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Daily Scripture

+ 20th Week in Ordinary Time

I’ll do it myself.

Readings: Ezekiel 34:1-11 Psalm 23:1-6 Matthew 20:1-16

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep, I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. [Ezekiel 34:10]

There is much talk about a vocation shortage—fewer young men entering the seminary and fewer still persevering to ordination. Not withstanding some notable exceptions this has resulted in the lowering of standards for ordination. Moreover, priests and candidates for the priesthood are being ‘imported’ from other countries whose needs are as urgent as ours.

The prevailing accent seems to be on the need to have a sufficient number of priests to ‘say Mass’ and provide for the sacramental needs of the faithful. But surely in the light of the Second Vatican Council, priests need to be more than presiders at Mass and providers of the sacraments, as important as are these roles.

The earliest experience of the Church can be instructive in this regard. The notion of presbyter provided the early church with presiders for worship and leaders for base communities. Celibacy was not an issue and there was no clerical caste. The gifts of the faithful were recognized in such a manner that men and women, married and single fulfilled the spiritual needs of the community including the sacramental needs.

Notwithstanding the inadequacy of the notion of shepherding people (sheeple?) the need remains for qualified men and women to minister to the needs of the community.

Ezekiel warned the priests and assured the people of Israel that God would find away to pasture his people.

Ezekiel’s words need to be taken to heart again and in fact we already see that God is indeed providing a way through the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men and women, married and single, who are tending to the needs of the faithful.

The Unfinished Church

Friday July 8, 2005

The Unfinished Church, Ecclesiology Through the Centuries, Bernard P. Prusak, Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah, NJ, 2004, paperback, 404 pages

Movement is a more descriptive word than institution to describe the reality of the Church and this appears to be the conclusion of Dr. Prusak in his splendid book entitled, ‘The Church Unfinished.”

In 341 pages, this superb ecclesiologist takes the reader on an encyclopedic and somewhat kaleidoscopic tour of the evolution of the Church from its apostolic foundation in the teachings of Jesus to its post Vatican II mix of the old and the new. The book concludes with a look into the future with no firm promises or predictions of what the Church will look like in generations to come but with reasons for hope without ducking some crucial issues and questions.

It has been said that it takes an orator six hours to produce a six-minute speech – one hour per minute. Therefore, it should not surprise us that this book took over five years to complete. Dr. Prusak is painstakingly thorough in all his endeavors.

With a Licentiate in Sacred Theology and a doctorate in Canon Law, Dr. Prusak is a blended and balanced scholar. He is an historian of much breadth and depth. His grasp of biblical theology, his appreciation of the influence of political forces on the development of church structures and discipline, his insight into the impact of the human element on the Church’s mission and ministry and his innate sensitivity for people in the pew all combine to make this a remarkably informative book.

The first five chapters take us through 1900 centuries of history with an emphasis on facts but with an interpretation faithful to facts rather than speculation so often characteristic of progressive writers. There is no spin in these pages. The facts are amply documented with fifty pages of notes most of which pertain to original sources. There is also an index of modern authors extending for eleven pages.

An understanding of Peter’s role among “The Twelve” and the role of the pope and bishops throughout the Church’s history is crucial for a complete understanding of the papacy and its relation to the college of bishops today.

Chapter 6 is basically a commentary on the documents of Vatican II with an emphasis on “Lumen Gentium – Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” and “Gaudium et Spes – Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World.” However, he does not neglect the “Decree on Ecumenism,” the “Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church” and the “Declaration on Religious Liberty.”

Notwithstanding all of the above, and recognizing the sound philosophical and theological assumptions by which a world Church may be guided in its progress into the future, Chapter 7, “Restoring a Future to a World Church” fulfills the purpose of this treatise. Despite the desire for change by proponents of reform, new models of Church always contain elements of the old. We need to look back in order to move forward. Moreover, despite the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there are always unexpected influences that skew change in unanticipated directions. Quantum theory is not antithetical to the conviction to Christ’s promise that God will not abandon the Church.

Dr. Prusak’s commentary on the willingness of Pope John XXIII to risk a more intentional outreach to the world is a refreshing reminder that the Church must always be in dialogue with the world if it is to achieve its end. Jesus did not reject the world but embraced it. Before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “As you have sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world…. I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.” [John 17:18-21]

The accent of Vatican II was on dialogue with the world and the collaboration of Christians with people of good will everywhere in the pursuit of the common good of humanity.

This quote from Chapter 7 sums it up nicely:

“’What humanity is,’ the philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey writes, ‘only history tells us.’ Like human life, the life of the catholic or universal Church is lived forward but understood backward. Catholic tradition does not, however, simply involve remembering and preserving the past. The final chapters of Catholic identity are a work in progress, like a book without a final chapter and a back cover. The Church’s catholicity includes sweeping spatial and temporal dimensions. It involves an ever-expanding memory, embracing the immense richness of past and present times, places and cultures, and at the same time an openness to assimilating, and possibly being transformed by, a future history in which God offers a surplus of possibilities. What the Church is, only the entirely of its history will fully reveal.” (Looking Ahead, p 333)

We are only in the first trimester of a Church still in its embryonic stage. There’s a lot more to come and if the past is any indicator of the future, there is every reason to keep hope alive.

“The Unfinished Church” will not be an easy read for Catholics who have little or no knowledge of Church history. However, in my opinion, it is an essential read for anyone serious about Church reform. Prusak is faithful to history but he allows history to make its own assessment of the past and open the doors to the future.

Dr. Bernard Prusak, STL, JCD is the head of the Department of Theology and Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Villanova University.