISSIO, vol. 8/1985. – Pastoral Reflection of the South African Bishops' Conference about Specific Aspects of the KAIROS Document, Natal 1986.  ↵

38)

Macht und Ohnmacht auf den Philiopinen, publ. by F. Koester – P. M. Zulehner, Olten 1986.  ↵

39)

In addition: the exposition of social sin in Johannes Paul II, Apostlisches Schreiben: Reconciliato et paenitentia (Verlautbarungen des Apostolischen Stuhls Nr. 60), Bonn, 19S4, Nr. 16.  ↵

40)

The text is taken from B. Fischer: Dienst und Spiritualität des Diakons. Das Zeugnis einer syrischen Kirchenordnung des 5. Jahrhunderts, in: Der Diakon. Wiederentdeckung und Erneuerung seines Dienstes, publ. by J. G. Plöger und H. J. Weber, Freiburg ²1980. There are further suggestions in this publication concerning the literature and the state of research on this topic.  ↵

41)

[dieser Asatz lautet auf Deutsch: Der Diakon, der sich über eine fremde Leiche beugt, steht für den Gott der Lebenden und der Toten. Er bringt Gottes Treue zum Tragen - über den Tod hinaus. Wenn er anschließend zusammen mit dem Priester in die Häuser der Kranken geht und man sich überlegt, wann man "ihnen Passendes und Nützliches sagen kann, besonders den Gläubigen" (8), dürfen wir davon ausgehen, dass in den Häusern der Ungläubigen, die man offenbar ebenso selbstverständlich aufsucht, keine unpassende Schleichwerbung getrieben wird. Wer in den Häusern der Armen aus- und eingeht, der ist auch autorisiert, "zu den Katechumenen in ihre Wohnungen" zu gehen, "um den Zögernden Mut zu machen und die Unwissenden zu unterrichten" (10). ]  ↵

42)

2As far as the R.C. Caritas Association („Caritasverband“) is concerned, there is very much willingness for building bridges: comp. P. Zerfass: Der Beitrag des Caritasverbandes zur Diakonie der Gemeinde, in: Caritas 88 (198n). pp. 12-26: also: Der ekklesiologische Ort der Diakonie – zur gemeindebildenden Funktion und Bedeutung der Diakonie heute. publ. by F. Boll – M. Manderscheid (DCV-Materialien 5.. Freiburg. 1985.  ↵

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