2.
The Church in Relation to Christ in His Threefold Mission
a) Christ as
Prophet
The historical Christ was the central figure in the long list of God's
prophets who have assumed such a vital role throughout the course of salvation history. As
Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah and the rest of the Old Testament prophets were the spokesmen for
Yahweh, so most perfectly is Christ the spokesman for His Father. A prophet, then, in
terms of salvation history is a specially commissioned teacher sent by God to His People.
What is the task of the prophet? His role is in some way to reveal God and God's plan for
man's salvation and sanctification.
Christ accomplished the task of the prophet in an
eminently perfect manner. Through His unique words of wisdom He made a deep impression
upon His hearers: "Jesus had now finished what he wanted to say, and his teaching
made a deep impression on the people because he taught them with authority, and not like
their own scribes." (Mt 7:28-29). Through this teaching Christ gradually revealed the
nature of God. He revealed this nature, not only as It is in Itself, but also as It is in
Its relationship to men. Above all, He taught men the love and mercy which their Heavenly
Father has for them. He did this in a manner which was radically adapted to their
understanding, using the language and mode of speech which was familiar to them. Through
the use of the most simple story Christ would often bring out the most sublime truths
concerning God. His story of the Prodigal Son as given in St. Luke is an exquisite,
graphic presentation of the loving and merciful attitude of God toward the repentant
sinner.
Yet Christ did not reveal the Father and the
Father's plan only through word. He also did so through His actions. At times the events
of His life were a more eloquent revelation than His words. The crucified Christ, as He
hangs in silence upon the cross, speaks volumes to the world concerning the love and mercy
of God, the justice of God, and the heinousness of sin. In short, it is the total person
of Christ in all His words, actions, gestures – in everything – who reveals the
Father to men.1 This revelation of the Father includes within itself God's
desire for man's response. For God does not reveal Himself in Christ to man for any empty
purpose. God tells us He loves us, that He gives Himself to us in Christ, and that He
wants us to respond with a love of our own as we live the way Our Father wants us to live:
in Christ, Who is the way, the truth and the life.
The Church, the People of God, is destined to
continue Christ's prophetic, revelatory office.2 The most obvious way she does
this is through her official teaching mission. Primarily through the pope and the bishops,
the Church has the responsibility of continually presenting the message of Christ in a
manner which is relevant to the men of various ages. Yet it is not only the pope and the
other bishops who accomplish this teaching mission. The theologian, the priest in the
pulpit, the teacher of religion and theology, the mother and father educating their
children according to the principles of Christ – all such people offer examples of
the various ways in which the members of the People of God contribute to the continuation
of Christ's prophetic or teaching office.
There is another manner in which the entire People
of God contribute to the Church's teaching mission. The official teachers in the Church,
namely the pope and bishops, depend to a considerable extent upon how the Holy Spirit is
operating within the entire People of God. The People of God in their universal grasp of
matters relating to faith and morals assist the official teachers of the Church in their
duty of correctly projecting the truth of Christ to the Church and world. An example of
this is contained in the procedure which preceded the definition of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Pius XII speaks about this procedure: ". . . We considered
it opportune to ask all Our venerable brethren in the episcopate directly and
authoritatively, that each of them should make known to Us his mind in a formal statement.
Hence, We gave them Our letter 'Deiparae Virginis Mariae', a letter in which these words
are contained: 'Do you, Venerable Brethren, in your outstanding wisdom and prudence, judge
that the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of
faith? Do you, with your clergy and people, desire it? ' "3
Consequently, we see the soundness of the newly
discovered dialogue within the Church. The more open are the lines of communication
between the pope and the bishops of the world, between bishops and their priests, between
priests and their people, between religious superiors and subjects, the better is the
possibility that the truth of Christ the teacher will more perfectly permeate the entire
life of the People of God, and ultimately the life of the world.
We have said that the historical Christ taught the
truth of God not only through His words, but through His actions, His attitude, His
gestures. In brief, He taught through everything He was and did. So it must be with the
Church. The Church continues the teaching mission of Christ, not only through her verbal
and written teaching, but also through her actions and attitude, and, summarily, through
her total being as it is visible to men.
We see, consequently, why the Church must concretely
show her concern for the poor, the oppressed, the one who suffers from racial prejudice.
The truth which the Church preaches concerning social justice must become incarnated in
the visible, concrete action she undertakes for such a cause. Since the Church is the
continuation of Christ, she must act as He did. Christ not only told men that He loved
them, He proved that love in a concrete, tangible, incarnate manner.
It is entirely appropriate that Christians be
present at demonstrations concerned with a true and just cause, even though, of course,
they are not usually representing the Church in an official capacity. The witness of
priests, religious and laity demonstrating for racial justice is a powerful witness of the
truth of Christ that all men are created equal. Sometimes such action is much more
effective in projecting to the world the Church's concern for the racially oppressed than
are the pastoral letters of bishops regarding racial equality.
