Paul M. Zulehner

Visions for the Church.

Reorientation in times of Church Reorganisation.

Vienna 2017 (Patmos, Ostfildern ³2013)

Translated by the author together with Rod Pritchard-Smith (London-Vienna).

Content

CHURCH REORGANISATION:
An introduction 3

The nostalgic retro temptation 4

Need for visions 5

Liveliness of an organisation 6

Vision weakness 9

About the power of visions 11

Everyone is given visions 13

UNSPENT
CHURCH VISIONS 16

Orpheus and Christ 17

Mature into cosmic Christ 24

The Descent of Christ into Hades: What do we trust / What do we believe God is capable? 31

Becoming like the father 38

Live! 46

Basic processes of Church life 56

The Last Supper and the Washing of the Feet 65

And Sarah laughed 72

A gender fair Church 79

The star of the vision 82

CHURCH REORGANISATION: An introduction

The Viennese stand-up comedian Helmut Qualtinger told the following joke featering Herr Travnicek: "I don’t know where I’m going, but that way I’ll get there quicker." Similarly it was formulated pointedly within the “Sixty-eight” Movement: "When they didn’t know where they wanted to go, they increased their labours." At present, a similar thing is happening in some church communities.

The church is not in a crisis even if there is still so much discussion about a church crisis.¹ It makes no sense to hold the second Vatican council responsible for a crisis, which doesn’t exist.² As so often in former times the church is going through a deep reorganisation of its structure, which is to be expected from time to time.

There has been a reorganisation of the culture over the last few decades – a culture which prides itself as modern or even postmodern. The various churches have difficulty in keeping pace with cultural change. There is a temptation not to take part in the changing modern culture and to bunker themselves in a silently disappearing past. The former times are praised, mostly by the Lefebvrians who are called The Pius Brotherhood. The Pius-Brothers look longingly how the Roman Catholic Church was before the French Revolution. This was before the beginning of Modernity with its deep respect for individuality, human rights, equality for women and religious freedom.

The nostalgic retro temptation

The prophet Jeremiah preaches in the name of Yahweh against such longing for the past. The people had been deported to a foreign culture, to Babylon. Nostalgic prophets dreamt of a speedy return to the past and the deserted home: Jerusalem. Vehemently Jeremiah scourges these nostalgic prophets as false and warns the people insistently:

8 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.

9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.

10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my good promise to bring you back to this place.

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jer 29.8-11)

For the next 70 years, however, God had other plans with his exiled people:

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.

6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.

7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
(Jer 29,4-7)

Today, do the churches not live³ in such an interval of 70 years exile? If so a new pastoral mode is needed as well as a new social structure for the new epoch. This means: God today expects from his church a profound reorganisation, and this in a modern culture into which God himself has led her. In the midst of such a reorganisation the Gospel is understood more deeply thanks to the Spirit of God.

The Church is charged to proclaim the Gospel, which has brought with the help of God's Spirit so many fruits in the course of two thousand years, particularly in Europe.

Need for visions

In the required reorganisation of the Church there is a dangerous temptation. Experts in the development of organisations warn against of “more of the same”, unimaginatively carrying on just as before, even though everyone suspects in the word of German politician Erhard Eppler: "If we continue like this, we will continue no longer." All developers of organisations urge caution.

If in the course of the reorganisation of the church shape there is a shortage of means and the number of persons shrinks (members, churchgoers, volunteers, ordained) , then often happens that the business goes on without change. Experts call it "downsizing": Church business on low flame. One then says: Less priest, therefore bigger pastoral areas and less local Sunday masses. Adding then relieving themselves, that people drive long distances when they go to in discos and supermarkets - why shouldn't churchgoers not have a long-distance-drive theologically? A "church self-service" is expected from the individual church members, for families with little children (do you have already bundled three children into a car?) for old, sick persons in need of care and for handicapped. A church for the mobile healthy ones without children comes into being! The proximity to the people is given up in favour of the maintenance of an expiring shape of the church.

With such structural measures the phasedown of the conventional church shape cannot admittedly be prevented. Some rather fear that these even accelerate the fall. Liveliness is lost. It would be exactly this liveliness which could express itself in a new church shape, however, we do not know one, these perhaps in detail but cause which God will.

“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

(Is 43.19)

The prophet Isaiah put this question in the name Yahweh.

Liveliness of an organisation

Martin F. Saarinen – an American born in Finland – researched the question of what makes a (Methodist) parish lively.⁴ He concluded that church communities and organisations go through a life cycle. This starts with birth, continues through childhood to youth to reach adulthood. The organisation then gets old: It runs through the phases of maturity, aristocracy, bureaucracy, and finally dies.

This is the first painful insight of its analyses: Organisations are "born" but they are at the same time also mortal: this includes church organisations, such as parishes, spiritual movements or orders! Once there was a blossoming Christianity in Asia Minor and North Africa. The European areas of Czech Republic, Estonia or the former East Germany also had a lively Christian culture, before⁵ they became at the time of communism atheistic cultures with an aggressive stands towards the Church.

Saarinen clarifies that also young organisations have to grow and transform into adult organisations. Above all: Organisations are born from the strength of a vision.

Take the example of Jesus: What he did and what it spoke was the vision of a world, in which Gods dream of creation can be realised. “The Kingdom of God” was the name of this vision. To implement this vision in history, he inspired people with it – the Churches childhood! The Jesus-movement started. It was not any community but a vision community. As a town on the mountain it should be a light for others (Mt 5,14) and healing like salt (Mt 5,13); in this way it should show how people live when the love of God to the people and therefore the love to each other spreads.

This youthful vision-community grew. The Constantine shift of 313 had linked church and state closely with each other and accelerated the growth of the congregation. The persecuted church of the catacombs was now transformed into a state church; this again became a "people’s church" culturally deeply established in the population. This quantitative growth was admittedly at the same time a qualitative weakening. As Silvanus of Marseilles wrote in the fifth century:

"And you, church, have got weaker by your increased fertility, have sunk back by the increase and have lost vigour. Certainly: You have sent out the members through the whole world which although has the faith in name, however, no faith strength and you started to get rich in numbers but poor in faith; you got further with respect to the body, but your spirit atrophied."⁶

This condition characterizes the large Christian Churches to this day. Even though there are many Roman Catholics and Protestants, there are few Christians.⁷

Different roles have developed in such times of quick growth. While the clergy gained power the lay-people were weakened in intense fights.⁸ The ordination of the one became the subordination of the others. A fundamental pastoral schism emerged.⁹

The job sharing between the different task managers in the church and in the state, narrowly linked to each other, was decisive. The structures of the church with its dioceses and territorial communities corresponded to the structures of the Roman Empire - the church had "incarnated itself structurally".

In the Middle Ages something similar happened: The complete living environment of people was structured by the church. The people were obliged to celebrate the mass in their parish, to pay the tithe (“Zehent”), to be married, to baptize their children and to bury their family-members. The term for this relationship with the parish was "Pfarr ban".

The "old" orders played an important role in strengthening the church as a relatively independent institution: the Benedictines and Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Jesuits. This social structure had of the church has dark and bright sides. Europe owes the church its institutions for education and hospitals as well as the development of an effective state administration; but on the other hand, there were the Inquisition, the colonisation of other continents and religious wars.

The Jesus-movement was fully adult in that phase since it also had trained an administration compatible to its vision: Administration of the goods, the money and the members was well regulated.

The four elements which help an organisation to grow were shown clearly in Saarinen’s study: the community, the programme, the administration and all three interwoven with the strength of the birth vision. Community, programme and administration must always be tested by the vision; and they rub against each other and develop themselves. This birth vision forces the church to permanent development and purifying; sometimes also to radical conversion and to penitence, to a confession of guilt of the church from John Paul II made at the beginning of the third millennium to the displeasure of many in the church.

A strength of the Christian churches is its determination to have not be shaken at the original birth vision. This is held tightly in its charter - the Holy Scriptures - which is handed down faithfully thanks to the definition of an untouchable canon. Of course, these holy texts have a history of reception, carried by God’s Holy Spirit. This remains obligatory for the development of the churches. However, it mustn't prevent from further developments in different cultures and times. This is the case at least today where the Constantine epoch, characterizing the destiny of the church for centuries, has come to an end, while mankind is coming together - an unification permanently threatened by fear and therefore by violence, greed and lies.

Getting old: Vision weakening

According to Saarinen the ageing of an organisation starts precisely when the strength of the vision declines. It is, he makes a note cheerfully, a popular time for anniversaries. The jubilant communities of the church look back (such us married couples, members of the orders, priests, organizations) and are pleased about the strength of their vision at the beginning and what it has become.

After the vision the programmes get old if they are not updated early enough. What remains is a community which is managed well, self-satisfied but aging at the same time. If the community is also lost, the administration only rules with its structures paucity of vision. It is then often only all about money, hardly about God. A dying church body is managed successfully. It’s end: organizational death after a creeping, silent implosion.

Renewal and resurrection

The life cycle of single people is put between birth and death irreversibly. Not so that of organisations. These have the possibility of obtaining what they lack and gaining new liveliness and strength. Renewal is possible in every phase of life and age.

If an organisation is in the phase of "maturity" in which the strength of the vision declines, then it needs to regain vision. If it is an "aristocratic community", in which vision and programme are missing, it requires an update of both. According to the bible, the miracle of a resurrection from organisational death is possible.

An example of the renewal of the liveliness of a community is offered by "knight John". He lets tell the risen Christ to the community of Laodicea in Asia Minor:

14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

(Revelation 3,14-22)

We can learn a lot from the analysis of Saarinen. Primarily a powerful and moving vision must stand not only at the cradle of every organisation. This is and remains the guarantor of its liveliness in its further development as well. When its strength weakens, the organisation ages and loses little by little what it needs for the life in space and time: community, programme and administration.

Vision weakness

3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.

3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was.

Times without prophetic visions in Israel were counted as dark years. The people felt godforsaken if the "mouth of God" (this is the translation of "prophet") ceased. "A people without visions perishes" (Dorothee Sölle¹⁰ translated a warning in Proverbs 29,18, where it is written literally: "Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint.”

At the time of the archpriest's Eli this was the case obviously. Eli "could not see any more". Eli was vision-less (got rid of visions- he was poor in visions). His eyes were blinded. He slept on his place. All this token together helped the Israelites to be aware, that the Lord hid (himself): "Words of the Lord were rare."

The Young Prophet Samuel and The priest Eli by Burne Jones from The Vyner Memorial Window in Oxford Cathedral c.1872.

The report in the book Samuel showes how visions come to the people again. God himself gets active: The lamp God hadn't gone out yet. God makes use whom he chooses. In this case God, however, does not appoint the respectable and at the same time corrupt office bearer Eli but rather the young inexperienced Samuel. Perhaps like our young laymen in the church?

Whereas both sleep deeply in the temple: It is the sleep which not only makes passive but susceptible for the call of God.

4 Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.”

5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

The course of the story is touching up-to-date. This God calls and Samuel goes to the priest because he thought in his God-inexperience that this had called him at night. However, Eli sends the young man sleep again. And the whole twice! This is the obstinate misunderstanding of laymen.  They understand themselves as called by thepriest and do not understood that God has them appointed immediately to collaborating with him! All this can happen if somebody does not hear Gods inner voice  yet. Therefore succinct the report:

"7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him."

The great hour of Eli comes with that, however. When the boy appears at him the third time, he realizes that God wants to call the boy. He therefore teaches him God-knowledge: It is the greatest service of any office in the people God teaching the people to listen to God. Eli has succeeded in doing this. When God called the next time at night God was heard by Samuel:

8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak,Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

The story about the vocation of Samuel teaches us on the one hand that there are times in which the strength of visions is weak in the people of God. One can scourge the weak faith of the world and of the people. But also God can be made liable for it. He falls silent. There is a powerful vision only then (again) if God needs people for telling his vision.

We learn humbly that visions do not come over the office bearers - at least not always. God calls the young and unspent Samuel and not the old and tired Eli. He votes for the beginner and not the experienced professional. Benedict of Nursia therefore writes well in his rule that at common consultations the youngest in the community first has to be asked. And if the church already puts eldery people into Eli's offices: How can these people learn from the young Samuels what God expects of them? Do hear the Elis - although today's church leaders - attentively on what God wants to tell them by Samuels? Or are they often deaf to God because they do not eavesdrop on the people?

About the power of visions

Saarinen, Samuel, Solomon: All three teach us how important visions are for the life of religious organisations and their ability to act. Today, perhaps we have so much discontent in some parts of the worldwide church, because we lack motivating visions. Structures are indispensable for the incarnation of a vision in history. But they are not a substitute for visions. The present church reorganisation concerns more structures than visions. We speak more about money than God. Of course Churches have to make structural adjustments. And, only if these are done, the Churches start thinking about visions. As Saarinen teaches - we should look at things the other way round.

These are the benefits of visions:

Visions orientate

Visions are like the star, which was seen by the three wise men (magi) from the East (Mt 2,1-12); they followed the star and therefore they could find the way to the new-born child in the cradle. The star gave them orientation. Orient means to rise up - and we think of the sun. However, the sun for the Christian communities is Jesus, who has been made Christ in the resurrection (Act 3,26). The places of worship of the Christians are built facing east. Therefore, Christians orientate themselves to Christ, who elevates them. The key question of the church therefore is not: How does the church get on? But: How does he, Christ, the master of his church, get on with us?

Visions motivate

Visions create movement, growth and liveliness. They activate our imagination. They bring people together and inspire cooperation between them. Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s saying is unforgettable: "If you want people to build a ship, then wake the longing for the open sea in them."

Visions criticize

Prophetic words are never only pleasant. Prophets always disturbed the usual run of things. The prophet Amos was a thorn in the side of the king and the priests of his time. Vision-based criticism is an indication of loyalty with the people of God. It arises out of the worry for the liveliness of the church communities. Prophetic criticism is born out of love for the church.

Prophets who do not follow their critical obligation betray their mission among the people of God. To be silent rather than talk would certainly be more agreeable for them. But they could not be silent because God had put his hand on them. Sometimes the prophets spoke purposefully (were they perhaps the predecessors of the [too] many calls for the reform of the church in our days?). Moreover, sometimes the prophets behaved unconventionally and were therefore accused of "disobedience". Does the church have enough prophets today? That means people who speak prophetically or act as prophets? Or does the church as in the time of Amos only consists of "priests" as anxious administrators of the inheritance? And are the prophets courageous even when they must learn from the destiny of all earlier prophets that they do not make themselves popular with those in power with their criticism (only the false prophets were praised in Israel: Luke 6.26)? Jesus said once: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets, you stone the messengers God has sent to you." (Luke 13.34) Or in the Acts of the Apostles: "Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him."(Act 7.52)

Everyone is given visions

In the last days, God says,
I will pour my Spirit on everyone.
Your sons and daughters will speak what God has revealed.
Your young men will see visions.
Your old men will dream dreams.

(Act 2.17f., Joel 3.1-5)

God gives his prophetic spirit generously. He wants to pour his spirit onto all the people of God "at the end of times": that means biblically the Messianic time and the time of the church. The Pentecostal wonder is heralded. The young just like the old will be prophets and are given visions by God.

If we take this promise seriously nowadays, then it means that every Christian bears a God-given vision in himself telling him or her what God expects from his church today. "The evidence of the Spirit’s presence is given to each person for the common good of everyone.", so said Saint Paul to the community in Corinth (1 Cor 12.7).

The question how this wealth of God-given visions can be mined then arises for the church and its leaders. At first only myself have access to my vision given to me by God. If I want to mine my vision that is what I have to contribute to the vision of a church community, than I must visit myself. Listening to God in deep silence and solitude I will ask the question: "God, what do you expect of me within the church to which you have ‘added me’ (Acts 2.47)?"

There are two ways for a parish-community to reach its vision. This can be “providing” or “finding”.

If for example a parish council seeks a vision for the community to whose service it is elected and sent, then its members will meet at a weekend to look for a common vision. The aim can only be, to "hear" together what could be a suitable common vision, to develop this vision and to find an agreement about it in a broad discourse with the parish members.

Providing visions for the community

Some members of the parish council think the quickest way of making this happen would be to provide such a vision for the parish by qualified specialists. But is it then really the vision of the parish, which is rooted within the many visions which God has put into the hearts of the members of this community? There is no doubt: To provide a vision is faster than to find one in a complicated discourse. If you propose a vision then you don't have any people who regard this vision as "their own vision" which moves them on a long term. Visions coming from outside, even when they are plausible, barely motivate. In that case the leaders need much energy to move people and to keep them on the path of the imparted vision.

