DIOCESE OF TYLER

Diaconal Formation Program

AS WE BEGIN OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER

Dear Students, I am Fr. Tim Kelly, pastor at St. Mary Magdalene Parish in

Flint. As well as the standard Master of Divinity, I also hold a

licence in the history of theology and in patristic studies S.T.L. from the Gregorian University in Rome. I have a M.A. in Church history from the University of St. Thomas in Houston TX.

My particular interest is in the ecclesiology of the author of the Fourth Gospel. How did early Christian bishops read and preach the fourth Gospel and what did it tell them about the nature and purpose of the Church?

USING OUR LIMITED TIME TOGETHER

We have four sessions of 270 minutes each. You have already had 4hrs and 30 minutes

of Canon Law today.

I will give you handouts to help you with assignments and in understanding the themes of the course.

We will stop three times for five minutes so that we can all get a little refreshed.

OUR STUDENT TEACHER INTERACTION

If you do not understand some word or phrase I use, you may ask there and then.

If however, you need to ask a more general question, write it down and give it to me at coffee break.

Each week, I will allow 30 minutes for classroom discussion. 4:00pm – 4:30pm

You may email me if you want to clarify any matter in the course lismakeera@embarqmail.com

A FEW GROUND RULES

Assignments are expected on time. If you need my advice on assignments feel free to call me or email me. I will be glad to help you.

You may take notes. Please do not use recorders or your Iphone to record what I teach. A few days after each class, I will send you a transcript of the class lecture.

WE MUST HASTEN SLOWLYFESTINA LENTE

You are all busy people, with jobs and families.

I studied theology with little distractions for 7 years.

So I appreciate how difficult this is for you.

But we must try to get enough understanding of the nature and purpose of the Church that you, as deacons, understand the different roles played by Catholics within the Church, the reasons behind nowledge.

AUGUST 25TH 2012 The four marks of the Church (30 mins) The Church as the locus for the ‘regula fidei’. (15 mins) 1:30pm Biblical background and references. O. T. precedent. New Testament references to Church. Johannine ecclesiology. 2:30pm Holy Orders. i. The historical development of the Episcopal order. Acts of the

Apostles, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch,

ECCLESIOLOGY

Ecclesiology is the study of the nature and purpose of

the Christian Church

ECCLESIOLOGY DISCUSSES OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST

Because ecclesiology is a study based on the Christian faith that the church is the Bride of Christ who is still alive and rules the church, it also discusses her relationship with her spouse Jesus Christ and his activity with our present world through the Church consisting of his own people under the guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Jürgen Moltmann - , "every statement about the church will be a statement about Christ. Every statement about Christ also implies a statement about the church,"

PATRISTIC WRITERS????

Generally we say that the patristic writers or Patristic fathers are those who succeed the Apostles.

This is somewhat simplistic but will be fine as a definition to begin with

The earliest writer who is not an apostle was said to be Clement of Rome.

Ignatius of Antioch is a major early Patristic Father and writer

Polycarp of Smyrna knew Ignatius and received a letter from him. Polycarp knew the Beloved Disciple

PATRISTIC ECCLESIOLOGY

The early and patristic Church –up to the 8th century approx. believed and wrote of the Church as a community based on Word and Spirit.

The Word had entered into human history at the Creation.

As the Western Church comes into contact with Charlemagne and Leo and the Holy Roman Empire, the centrality of the Spirit tends to give way to law.

THE CHURCH UNFINISHED; ECCLESIOLOGY THROUGH THE CENTURIES.

Bernard P. Prusak is professor of Ecclesiology in Villanova university often refers to the patristic idea that the Church can become young again.

That image was mentioned in Lumen Gentium 4:"the Spirit by the power of the Gospel rejuvenates the Church.“ The Council's view reflects the second-century apocalyptic work, The Shepherd of Hermas, which portrayed the Church as a haggard old woman who gradually becomes younger and more beautiful.

Venerable Bede (England circa 800 ad) had a similar idea about the continuous growth of the Church when he wrote that "every day the Church gives birth to the Church"(PL93: 166). Leonardo Boff in our own day speaks often of "ecclesiogenesis."

LIST OF TERMS AND BIOBLIOGRAPHY

Ecclesiology enjoyed a renewal in the 20th century, having been largely overshadowed by systematic and moral theology for several centuries.

I want to give you a few names and terms which may help you to grasp better what I am saying.