Every member of the People of God is called upon to
continue the teaching mission of Christ. The baptized Christian is incorporated into
Christ who is prophet, king and priest. This incorporation is further perfected through
confirmation. Therefore each member within the Church receives a real share in the
prophetic, kingly and priestly mission of Christ. In relation to our present topic
concerning Christ as prophet or teacher, no member of the Church can excuse himself from
carrying forward this particular mission of Christ. Some of the various possibilities open
to all within the Church have already been suggested. We now emphasize a constant and ever
available opportunity which is present to all, namely, the witness of a truly Christian
life. A life constantly lived according to the truth and example of Christ is a powerful,
persuasive witness to Christ and His message. Perhaps because there are too few such
Christian witnesses, Christianity has failed to make the desired imprint upon
civilization. For it is only when mankind sees the truth of Christ concretely lived out by
Christians that such truth has the power to draw men to Christ and His Church in any great
numbers.4
b) Christ as
King
Vatican II reminds us that Christ is not only prophet, but also king:
"Christ, becoming obedient even unto death and because of this exalted by the Father.
. . , entered into the glory of His kingdom. To Him all things are made subject until he
subjects himself and all created things to the Father that God may be all in all."5
Through His Incarnation, Christ as man became
king over creation. In assuming a human nature, He united to Himself man and also the
material creation below man. In the words of Teilhard de Chardin, Christ is the physical
center of the Universe.6 Through His redemptive sacrifice, which is the
culminating act of His Incarnation, Christ strengthened His title as king.
Christ has redeemed man, and as a consequence
of man's redemption, the whole physical universe has been redeemed.7 The
appropriateness of nonrational creation being redeemed together with man himself is
evident. In God's original act of creation He gave man dominion over material creation.
This part of creation was meant to serve man in his quest for happiness here and
hereafter. With the intrusion of sin into God's creation, man and nonrational creation
were both affected. Through his misuse of God's creation by sin, man not only puts
disorder into himself, but also into the creation which he misuses.
Christ's redemption is meant to restore the
disarray caused by man's sinfulness. Christ through His redemptive grace desires to heal
more and more the sinfulness of man as this affects man himself and man's relationship to
the material universe. Christ as king wants His redemptive grace to spread out and touch
deeply man and the physical universe. With grace man relates properly to the material
universe, for he more and more brings the material universe back to its role in God's
creation, namely, that it serve man in achieving his temporal and eternal happiness. What
is man's happiness? Because of the Incarnation, there is now only one destiny for man both
here and hereafter. That destiny is a supernatural one in Christ. The material universe,
through Christ's redemptive Incarnation, has therefore entered into this supernatural
structure. Man and the physical universe have both been marked with the blood of Christ.
More and more they are to be Christianized, that is, ever more perfectly drawn into the
supernatural order established by Christ and centered in Him.
To extend this kingly influence of Christ over
creation is the task now of both Christ and His Church. We have long been aware that this
means deepening and extending Christ's kingdom as regards man himself. But we are just
beginning to realize what it means to extend His kingdom to everything which pertains to
man. Vatican II, in opening up the Church to everything which is good in the world, has
impressed upon us the fact that the Church, in prolonging Christ's kingly mission, must be
deeply involved not only with man himself, but with everything which is of authentic
concern to man. The council unmistakably tells us this: "The faithful, therefore,
must learn the deepest meaning and the value of all creation, as well as its role in the
harmonious praise of God. They must assist each other to live holier lives even in their
secular occupations. In this way the world may be permeated by the spirit of Christ and it
may more effectively fulfill its purpose in justice, charity and peace."8
All within the Church are called to extend the
influence of Christ as king. Each member of the People of God has a share in this kingly
mission. Each must fulfill his role according to his vocation, talents, opportunities and
graces. But fulfill his role he must. No one but the individual Christian in question can
fulfill the particular role which God has intended for that individual. The Christian's
quest for holiness is thus intimately connected with his response to Christ the king. The
more ideally each Christian responds to this call of Christ, the more the entire Church
can fulfill her mission of continuing Christ's kingly mission. This mission consists in
imprinting the name of Jesus Christ more deeply upon the entire universe, men and matter
alike.
c) Christ as Priest
Christ is prophet,
king, and, finally, He is priest. Consequently, the
Church must prolong the priestly mission of Christ
as well as His prophetic and kingly offices. But
because of the centrality of Christ's priestly
office in His own life and that of His Church, this
theme will receive detailed treatment in the chapter
devoted exclusively to the liturgy.