Finding vision within community-visions

Although it is more time-consuming, it is more effective to find and to agree on a vision for the community. Such visions work from the inside. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. In this case the art of the leadership does not consist in providing the aims and in winning people for it. But rather they encourage the members, "added" through God to the community, to mine the vision they are bearing in their heart. Pictorially: The small vision-rivulets of the different people can flow together and become a rushing vision-current. The task of making sure that the community stays on the gospel path, remains the duty of the ordained office bearers, even though they share the responsibility with all members. This is the reason why the Gospel (not the Codex) is put on the head of a bishop during the consecration. The presbytery, the parish priests, share this duty with the bishop in safeguarding the path of faithfulness of the church and their communities.

We now follow on with a way in which there can be found an agreement about a common vision.

"Small visions"

Once everybody has looked into his own centre, into his own “life-house” and his own “life-story” and has considered the question standing before God, asking which vision God's Spirit put in his heart; once this people have painted a picture or written a text: then they come together in small groups of three. There they tell each other about their "small parish vision". After having listened to the stories of the other two, they look for a handful elements for a common parish-vision. These elements they bring into a plenary session. In this phase they are not discussing but listening to what God's Spirit revealed to his church through each individual.

If, in the different small groups, many "small parish visions" are mined, the participants of the parish vision-finding-course meet in the plenary and collect the papers and pin them on a board. They reveal things in common and also differences. It is the differences which enrich. Variety is a blessing. Even if some of the differences seem to be incompatible contradictions. A first picture of a common parish vision appears.

In many such "vision-courses" rich visions have become visible. They circle around God and his people. The proximity to God and at the same time to the people is sought. The rule is: "Immersing oneself in God – coming close to the people, especially the poor. Or vice-versa."¹¹ The found elements on the pin-cards circle around the two elliptical centres of God and Charity  (Luke 10.27) . Contemporary spirituality talks about contemplation and action (Roger Schutz) or of mysticism and politics (Dorothee Sölle, Johann B. Metz).

But what is found within themselves can also be "one-sided". Sometimes spiritual seekers are so engaged with satisfying of their spiritual hunger that they lose sight to the poor. Others are perhaps in the present phase of their life not open spiritually and prefer the service to the poor. The one then immerses themselves in God without coming close to the poor. The others are near to the poor and do not notice at all that they are already in God performing acts of compassion out of love (Mt 25).

Auf den Prüfstand der großen Vision

Natürlich wird mit dem Gold der ins Herz gelegten Vision manchmal auch taubes Gestein mitgehoben: Macht und Interessen trüben die Visionen der Einzelnen. Niemand ist von der Gefahr gefeit, den „eigenen Vogel“ (Interessen und Macht) mit dem Heiligen Geist zu verwechseln.

Daher ist es auf dem Weg zur einer für möglichst viele gemeinsam bewohnbaren Vision unabdingbar, das „Gehobene“ auf den Prüfstand der reinigenden biblisch begründeten Tradition zu stellen. Es gilt, die Vision der „großen Heiligen Schrift“ mit den vielen „kleinen heiligen Schriften“, in Beziehung zu setzen, die jede und jeder als Gabe Gottes in sich trägt: „Also trage ich die Heilige Schrift in mir“, sagte der protestantische Mystiker Jakob Böhme im Jahre 1634.

Dieses Prüfverfahren bringt Bestärkung. Fehlende Aspekte können entdeckt werden und das eigene Visionsmaterial anreichern; schädliche Einseitigkeiten werden überwunden. Zugleich kann es kritisieren und zu Kurskorrekturen führen.

Ist dies alles getan, kann die gemeinsam erarbeitete Vision in einen knappen Text gefasst werden. Wenn es zudem dafür ein Bild gibt, wird die Vermittlung der gefundenen Vision an andere erleichtert.

Die Vision ist der unverzichtbare Schritt zu einer zukunftsfähigen Sozialgestalt der Kirche. Sie lässt sich in pastorale Teilprojekte übersetzen, die nach und nach angegangen werden. Der Weg zum Misserfolg ist durch zu viele gleichzeitig begonnene Projekte gepflastert. Von der Vision aus sind auch viele andere Fragen zu berücksichtigen: Gibt es genug Menschen, welche die Vision tragen? Wie können viele „Hinzugefügte“ gewonnen werden, ihr Adsum, also ihr „Hier bin ich“, zu sprechen und ihre Begabungen zu erkennen und zu entfalten? Wie sieht der Dienst des ordinierten Amtes aus, wenn viele Mitglieder ihre gottgegebene Verantwortung übernehmen? Wie können sie die vielen Berufenen und Begabten fördern, statt sie bevormundend oder ängstlich-misstrauend zu entmutigen? Wie können sie dazu beitragen, dass die vielen „Samuels“ den Herrn erkennen und damit in der Spur Jesu arbeiten? Wie kann die Kirche sicherstellen, dass es für die Arbeit der Ordinierten, die reichlich vorhanden ist, auch genug gibt, die diese Arbeit tun - und das nicht zuletzt zur Sicherung der lebensnah gefeierten Eucharistie, welche Quelle und Höhepunkt allen christlichen Lebens und kirchlichen Engagements ist?

In dieser letzten Phase auf dem Weg zu einer (pfarrlichen) Vision, so sollte deutlich werden, spielt der Prüfstand der „Großen Heiligen Schrift“, die der kirchlichen Gemeinschaft anvertraut ist, eine sehr wichtige Rolle. Die Heilige Schrift berichtet ausführlich über die Vision Jesu von seiner Jünger- und Jüngerinnengemeinschaft. Diese jesuanische Vision hat die Menschen in der Kirche zu allen Zeiten tief bewegt. Daraus sind nicht nur große theologische Entwürfe entstanden. Diese überlieferte Vision von Kirche hat sich im Lauf der Zeit in wundersamen und einprägenden Bildern christlicher Kunst verdichtet. Sie können auch uns heute bewegen.

Solche ins Bild gesetzte Kirchenvisionen sollen nunmehr vorgestellt werden. Natürlich erhebe ich keinen Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit. Es sind eher Visionen, die im Laufe meiner pastoralen Grundlagenforschung und auch in der Fortbildungstätigkeit auf allen Ebenen der Kirche eine nachhaltige Rolle gespielt haben. Im Vermitteln solcher Bilder habe ich gespürt, wie diese begeistern, ermutigen, von Depression heilen, aufrichten und ausrichten. Diese alten und unverbrauchten Kirchenvisionen sind wie ein wirksames Gegenmittel gegen die verbreitete Resignation unter Ehren- und Hauptamtlichen. Sie helfen aufzuhören, lediglich den Untergang der alten Kirchengestalt bedrückt zu verwalten. Stattdessen tragen sie dazu bei, dass gemeinsam unverdrossen, couragiert und phantasievoll am Übergang in eine neue Kirchengestalt gearbeitet wird. Das Gefühl von Untergang kann einer Hoffnung auf einen Aufbruch weichen. Solche Zuversicht ist bereits der Anfang einer neuen Kirchenzeit. Sind doch Visionen letztlich nichts anderes als die heute in unseren Herzen anhebende Zukunft.

UNSPENT CHURCH VISIONS

Orpheus and Christ

An ancient myth

A myth always tells in a unique story what every time and everywhere the case is. In touching stories those questions which always hat people throughout time have moved. Perhaps this is the oldest question of mankind: What is stronger at the end, death or love?

Contemporary thinking is split on this question. Death is stronger some sya. Everything is over with it, the dream of immortality of the beloved person too. Others, however, hope for love until after death. They are not able to imagine that the beloved person could be no more once. And more and more people doubt. They regard both as being possible. But their hope is too faint for building their life on it. Although their doubt is not strong enough to abandon all hope for a victory of love over death.

The ancient Orpheus myth could serve as a mirror for the growing number of contemporary sceptics. And this is the ancient tale:

The Greek Orpheus

Orpheus loves Eurydice. The beloved is bitten by a poisonous snake and she is snatched by death. Eurydice must go down to the underworld.

This destiny does not let the loving minstrel rest idly. He sets off the way to the underworld. Thanks to his song on a lyre he passes Cerberus safely who refuses the mortal ones access to the underworld. Charon takes him over styx (Acheron), the river of death. He reaches Hades and Persephone who rule the underworld.

These are touched by his love that they allow him to lead Eurydice back to the land of laughter, life and love. But they imposed a seemingly easy condition: He mustn't look around during the long journey back to the world of the living.

Eurydice therefore follows Orpheus. Orpheus obvious goes on his way. Of the silent shadow Eurydice he does not hear any steps. His doubts whether she is following really grow with every step. So the doubting lover finally turns round: And Eurydice he loses for ever.

Which tragic message this myth brings: Not love over death, but death over love wins at the end. The dark fears of so many people are nourished. Instead of being reduced they are multiplied.

The Christ-Orpheus

Since 175 AD the young Clement, born in 150 AD in Athens, taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria - that is where the Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea. In the Eastern Church tradition he is regarded as a respected Church Fathers. The myth of the Greek Orpheus was known by the early Christian Church in Rome too. In the Catacombs of Domitilla or this one of the Saints Marcellinus and Peter there are mural paintings of the myth in a Christian variation.

The similarity of the two Orpheus – the Greek Orpheus and the Christian Orpheus – is captivating. Both wear a Phrygian cap. Both are minstrels. Both holding a lyre.

The early Christians apparently were convinced that the topic of the Greek myth is also the innermost topic of the Gospel. Whether death is stronger than love: this occupied primarily Eastern theology. Not only Eurydice as a single person suffers the destiny of being wrested to the underworld. It is the destiny of everyone who has "human nature". The whole of mankind suffers from a mortal wound.

Christ, the minstrel of God, loves "Eurydice", i.e. mankind, which become a slave to death. Love forces Christ, as happened to the Greek Orpheus, to descend to the underworld: he became a human being and died. In the Eastern Church tradition, the key event of Easter is the "Descent of Christ into the Hades". What Christ, risen from death, did first was to descend into the Hades. Until to the liturgical reform of the second Vatican Council in the Roman liturgy it was confessed in the apostolic creed: “He descended to the dead”. It is exactly the same process which is told in the Greek myth.

The Greek Orpheus nevertheless is different from the Christ Orpheus. Christ Orpheus does not look back. Looking back doesn’t fit either with his life or with following him: “Jesus replied, ’No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” (Lk 9,62) . Christ-Orpheus goes his way without consideration: Without paying attention at himself he is obedient only to the will of his God. Whereas the Greek Orpheus failed, different to this the new Orpheus was able to sing back his beloved Eurydice, i.e. mankind, back to the land of laughter, hope and resurrection: by which analogy taught the Church Father Clement from Alexandria.

The unique struggle

The basic conviction of the early Christians was this. And it is to this day: Death may have the last word from the human view and experience: From the view of God love - this is God himself - has the last word. That Christ-Orpheus descended for its Eurydice-mankind is the basis of this conviction: God became a human being and out of love for mankind he entered death. Descending into hell he broke hells power held over mankind. Mankind was cured of its mortal wound. It is not by chance that we find the painting of the Christ Orpheus in the Roman burial grounds of the Christians. The Christians say just at the place of death that death does not have the last word.

The so-called Easter sequence “Victimae Paschali Laudes” is one of the most wonderful songs of Christianity in which this basic hope of the Christians is sung rejoicefully, it is an Easter hymn praising the "slaughtered lamb". The melodies of this Gregorian chant bestow on the hymn power and solemn dignity:

Victimae paschali laudes
Immolent Christiani.

Agnus redemit oves;
Christus innocens Patri
Reconciliavit Peccatores

Mors et Vita duello
Conflixere mirando;
Dux vitae mortuus
Regnat vivus.

Dic nobis, Maria.
Quid vidisti in via?
Sepulchrum Christi viventis
Et gloriam vidi resurgentis.

Angelicos testes.
Sudarium et vestes.
Surrexit Christus spes mea;
Praecedet suos in Galilaeam.

Scimus Christum surrexisse
A mortuis vere.
Tu nobis victor Rex
miserere.
Amen. Alleluia

To the Paschal Victim let Christians
offer a sacrifice of praise.

The Lamb redeemed the sheep.
Christ, sinless,
reconciles sinners to the Father.

Death and life were locked together in a unique struggle.
Life's captain died;
now he reigns, never more to die.

Tell us Mary, "What did you see on the way?"
"I saw the tomb of the now living Christ.
I saw the glory of Christ, now risen."

"I saw angels who gave witness;
the cloths too which once had covered head and limbs."
"Christ my hope has arisen.
He will go before his own into Galilee."

We know that Christ has indeed risen
from the dead.
Do you, conqueror and king,
have mercy on us.

Amen. Alleluia.

The lyre

Orpheus is a minstrel. He accompanies his songs on a lyre, one of the oldest stringed instruments.

According to the representations of the Christ Orpheus in the catacombs in Rome, it is primarily not all about the church, however. The topic is God and his world, Christ and his unbelievable commitment for his beloved Eurydice-mankind who had become a slave of death. For her he commits all what he is and what he possesses. The early Christian community sung in one of its famous hymns, which Saint Paul implemented into his letter to the community in Philippi:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

(Phil 2,6-11)

A second point: In the big drama between God and mankind the church plays a cooperative role - it is like an instrument. On this instrument the song that saves Eurydice-mankind from death shall resound. The church therefore is not a moral institution but joins God in healing mankind of the mortal wound.

And at last: The Church does not sing its own song. It is the song of Christ. He grips into its strings and plays his saving song. He makes the strings of the church resound with the help of the "plectrum", according to the painting of the Christ-Orpheus in the catacombs of the saints Marcellinus and Peter. This is that small stick with which the strings are plucked and made to vibrate. Clement teaches that the plectrum is the Holy Spirit. It is Gods Holy Spirit sounding his song of salvation on the Church-lyre of Christ.¹²

The questions which this wondrous vision of the Church pose to us arise by themselves.

Mature into cosmic Christ

It is a basic melody of the Christianity that it is about God and its world. The world was then divided quickly, though: here the baptized and saved and there the others who go unchristenedly lost.

Of course exceptions were made at this traditional flat division. Why should innocent unchristened children come into the hell? Or the great religious persons before Christ: Adam and Eva, Abraham and Sara, David and Solomon? But the opinion of the S. Agustin that only few will be saved and the rest will belong to "the damned mass", has coined (influenced) the "Western Christianity" over a long time. It has stamped the practice of baptism: In case of danger of death the embryo was baptized with a syringe in the womb - 1903 this was forbidden by the Prussian ministry for medical reasons.

Hildegard von Bingen

There is admittedly also another vision in the Christianity. We find this at the Mystics. And in turn these can count on texts of the Holy Scripture which had got invisible in the Western preaching. An impressive example is Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179).

A magnificent vision of God and the world

In her famous book about the divine works (Liber divinorum operum, written within the years 1163-1174) she sees God and in him the world with "son of man".

God "father" as the source of all being with its head juts out of the frame of all reality as. But this "protruding" God is permanent at giving birth, so the German mystic Meister Eckhart. The only reason for this bearing is his innerdivine love. All times ago out of this last source the logos, the "son", is born. He is shown fierily: Fierily like love and fiery like the Holy Spirit, who father and son intertwines.

The body of the "Logos" curves like the belly of a pregnant woman. And the whole creation is within this body "of the Logos", with all its powers and forces, its dangerous elemental forces. And in the middle "the son of man".

The vision of the abbess, who founded two Benedictine cloisters in Bingen and Eibingen, is it full of messages even for us today.

God - a dance of love

At first: Permanently God himself is live and love and is out of love always at giving birth. Richard Rohr, the gifted contemporary Franciscan theologian from America, has formed the picture of God as a "dance of love".

Creation - born from God

Thereupon: The creation arises from this God giving birth out of love. "Ex amore", as formulated the wise theologian and mystic Dorothee Sölle.¹³ And in the same way already sings the first testament in the book of wisdom:

Yes, you love everything that exists, and nothing that you have made disgusts you, since, if you had hated something, you would not have made it.

And how could a thing subsist, had you not willed it? Or how be preserved, if not called forth by you?

No, you spare all, since all is yours, Lord, lover of life!

(Wisdom 11.24-26)

Everything takes place in God "world body&quot;

However primarily: All creation takes place into God himself- in his world body. Nothing happens "outside": but so to formulate is not without problems. We are reaching the bounds of our religious language and imagination. God who is not tied to space and time is put in connection with creation which is evolving in space and time. Speaking this way there remains a doubtful picture of God; he shrinks to out human measure.

What a universal view of all reality! What a drama of loving between God and his creation to which it permanently gives birth! Nothing can be which God not holds in existence by giving birth. Christian theology speaks about a constant creation (creatio continua). This creation is not aimless: It is aimed at completion.

An old Christian hymn

This view of God and the world is not foreign to the Holy Scriptures of the Jews and Christians. Even though this view faded in the Western Church tradition, it was never completely forgotten. The mystics lived from it and referred to it in their wondrous texts. These texts, which are important for the everyday spirituality of Christians, have also never been hidden. They were read in the liturgy and pondered in the liturgy of the hours.