Henri de Lubac. French Jesuit one of the most important figures in the revival of patristic theology and studies. He was involved in the movement known as “resourcement””- literally ‘going back to the original sources. He was made a cardinal in old age.

CONGAR

a) Yves Congar O.P. was a French Dominican priest/theologian. He was part of the movement to seek out and translate the writings of the Church Fathers.

He was silenced in the 1950’s. Congar was particularly interested in the

development of the liturgy. John XXIII made him an expert advisor, a

‘peritus’ at Vatican II. He was created a Cardinal by Pope John Paul

II.

BOUYER

Louis Bouyer was a French Oratorian priest and scholar. In 1970 he published a classic text on ecclesiology, “L’Eglise de Dieu”, or “The Church of God: Body of Christ and Temple of the Spirit.”

HISTORICAL MOVEMENT OF THE 20TH CENTURY

20th century has been distinguished by a determination to explore historical sources and to distinguish the authentic early Christian teaching from what comes about later, especially in the Middle Ages.

Historical research was not approved of by the Church at first and de Lubac and others were forbidden to publish or speak in public.

Angelo Giuseppi Roncali was one of the teachers who was warned to stop teaching Church history based on real sources in the reign of Pius X. Cardinal der Lai personally told him to stop using Duchesne’s history of the Church. He would later become Pope John XXIII in 1958.

The history that was taught for centuries in seminaries was really hagiography, a highly political charged version of events, in which the facts were less important than the indoctrination of the students with what the magisterium wanted the seminarian to hear.

THE HISTORIAN AS POPE

Angelo Giuseppi Roncali was a teacher of History at the seminary in Bergamo in northern Italy in the first decade of the 20th century.

During the reign of Pius X (1903 – 1914) he was warned to stop teaching Church history based on real sources. Cardinal der Lai, prefect of the Holy Office personally told him to stop using Duchesne’s History of the Church.

He would later become Pope John XXIII in 1958. His view of the world and of the Church stems

from his academic training as a historian.

THE MOTHER OF THE SCIENCES - HISTORY

The history that was taught for centuries in seminaries was really hagiography, a highly political charged version of events, in which the facts were less important than the indoctrination of the students with what the magisterium wanted the seminarian to hear.

This same attitude dominated the study and teaching of ecclesiology.

There was little mention of the process by which the Church came slowly to some point of understanding.

The arrival of historical awareness has changed the way we look at the Church and at the world.

LUMEN GENTIUM

Lumen Gentium is the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. It is one of the four Constitutions promulgated at the Second Vatican Council.

It is concerned with the nature and purpose of the Church.

It is a document on ecclesiology.

MARKS OF CHURCH:

In the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, we profess, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”.

In the Apostles Creed, we profess “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church….”

ONE Christ founded only one Church, based on the

Apostles. Through many trials and troubles, that ‘people of God’ has survived.

It was in Antioch that they were first called Christians.

Do all Christians worship the same way? Do all Christians believe exactly the same things? What is the relationship between the universal

Church and the local Church? Does unity depend on uniformity?

UNITY OF THE CHURCH

Two words that need clarification

1.Unity2.Uniformity

It is difficult to talk about Unity without talking about Catholicity in the same breath.

PEACE AND UNITYPAX ET UNITAS

In the Mass during the Communion, the priest prays a prayer to Jesus; “Lord Jesus Christ you said to your Apostles ….. And graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will, who lives and reigns, forever and ever. Amen.

The plea represents a constant concern within the ancient Church that survives to this day.

The peace and unity of the Church are about her internal condition, rather than concern about any outside attack.

Unity does not imply control or domination by one part of the Church.

The unity of the Church can exist as long as the Tradition and the Scriptures are followed.

PATRISTIC INSISTENCE ON UNITY

The Fathers had an abhorrence of schism; their great goal was unity in Christ. In this they followed Paul’s lead as outlined in his letters to the Corinthians. Cyril of Jerusalem, writing in the middle of the fourth century, warns his new converts that they must beware of those who claim to be of the Church, but whose ecclesia is not of the Catholic Church.

“And if you are ever sojourning in cities, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is (for the other sects of the profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Onlybegotten Son of God.” Cyril of Jerusalem. Catechesis XXVIII, Chapter 27,2.

ST. CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE AND THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH

Influence of St. Cyprian. Circa 250 ad

St. Cyprian’s writings helped create a particularly African theology and ecclesiology which may have shaped some of Augustine’s ecclesiology.