3. The various Vocations within the Church
The three great
offices of Christ as prophet, king and priest are
not exclusive of one another. Each of them contains
the other. This is so because they are part of the
overall mystery of Christ which is radically
indivisible. What is this mystery of Christ? It is
God's concrete plan of our redemption in Christ. It
is the ultimately mysterious, transcendent, wholely
other God desiring to communicate Himself to us in
love. It is this same God asking for our response in
love. All of this – God's gift of self to man and
His request for man's response – all of this is
centered in Christ and mediated by Christ.
Therefore, we have the term, mystery of Christ.
This mystery of Christ can be
approached under the headings of Christ as prophet,
king and priest. We have taken this approach thus
far in this present chapter because, among other
reasons, it is one of the dominant ways in which
Vatican II presents the mystery of Christ to us. But
Again we emphasize that the mystery of Christ with
its various offices and individual mysteries is
profoundly one. When we speak of the Church as
prolonging Christ's Incarnation, or of prolonging
His threefold mission, or of prolonging the mystery
of Christ, we are really expressing the same basic
reality.
No one group or component part within
the Church can perfectly relive and continue the
Incarnation. Even the total Church cannot perfectly
continue the Incarnation with its prophetic, kingly
and priestly offices. We can therefore understand
why various spiritualities or spiritual "schools"
have arisen throughout the history of Christian
spirituality. All these spiritualities are basically
the same. All of them are aimed at reproducing and
continuing the life of Christ in their adherents.
But each of the various spiritualities – Franciscan,
Benedictine, Dominican, Ignatian, Carmelite, to give
leading examples – is in its own way somewhat
different. Each reproduces in its members the
mystery of Christ in a slightly different fashion.
What we have just said concerning the
divergent spiritualities within the Church can be
applied even more so to the various vocations. All
states of life radically aim at one and the same
Christian holiness. This is so because we all
receive the same life of grace in Christ. All relive
and continue the Incarnation in the same basic
manner. Yet it is still true that there are
differences according to which the various states of
life within the Church prolong Christ's prophetic,
kingly and priestly missions. God has destined that
there be various vocations within His Church in
order that the richness of Christ may be more
perfectly projected.
a)
The Laity
In
considering the incarnational aspect of the Church
in continuation of Christ's redemptive work, the
vocation of the laity is most significant. The lay
state, because of its intimate connection with
temporal, terrestrial values, is best able to
witness to the incarnational dimension of
Christianity. From this particular point of
orientation, let us consider the Incarnation itself.
Through the Incarnation of the Word,
God has immersed Himself into this world of men with
all its created values. In assuming a real human
nature Christ has united all men to Himself. But man
in his human nature is not an isolated being. Man's
human nature situates him in a created order, which,
despite its great complexity, is profoundly united.
The individual man is united with all other men and
with the rest of creation. Through His Incarnation
the Son of God thrusts Himself into this unified
situation of man and becomes the center of it.9
Christ has become the center of the
world of man in order to elevate it to a higher
level of existence through His redemptive work. He
has come to give a new life to man and his world.
This new life affects not only man himself, but the
whole of material creation over which man is meant
to have dominion. It is not only man who is to be
further Christianized but this entire world order
with all its authentic values.10
Compared to the priest and religious,
the layman is in a peculiarly advantageous position
to carry the truth of Christ into many of the more
temporal aspects of men's lives.11
By his very vocation and life situation the layman
is intimately involved with the political order, the
economic structure, the business world, family
life and other temporal values. Through His
humanity Christ radically involved Himself with all
these concerns of man. It is true that He Himself
was not involved in government, cultural pursuits,
marriage and the like. But the fact that He did not
directly confront these areas of human existence
does not mean He was not deeply concerned with them.
When the Son of God assumed human nature He also
assumed all the authentic involvements of human
existence. All of these concerns of man, then, along
with man himself, have been incorporated into the
Incarnation.
The Incarnation must be continually
applied to all these areas which pertain to man.
This actually happens through Christ united to His
members. The People of God, who are His full
members, have a special task in extending the
Incarnation to all the legitimate interests of man;
in our present context, we repeat that it is
especially the task of the Church's laity to
penetrate with the truth of Christ those many areas
of human existence which are partially or totally
closed to the priest and religious.
Such an extension of the Incarnation
to all the authentic values and involvements of
human life does not mean that the supernatural
destroys the individual finalities attached to
culture, economics, government and the like.12
For example, the principles and finalities involved
in the science of economics must be respected by
Christian and atheist alike. The principles involved
in a sound economic structure are the same for both.
But the ultimate view of the economic structure will
be different for the true Christian. He sees that
the economic structure is intended by God to serve
the basic needs of all men throughout the
world, and that it will not do so unless Christian
principles based on the truth of Christ are
involved, however indirectly. This is an application
of the theological truth that man cannot long avoid
serious moral disorder without the grace of God.