A core text is in the letter to the community in Colossae. Whether Saint Paul, or somebody from his school, is the author, is not important in regard to the greatness and resonance of the text. The Christian Churches count it as one of those inviolable texts, in which God’s intentions are revealed to us. The author took the hymn from the early liturgy of the Christian communities and expanded it for his proclamation with a view to the cross as well as to the Church. This is the heart of this Christ hymn:

…giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Col 1.12-20)

For him

The vision of the mystic Hildegard and the hymn of the letter to the Colossians have a important topic in common. It revolves around the Logos born from the heart of the father and the human being Jesus, who was appointed as Christ through the Resurrection (Act 2.36). He is for us a visible image of God: A dignity which the creation story dedicates to man and woman:

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
(Gen 1.27)

The whole creation –set in motion unto creation of mankind - happens within the Logos: "everything is created in him", in his "world body". However, everything is also created "in him". And this “in him” and “through him” flows into an overarching “for him”.

However, this is, according to the hymn, not only intention, but it actually happens. Still more: in Jesus, appointed as Christ, the whole creation started to reach its completion. Therefore Christ is consequently named the "firstborn" of the whole of creation. This is only meaningful if there are "later-born": Mankind, whose nature God himself has adopted in the incarnation, and whose mortal wound is definitively healed by his death on the cross.

The world is saved

Differently from the pessimistic tradition of the Western Church the horizon of the Colossian hymn is universal. Everyone is included, nobody is excluded: " For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Col 1.20)

What an optimistic song of the early Church! At the end God will "have dominion” over everything and in everything: “When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.” (1 Cor 15.28) And like the history of disaster ("original sin") everyone is concerned with, likewise the victory concerns all people: “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” (Rom 5.18)

Easter is the kerygma of the Church. Death has lost its power over mankind.¹⁴

What was dwelling at the heart of the world - death and futility - so now dwell God and life. “The world is saved” the Christian Easter carols rejoice. Every celebration of the eucharist has this Easter jubilation as its topic. Every sacramental celebration has its source in it. The Easter jubilation characterizes the Christian life: “The hope for resurrection can free us of a lifestyle of frantic “self-assertion”.¹⁵

Inheriting salvation

Contemporary theology speaks in view of such magnificent promises of an "inheriting salvation". Creation in which nothing can happen without God’s Holy Spirit, has an unstoppable inner dynamic and orientation towards completion. The beginning of the completion has a name and a face: Jesus, the Christ, resurrected from death. As the firstborn he is the head of a completed creation. Detached from space and time He is open to assume the many later-born ones as members of His completed world body. This will continue, until the whole creation is perfect. Christ grows in that way "cosmically", a term which recent theology approves of.¹⁶ In dialog with the scientific theory of evolution this hopeful picture corroborates itself. Teilhard de Chardin whom pope Benedikt XVI. announced in 2009 he would rehabilitate, speaks about a point Omega to which the whole of creation develops: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Rom 8.22)

Or like Hugh Miller, a religious Protestant geologist from Scotland, in 1854 - that is five years from the pioneering book from Charles Darwin The Origin of Species - had pondered:

"I ask, what are the essentials of geological history or that one of the genesis? Decisive is the progress in both. In both we find the advancement of a dead matter to modest, then to higher life-forms. But came this ascent to an end? No. God still lets higher follow on low.

God is going to prepare the miserable mankind on a higher status now. The work of the seventh day is the salvation. Creation and creator finally will unite as one person. The ascent of a dead matter to man aimed at God. From the beginning there was this point of the union. True God and true man. You recognize the adorable Lord of all future."

Therefore history of salvation and world history - both are for God one story - have entered their final phase. "Last times" are now, according to the first Letter of Saint Peter (1 Petr 1.20) as well as the first Letter to the Corinthians: “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” (1 Peter 1.20) “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” (1 Cor 10.11). The dogmatic constitution of the Second Vatican Council reminds as of it: “Already the final age of the world has come upon us and the renovation of the world is irrevocably decreed and is already anticipated in a real way." (LG 48)

God is universal in his will to save everyone. "This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim 2.3f). He heals every person through his Holy Spirit. He dwells in the innermost part of everybody. The soul of everyone is like an "inner castle" in whose innermost room God lives as described by Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila.

Inheriting disaster

The turn to optimisms in respect to salvation which is supported by the Second Council in the Vatican, might become rosy and naive. This may happen if the dark side of the long history of mankind is overlooked because the purposeful dynamic towards Christ inherent in history is damaged and disturbed. From the beginning history of mankind is characterized by violence, greed and lies despite all the efforts of people of good will.

There is a way of life which the first letter of Saint Peter calls "the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors" (1 Peter 1.18). Tradition uses for this disturbance the vague and confusing expression of the "original sin". What is meant are those demonic hostile powers which infiltrate and constantly hinder the work of God.

Therefore, every single person is exposed to two big powerful currents: God’s dynamic to salvation (“Erbheil, "inheriting salvation") and the dynamics of fear (“Erbschuld”, "inheriting disaster", "original sin") which counteracts the maturing of love and salvation. This is a painful experience, about which of the apostle Paul talks in suffering and which affected strongly Martin Luther as a key of his teaching about iustification:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

(Rom 7.15-25)

The Church: revealing and healing

The Church is placed into the drama of God and his creation. Her mission can be explained in the context of the magnificent vision of the Christ-hymn in the letter to the Colossians and of the vision of the mystic Hildegard by a quotation Jesus to his disciples. In the Sermon on the Mount he teaches them:

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Matthew 5.14.13)

In the history of salvation, so the famous Hans Urs von Balthasar, a lot that happens is veiled. Salvation happens in the shape of human loving. Love is salvation "in the atheistic mode” (Karl Rahner with reference to Mt 25)".

The task of the church is to reveal what is veiled. It can do this through how it lives, what it talks about, when it is asked, and not least what it sings and celebrates. In all what it is and does, the church is like a "revealing agency" for God’s work in history. It talks primarily about the plans of God for the world: He created it out of love. By its Spirit he promotes it’s completion. By becoming a man and entering into death, mankind in one of us, Jesus of Nazareth, reaches so to speak, a "spearhead", its completion.

Everyone is called to completion in love as a human being. Revealing the works of God in the history of salvation, the church contributes to the ripening of the world in its fulfilment. When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, when the celebrating community eats Christ’s body, then not only the Church as the body of Christ grows, but a part of the world (the Church) grows now into its completed shape, into the “world body” of God, into the Cosmic Christ.

Salt heals. We talk about healing salts and use them to be cured by following the proven instructions of the mystic Hildegard of Bingen. That people approach love on the way to the completion, needs much healing energy to cure them primarily of the demonic fear of death and its tragic consequences - violence, greed and lies. The Church on that way together with the Saviour becomes a healing-land (“Heil-Land”). Whoever enters its community loses something of the fear of death and the concern about themselves: Love can grow. At the same time, the Church tries to play a part in a healing “civilization of love”. Together with people of good will it tries to dismantle "unjust structures", to create room for justice and peace.

The Descent of Christ into Hades: What do we trust / What do we believe God is capable?

The descent of Christ into Hades plays a central role in the Eastern Church Easter liturgy. Like the Greek Orpheus loving minstrel of God Christ descents into the Hades, where the dead are in the power of death. He returns from there together with mankind into life.

Choir cloister Constantinople

The Eastern Church tradition loves this Easter picture. It does not show Christ how he rises from the dead out of the grave at night. It shows us Christ who goes down to hell and rises from the dead from this [there?] - and this together with mankind. The progenitors Adam and Eva stand for it [the mankind]. Through them death came, and the risen Christ frees them from the dead.  The descent of the risen Christi  into hell has therefore a cosmic meaning and happens for all people without reservation the . (Bishop Hilarion¹⁷)) The orthodox Easter liturgy lets therefore Hades (the ruler of the underworld)  complain:

"If I had not taken him anyway, this one who was born from Maria, because he came to destroy my power; he broke my iron gates and because he was God, he freed the souls which I held prisoner."

O Lord, blessed be your cross and your sacred resurrection!

The Hades moans today: "My power has disappeared. I received one who died as mortal die but I could not hold him tight; through him I lost all I had dominated. I had control over the death since the beginning of the world, however, he took up everyone with himself!"

O Lord , blessed be your cross and your sacred resurrection!¹⁸

The Greek Church Fathers have pondered (meditated)  what has happened at the moment of the resurrection. At first they reflect about a cunning of God: The Devil could not understand the consequences of Gods incarnation. He did not suspect that the incarnated God [dying] could enter even in the sphere of his influence by death. Primarily Clement of Alexandria tells, that Christ risen from the dead has preached the Gospel in the hell for three days. And then he took with him those who believed him.

The Church Fathers disagree, whether by the descent of Christ into Hades only some or everyone is saved. It seems that the hope predominates for everyone. Some, like Gregor of Nyssa, think that by the descent of Christ into Hades the definite end of hell, death and devil came. Can the victory be perfect God as long as there still is a rest of hostile power even if this is defeated? The great Greek Father literal(ly):

"Because the one who lives eternally does not undergo the physical birth in order to live  but to call back us to live by death . Because our whole nature should now participate on the return from death, so he wanted, the hand stretching out to the lying and bowing down to our body, to come as near to death so he drank up the mortality and started the resurrection of mankind raising from the dead the whole human gender by his power.

The flesh, which gave shelter to the deity, which in the resurrection was exalted together with the deity, came from nowhere else then from the mass in which we exist. If in our body the activity of one sense organ is active, the other organs with which it is connected have a sensation. Therefore, the resurrection of a part – as if mankind were a single person – expands to the whole; because there is a deep unity in our nature, therefore the part propagates to the whole.

So what do we learn in the mysteries of our faith, when the Standing bends down to the Fallen to lift the lying?"¹⁹

"God who will be all, will be in all. When the gospel teaches this, it seems to me to announce the destruction of sin. If God is in everyone, then the sin can be no more in them. If somebody thought the sin would continue to exist, then how could he maintain the teaching that God is in all? Because the phrase ‘God is all in all’ would be disproven as soon as an exception were made with respect to evil, if this continued to exist. Therefore, if God is in all, then it is impossible to be in that what has no existence.&quot;²⁰

A current question

The question is not only important when looking at the times before Christ but also for us today. Because many of our contemporaries have no good biographical and/or cultural chance to hear the Gospel and to accept it. I think of the many people in the atheising cultures of the formerly Christian-like Europe, like Czech Republique, Estonia and Eastern Germany. The number of those atheising is also increasing also in formerly Roman Catholic countries. In addition, think of the members of the great world-religions. The ideological landscape has not only become multi-coloured, meaning pluralized, in the wider world, but also in the formerly Christian countries with a denominational monopoly, the situation has become multicoloured.²¹ A question of an acute urgency arises: Can such a variety of people, of whom only a minority is Christian, be saved?

Missionaries like Franz Xaver travelled around the world to baptize as many people as possible; they were driven by an anxious care for salvation. The ordinary pastoral practice was similarly anxious as well. The bishop Josephus Dominikus Lamberg from Patavia wrote an Epistola pastoralis in 1726. The first chapter was about baptism. But he dealt only with the question of whether midwives were instructed adequately by the parish priests about what they had to do, if childbirth did not go well.

Theology has done its best, still anxious for salvation, to protect God to let innocent children go to eternal hell just because they could not be baptized. They believed that there is a special place for the ancestors of the Old Testament (limbus patrum); similarly, they set up a place with natural bliss for unchristened innocent children (limbus parvulorum).

Today we look at the one world believing that god has a history with it. We take seriously with the Eastern Church Fathers that which God has accepted, is saved: God took the human nature, in which all people have a share. Therefore, theology began, primarily after the Second Vatican Council, to ask whether we may hope that God saves everyone at the end of time. According to Karl Rahner asking this question is one lasting significance from this Council.²² Karl Rahner had coined the picturesque phrase of “the anonymous Christian", to grasp this hope also theologically. His Colleagues attacked him intensely for this. He was accused of an insubordinate usurpation of people who did not want to become Christians. For him there happened not a usurpation by the church but more an overgenerosity by God. However, Rahner said in his sovereignty that he combines only two undisputed statements of the Holy Scripture. The first one: God wants the salvation of all people (1 Tim 2.4). In addition, the second: Without Christ nobody will be redeemed.

He thus only wanted to talk about the chance for salvation for everyone not about a church affiliation of everyone. This can surely be great outrage" for the believers of other religions. It is not easily acceptable for them that God according to Christian teaching the redemption of everyone, that is the atheists and the Buddhists, is twined to incarnation and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus, unbounded to time and space through his resurrection, is related since then for all. This has not only made him to the head of the new creation. It also enabled him to accept the creation maturing in its fullness as his "world-body". In any case, this teaching of the Christians is no "usurpation" of others but an "overspending" for other.

What may we hope for?

Hans Urs von Balthasar was a passionate advocate of the hope that God in his "unwavering faithfulness" (Dtn 32.4) will come to a good end with everyone. He was inspired by the seer Adrienne of Speyer. In her visions she sees an empty hell. There is only an abstract sin separated from the sinners. Based on these visions he wrote his pregnant reflections in the small book “Was dürfen wir hoffen” (What may we hope for?)²³

Hans Urs von Balthasar agrees with the seer, that hell is empty. He goes through many texts from the Holy Scripture. Of course, he does not oversee the threatening discussions about hell. Nevertheless, at the same time he reads the hopeful texts from the overcoming of the hell by incarnation, cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He joins both lines together and argues in the same way as Karl Rahner: The threatening words remind us of what human life comes to, if ripens what we are and do. At the end of the human life stands hell. For everyone. No one in mankind, addicted to death, would have a chance. But thanks to God’s grace this is not the last word on everyone. Everyone is saved in Christ, as in Adam everyone has "sinned" and has become a slave to death. Certainly, nobody is saved without his liberty. However, nobody will be redeemed if God in his mercy does not leads us into the true liberty of loving.

Hans Urs von Balthasar argues in the same way as Karl Rahner²⁴ at the same time he heavenly criticising him. His pictures are more biblical, though. He seems to count on the court speech in Mt.25. Those who really love will be saved. However, such redeeming love is only possible when it is released by the Holy Spirit himself. This Spirit of God works where he wants: finally in the whole of creation and in all people. It leads every man through its power on the way to redemption that is completion. He makes possible that we become what we are: Loving beings] - because we are all images of the loving God.

If God’s Holy Spirit works in everyone, however, in this life this love becomes Christ-like only for a small number of human beings, therefore the Spirit works apparently in a "veiled" way. Hans Urs von Balthasar speaks about the really loving, &quot;to whom in a way, which is veiled to us, God’s Spirit is given".²⁵ This veiled work of the Spirit in everyone differs to the "revealed" acting of the Spirit in the Christians. However, to the Christian it is not revealed for themselves. The missionary core task of the church is to be revealing light for the others (Mt.5.14).

In an Easter sermon, Karl Rahner has expressed this situation as follows:

"The earth, our great mother, is itself worried. It moans under the transitoriness. Its happiest celebrations are sudden like the beginning of a funeral ceremony and, if one hears its laughter, one is afraid of crying at the next moment while he one is laughing. It gives birth to children who die, who are too weak to live forever,

They have too much spirit to abstain from eternal joy, because - like animals - they see the death already before it comes; the end is not spared to them mercifully.

He has died.

However, “he died” does not mean (as we unchristian spiritualists short-sightedly think), that his mind and his soul, the vessel of his eternal divinity, has escaped from the world and earth;

because the body, which connected them to the earth, has been broken in death and because the murderish earth has shown,

that the child of the eternal light has not been able to find a homeland in its darkness.

“He died” we say and add at once: he descended in the realm of death and was resurrected, and with that “which has died” gains completely another meaning than the world-fleeing one that we tried to attribute to death.

Jesus has said himself that he will step down into the heart of the earth (Mt.12.40), into the heart of all earthly things, where everything is connected and united and where in the midst of this unity death and transitoriness dwell.

There he has penetrated down while dying.

He was - sacred cunning of eternal life - defeated by death, so that this could him devour him into the innermost part of the world.

Descending to the mothers and the rooting unity, he inserted in them his divine life forever.

Because he has died, he a fortiori to this earth. There he is now and not are there any more futility and death.

In his death, he has become the heart of the earthly world, divine heart in the heart middle of the world,

While this is still behind its unfolding in room and time, it lowers its roots into the omnipotence of God. He has already started to assimilate to this world. He has assumed the world forever.²⁶

Such hoping is not foreign to putatively conservative circles. They pray in a meaning of Fatima's Marian piety: "Lead all souls into heaven, particularly those which most require your compassion."

Once again the Easter hope-prayer of the East Church Easter liturgy:

"You, my liberator, have descended to the Hades
and as Allmighty You smashed its gates
as creator You have coraised the dead
and, You Christ, have broken the thorn of death
and have delivered Adam from the curse,
You philanthropist. Therefore all of us call:
save us, Lord!"²⁷

Is the end of morality approaching?

