The Mystery of the Church and Liturgical Renewal
Gordon Smith concludes his discussion of what “Receptive Ecumenism” entails for Evangelicals in their encounter with Catholicism by pointing to two more areas where Evangelicals need to be willing to be challenged and to grow.
6. The Meaning of the Church
In contemporary discussions and dialogue, it is clear that the most critical issue for discussion, learning and formal dialogue between Roman Catholics and Evangelicals is ecclesiology. The fundamental matter separating Roman Catholics and Evangelicals is not Tradition vs. Scripture, faith vs. works righteousness, not even Mary or celibacy or the sacraments and their meaning, or the centrality of Christ for worship and piety. We might well differ on some of these matters, but they are not the most fundamental point of divide. Rather, the most pressing issue is very simply: what does it mean to be the church? And in this regard, we need to listen twice as much as we speak.
Yes, of course, there is more learning and discussion to happen on Mary — in particular, what is her relationship to Christ and the Triune God? — on the sacraments and the meaning of the “real presence,” on the place of Tradition, on the meaning of the papacy and the relationship between the papacy and the wider church, including the meaning of the college of bishops. Certainly, much more discussion is needed. But as others have observed, in many respects all of these will bring us back to the real point of divide, and thus to potential learning: the church.
My point is that in this discussion, Evangelical Christians need to do some due diligence on what it means to be the church. Our radical individualism and our propensity for divisive sectarianism is something for which we need to repent; and then, from this penitential posture, begin to read and listen to Catholic theologians, and even local clergy, on what it means to be the church: a liturgical, catechetical and missional community. And we need to do our homework. I am suggesting that indeed one of the most crucial questions of our day for Evangelicals is the formulation of an ecclesiology that can foster our capacity for good engagement with Roman Catholics on this defining theological issue.
Our learning will include a growing recognition that the church is not just a gathering of individual Christians. Further, we will learn that the unity of the church matters: to affirm, with the Creed, that there is indeed one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. And we will affirm that the church is an essential vehicle for the mission of God (See Ephesians 3).
As a side note: often when there is debate on this matter, the push back is that truth comes before unity. And yet the fact of the matter is that the unity of the church is a matter of truth. To polarize truth with the unity of the church is a false polarity. Why? Because there is only one church and this is an article of conviction … of truth. This does not immediately discount any place for schism; it is not “unity at any cost.” I do believe the Reformation was not only tragic, but necessary. And yet, I am still suggesting that as Evangelicals we have much learning to do, as yet, on what it means to be the church. And, however surprising this may sound to some ears, we have much to learn from Roman Catholic theologians and practitioners, such as Avery Dulles, Karl Rahner, and Leonardo Boff, on what it means to be the church.
7. Liturgical Renewal (and the particular impact of Vatican II)
The “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” was the first document approved by the Council; and in many ways, it is the document that has had the most far-reaching influence on the lives of ordinary Catholic believers. It brought to fulfillment the growing liturgical movement of the previous decades and legitimized these new dispositions and orientations — with an affirmation of high participation, the vital place of the Scriptures, the legitimacy of the vernacular, the importance of music and the arts and, of course, the high point of the Eucharist in Christian worship, and the importance of regular participation in the Eucharist.
In effect this Constitution — as the first and foundational point of departure for Vatican II — articulates as brilliantly as any document ever has, that the church is first and foremost a liturgical people, a worshipping community. And a direct result of this emphasis is that we are experiencing a rather extraordinary renewal of liturgical studies in North America, which I am linking directly to this opening document of Vatican II. The impact of liturgical renewal within the Catholic Church has had very significant “spill over” outside of the Catholic world. I think of the defining publication of the World Council of Churches in 1983: Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. And I think also of two major liturgical study centers, one in Jacksonville, Florida, and the other in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Both of these are institutions that very much reflect the impact of Catholic thought and practice.
Then what do we learn — what specifically do I mean when I speak to the impact of this liturgical renewal? Fundamentally, we come to see that the ancient structure of worship is essential to authentic Christian worship: Word and Table; the ministry of the Word and its complement, the encounter with Christ in the Lord’s Supper.
We learn that the affirmation of the faith — the Creed — and the prayer of Confession are not incidental to the meaning and character of worship. These acts matter; they make Christian worship truly Christian worship. In other words, worship is Christian when it has a particular structure and when it includes certain elements that, while we can adapt and be innovative, we can only do so to a point: worship is only in the full sense Christian worship when it has these elements.
In particular, let me add this: Catholics understand and appreciate the place of the arts in worship and in the life of the church in a way that makes us feel like beginners. We have so much to learn about why the arts matter, and why they are indispensable to the life of the church. Hans urs von Balthasar, the great Swiss Catholic theologian, has more than any other writer demonstrated the connection between the work of the Spirit and beauty, and thus of the arts; all of us, Catholic and Evangelical, turn to him for wisdom on this score.
Conclusion
I offer these observations not as a critic or as a judge but as a fellow learner. I also want to add this: we need one another. If we are going to be faithful to the call of God to live out the Gospel, we need to be pilgrims together on this road, perhaps on slightly different roads, but I trust roads that regularly intersect.
The sixteenth century was a tremendous century with a fervent discussion/renewal, both in the Protestant Reformation in the north of Europe and the Catholic Reformation in the south, especially in Spain. Now, in our day, we are reading from the other side of the “great divide,” with Catholics reading Luther and Calvin, and Evangelicals reading the great Spanish reformers. Now our century is recognizing the need to draw on the wisdom from the “other” side of the 16th century Reformation.
And we are all the richer — both of us, Evangelical and Catholic — when we learn from each other, and we learn together from other traditions as well: Orthodox, and Pentecostal. We can both ask: what might we learn from the Orthodox? Or, what might we learn from the Charismatic and Pentecostal renewal movement of the last century? We are recognizing the following: that in the providence of God, some great wisdom has been housed — for the sake of the whole Christian community — within distinct traditions. And so we have to learn from one another. This means that we must be learning from one another, as a pattern of life, work and ministry. And it means that we do not presume that our own tradition is the “gold standard” by which other Christian traditions are measured and judged.
Finally, let me add this. Many years ago I was introduced to a letter that John Wesley had written, and it was good now to review it again: an exquisite correspondence, written in 1749, to a Roman Catholic acquaintance — an irenic piece that includes the following words:
Let us … endeavour to help each other on in whatever we are agreed leads to the Kingdom. So far as we can, let us always rejoice to strengthen each other's hands in God. Above all, let us each take heed to himself (since each must give an account of himself to God) that he fall not short of the religion of love …
If Wesley was so inclined in 1749, how much more should we be generous in our assessment of each other today, eager to learn together, serve together and worship together, in mutual respect and love. Yes, with discernment, but with the discernment of fellow learners, not critics.