Consequently, serious moral disorder in the
worldwide economic sphere cannot be avoided without
the grace of God, which because of the Incarnation,
is also the grace of Christ. To put it positively, a
just economic structure can never be achieved
without the healing and elevating grace of Christ.
This is merely one example of how Christ's
incarnational grace applies to man's total
situation. The same basic application can be made to
all aspects of man's terrestrial existence. And, it
is the layman who must mediate this incarnational
grace of Christ to all these aspects.
However, the lay vocation cannot by
itself give an adequate expression to the total
mystery of Christ. One of the great dimensions of
this incarnate mystery of Christ, as just stressed,
is the fact that God has inserted Himself
irrevocably into the tangible and terrestrial world
of men through the human dimension of His Son. God,
therefore, is most intimately involved with His
creation; yet He is ultimately above this creation,
transcendent to it. It can be no other way,
otherwise we have to admit to pantheism.
In Christ's historical life we find
witness to both the incarnational and the
transcendent. As He related to man and, radically,
to all the concerns of man through His human
nature. He obviously gave an incarnational witness.
Yet through this same human nature Christ also
witnessed to the transcendent aspect of God. For
Christ, in His radical human renunciation, pointed
beyond His human nature to His divine nature, and to
the other transcendent realities of Christianity.
What do we mean when we speak of
Christ's radical human renunciation? First of all,
Christ did not independently dispose of His own life
by determining for Himself the plan of man's
redemption, but selflessly followed the economy of
salvation established by His Father. He further
surrounded such a fundamental renunciation with a
life of utter simplicity: He did not marry; He did
not possess riches. By such a life Christ pointed to
the ultimate reason of His being with men. He wanted
to draw them to the Divinity. Christ, by the very
manner of His life, demonstrated to man that there
is something above marriage and riches, something
above culture, something above all human values. He
is in no way condemning these for as Creator He is
ultimately responsible for them. But through His
life with its unmistakable element of renunciation
Christ gives us this message: He has come to give us
a share in His divine life. All other things
surrounding man – marriage, material possessions,
and the like – are meant as aids in living this
divine life in this earthly situation. We are not
meant to make ends out of means. If certain men, and
indeed, the great majority, choose to be involved
with marriage and other various human values, let
them always remember to be involved according to the
Father's will. Let them remember that these various
incarnational values are always meant to lead man to
a closer union with the transcendent God, a union
which, having its very real beginnings here below,
reaches its culmination only in the beatific vision.
Christ Himself gave up so much in order that we may
not mistake His message. Consequently, Christ, in
the manner of life He adopted, unmistakably
witnesses to the role of both the incarnational and
the transcendent in Christianity.
a)
Religious
If the layman witnesses primarily to
the incarnational in Christ, the religious witnesses
more perfectly to the transcendent. Vatican II
states: "The profession of the evangelical
counsels, then, appears as a sign that can and
ought to attract all the members of the Church to an
effective and prompt fulfillment of the duties of
their Christian vocation. Since the People of God
have no lasting city here below, but look forward to
one that is to come, the religious state whose
purpose is to free its members from earthly cares,
more fully manifests to all believers the presence
of heavenly goods already possessed here below. ...
The religious state clearly manifests that the
kingdom of God and its needs, in a very special way,
are raised above all earthly considerations."13
Yet this witness to the more
transcendent aspect of Christianity is not the only
value which the religious state contributes to the
Church. Because of its communal nature, religious
life allows for a corporate apostolic endeavor with
all the advantages which accrue to a common effort.
There is a need in the Church for more effort on the
part of individuals in furthering Christ's
redemptive work. The laity, as they carry Christ to
the marketplace in their manifold activities,
provide such a contribution. On the other hand, the
great value of corporate service given to Church and
world by the religious state has been proved over
the centuries.
There is one final advantage which
the religious state offers to the life of the
Church. Although all the People of God are called to
the highest holiness, the religious state offers
special advantages in the pursuit of holiness to
those so called to such a vocation. Vatican II
teaches this, thus continuing the traditional
teaching in this regard.14
Let us not try to hide this teaching of the Church.
In our efforts to bring out the true greatness and
necessity of the lay vocation, let us not minimize
what the Church has taught and continues to teach
concerning the excellence of the religious state.
(This is not to say that all religious live up to
this excellence. Some religious are apparently less
advanced in holiness than many lay people.) We
should remember that the special aids to holiness
connected with the religious state are beneficial to
the entire body of the Church. For the holiness of
religious helps everyone in the Church just as
religious in turn are helped by the holiness of
those of different vocations.
b)
Bishops and Priests