Some in our Churches contradict such an optimistic hope in the matter of salvation. They criticize it as a liberal position and that it is not rooted in the depths of the Christian faith. Some are afraid of the end of all morality if the Church announces such optimisms. Without the fear of hell man becomes immoral.

However, Karl Rahner argues against such a critique, maintaining that the optimisms does not diminish the dark side of the history of mankind and the history of each individual:

"Such an attitude may seem natural for the liberalist bourgeois low-brow of today because they know nothing of the inconceivability of the judgments of God and his all-consuming holiness.

And they therefore think that God can justify himself just in front of the tribunal of Man with the message of victorious mercy. Who perceives from afar who God is and who feels compassionatly the dreadful darkness of the history of mankind, for this one the universal salvation-optimism to which the church has made its way is an almost frightening message which challenges the last power of belief.”²⁸

Moreover, what makes people evil is less their immorality, which one can restrain with the threat of hell. Alternatively, in the pictures of old school theology, the incomplete repentance, which is born out of a fear of hell, does not suffice for remission. Perfect repentance, which is born out of love, is required for the forgiveness of mortal sins.

Today, moreover, more and more suspect in western theology, that the root of all evil is fear which is in the end a fear of transitoriness, futility and death. The depth psychologist and theologian Monika Renz suspects that the original fear is actuated by birth.²⁹ Great theologians including Søren Kierkegaard, Eugen Drewermann, Eugen Biser and Benedict XVI.³⁰ reveal as the source of evil the “unholy” fear, from which springs violence, greed and lies.³¹ Against fear, no appeal is helpful, as it is underlined in the letter to the Romans (Rom 7.15-23). According to modern research fear destroys solidarity.³² Only someone, who is healed from fear, can be free to become what he already is: a loving human being. Therefore, the great theological thinkers of our time mentioned just now plead for a shift from a moralizing to a therapeutic Christianity:

"The Church does not impose anything on man and does not present any system of moral. The most important thing is really that the Church brings God to the people. That it opens the doors for God and gives the people what they most need, what they most expect [from the Church], and what can also most help them. It does all this above all by the great wonder of love, which happens again and again. If people stand by others and help them in the name of Christ without making a profit and without having to do this as a job. According to Eugen Biser, this therapeutical character of the Christianity which is healing and giving must be made much more visible in the future.”³³

Christus als der Barmherzige Samariter (Codex Rossanensis, Verlag:
ars liturgica Buch- und Kunstverlag Maria Laach Best.-Nr.: 405820)

Church as land of healing

For the work of the Church follows: not to judge, not to condemn, neither banish or destroy, but in the following of the Saviour to become a land of healing³⁴. God is praised as the doctor of its people already in Israel:

He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” (Ex 15.26)

It speaks for itself that Jesus is represented in many pictures of Christian art as a pharmacist.

Christus als Apotheker 1747 in der alten Klosterapotheke des ehemaligen Wiener Ursulinenklosters (Sammlung Religiöse Volkskunst Wien).

How much it was Jesus’ concern to demonstrate this healing compassion of his God is shown in the following vision of the Church.

Becoming like the father

A lesson Jesus gives to the leaders of the chosen people of Israel, holds its validity for his Church built on the twelve apostles. Jesus completely knows himself as one who is not only connected at heart with his God but also makes God’s innermost intentions obvious. At the depth of God’s heart is his compassion.

This is a topic, which primarily John Paul II. in his important encyclical, "Dives in misericordia", has insistently reminded the Church. To do this he has declared the first Sunday after Easter as the Sunday of compassion. In his teachings the beatified Polish pope counts on the Polish mystic Sister Faustina Kowalski. She had a vision of the risen Christ; from his heart radiates compassion onto the world. "Jesu ufam tobje" – “Jesus, I trust you”, he has recommended to the Church as its prayer for the boundless compassion of God.

That the innermost part of God is compassion, is not a unique idea of the Polish mystic. Jesus himself fought for the religious leaders to understand this. He demonstrates it whenever he can, openly in his actions. He is rarely together with the powerful or even healthy. We find him more so in “bad society” (Adolf Holl³⁵): at the customs officials who were spurned by the population because of their cooperation with the Roman occupying power and their tendency towards corruption; he was together with prostitutes, the failed and sinners.

This annoyed religious people. They rejected this image of a God of compassion. That Jesus could not further spread this idea, they went after him. His passionate advocacy of this image of his God contributed considerably towards the religious leaders murdering the advocate of the divine compassion.

Jesus tried everything. The doctor and evangelist Luke reports this in the middle of his gospel. Jesus tells the story of the compassion of the father and his “two prodigal sons” (Luke 15,11-32). This story can be seen as the "Gospel within the Gospel" of the evangelist Luke (Jacob Krämer³⁶

This parable told by Jesus inspired the Christian art. One of the most excellent representations hangs in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg today. It is the touching later work of the impoverished and going blind Dutch painter, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), from the year 1669.

Rembrandt shows the "return of the prodigal son" in an touching manner. However, the painting shows also the other son: distant, stiff, with a sheperd’s staff. In the parable of Jesus he stands for the religious leaders of the people: today, for the leaders of the Church. Jesus was met with a lack of understanding. The appeal to the painting’s observers is the same as the one which Jesus addressed to the religious leaders of his time. Jesus’ message was: Become acquainted with God and how he is to all people, like for instance, to those who come home to him from detours! Try to understand him and the intentions of his heart! However primarily: Learn even yourself to be like this father brimful with compassion! What an appeal to our Church! What a strong and moving biblical vision, which constantly requires fulfilling!

The following meditation tries to unwrap this message through the parable of Jesus.³⁷ [38]

The story

This is the story Jesus tells to the religious leaders of the people of Israel who mistrusted him:

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Everybody must leave the parental home

This story has often been interpreted and pondered over by psychologists and theologians. These are some aspects which have touched me:

Everybody has to leave the divine "parental home". Nobody can stay for ever in the heavenly paradise. All of us were born from it: Perhaps we remember it, when we are born from the deep feeling of the unity with everything which we experience in the womb into a hostile and dangerous but at the same time also charming, attractive world.³⁸ To help us on our way through life we are the heirs of many treasures.

In the end everybody fails on the life-journey

Each of us is on a lifelong journey through the world, nobody remains at home. The two great challenges we have to master are loving and working. The younger of the two sons fails in both. He lands in the midst of prostitutes. Finally, after he has not used but wasted his inheritance, he finds himself amongst pigs, a horror for every religious person in Israel to be among “unclean” animals. He has "messed up" his life.

Rembrandt inscribes the traces of this life in the feet of the son who returned home. The shoes are tattered. The soles are hard and hurt. "All is not well” is the message.

Even though things may be going well in our life: We often take wrong roads and loose our way. This in both love and work. We never really reach our potential or realize our dreams. In our longing we always want more.

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8.7), Jesus said addressing the religious leaders (pharesees), who wanted to sentence a woman to be stoned to death, because she had failed in marriage. However, to condemn means: life dies, not rises. Therefore, Jesus proclaimed: “Then neither do I condemn you,” (John 8.11) His intention is to heal. He wants to bring upright those who are bowed down because they have failed.

What remains is an indelible longing for the divine "home&quot;

Rembrandt paints the shabby son with all appropriate attributes. His head is shaved: the symbol of the slave, the constrained one. At the same time, the symbol of the free son can be seen: the dagger in the belt. In the face of a failed life, in the face of debt, an inalienable dignity and a deep feeling for the parental home remains. Life-plans may fail: but man does not himself fail. Moreover, we feel that living on earth we are abroad in foreign parts and the native country is elsewhere: "But our citizenship is in heaven." (Phil 3,20)

This is the experience of many sensitive persons: The more deeply we are in the marsh, the bigger is the longing for the solid ground. The more we become alienated from ourselves, the stronger is the desire for a coherent life, for wholeness and shalom, which means peace. In all these (experiencies) the longing for the "parental home" appears little by little.

Can this longing show itself openly, only if we have already had the experience of leaving? Who can long for home, if s/he has not gone away? Does the longing for paradise not presuppose its loss? Could it be that we only value it if it has been lost?

The “prodigal son” remembers how it was before and longs to have it again. He sets off for home in his native country, back to the shelter of his father’s home.

The Father: Compassion

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (Luk 15.20)

Not only does son miss his father and the shelter of his house, the father (whom the Rembrandt paints as old and going blind, which happened to Rembrandt himself) also misses his son. The father has been waiting for the homecoming of his son. He longs for him. When the son approaches, the father is already expecting him and sees him from a distance. He hugs the returnee. Without any reproach he accepts him back. His deep emotion, which moves him, is compassion.³⁹

Compassion is seen by many as the maternal side of God. Some points out that “compassion” and “womb” have the same root in Hebrew, “rechem”. Rembrandt symbolizes symbolizes this maternal side of the father through the resting of a male and a female hand on the shoulder of the returnee. The rigorousness of justice and the goodness of compassion! In the case of a conflict compassion prevails above justice. One could ask if the summit (peak) of divine justice is his compassion. Therefore, God’s intention with man is not to destroy him, but help him stand upright. The Babylonian Talmud tells the following story:

"Twelve hours has a day;

in the first three hours the Saint, let him be blessed, sits
and deals with the teachings of the law,

During the next three hours he sits in judgement of the whole world,
and as soon as he sees that the world deserves annihilation,

he rises from the chair of law
and takes his place on the chair of compassion;

in the third quarter he sits and feeds the whole world,
from the horned buffalo to the eggs of the lice;

the saint, let him be blessed, sits in the fourth quarter,
and jokes with the leviathan,
because it is written: 'The leviathan which you have created,
to play with!' "⁴⁰

A feast of resurrection

The father rewards all regalia of a free man to the son who returned: ,Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.’ Then he holds a celebratory feast with and for the rehabilitated son. The fattened calf is slaughtered. The tables buckle with foot and drink. Music plays. They feast and are happy.

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

The father also mentions the reason for the joyful celebration: For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ A resurrection has happened: Anéste is the expression for “found” in Greek; it is the word which is used for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For the son, who felt that “there is no more life” life, was fully opened again. The past is buried, the future is open. The enslaved becomes free. The dead man is alive.

The elder son

Everyone is happy with the father, except one: the son who remained at home. He does not come along. He cannot understand his father: His brother first wastes the fortune of his father. Then the father acts as if nothing has happened. He is even pleased with he who had placed himself into a rotten situation, and takes him unconditionally into his arms and into his house.

The elder son does not understand that nothing else matters to the father as that his son is alive. As it is said in psalm 33:

18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
19 to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.

Psalm 33.18f.

This is the nature of divine compassion: That life is brought up and does not die. Therefore, Jesus teaches: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10.10)

Church of compassion

One can gain insights into oneself when contemplating the picture by Rembrandt and hearing the story from the book of Luke. With which of the characters do I identify? With which one does my church identify, to which I am "added by God” (Acts 2.47) together with others?

My image: the younger son

Some breathe a sigh of relief because they find themselves in the prodigal son. On detours of their life they know, that God, is “a faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he“. (Deut 32.4).

He is not unforgiving, but heals and helps man stand up and offers him new perspectives. The younger sons, who represents the whole mankind, can hope for reception by the compassionate father. This is the central message of Jesus about his God. This does not butcher nor humiliates. He is compassionate with the people. He doesn’t answer violence with violence. Therefore, he uses his divinity to bring back into the house of the father those who are wayward or astray. Jesus: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5.32)

Jeopardizing the churches: The older son

Jesus focuses on the indignation of the older son. He stayed at home, in a certain sense he was spiritually held back. In the story of Jesus he stands for the blinkered (uninsightful) religious leaders of his own Jewish people. They think God cannot be so, even more: Jesus cannot preach in the name of their God if he does not care with which people he associates. “Tell me whom you mix with and I’ll tell you who you are”, is often our attitude. God should be severe. A judge. “A God who always only loves and forgives, loses his masculinity", said a teacher of Christian Theology recently. Not forgetting the hate of Friedrich Nietzsche for a God who has a "weakness" for the weak. Nietzsche and the modern older son do not accept a God of compassion:

'Too long have they been allowed right, these little people: thus at last they have been allowed power, too - now they teach: "Only that is good which little people call good."

'And "truth" today is what the preacher said who himself sprang from them, that strange saint and advocate of the little people who testified of himself "I - am the truth".

'This immodest man has long made the cock's comb of the little people rise up in pride - he who taught no small error when he taught "I - am the truth".

'Was an immodest man ever answered more politely? But you, O Zarathustra, passed him by and said: "No! No! Thrice No!"

'You warned against his error, as the first to do so, you warned against pity - no one else, only you and those of your kind.

'You are ashamed of the shame of the great sufferer; and truly, when you say "A great cloud emerges from pity, take care mankind I"

'When you teach "All Creators are hard, all great love is beyond pity": O Zarathustra, how well-reading weather-omens you seem to me!

'You yourself, however - warn yourself too against your pity! For many are on their way to you, many suffering, doubting, despairing, drowning, freezing people -

'I warn you too against myself. You have read my best, my worst riddle, me myself, and what I have done. I know the axe that fells you.

'But he - had to die: he looked with eyes that saw everything-he saw the depths and abysses of man, all man's hidden dis-grace and ugliness.

'His pity knew no shame: he crept into my dirtiest corners. This most curious, most over-importunate, over-compassion-ate god had to die.

'He always saw me: I desired to take revenge on such a witness - or cease to live myself.

278

'The god who saw everything, evert man: this god had to diel Man could not endure that such a witness should live.'⁴¹

The Gospel leaves open, whether the father could win the older son over and convince him to come to the feast and to be pleased about the “resurrection” of the “dead” son.

Are we as members of the “Jesus-movement” at least have joyous about those, who "come home" after long detours in their life and various failure caused by tragedy and trespasses?

How do those who are responsible in our church act with priests who do not keep to the vow of celibacy and feel pain and regret only years later? Why does the Church "unfrock" such priest and thus indirectly denigrate laymen who have the highest dignity within the people of God due to their rebirth in Jesus Christ?

A subordination of the others can never be derived from the ordination of the one! Why does it by "moving back into the laity" transforms the highest dignity into an act of punishment?

Are we for example grateful that people who fail in their marriage want to take part in the meal of the father again and that God does not put another condition on somebody who wants to come home?

During a spiritual sharing about experiences which ordinary people made with God, a divorced and remarried woman told: “I have a deep feeling in my heart that God forgives me. But at the same time I observe that the Church is not ready to forgive me.” She meant the Roman Catholic Church. Because the Orthodox Church takes in its pastoral work another approach as also the Churches of the Reformation do. The Orthodox tradition obliges the bishop on the one hand, to keep in memory by "akribia" the strikt law of God, but on the other hand for concrete single cases to act as a housefather (“oikonomia”). [⁴²8], who does not condemn but creates a good opportunity for the coming life - and this if necessary by a "second coronation", that is a re-marriage.

The challenge: Becoming like the father

This leads us to the real challenge for our Christian Churches. This consists of us beginning to identify ourselves like Jesus with the Father. We should grow into him. In this way his compassion can become our compassion.⁴³ Henri Nouwen therefore advises as the central point of his meditation on the painting by Rembrandt that all of us "should become like the father". This will cause resistance from the guardians of the law in the Church. Jesus has taken to the cross because he himself was the clear and inestimable revelation of God’s compassion. He never gave up being so.

Live!

„Help people to live!“⁴⁴ was the title of one of my first books about the orientation for the pastoral work of our Church. This is the basic interest of God, the main focus in the pastoral of Jesus and therefore an imperative for his Church.

Life as the matter of God’s concern

The First Testament tells in various texts about God’s engagement against death and for life. Ezekiel the prophet speaks very intensively during the bad “deadly” experience in the Babylonian exile:

‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

“‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”

(Ez 16,3-6)

The people of Israel are in a very precarious situation. In this situation the prophet remembers its origin. The people are unappealing, nearer to death than to life. God draws near to the suckling, who lays in his blood, and promises him life. This is the intention of God, elementary and manifestly. The people can therefore gain hope during the exile.

The noun “life” (hajjim, zoé) is central in the Bible. For the pious in the time of the Old Testament it was the gift par excellence. God keeps his people alive, protects them. Life means “life in shalom” (1 Cor 7.15). In Hebrew “shalamu” means undamaged, healthy, in order and successful life. Such life is the result of a relation to Jahwe, the saving God (conf. Ex 3.2). And that happens not in a coming other world but on the land God gave to live in this world. God created it for human beings.