His famous dictum that “One cannot have God for Father, who does not have the Church for his Mother.”

“Habere iam non potest Deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem.”

NORTH AFRICAN RIGORISM

Cyprian seems, at first reading to be a very rigorous theologian and bishop. However, extreme rigor was a mark of the North African Church. He was less rigorous that others of his time and place.

One of the abiding influences of Cyprian on the Church in North Africa was his insistence that all sins could eventually be forgiven, except the sin of schism.

To destroy the Unity of the Church – schism - was an unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit.

CYPRIAN’S LEGACY Cyprian’s legacy to the original Donatists was exactly

this attitude towards those who were believed to be responsible for ecclesial schism. Heretics, by rebellion against the Church and their violation of ecclesiastical unity, stand deprived of all authority over the Church’s sacraments.

Yet it was Cyprian who accepted that baptism outside the Church, though it should be avoided, was, nevertheless, effective in distinguishing a person as a Christian.

Augustine writes in Baptism against the Donatists Book VII, 13 that even Cyprian did not fail to recognize the necklace of the bridegroom even on the neck of an adulteress.

CYPRIAN ON SCHISM

One of the abiding influences of Cyprian on the Church in North Africa was his insistence that all sins could eventually be forgiven, except the sin of schism.

To destroy the Unity of the Church was an unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit.

ECCLESIAL UNITY CELEBRATED IN THE EUCHARIST

Ecclesial unity is one of the concerns of Ignatius of Antioch in his letters.

“Take care to keep only one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ and one cup to unite us in his blood; one sanctuary; one bishop, together with the presbyters and the deacons.” Letter to the Philadelphians

HOLY

The Church is holy because Christ is holy. Israel was holy because God is holy.

Maureen Tilley – well respected patristic theologian has written recently “The predominant use of the word ‘holy’ concerned the Holy Spirit. …Holiness was not so much an individual attribute as a communal one. …It is the Church and not the individual that is called ‘holy’ in the New Testament.

MAUREEN TILLEY ON ‘HOLY’

We can gather a little about the patristic usage of the word ‘holy’ by the manner in which patristic bishops began their letters, their manner of addressing their recipients. “To God’s holy people who sojourn at Corinth, grace and peace…..”

Or ‘beloved of God, grace and peace….’ It was intimately connected to being in

the Church which was one and catholic.

HOLINESS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT In the O.T. God is holy. “for the Lord, your

God is holy’. So holiness is participation in the life of God.

In the Old Testament ‘holiness’ was an attribute of a community or nation in communion or covenant with God.

All holiness was a gift given by God to some individual for the sake of the community or nation of Israel.

The prophets called for holiness, but it was a plea for national holiness, not personal piety.

HOLINESS IN GOSPELS

At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, we find a saying closely paralleling those of Leviticus. Jesus says: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

The same word ‘teleios’ is used to the rich young man who desired to gain eternal life when he asked Jesus about being good or, as we might say, being a saint (Mt 19:16-22 and parallels: Mk 10:17-22 and Lk 18:18-23).

That holiness and unity are intimately related is revealed in John 17:2

HOLINESS WHERE SIN IS PRESENT AMONG MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH

What happened when the reality of sin among members of the early Church is plainly visible?

In the Acts of the Apostles there were persons within the Christian community whose claim to holiness was less than stellar, e.g., Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus.

But it seems that if you had been baptized and not formally excluded, you could claim to be a member of the holy Church and thus, ipso facto, holy.

You shared the same Spirit in the holy kiss. You ate at the same table of the Eucharist. These were so much the signs of unity that refusing the kiss

or the Eucharist to someone was a sign of their outsider, and therefore, unholy character.

ST. CYPRIAN ON HOLINESS IN THE CHURCH St. Cyprian of Carthage, in the early 250s taught that the

Church was a pure and pristine entity that was completely dependent on the Holy Spirit for that holiness.

North African pneumatology was very literal as indeed were most of their theological standpoints.

The bishop who himself possessed the Holy Spirit called down the Spirit on the baptismal water, the Eucharistic elements, and on ordinands. Evil had no place in this church. The ministers were sharers in the Holy Spirit’s holiness which pervaded the Church.

Even those who were baptized and claimed to be Christians but committed some grave sin were not part of that Church the same way other Christians were. This is the beginning of the understanding of the visible and invisible Church which is part of Augustine’s theology.