We grant that the resurrection of Jesus focussed the attention of the Christians on life after death. This is life par excellence, everlasting life. This relativizes life before death perceptibly, but this life doesn’t lose its meaning. The experience of the time of the Old Testament remains, that God has called us for “a life in shalom”, and this now in this life before death. Moreover, if there are fragments of felicitous life before death, they are a presage of the eternal life to come. Marie-Luise Kaschnitz expresses this in one of her poems in this way:

On Resurrection
Do You believe, I was asked,
In a life after death
And I answered: yes
But then I wasn’t able
To give any information
On how it should appear
How I myself
Should appear
There
I knew only one thing
No hierarchy
Of saints on golden chairs
sitting
No cascade
of damned souls
Only
Only love set free
Never exhausted
Inundating me
No stiff golden protective coat
Garnished with gems
A cobweb-light garment
A waft
Around my shoulders
Caress beautiful motion
As once from Tyrrhenian waves
Like words that flow back and forth
Fragments of words
Come You come
Web of pain bedecked with tears
Mountain and valley ride
And Your hand
Again in mine
So we lay
You read out loud
I fell asleep
Woke up
Fell asleep
Woke up
Your voice receives me
Releases me and always
And again
Therefore, more asked the questioners
You do not expect after death?
And I answered:
Less not.

The anchoring of human beings in the hope for a “life to the full” (Joh 10.10) that lasts for ever, opens a new strategy for conducting the transitory earthly life. Who already is in a life that can’t be taken away is free to use the transitory life unsparingly- lovingly. He doesn’t rely on a lifestyle of frantic self-assertion: “The hope for resurrection from death, the belief in breaking through the barrier of death makes us free from a life of pure self-assertion which is truly death.”⁴⁵ On the contrary, he is able to invest his life, to venture it, to “give it”. He is able to die: loving in midst of his life and at the end of his life to render the life to God. In that way death is overcome before dying and in dying itself. That ancient Christian experience is summed up in the sentence: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.“ (1 John 3.14) Even structures which bring death are overcome from their roots. Salvation from the empty way of life handed down to us from our fathers (and mothers) happens (cf. 1 Peter 1.18).

Life as the center of the pastoral work of Jesus

Numerous cure reports which are told about Jesus show that God worries about people’s life. From many appropriate stories the cure of a leper is quoted here as it is reported in the Gospel of Matthew (8,1-4). I choose this event because it has inspired a Benedictine monk of the island of Reichenau to represent it as an illumination. He supplies us for today a fascinating the vision of church. Here are the picture⁴⁶ (Codex Echternach, 1040) and biblical report:

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.

And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I will do it. Be made clean.” His leprosy was cleansed immediately.

Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”

We will meditate the four (groups of) persons one by one: The leper, the central figure Jesus, the two persons behind Jesus and in the background the people following - therefore we.

The leper

The leper s drawn by the artist at the edge: at the edge of life and at the edge of society. His knees are weakening. He is down. It was no life. It lacked everything life makes intensive and worth living⁴⁷:

Nobody looked at him and therefore he had no reputation. If somebody approached he had to cry from a distance so people should keep off him. A life without reputation and relation is no life.

The leper could do nothing more. His life was foreseeable. It ends in a miserable death dying little by little. There was nothing he could shape. It is typical for many sick persons to feel helpless. A life without sovereignty, a life in which on can do nothing is no life.

And finally he didn’t belong any more. The German word “Aussatz” for his illness refers to its social dimension. He was outcast from the community. A life without homeland and community is no life.

It is not surprising either that the rabbinical scholars counted the lepers at the time of Jesus as dead. It is a kind of “death before death”, a “social death” within the life.

Nevertheless: When the leper hears about Jesus the healer, all rules are ignored. He approaches Jesus and stretches hopefully his life empty hands to him.

Jesus

Jesus does not disappoint him. He does not observe the norms either weh it concerns Life of a man. Jesus does not carry the law scroll in his left hand by chance. He brings down from God a new law as Moses had brought the stone law panels from the mountain Sinai. So Jesus announces the law of God which certainly is higher than the law made by man. The most sacred laws like the sanctification of the Sabbath hat do put aside if it is about the human being who is Gods concern. Breaking the human law Jesus approaches the leper.

The monk painting shows the quick steps that Jesus takes to approach the leper. Thereupon Jesus is giving the leper at least at the moment of the encounter all these which he needs for life:

He looks at him with open and awake eyes. The life of Jesus, painted with the divine halo, jumps from his eyes to the “dead” leper. Jesus gives the unsightly reputation. This creates life. Because all life originates from the encounter, according to Martin Buber. Nobody of us can look into his own face. We always need a mirror for it. The best mirror for man is the neighbour. The genesis due to this fact speaks about “recognizing” if Adam and Eve came together celebrating a feast of love and made a son: “The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the LORD” (Gen 4,1). Also Maria says at the annunciation by the angel that she doesn’t recognize anyone (Lk 1,34). The feast of erotic-sexual love which celebrate people facing each other are sensitive and vulnerable places to recognize somebody as a woman or as a man.

Jesus then stretches out his hand and touches the “dead man”. So life comes into him because he was touched by the creative hand of God. This hand of the creator painted Michelangelo impressively in the picture of Adam’s and Eve’s creation; Jesus carries as healer this creative divine power in him and so do some other people to whom is given the power too. The healing touch gives the socially dead man a new life. He gets his sovereignty of a health person. Jesus sends the healed to the priest to make his offering as described by Moses. Nowadays Jesus would have sent him to the registration office.

What happens in the encounter is a Kind of resurrection in midst of life before death. The sensitive Bible readers have always understood it like this. So all raisings by Jesus are painted in frescos together in the medieval church St. Georg to Obernzell on the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance on one side of the Church. The cure of the leper is among this. By curing a leper Jesus practices “resuscitation”.

This completely lies of the line of Eastern Church salvation theology. The people suffer from the mortal wound. This has various shaping’s. Suffering, dying and sinning are such variations. In the name of God Jesus overcomes death with its many faces.

The two men behind Jesus

The Benedictine monk of the island of Reichenau paints two men behind Jesus: Peter and John. Pilars of the Church. Peter stands for law, John for love. The colours of the clothes of Jesus are seen on the clothes of both apostles.

Again the artist shows us the moving feet of the two with sensitive attention. And this is an integrated double movement: At first they walk behind Jesus. The old spiritual word for this is “imitation of Christ”. Going in the steps of Jesus. The ordained office bearers are engaged to keep on track the Church communities entrusted to them.

The early Christians were referred to those “who belong to the Way” (Act 9,2) But the two do not only go behind Jesus, but even doing this they go in the direction of the leper.

And not oversee it: Everyone comes down from the mountain (Mt 8,1). The mountain n stands symbolically for the proximity to God, to heaven. Christians always are – as Jesus himself – at the same time close to God and to the poor.⁴⁸ You never can separate God and charity from each other. Wellnessspirituality is just as foreign them as pure social activism.

The painting monk then shows us what characteristics of the Churches are. Peter looks at his right hand. He had seen how Jesus had treated the leper. He has understood the teaching. The Church treats men in the way of Jesus, approaching primarily those at the edge, at those who are down. Then looking at them, touching them healingly, empowering them, bringing them home and thus leading them back in life. Running a practice of resurrection out of the small deaths.⁴⁹

The mission of Church therefore is, this is a vision, to be an advocate of the depressed and damaged Life⁵⁰ in imitation of Jesus. Where she acts according to Jesus she reveals Gods intention to all people. And this intention is since the beginning of world “Live!” (Ez 16,6)

Acting this way the Church does not make “helping diaconia” only. It practises also “political diaconia”. Because Church helps not only the victims of injustice and of fate. The Church acts in a way that there are less victims tomorrow. It worries about more just and better living conditions for all people. It is giving not only fishes but teaches how to fish – as suggested the famous Cardinal Cardjin, the founder of the Roman Catholic labour movement. The most effective form of charity is politics. In view of a certain kind of piety spreading out in the Church today Pope Benedict XVI is surprised:

“One often really wonders how Christian who are personally religious people not are able to make a policy that way that faith can influence politics strongly.”⁵¹

And ourselves?

The painting monk added contemporaries to these three groups of the biblical event. They are considerably different in their clothes from the biblical protagonists.

This is the discreet sermon of the Benedictine monk. By the picture he invites the observer to enter in this movement of the biblical event. Climb up to the mountain with Jesus at night to be alone with Got and absorb the fundamental attitude of the heart of God in You. And come down from the mountain and entering the bright approach to those who are “lepers”, i.e. “excommunicated”, “outcasts. There are many at the edge of life and society even nowadays. Many are “down”, below, and their knees are weak.

The “Aussatz” – to be outcast – may have new faces today. But still it hat a destructive power. People are discriminated again. A great number of people starve and are thirsty. There are sick persons, persons in need of care, children who cause stress to the adults. According to Hans Markus Enzensberger⁵² people even in rich societies are in danger of getting “superfluous”. The old discriminations are not overcome: between Jews and Greek (racist), slaves and rich (economist) and between women and men (sexist: cf. Gal 3,28). Even they exist everywhere at least they should not exist within the Church, because she became “one” in the “body of Christ”.

Someone may ask where she or he is in this picture. A first experience may be: In the leper who requires to be healed by Jesus. However, the monk also puts us into the group in the background behind Jesus. As healed we can be healers.

Over all we should become like Jesus. What a vision of Church!

Basic processes of Church life

The Church is a realm to experience God’s vivifying activity. So this can be tangible and sensed, a few elementary processes are necessary. Such basic processes of every Christian community are: receive, praise and distribute. With biblical texts and paintings of the Middle Ages we meditate on these three basic “gestures” which we find not only in Christian life.⁵³

Receive

In the Sacramentary of Cologne, painted about the year 1000, the experience-realm of the Church is depicted in the picture. The frame of the picture is clearly marked out. What happens, takes place within the Church. And vice versa: The Church is there, where this event happens.

Sakramentar aus Köln (1000, Paris, Bibliotheque Royale)

In the darkgreen field there is an encounter. It is the encounter between the Angel of the Annunciation and Mary. The gospel according to Luke reports it in the childhood-story of Jesus.

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

(Luke 1.26-38)

We see the angel: God’s messenger. He brings to Mary a Word from God. The right hand of the angel is painted disproportionately large. The fingers are exaggerated, held up in a gesture of blessing. He who brings a message from God, becomes himself a blessing, because he brings life. This is an icon for the Church too. It facilitates for human beings the encounter with God’s word: In this way it becomes a blessing, therefore a source of life for human beings.

Vice versa: If a person approaches God’s word, life emerges. The woman in the painting does just that. She stands up and brings herself closer to the messenger. His message is obviously so powerful that she can’t remain seated. In a deeper meaning the message is unsettling: It brings her to her feet. This is one of the reasons that Christians in the liturgy stand up when the gospel is proclaimed. It does not keep us in our place. We are urged to go and act.

Then our gaze is drawn to the hands of the woman. These are not held up for blessing. Rather, they are open and empty. She is prepared to receive the message and with it a blessing and life. This gesture expresses receiving, which has in a many-layered sense: as listening, as skeptical⁵⁴ inquiry, as belief and as trust.

Life, the picture tells us, comes from encounter. It is gifted to those who receive it. Life is – from the perspective of human beings – given life. As soon as I perceive this, I stop to say: “There is life”, but “God gives the life”. I cease to say, “There is the world and human beings”, but I know: “God, You give us the world and bestows on us each other. We are the gifted; we are richly rewarded; richly, because rewarded with life.

As richly rewarded people we can understand more deeply the Beatitudes of Jesus, given to the multitude on the mountain:

„Looking at his disciples, he said:
Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, 
because great is your reward in heaven.“
(Luke 6.20-23)

The Poor will own the kingdom of God. The poor defined as those who do not own land, according to the Old Testament. Land here means first of all the land Canaan, which God promised and gave to his chosen people. To dwell peacefully in that land, to own a portion of it, was a sign of God’s favor to his faithful Jewish people. Therefore, those who didn’t own land were suspected of not being loved by God. They were counted as sinners, from which God had turned away.

The prophets protested: Thus, it is not. God is one who wishes life for all. Therefore, he is like an angry lawyer for the extremely poor, widows, orphans, workers from whom the salary is withheld. God is an enemy of a poverty, in with life perishes and which therefore cries to heaven.⁵⁵

From that there can be seen another feature of human poverty. Because the poor have obviously nobody they can rely on, there is no alternative (if they are faithful) than to have God as the one and only lawyer. Only God can give them hope of being save from death. From Him they look not only for survival, but a life in justice and peace.

If we look at life as such: is not everybody poor? None of us is given life by himself. We can’t protect our lives sufficiently and can prolong them eternally. In regard to life our hands are empty, we are poor. If we are alive, it is because God gives us life in our empty hands.

The picture invites the observer to enter together with the woman into the encounter with the herald and with the live-granting message from God. The artist expresses that invitation in such a way that the woman “leaves the frame”, more precisely she moves from our side to the herald. The artist moves the observer to follow the woman and do like her.

The Second Vatican Council taught in its dogmatic Constitution about Church in Chapter eight – resuming an old interpretation – that Mary is an icon of all who believe. The picture shows more concretely how Mary is a role-model and guide to those who receive in faith life from God.

Praise

Whenever we as a Church learn from the Lady to open our empty hands and receive life from God, we begin to sing together with Mary her praises, the so called Magnificat:

Elisabeth:

„Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”

(Luke 1.45-55)

Like a carpet this song is woven. The threads for it come from the Old Testament, for instance from it’s Songs. Cleary the people of God lives by praising God. The themes of the praise are as multiple as the given life itself:

The believers of the Old Covenant sing overall about the great feat of God: that God delivered the Israelites from Egypt and led them into in the Promised Land. They beat the trimble (see Ex 15.20) and always sang “because his love endures forever” (Ps 136). The life of the people of God is “full of praise” to the Lord because this is given from the redeeming and preserving God. The praise in Israel echoes the commitment of God for the life and survival of the people.

Also the redemption of one single person is an occasion to praise God, to give Him three cheers:

“I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” (Ps 47.9f) Life in Israel is praise. Where there is no praise there is no life: “It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
those who go down to the place of silence;
18 it is we who extol the Lord,
both now and forevermore.” (Ps 117.17f.)

The believer announces his astonishment at God’s creation through praise to the Creator (see Ps 8; 19). Also the Word of God and His rules are an opportunity to perform before God. Even in tribulation God’s fidelity allows the three young men in the fiery furnace praise Him (see Dan 3).

The redeeming and life-giving God has shown Himself unsurpassable in Jesus’s life, death, Resurrection and Ascension. In Him God has given to humankind his indestructible Yes. His fidelity and mercy are definitely made apparent (see 2 Cor 1.18-20).

Therefore, Mary as role-model of the healed human being sings: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant… for the Mighty One has done great things for me.” (Luke 1.47-49) “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful.” (Luke 1.54) Church’s praise is the reaction to God’s appeal through Jesus Christ to humanity Christ: “Mankind, You are forever!” Because this is the belief of Christians, they cannot help but to praise.

Egbert-Kodex, 980 (Stadtbibliothek Trier)

How much praise is a core-process of Church can be seen in the painting placed beside (below, above…).

The artist from the end of the first millennium, paints what Luke in the gospel (Luke 24) and in the Acts (Acts 1) proclaims. Jesus went his way until he fulfilled His mission. Because he did not cease to love his Father and humankind, he was killed. However, God did not desert him. With his right hand, he took Jesus into his glory. Jesus experiences in this way God’s word, which is spoken to all humankind and to the whole world: “Live!” God completes the life of Jesus and so opens for all everlasting life in abundance.

God’s angels proclaim that great feat of God. The disciples hear the message, raise their hands and applaud. In applaud we find the Latin word “laus” which means “praise”. Praise is the faithful answer to God’s saving of Jesus and of all of us. At the same time, the disciples were sent out into the world. There they should proclaim God’s glory by good deeds and praise so that all human beings praise their Father in heaven (see Mathew 5.17).

How live was in the early Church is told in Acts: “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2.46f.) Because God serves them with his Word and nourishes them with the bread of Life they have to praise Him. Encounter with God who vouchsafes life is the very source of Christian worship. Not even in the dark times of human life do Christians stop giving their God the “sacrifice of praise” (Hebrew 13.15). Through believe in God, who raised Jesus from death, they know that even suffering, tragedy, guilt and death are robbed of their lasting power. God has the last Word for the humankind. That is: “Live!” This victorious message gives the opportunity for everlasting praise even in times of tribulation and darkness.

Praise is not the special task of a few people in the Church, like monks and contemplative nuns. All have to proclaim the name of God and His great feats and are called to enter eternal life. Whoever praises, stays alive. Only those who praise God and say to Him “You” will be freed from self-praise. Within the praising encounter he will experience God’s life.

The German speaking Catholics name their prayer- and songbook “Gotteslob”. This is the role of Christians within the world: To celebrate God by praise and deeds.

When Christians in different places come together in the morning to praise God before starting their day, than their praise merges with the Benedictus (“praised be the Lord!”) of Zechariah, the song of the redeemed man. When they come together in the evening “to clap their hands” before God their evening-prayer peaks with the Magnificat (“My soul glorifies the Lord!”) of Mary, the praise of the redeemed woman.

The Church knows its vocation to worship and to sing praises to the Lord before all nations for the salvation of humankind (Psalm 57.10). It unites with the hymns of the completed in heaven. The Church on Earth may never waive the luxury of praise. This would be equal to denying the future of humankind.

Distribute

Receive and praise: These were the first basic processes in the life of a Christian and a Christian Community. The whole Church lives through receiving and praising. A third process rises by itself from both of these: The gifted, who therefore sing praises, become “gifters”.

This is illustrated in the story of the Feeding of the Fife Thousand:

35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages[e]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. (Mark 6.35-44)

Evangeliar Echternach 1040 (Nürnberg, Germanisches Museum)

Again it is a painter from the island Reichenau who put this biblical event into a picture. The event is presented on a green background. We have seen this already in the Annunciation scene. May be that green background tells us that there, where God - through Jesus and His Church - acts form humankind, a realm of hope and life opens.

In the center stands Jesus who is handing out the bread. He is depicted as the risen Lord. That he is as the risen the living is shown by large and wide-open eyes. Therefore, Jesus is the center from where live emerges. What Jesus does first of all is to give bread. John calls Jesus himself “the bread of life”. Therefore, he suggests that he is giving his self. He delivers himself. That brings life to those who are starving. Besides this, the portrayal recalls the crucifixion. To give bread and to be crucified are variations of delivering, of the loving dedication.

On either side of Jesus stand to men. What they are doing can be summarized thus: Those who recieve gifts are themselves turned into givers. Those who receive begin to distribute. Therefore, the hands of these men are different to the hands of Jesus. Whereas Jesus distributes with both hands, the one hand of both men is a receiving and the other a channeling one. By receiving they are provoked into a distributing love. We can formulate this in another way: The Church and Christians on the one side are bound to Jesus and on the other side to the people. The composition of the picture moves in a clear direction. It runs from Jesus to the people. Both men lean towards the people, away from Jesus. This gives the impression that turning to the people and distributing is more important and effective than receiving.

What are noticeably painted are the distributing hands of the men. They are, moved in parallel, the hands of Jesus, equal in size and shape. Jesus lets himself being mediated through human beings. Vice versa that means, that Jesus is “pro-existence”, that means existence for others and so a role model for others. We stand before the basic rule of Christian life. The gifted were transformed into givers. The bible speaks of liberation and leads us to charity.

In comparison with the teaching of the Scribes in the time of Jesus, the love to the neighbors is undefined. From now on love for neighbors has no more borders. Even enemies are included. You can see that on the nailed hands of Jesus on the Cross. He has given himself in such a manner to people that in future he will never make a fist to anybody. God’s hand is open for all forever. The reason for that defining of human love is the love of the Father for humankind:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.“ (Mathew 5.43-45)

Finally, the painting shows the people. One remembers the biblical picture that there are people “living in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1.79). It’s about survival and the lives of all the people. Therefore, charity, as it is shaped in the gospel, is highly political.

The Last Supper and the Washing of the Feet

When artists in the Middle Ages depicted the Church, they showed two biblical scenes: The Last Supper and the Washing of the Feet.

The Last Supper forms those who sit at the table into a community. Eating the same bread and drinking from the same chalice, they grow together. The biblical tradition, thought through the preaching of Jesus, uses the word “body”, in which grow together different members; and bread, formed by many grains, and wine, pressed from many grapes. The Last Supper unifies. The unified become brothers and sisters. They are not only related by blood, but “embodying” Christ they are related in God, which is deeper and has much more powerful consequences.

The Last Supper, which Jesus celebrated with his disciples before his suffering, formes the life of the Church. On the first day of the week it wasn’t only Mary Magdalen who came to the grave and found it empty (John 20.1). Remembering the Resurrection the Christians assembled on the first day of the week. They did this in times of persecution - in the subterranean burials chambers (the Catacombs) of Rome. When the Communists persecuted the Christians, believers congregated again in the underground.

The liturgy allows sense experience, which happens in the depth of the assembled. Bread and wine were brought to the altar. They represent the fruits of the earth and the work of human beings, above all those who came together to celebrate, who in turn stand for the one humankind. Then the leader calls down God’s Holy Spirit onto the offerings praying that He may transform them (“epiclesis”): a ritual which is celebrated emphatically in the Orthodox Churches. So that no doubts arise, where the transformation of the offerings and the assembled leads, the mandate of Jesus is remembered. (“the word of installation”). The offerings and the assembled are transformed into “body sacrificed” and “blood shed”.

Two aspects are crucial: The transformation forms a community sui generis. In addition, it shapes the future activity of the transformed people.

Community

Those who expose themselves the transformation, run - figuratively speaking – into “God-danger”, the field of his transforming power. They leave the ceremony different than they came in. They entered divided, caught up in anxiety and therefore prone to defend themselves, which leads to greed, violence and lies. The transformed people leave as “one” –united: They became the one Christ, God’s new creation, with Christ as the head of the consummated “world-body” (Hildegard of Bingen) and those transformed as members of this body.

Pope Benedict XVI. spoke at the World-Youth-Day in Cologne in 2005 about a chain of transformations:

The first basic transformation (in the death of Jesus on the Cross into Resurrection) from violence to love, from death to life entails further transformations. Bread and wine become his body and his blood.

But at this point the transformation must not stop, it must now start fully: The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are given to us to be transformed. We should become the body of Christ, blood related to him.

We all eat the one bread. That means: we become one with one another. Adoration becomes, so we said, unification. God is no longer the totally other opposite to us. He is within us and us within him.

His dynamic permeates us and wants to spread out from us to others and the world as a whole so that his love becomes the dominating measure of the world.”

Therefore, the Last Supper, the holy Eucharist, is not an event of private piety. It is “world-transformation”. It becomes possible by the transformation of those who God calls together to this celebration. In Austria, there are about 750 thousand, and in Germany three million Catholics who go to Church every Sunday and celebrate the Eucharist – the celebration, which the Second Vatican Council called the source and peak of any Christian and churchly life. In addition, there are the members of the other Christian sister-churches. If transformation really happens, the country on Monday is different.

Washing of the Feet

The “words of transubstantiation” remind us, in which direction the transformation through the called down God’s Holy Spirit (epiclesis) runs. They say “sacrified” and “shed”. A biblical symbol for such a sacrifice is the Washing of the Feet, which Jesus carried out on his disciples during the Last Supper. For John, who reports extensively on it, the Washing of the Feet is more important than the Last Supper, which he mentions more casually. The Washing of the Feet is the expression of serving dedication and love. Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15.13)

Is there in our Christian Churches a danger, that the Last Supper and the Washing the Feet are separated from each other? The former president of the Charity Austria, Helmut Schüller, described one time the celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday in parishes as “religious beautified visits to pastry shops”. Sometimes the coffee meeting after the liturgy is given more attention than the Eucharist itself. In addition, some see in the liturgical celebration a possibility to withdraw into their hearts instead of letting God put them together into a community, into a “body”. Clearly though, to be put together cannot happen without inwardness. But they reject the Sign of Peace, they deny that arrangement of the liturgical space which was self-evident at the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples.

They prefer the processional arrangement, which has of course religious significance, because it is the favored image of the Church of the Second Vatican Council: the picture of the people of God on pilgrimage.

Some speak up for the processional arrangement only because by doing this they want to protest against the reforms to the liturgy by the Council. For them the Tridentine Mass is godly, in comparison the Mass of the Council empty. However, mass can be celebrated in both forms piously and with consequence. This is applicable to the mode, in which the holy communion is received. What counts is receiving with heart, and that can happen whether you take the communion by hand or by mouth. A demonstrative communion by mouth can be as unheartfelt as a superficial communion by hand.

Much more important than the arrangement is the participation of all the people in what Jesus commanded us to do. What is decisive, is transformation and that we leave other than we entered, because we have been transformed into the “body of Christ given”. Whether transformation happens can be seen in whether we leave the celebration as “Feet-washers”. Asking God to transform the offerings would be too little without bothering us.

The practice of Feet-Washing

If we ask God not to keep us in civil tranquility, in a kind of spiritual wellness, but ask him to make us susceptible for transformation (because He is preempting our doing with His grace⁵⁶): what befalls us then? If we let happen that we become His body, if we absorb Him during the communion of the mass, what is changed in concrete terms in our lives and our behavior?

In other words: If we are transformed into feet-washers – what does the praxis of feet-washing look like?

“Whoever dives into God, emerges next to the poor. And vice versa”, according to the Pastoral Plan of Patavia. And the Synod of Rottenburg in the year 1983 formulates in the document about youth: “The more mystical, the more political. And vice versa.”⁵⁷ Roger Schutz spoke about the inseperability of contemplation and action.⁵⁸ John B. Metz⁵⁹ and Dorothee Sölle⁶⁰ stressed the in-one-another of mysticism and politics. Or simply Jesus: Love for God and for ones neighbour can be distinguished, but are one. The mystically gifted Christianity teaches that love for the others is decisive because only in this can love for God be expressed. Teresa of Àvila admonishes her sisters:

“No, sisters, no! The Lord desires deeds. And if you see a sick person, to whom you can provide a little relief, than it should not bother you to lose your reverence and to show her your compassion; and if somethings hurts her, it should hurt you too, and if necessary you should fast so that she has something to eat.

…then you may receive pious feelings and presents, so that you think you have arrived there (in unification with God), and even some tiny elevation in the Prayer of peace (some think that by this everything is accomplished), but believe me that you have not yet come to the unification with God, and pray to God, that He gives you perfect love for your neighbour.

…however, to be in accordance with love whose nature is to be always at work.”

Teresa from Àvila⁶¹

But how does someone emerge who has before dived into God? To understand this, it is good to know what the holy scriptures tell us about God. One of the most read texts of the Christian Churches and also of the Jews (it is the founding narrative of Israel) is Exodus 3.7-10. As in a mirror we can perceive how God relates to human beings. And whoever dives into God and becomes in this way “God-shaped”, cannot do otherwise than to be with the people in the nature of God. Here follows the text which shows us how spirituality and practice of feet-washing can look:

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

(Ex 3.7-10)

It is spirituality of service, which we can learn in God’s school, with heart and mind, with all senses.

Eyes and ears

God is presented as one who sees and hears. The literal translation stresses the seeing and hearing by duplication, typical for a Semitic language: “I have seen, indeed I have seen; I heard, indeed I have heard…” God is so to say eye and ear. He doesn’t ignore or overlook anybody – and that not in a moralistic inquisitorial manner, but he looks with benevolence and takes care of human beings, above all after those who have nobody: the poor. In the wonderful churches of Lower-Bavaria, which were constructed by the brothers Asam, God’s eye and God’s ear are often painted in a triangle, the symbol for the trinity.

Therefore, typical for a “God-formed” spirituality is to see and to hear. And that in a culture, which – ego-frightened – is prone to overlook and not to listen. According to the Syrian Church Order from the fifth century, a deacon lived next to the house of the priest. He was named the “eye of the Church”. In the morning it was his duty to go along the beach and to look if there was a dead body on the shore. After that he went into the villages to see if anybody was ill or needed instruction. And once a month he had to report to the priests, that the necessary measures could be undertaken.⁶²

Nowadays this duty – to be the eye of the Church – falls to those in Caritas circles or committees of the Parish Council. Well organized institutions such as Caritas and Diakonia as well as the Charities of the Church (like Misereor, Adveniat, Renovabis, Dreikönigsaktion, Fast-soup-action, Bread for the World) draw up excellent analyses. Poverty reports are written. All these organizations train the members of the Church in looking to at a time when so many have learned to look away.

An alert mind

God perceives, as it is reported in Exodus 3, the root causes of poverty. The report addresses the subject of suppression. This is a highly political term. Power is abused – here the power of the Egyptians against the Israelites. This causes the “cry of the poor”. There are other kinds of suppression which make the poor cry to God, because no worldly power looks after law and justice. To heaven cries the blood of Abel murdered by Cain (Gen 4.10); the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah reaches heaven (Gen 18.20; 19.30); Yahweh hears his people crying out in Egypt (Ex 3.7-10); if widows, orphans and foreigners – the unprotected in Israel – are “exploited” then this reaches to the “ears of Yahweh” (Ex 22,20-23); to the heaven cry the hired worker to whom just wages are not paid (Deut 24.14f.; Sir 35.17-19; Jacob 5.4).

From the perspective of God it is not enough to help only the victims. An alert mind is needed to uncover the causes of injustice and to remove them. John Paul II. coined, in this context, the term “structural sin”.⁶³

A compassionate heart

In the above-mentioned text God is saying about himself, “I am concerned about their suffering.” The term “to be concerned” is closely connected to intimacy. God knows the suffering of human beings – in this context of the oppressed people of Israel, who cry to him.

To have a compassionate heart: that means to have compassion (John B. Metz) – that is more than the sympathy of wealthy people sitting in their armchairs. Compassion is the same as immersing oneself in the practice of liberation, immersion in the everyday suffering and life of the people. Simon of Cyrene bowed down under the cross of Jesus and carried it together with Him.

Benedict XVI. recommended “formation of the heart” to all who are active in the service of the Church:

“Professional competence is a first, fundamental requirement, but it is not enough. It's all about people, and people always need more than technically proper treatment. They need humanity. They need a turning to of the heart. For all who work in diaconal organizations of the Church it must be typical that they do not do only with competence what is needed now, but they turn to the other with their hearts so that they can feel their human kindness. Therefore, those helpers need beside and together with their professional education above all a formation of their heart.”⁶⁴

“Form our hearts after your heart”, thus a hoary Christian prayer.

Involved hands

Open eyes and ears, an alert mind, a compassionate heart: These are indispensable attributes of a spirituality of washing of the feet. Added to this there are involved hands. In Exodus it is written, “So now, go. I am sending you. Bring my people out…!”

However, charity does not start with doing. This comes at the end. Without seizing the spirituality of washing of the feet charity doesn’t reach its full form. This happens effectively of course only in well-planned diaconal projects which are well designed and implemented. Such projects have a time-frame, a planned beginning and an ending with an evaluation. The evaluation of the project is essential, not least in order to learn from mistakes for further projects.

A Church which tries to attract people for such projects, has to consider the findings on modern volunteering. On the one hand strong religious motivations are helpful. On the other hand, the helping person should have the opportunity to develop themselves. They want to have sustainable influence - nobody likes to give consultation without impact. Volunteering is also a way of realizing oneself, recognizing one’s own talents, developing them and implementing them in the development of the community. In addition, most people like to work in teams, which inspires and relieves them and let them find a shelter for themselves in such communities. Finally, an adequate appreciation is indispensable.⁶⁵

Such project work calls for a corresponding leadership-culture. How projects are designed and carried out? How conflicts are managed in a cooperative manner? How empowerment of coworkers functions? How participation is optimized? How do make leaders certain, that the path – not least the one of the Gospel – is not left? The more participation is striven for, the more a competent leadership is needed. Leadership are guidance are gifts of God’s Spirit to His Church in its communities:

“And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.” (1 Cor 12:28)

Leadership within the Church is a way neither to higher dignity nor to a clerical incapacitation of lay people. It is a service to the Church. The biblical images are familiar: the shepherd (Ez 34, John 10), the hard-rowing galley slave (Phil 2:6ff.), the servant at the tables (Luke 22:27).

These visions of feet-washing do not leave a good taste for all in the Church. Therefore, they are part of a long tradition. As Jesus started to wash Peter’s feet, he took Jesus for crazy. In unsurpassable clarity a gothic capital in the cathedral of Saint Gilles from 1142 portrays this:

And Sarah laughed

Sieger Köder

The Church in Central Europa is in phase of a dramatic restructuring. It is leaving behind (involuntarily) the comfortable time of the Constantine Era in its post-Reformation form. Gone is the time when the Mighty of the Nations were interested in Christian belief. For the Catholic Church in Austria it was extraordinarily effective that the Empress made laws for “the promotion of the glory of God”.

The Empress Maria Theresia noted on 14th July 1770 in her decree “About the sanctification of the feasts” that various abuses have crept in; among others she perceived, “that the sanctification to be observed, for instance by common men, is neglected”. Therefore, she – for whom “the promotion of the glory of God and the strictest performance of those commandments are extremely close to her heart, by which the Christian Catholic Church by its sacred founder in particular is characterized” – gave the order, by which the opportunity to idleness and from there arising debauchery was taken away from the neglectful “common man” and may lead men through better instruction to “due devotion on the Day of the Lord”.

Therefore, the weekly markets are mouved from the morning of Sundays and Feast days, and in all parishes “instructions in christian belief” have to be held. The control had do be done by the. “imperial-royal Bohemian-Austrian chancellerie” („Kaiserlich-Königlich böhmisch-österreichischen Hofkanzlei“).⁶⁶

Each Age brings to the Church its own organizational structure. Joseph II. brought the network of parishes up to date. In doing this, the Emperor not only had religious interests in mind, but also political ones. The parish priests, as servants of the state for religion, were responsible for cowpox vaccination, the poor and recruitment of soldiers. So that the “ministers of religion” were well prepared for their religious and social tasks, Joseph's mother, Maria Theresia, in 1774 installed in Vienna the first ever Chair of Pastoral Theology.

These times are irretrievably over. This may make us sad for some time. But have we really accepted the new situation? We can mourn the opulent pastoral circumstances of yesteryear. Furthermore, without mourning we cannot move on into the time to come. If this past times are mourned extensively, then we need to find the courage to rebuild the organizational structure of the Church. The Church is positioned by the Lord in the respective Age. That does not always happen to the pleasure for the Church and her leaders, who hang on to the past and adhere to this – which also often happened earlier, as the prophet Jeremiah complains (Jer 29).

As well as in grievework and in the obligatory structural modification of the Church, an event narrated in the book Genesis may be encouraging. Sieger Köder put the story into a picture – as many artists did before him:

The story is told in the book Genesis thus:

The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”

“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”

Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he said.

Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

(Gen 18,1-15)

Become old

They became old, Sara and Abraham, as the fading form of our Church. If you ask members of a Parish Council (as I did together with Anna Hennersperger in 2009⁶⁷), then there is much suffering because of this becoming old. Children and young people are lacking in the parish communities and at services. It has become difficult to find volunteers. Often there is no parish priest. Not a few are concerned that soon they themselves will no longer be an independent parish. They are worried about their future. They fear dying.

Like Abraham and Sara, many parishes seem to have their best times behind them. In the years after the Second Council in the Vatican many hoped that the parishes would remain lively. Meanwhile, however, a deep depression of becoming old spread. It expresses itself in widespread complaining und whining.

The incredible promise

Precisely to the elders, God gives the promise of a young life: “I will return to you at the appointed time next year”: within one year, according to the divine guests, the dream of the old people will be fulfilled. Their whole life long they had hoped for progeny, but they had got no child. But now it shall be born, although Sarah did not fare as other women, and Abraham was already an old man.

Unimaginable: In the Sunday services of the Churches children and young people romp. It’s precisely they who want not only to live as part of and to worship with the community, but to participate in the work of the Church. The Church cannot fend off those who want to participate.

Sara’s reaction was at first ‘realistic’. Her feeling: biology speaks against what the threefold divine guests announced. In our Churches such a pronouncement seems to be unrealistic too. The trends indicate decrease in church participation. Europe is definitely secularizing itself. People live according to John Paul II. in his postsynodal letter “Christifideles laici” (the “believing Christians”) - from 1988 “as if God doesn’t exist.” The alienation of the people from the Church, which is shown by many reliable data, is continuing especially among the young generation and fatally, among modern young women. The familial channels for tradition of belief are clogged, religious instruction in schools is losing battle. Church leaders have lost heart and only take care of the shrinking membership. Some name this as the fearless “little flock” - something Jesus did not mean when he said to his young movement: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12.32)

The small shrinking membership is lavishly managed. The hope for a new departure, which in the time after the Council, inspired and motivated many, has withered.

How great is the similarity between the depression of the old couple of the Old Testament and the Churches in our region!

It is understandable, that Sara – behind the entrance to the tent eavesdropping on the conversation between the divine guests and the old Abraham – an incredulous laughter escaped. This was obviously so loud that the guests could hear it. They confronted her (through Abraham): “Why did Sara laugh”, they ask, irritated, “instead of rejoicing”?

The same event is told on another part of Genesis. There Sara is present only indirectly and it is not she who laughs, but Abraham himself. He laughs not as unbelievably as Sara. Some experts for the Holy Scripture are of the opinion that he already anticipated joy. However, he did not believe God completely. For him it would be enough if Ismael – born of the concubine Hagar – would stay alive. However, God maintains his promise. He will bless Ismael, but he will make the covenant with Isaak.

15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.[d] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
(Gen 17,15-22)

Could the same happen with our Church, above all concerning its structure? Can a new form be born out of an old one? Because it is His Church at issue, and its competence to act in the world today? Do we entrust this to God?

After all, the prophet Isaiah also given the word from God to encourage His people. Against all experience he said unto his people a motivating word of hope:

18 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 

19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 

20 The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 

21 the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise. 

(Isaiah 43.18-21)

In the midst of the lifeless desert God creates new life. The old ones had a child. What passes, gains future.

And God does all this. Not without the old ones, but with them. So we have to ask what our contribution is.

Our contribution

Firstly, it is necessary to hear the Word of promise. It is not the Church that will go away, but it’s yesterday’s familiar structure.

A new structure will be born.

It will not fall from the sky. The old shape of the Church will become again: in it’s womb the new one is formed.

Side-by-side

That means, in the time of transition from the one to the other shape two shapes will coexist side-by-side. Even then when the old shape has given birth.

The new shape is already coming into being. It can be recognised already. Therefore, Isaiah says: “See here!” Sometimes, we seam to blind to see how in exorable form takes shape (like an embryo in the womb). “Do you not perceive it?”

Ultrasound?

Modern Birth Accompaniment is not only capable of feeling new life. In imaging procedures at least its contours can be made visible.

The throbbing of the heart can be seen. Whether it is a boy or a girl (which some parents don’t want to know). The future shape of the church is shown as a silhouette.

Decidedly believers

It will be a church, born of a personal decision for faith by modern peoples. In their final loneliness they have declared their Adsum (here I am, Lord) to their God-given church-vocation. They know that God has laid a vision of his church in the cradle of their vocation. They explore those gifts which are given to them as “charisma” by God’s Spirit. They develop these responsibly and take care that these gifts contribute to the welfare of the Church.

These convinced believers will be the most important witnesses for the gospel: among the people with whom they work together in their profession, in the media, in politics, in trade unions, in economics, in arts and culture. If they live within a family, they will form, according to their vow rooting in baptism, a kind of faith-habitat.

Word and Eucharist

Hearing the word of God and above all celebrating the Eucharist will be the source of their engagement for the promotion of the gospel. This makes them – united with brethren and sisters in Christ und therefore with all human beings – into “feet washers”, into peoples who are helping and political deacons are at the side of the poor.

Believing communities

This engagement for the Gospel happens within a believing community. On the one hand, this is a fruit of the transformation into the Body of Christ by the Word, baptism and the Eucharist. On the other hand, the community bears the belief of the individual members in an ideologically multi-coloured culture.

Team of Elders

In these faith communities, which live from the Word and the Eucharist, there is one (or even more, more often voluntary) ordained Elder⁶⁸ who leads the Eucharist and the Celebration of the Sacraments. Many of these Elders will have a family.

In 1970 a German theologian envisioned this new structure of the Church. In a radio-lecture which was also published he projected the following image of belief, Church and priest:

“The Church of Jesus Christ will remain. The Church which believes in God who became a human being and promises life for us beyond death. Likewise, a priest who is only a social functionary, can be replaced by psychotherapists and other specialists. A priest who is not a specialist, who keeps himself out of the game when he gives professional consultation,

but gives himself from God to the people, is present for them in their mourning, their joy, their hope and in their anxiety, will be further necessary.

Let’s take a step forward. Out of the crisis of today this time as well a Church will arise which has lost a lot. It will become small, in many aspects start from the beginning. It will be unable to fill many of the buildings which were constructed in the boom times.

Together with the number of members it will lose many privileges within society.

Much more than until now it will be a community of volunteers, which will be accessible by personal decision. As a small community it will call for the initiative of individual members much more.

It will know new forms of office and ordain experienced Christians who have a profession. The everyday pastoral work will be done in much smaller communities or in connected social groups.

Apart from that the full-time priest will be indispensable as until now.⁶⁹

Ordained priests without family, who live in celibacy, primarily will found communities and will own for that a high degree of mobility. On the contrary, the married priests will be, thanks to their family and their children, stationary. In that way, what the German bishops, based on the Synod of Würzburg in 1975⁷⁰, wrote as early as 1977 into the master book of their Church region, will be realized:

„A priest should ‘in the person and the mission of Jesus Christ’ (cf 2 Cor 5:20) make the community and its members willing and competent, found communities and lead them, should add new members to the community and care for the unity in Christ (Eph 4:12).”⁷¹

But what happens if there is no priest in real calling distance⁷²? There were such times during Church history. For example, around the year 209 in North-Africa. There the Church teacher Tertullian (160-220) practised. Since 207 he was on the way to a rigorous variation of a moralistic interpretation of the Gospel (Montanism). He urged that even lay people should not be allowed to marry a second time. At that time, for priests this was the normal rule (like nowadays for married deacons). Arguing for that he reminded his dialog partners that in the People of God all are “priestly”. This he argued referring to the following obvious and undiscussed practice:

“We lay people, aren’t we priests too? It is written: ‘He has made us into kings and into priests for God our Father.’ The difference between the priesthood and the laity is fixed by the Church authorities and the ranking among the clerics sanctified by God. However, where an order is not installed, you bring yourself the holy sacrifice and baptize (‘offerre et tinquere’) and you yourself are a priest; obviously there is a Church, where three persons are together, even when they are lay people.”⁷³

New pastoral structures

Such life of faith in local communities will be fulfilled in new “pastoral structures”. There will be a cultivating dialectic between the local communities and larger realms. The local communities and within them the hearing of the Word and the Celebration of the Eucharist will be indispensable: but they will undertake some tasks in a bigger area together with other communities.

Cooperation will be organized in projects which are planned, designed for a limited time and at the end evaluated: for example, the preparation of young people for Confirmation, educational events, youth work, diaconal projects, cooperation with secular organisations and authorities.⁷⁴

In this respect the situation is changing. That the old structure of the Church is dying is seen in multiple shortages:

shortage of money, of members, priests and volunteers. These forced the Church leaders to undertake structural changes. In the Catholic Church these changes were not only financially oriented, but much more on the availability of priests. Every pastoral area should have an appointed priest. For this reason, the pastoral areas were enlarged. Some of them were stretched step by step. These “reforms” were oriented on the old Church “enterprise”. This should have already become outdated, because Vatican II. designed the Church starting not from the clergy but from the faithful people. In fact, the latest structural adjustments fell behind the Church-teaching of the Council. They were made “priest-centered”.

The new Church shape doesn’t grow only by combining the available priests with pastoral areas. The question has to be put in a new way: Which pastoral process requieres which pastoral area to be done optimally? In that way you reach a differentiated concept of pastoral areas. It does neither support the “church-tower-thinking” prevalent in some parishes, which the Italian Pastoraltheology fondly names “campanilismo” – nor is legitimized a unimaginative clerks-centered expansion of pastoral areas as a consequence of the falling number of priests. Plurality dominates, because some processes need proximity⁷⁵: the faithful life with families and young children, with old people, handicapped and ailing family members. In addition, people have very different expectations of the Church because of their social strata and milieu⁷⁶. That relates to their image of God, of the church, the parish priest, of the community and not least of that which should happen in the pastoral work and how they will take part based on their lifestyle.

To cope with such a plurality overburdens the local communities as well as the newer “spiritual movements”, which attract only a certain milieu. In a larger pastoral realm spiritual places for seekers can be found. It is possible (as happens in the diocese of Erfurt in the atheizing Eastern Germany) to celebrate Christmas for atheists, a Valentin’s day for lovers, the commemoration of the death for families whose family members are buried anonymously. Others try this with special youth churches as praystations. In educational houses let networks of believers grow which fit to the feeling of life of young women.

A gender fair Church

She was the first who came to the grave. Her heart drove her there in the early Easter-morning. It was Mary Magdalene, the woman, to whom many apocrypha and later voluminous novels ascribed in the best meaning of that word an intensive love relationship.

The first meeting

Mary found the grave empty. He, whom her heart full of desire in the early morning sought, was not there.

In the midst of this disappointment and sadness she, this loving woman, experienced the perhaps most touching encounter with the risen Lord. The favorite disciple John tells it thus:

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 

12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 

13 They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." 

14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 

15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." 

16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). 

17 Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " 

18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her. 

(John 20.11-18)

An idle tale

It was pointed out many times in the last decades that the Risen One showed himself to a woman. The core of the gospel⁷⁷ was at first entrusted to a woman. Even more: The Risen One asked her to bring that unbelievable message to the brothers, the other apostles. A woman is for the men the first female-apostle, bringing them the message of resurrection.

The apostles hadn’t previously trusted her that the grave was empty. Peter and “the other disciple” had to prove it for themselves running to the place where it happened. And then she came with this new message that the Risen One had appeared to her and furthermore had told her:

“But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.”  (John 20.17f.)

The fulfillment of the order by Mary Magdalene developed into a great disappointment. The evangelist Luke noted laconically about that which the women told:

But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. (Luke 24.11)

Is that in the Church – I mean now above all the catholic one to which I belong – the case until today? Women claim that within the Church there is no justice for them. Sometimes it was denied that they are full human being. Then that they have access to eternal life. The admission to those positions in the Church which are connected with power and spiritual authority is closed to them. They are excluded from ordained offices. But even in top positions which can be taken by any baptized Christian, women are widely underrepresented.

What a great vision for the Church this could be:

„There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3.29)

No discriminations against women. A change in consciousness and in the structures of power has happened. The Catholic Church is no further male dominated. Based on the reincarnation in Jesus Christ there is real equality in dignity and vocation (LG 32, CIC can 208), although between women and men.

But some will say: The Church has no authority to undertake such fundamental changes. And because the access of women to ordained offices up until now has never been allowed, therefore that could “never ever” happen. But can such a “never ever” really be maintained? Peter thought, referring to a long tradition, that noone should be christened without becoming a jew and accepting the law with all its consequences such as circumcision and rules for kocher cooking. Therefore, he, Peter, will “never ever” eat nonkocher food. But he did. Because God ordered in a dream to act in an other way. The “never ever” of the Syllabus of Pius IX. from 1864 held only hundred years. The Second Council in the Vatican declared religious freedom as essential for true Christian belief. And the “never ever” of John Paul II. from 1984 – how long will it last?

One is concerned that such a development of the Catholic Church will widen the gap with the Orthodoxe Church. On the contrary, not to undertake this would widen the gap with the Churches of the Reformation, and even more to many modern young women. It is them, who have many problems with the ruleshanded down from the past. Many of them cut the umbilical cord to the Church.

But is it worth it? Or more precisely:Is it really unavoidable that women don’t have access to any ordained office – also not to the diaconate? The bible commission of the Vatican declared that there are no compelling arguments against. But which arguments are pro? That until now (in the eyes of the Catholic Church) it never legally happened? Or are there archetyple images prohibiting that? Because the symbols for the Divine and the Giving are the sun and man and the symbol for the Created is the female, is “mater” and “matter”? It is not easy to change archetyple images and they resist theological logic. This is one of the reasons why change in the Catholic Church and even more in the Orthodox Church happens very slowly. The exitus of many Anglican Christians, of whole communities and even of bishops are sources of information for these deep rooted resistances.

The star of the vision

We can look back on the path which we trodden. The goal we wanted to reach can be condensed in the experience of the three wise men from the Orient who, following a star, reached the goal of their desire. The star stands for visions. These visions also show the way and motivate them to follow it. This is true above all in times of a deep reaching transformation of the Church. Whoever refuses only to administrate the decline and is determined to create a transition, is not primarily concerned with structures but visions.

Following these, one can hope to reach the goal.

Window of the three kings, Cathedral in Erfurt, about 1370

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

"And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, /
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; /
for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.' "

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
(Matthew 2:1-12)

The three “astrologists” from the Orient have experienced the power of a vision. They had hopes, they felt in their depth the birth of a child which will be important for world history. They decided to set out and to find it.

Then they chose a path reasonable for our world: They consulted the potentate Herod, who called in the scribes. That confirmed their vision but didn’t bring them to the goal. In their search they were left alone. Only when they remembered the star were they overwhelmed with joy. They found the Child. Knelt down. Adored. The Church has no other goal. It is the goal which it shares with humanity.

1)

Kaufmann, Franz-Xaver: Church crisis. How Christianity survives?, Freiburg im Breisgau 2011. – Küng, Hans: The Church still has to be saved?, Munich 2011.  ↵

2)

Scheffczyk, Leo: Aspects of the church in the crisis. Around the decision for the genuine council, winning castle 1993.  ↵

3)

Zerfaß, Rolf: The People of God becoming a Minority? Pastoral importance of an experience in Israel. Katechetische Blätter 1 (2000) 42-52. – Id.: The Mission of the Church Today, in: Ordenskorrespondenz 41 (2000) 375-391.  ↵

4)

Saarinen, Martin F.: The Life Cycle of a congregation, Washington 1989.  ↵

5)

Mostly Protestant cultures have become atheistic.  ↵

6)

Zit. Nach Pesch, Rudolf: Zwischen Karfreitag und Ostern. Die Umkehr der Jünger Jesu, Zürich 1983, 90f.  ↵

7)

Zulehner, Paul M.: Colorization. Churches in ideological pluralism, Ostfildern 2011.  ↵

8)

Neuner, Peter: The Layman and the People of God, Leipzig 1990.  ↵

9)

Audet, Paul: Priest and layman in the Christian community. The way to mutual estrangement, in: The priestly service I: Origin and early history, Qd 46. Freiburg 1970, 115-175. - Weß, Paul: All of you are brothers and sisters. Priest and community, Mainz 1983. - Zulehner, Paul M.: Community pastoral. Places of faith, Düsseldorf 1991.  ↵

10)

Sölle, Dorothee: A people without vision perishes. Remarks to the German presence and to the national identity, Wuppertal 1986.  ↵

11)

Wörtlich lautet der Text: „Eine Kirche, die um sich selbst kreist und dabei Gott vergisst, wird leidunempfindlich. Wer hingegen in Gott eintaucht, taucht neben dem Menschen auf. Dabei kann der Weg auch in der anderen Richtung verlaufen: Wer den Menschen begegnet, finden in diesen auch Gott (vgl. Mt.25).“ Gott und den Menschen nahe. Passauer Pastoralplan 2000, Passau 2000,16.  ↵

12)

Zulehner, Paul M.: Ein neues Pfingsten. Ermutigung zu einem Weg der Hoffnung, Ostfildern 2008.  ↵

13)

Sölle, Dorothee: Lieben und arbeiten. Eine Theologie der Schöpfung, München, Zürich 2001, 32.  ↵

14)

Supported, so Karl Rahner, by the famous Church Fathers. Rahner, Karl: Kleines Kirchenjahr, München 1954, 85f.  ↵

15)

Unsere Hoffnung. Beschluss der Gemeinsamen Synode der Bistümer in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Freiburg 1976, 92.  ↵

16)

Rohr, Richard: Hope and attentiveness. The spiritual way for the 21st century, Freiburg 2010. - Fox, Matthew: Vision of cosmic Christ. Departure in the 3rd millennium, Stuttgart 1991.  ↵

17)

The descent of Christ into Hades is perceived as an event of cosmic importance, which includes everyone without exception: Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev: Christ the Conqueror of Hell. The Descent of Christ into Hades in Eastern and Western Theological tradition. A lecture delivered at St Mary's Cathedral, Minneapolis, USA, in: http://orthodoxeurope.org/print/11/1/5.aspx .  ↵

18)

Orthodox Holy Saturday liturgy. A Triduum Sourcebook, 66 (translated by the author).  ↵

19)

Gregor von Nyssa: Große Katechese, BKV München 1927, Bd. 56, 63.  ↵

20)

AaO.  ↵

21)

Zulehner, Paul M.: Verbuntung. Kirchen im weltanschaulichen Pluralismus; Religion im Leben der Menschen 1970-2010, Ostfildern 2011. – Ders.: „Seht her, nun mache ich etwas Neues“ (Jes 43,19). Wohin sich die Kirchen wandeln müssen, Ostfildern 2011.  ↵

22)

„In former times theology used to ask anxiously, how many would be saved during the world’s history out of the 'massa damnata'. Today, one asks whether one may not hope that everybody will be saved. However, the Vatican Council teaches that even one who professes an atheist is in touch with the Easter mystery of Christ, if he follows his conscience and that everybody who is in touch with the revelation in a way which only God knows can be a ‘believer’ by deeds which redeem him. It is said there that even those who are looking for the unknown God in shade and pictures are not distant either from the true God who wants that all people be saved if they only try to lead a just life. There is emphasized that Church is not only the community of the saved alone, but the sacramental sign and the nucleus of the salvation of the whole world." Rahner, Karl: Die bleibende Bedeutung des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils (The remaining meaning of the Second Vatican Council), in: StdZ 12 (1979) 795-806.  ↵

23)

Balthasar, Hans Urs von: Was dürfen wir hoffen?, Einsiedeln 1986.  ↵

24)

Balthasar, Hans Urs von: Cordula oder der Ernstfall, Einsiedeln 1966.  ↵

25)

Balthasar, Hans Urs von: Spiritus Creator, Einsiedeln 1967, 159.  ↵

26)

Rahner, Karl: Das kleine Kirchenjahr, Freiburg 1948, 84-92.  ↵

27)

Ostkirchliche Liturgie: Kontakion vom Sonntag des 5. Tons.  ↵

28)

Karl Rahner: Die bleibende Bedeutung, in: StdZt, aaO.  ↵

29)

Renz, Monika: Erlösung aus Prägung. Botschaft und Leben Jesu als Überwindung der menschlichen Angst-, Begehrens- und Machtstruktur, Paderborn 2008.  ↵

30)

. Drewermann, Eugen: Strukturen des Bösen, Die jahwistische Urgeschichte in psychoanalytischer Sicht, München 1977, zwei Bände. – Drewermann stützt sich auf die einschlägigen Werke von Kierkegaard, Søren: Der Begriff Angst, Hamburg 1984. Darüber: Die Angst des modernen Menschen, Zürich 1977. – Künzli, Arnold: Die Angst des modernen Menschen. Søren Kierkegaards Angstexistenz als Spiegel der geistigen Krise unserer Zeit, Zürich 1947. – Ders.: Die Angst als abendländische Krankheit. Dargestellt am Leben und Denken Søren Kierkegaards, Zürich 1948.  ↵

31)

Dazu das bahnbrechende Werk des frankoamerikanischen Kulturanthropologen Girard, René: Ich sah den Satan vom Himmel fallen wie einen Blitz. Eine kritische Apologie des Christentums, München 2003.  ↵

32)

Zulehner, Paul M./Denz, Hermann u.a.: Solidarität. Option für die Modernisierungsverlierer; Innsbruck 1996. – Denz, Hermann; Zulehner, Paul M.: Das Hemd ist uns näher als der Fremde, Solidarität 1994-2002, in: Wirtschaftspolitische Blätter 50 (2003) 9-15.  ↵

33)

Benedikt XVI.: Licht der Welt, Freiburg 2010, 205f.  ↵

34)

Beranek, Markus: Gemeinde als Heil-Land. Erfahrungen heilsamer Gemeindepraxis im Rahmen der Studie „Gemeinde als Heil-Land“ und theologisch-spirituelle Perspektiven, Wien 2002.  ↵

35)

Holl, Adolf: Jesus in bad society, Stuttgart 1971.  ↵

36)

Kremer, Jacob: Lukasevangelium, Würzburg 1988.  ↵

37)

Dazu: Nouwen, Henri J.: Nimm sein Bild in dein Herz. Geistliche Deutung eines Gemäldes von Rembrandt, Freiburg 1991. - Zulehner, Paul M.: Gott ist größer als unser Herz (1 Joh 3,20). Eine Pastoral des Erbarmens, Ostfildern 2006  ↵

38)

Renz, Monika: Erlösung aus Prägung. Botschaft und Leben Jesu als Überwindung der menschlichen Angst-, Begehrens- und Machtstruktur, Paderborn 2009  ↵

39)

] Metz, Johann B.: Compassion, Freiburg 2000. - the same: Ways in the church crisis: Kirche der Compassion, in: Kirche der Compassion, in: Zulehner, Paul M./Heller, Andreas (Hg.), Kirchenreform, Graz 1998, 123-133.  ↵

40)

Babylonian Talmud: Traktat Avoda zara (Vom Götzendienst) 3b; quoted according to Goldschmidt, L.: Der Babylonische Talmud, VII Berlin 1925, 801.  ↵

41)

Nietzsche, Friedrich: Thus Spoke Zarathustra. A book for everyone and no one, translated with an introduction by R. J. Hollingdale, 278f.  ↵

42)

] One knows the orthodox church pastorally as guidelines in a radius of divorce and re-marriage the two principles of the "Akribia" and this one of "Oikonomia": Judge, Gerhard: Oikonomia. The use of the word Oikonomia in the New Testament, among the Church Fathers and in the theological literature up to the 20th century, Berlin 2005.   ↵

43)

Nouwen, Henri J. M.: Take his picture into your heart. Spiritual interpretation of a painting of Rembrandt, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991.   ↵

44)

Zulehner, Paul M.: Helft den Menschen leben. Für ein neues Klima in der Pastoral, Freiburg 1978; ⁷1985.  ↵

45)

Würzburger Synode 1975, Unsere Hoffnung.  ↵

46)

Evangeliar von Echternach, 1040. Das Blatt befindet sich heute in der Bibliothek Royale in Brüssel.  ↵

47)

Zu diesen „Lebensheiligtümern“: Schmidtchen, Gerhard: Was den Deutschen heilig ist. Religiöse und politische Strömungen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, München 1979. – Zulehner, Paul M.: Religion im Leben der Österreicher. Dokumentation einer Umfrage, Wien 1981. – Diese Urwünsche nach einem Namen, nach Macht und Heimat, also nach Wurzeln und Wachsen, sind der Stoff vieler Mythen und Märchen, nicht zuletzt aber der drei evangelischen Räte Jesu: Zulehner, Paul M.: Leibhaftig glauben. Lebenskultur nach dem Evangelium, Freiburg im Breisgau 1989.  ↵

48)

So d.er Titel des unter Bischof Franz X. Eder für das Bistum Passau in Kraft gesetzten Pastoralplans  ↵

49)

Zulehner, Paul M.: Auferweckung schon jetzt. Skizze zu einer europäischen „Befreiungstheologie“, Meitingen 1984.  ↵

50)

Zulehner, Paul M.: Kirche – Anwalt des Menschen. Wer keinen Mut zum Träumen hat, hat keine Kraft zum Kämpfen, Wien 1981.  ↵

51)

Benedikt XVI.: Licht der Welt, 76.  ↵

52)

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus: Die große Wanderung. Dreiunddreißig Markierungen; mit einer Fußnote „Über einige Besonderheiten bei der Menschenjagd“, Frankfurt am Main 1992  ↵

53)

Ich stütze mich im Folgenden auf eine vergriffene Publikation, die ich mit dem unvergesslichen Priesterfortbildner der Erzdiözese München, Josef Brandner, gemacht hatte. Josef Brandner verdanke ich den Zugang zu einigen der hier in Verbindung mit biblischen Texten meditierten Bilder. Zulehner, Paul M./Brandner, Josef: Lebe! Das Anliegen Gottes als Schwerpunkt der Pastoral seiner Kirche, Freising 1981. – Zusammen mit Josef Brandner wurden zudem erarbeitet: Zulehner, Paul M.: Leibhaftig glauben. Lebenskultur nach dem Evangelium. Unter Mitarbeit von Josef Brandner und Josef Fischer, Freiburg 1983. – Zulehner, Paul M./Brandner, Josef: Gott ist größer als unser Herz. Eine Pastoral des Erbarmens, Ostfildern 2006.  ↵

54)

Über die Bedeutung des skeptischen Fragens für das Glaubenkönnen unter modernen Bedingungen: Berger, Peter L./Huneke, Dorte: Erlösender Glaube? Fragen an das Christentum, Berlin 2006. – Auch: Berger, Peter L./Zijderveld, Anton C.: Lob des Zweifels. Was ein überzeugender Glaube braucht, Freiburg 2010.  ↵

55)

Boff, Leonardo; Goldstein, Horst: Schrei der Erde - Schrei der Armen, Düsseldorf 2002. – Lohfink, Norbert: „Option für die Armen“, in: Dass Gott den Schrei seines Volkes hört, Freiburg 1987.  ↵

56)

Zulehner, Paul M./ Heller, Andreas: „Denn du kommst unserem Tun mit deiner Gnade zuvor …“ Zur Theologie der Seelsorge heute. Paul M. Zulehner im Gespräch mit Karl Rahner, Düsseldorf 1984 / erweiterte Neuauflage: Ostfildern 2002.  ↵

57)

Beschlüsse der Diözesan-Synode Rottenburg-Stuttgart 1985/86. Weitergabe des Glaubens an die kommende Generation, Ostfildern 1986.  ↵

58)

Roger Frère: Kampf und Kontemplation. Auf der Suche nach Gemeinschaft mit allen, Freiburg 1974.  ↵

59)

Metz, Johann Baptist: Mystik der offenen Augen. Wenn Spiritualität aufbricht, Freiburg 2011.  ↵

60)

Sölle, Dorothee: Mystik und Widerstand. „du stilles Geschrei“, München 2001. – Maurer, Bernhard: Politik und Mystik bei Dorothee Sölle, in: Zur Umkehr fähig oder: „Gott lassen um Gottes willen“, 2008, 413–440.  ↵

61)

Teresa von Avila: Wohnungen der Inneren Burg, Freiburg 2010, 314.  ↵

62)

Zerfaß, Rolf: Wenn Gott aufscheint in unseren Taten, in: Zulehner, Paul M.; Fischer, Josef: Das Gottesgerücht. Bausteine für eine Kirche der Zukunft, Düsseldorf 1987, 95-106  ↵

63)

Johannes Paul II.: Sollicitudo rei socialis, Rom 1987, 36.  ↵

64)

Benedikt XVI.: Deus caritas est, Rom 2006, 31a.  ↵

65)

Zulehner, Paul M.: Der Reichtum der Kirche sind ihre Menschen. Pfarrgemeinderäte beleben die Kirchengemeinden; Bericht über eine Umfrage, Ostfildern 2010. - Zulehner, Paul M.; Hennersperger, Anna: Damit die Kirche nicht rat-los wird. Pfarrgemeinderäte für zukunftsfähige Gemeinden, Ostfildern 2010. - Schell, Ursula: Zwischen Lust und Frust- Frauen in ehrenamtlichen kirchlichen Leitungsfunktionen. Symbolische, biographische und institutionell-strukturelle Eckpunkte, Ostfildern 2012.  ↵

66)

Riegger, Paul J.: Corpus Iuris Ecclesiastici, Prag 1843, Nachtrag, 12-15.  ↵

67)

Zulehner, Paul M./Hennersperger, Anna: Damit die Kirche nicht ratlos wird, Ostfildern 2009.  ↵

68)

Lobinger, Fritz: Team of Elders, Manila 2009. – Zulehner, Paul M./Lobinger, Fritz/Neuner, Peter: Leutepriester in lebendigen Gemeinden. Ein Plädoyer für gemeindliche Presbyterien, Ostfildern 2003.  ↵

69)

Ratzinger, Joseph: Glaube und Zukunft, München 1970, 122.  ↵

70)

Gemeinsame Synode, Die pastoralen Dienste in der Gemeinde 2.5.1.  ↵

71)

Die Deutsche Bischöfe: Zur Ordnung der Pastoralen Dienste, Bonn 1977, 12.  ↵

72)

„Einsatz ohne festen Bezug zu einer bestimmten Gemeinde und ohne eine wirkliche Ruf- und Reichweite zu ihr schaden der Gemeinde und dem Priester.“ Die Deutschen Bischöfe: Zur Ordnung, 13.  ↵

73)

Die Feier der Taufe ist „zur Not“ bis heute ohne Ordinierten möglich. Manche fragen, warum nicht „zur Not“ auch bei der Eucharistie? Sie erinnern dabei an die gängige Praxis in Nordafrika zur Zeit Tertullians. – Tertullian: De exhortatione castitatis, 7.3. – Literatur dazu: Legrand, Hervé M.: The Presidency of the Eucharist According to the Ancient Tradition, in: Worship 53 (1979) 413-438. – Faivre, Alexandre: Les laics aux origines de l’Église, Paris 1984. – Beneden, Pierre van: Haben Laien ohne Ordinierte die Eucharistie gefeiert? Zu Tertullians „De exhortatione castitatis“ 7,3, in: Archiv für 29 (1987) 31-46. – „De exhortatione castitatis“, anders als im LThK [Freiburg 8 (1964),1371] eingereiht [Altaner/Berthold, Stuiber/Alfred: Patrologie, Freiburg ⁸1978, 158], stammt aus der vormontanistischen Zeit. – Darüber berichtet neben Tertullian auch der Kirchengeschichtsschreiber Theodoret von Cyrus (393 bis vermutlich 466): Kirchengeschichte 1,23,5.  ↵

74)

Diese Position wird von der Mehrheit von befragten Pfarrern in Österreich gestützt: Zulehner, Paul M.: Wie geht's, Herr Pfarrer? Ergebnis einer kreuzundquer-Umfrage: Priester wollen Reformen, Graz 2010.  ↵

75)

Werbick, Jürgen: Warum die Kirche vor Ort bleiben muss, Donauwörth 2002.  ↵

76)

Ebertz, Michael N.: Milieupraxis. Vom Sehen zum Handeln in der pastoralen Arbeit, Würzburg 2009.  ↵

77)

„Denn wenn du mit deinem Mund bekennst: ‚Jesus ist der Herr’ und in deinem Herzen glaubst: ‚Gott hat ihn von den Toten auferweckt’, so wirst du gerettet werden.“ (Röm 10,9)  ↵

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