Clergy who had committed the sin of apostasy, for example, were estranged. They were outsiders to the holiness of the Church, because an unworthy vessel cannot be a temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit literally fled apostate bishops. Their sacraments conveyed not grace, only the contagion of sin. By their sin they had transgressed the boundary and were outside the Church, where there was no salvation for them.

If they wanted to come back in, they needed to show repentance publicly so as not to corrupt holy Mother Church.

THE CHURCH AND SINNERS

Cyprian’s theology had some serious errors. He allowed re-baptism early on during the first persecutions.

This was a grave error, one which he did correct later.

He and others believed that the Holy Spirit’s presence within a baptized person depended on a holy and good life.

This what many Christians believe today. That is why we hear of non-practising

Catholics being spoken of as ‘ex-Catholics’ or ‘former Catholics’

CHURCH AND SINNERS IN OUR CULTURE.

Cyprian fell into the same error as many modern people in deciding that sinners cannot be members of the Church. The sinner belongs to the public Church just as much as the saint.

Sinners join with the saints in worship. That is how we hope for their conversion.

Here in Texas and all over the South, the Christianity of the Great Revival of the 1890’s and again in the 1920’s made a serious theological error in allowing for the rebaptism of sinners who repented.

That mistaken belief makes its way into Catholic mind-sets also.

CYPRIAN’S SERIOUS ERROR ON RE-BAPTISM

Cyprian’s errors on baptism were caused by a siege mentality, a belief that the Church had to circle the wagons to protect its holiness.

The influx of new, perhaps less committed Christians also frightened some people. They feared the dilution of the corporate holiness of the Church through the contamination by sinful Christians. Their fear shows how far they had fallen away from the earlier view of holiness as an attribute of the holy Spirit.

CYPRIAN’S REVISED THEOLOGY

Later in life, Cyprian realizes his mistake. He regrets that some Christians, while in the

rigorous process of repentance and reconciliation, had died without the sacraments.

He began to speak of the Church as a place where reconcilaition was more readily available and where re-baptism was not necessary.

“We must fortify them with the Body of Christ.””he said, referring to returning Christians still on the journey back to full membership.

YVES CONGAR O.P ON THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH

Congar defined holiness as orientation to God, origin from God, belonging to God, and total reference to God.

The objective holiness of the apostolic institution of the church, is not due to any human goodness but rather because Jesus Christ, the Holy One, established the church as holy.

He presented the church in biblical terms as both the ‘holy temple’ (Ephesians 2:21) and the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:26-27).

He drew upon Thomas Aquinas’s explanation of the Spirit working holiness in the church by washing away sin, by anointing the faithful, by dwelling within them, and by inviting them to invoke God’s name.

CATHOLIC To be catholic implies universal. But that is not to say

that the catholic nature or ‘mark’ of the church depends on being really present and working in every part of the world.

Catholicity is an attitude of Christian generosity, a willingness, and indeed a determination to go out and teach all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Church is catholic primarily because we all share a single revelation through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

St. Paul placed this essential universality in context when he wrote of the Body of Christ. All the members need to play a part in the life of the Body and all those parts form part of the same Body.

In the first centuries of Christianity, travel and communication was poor. Thus, the various Christian communities developed according to the culture and way of life of the local country or city.

CATHOLIC Where does the word originate? It appears that Christians began to use the word in the

second century. The first evidence occurs in the writings of Ignatius of

Antioch, his letter to the Smyrnaeans; “Wherever the bishop is, let the people be there, wherever Christ is, there is the catholic church.”

Universality was probably stressed because the early Church wanted its various outposts and far flung communities to be

joined together as a single Body of Christ. Polycarp of Smyrna wrote to the Church at Philomylium (2nd

Cuntury) “To the Church of God dwelling as a pilgrim in Smyrna to the Church of God living as a pilgrim in Philomylium, and to all the people in all the holy and catholic church in every place. May the mercy and peace and love of God our father, and of Our lord jesus Christ be multiplied.”

CATHOLIC There is a long history of Christian churches coming

to believe that their manner of worship, derived from Revelation and their own customs and culture, is greater than the ways in which other Christians worship.

The most famous example of this denial of universality was when the majority Christian Church in North Africa, the Donatists, insisted that they alone were the true Christians, and that the other churches of the world were out of communion with them.

St. Augustine once teased them for their provinciality

AUGUSTINE DEFENDS THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE CHURCH

“The clouds of heaven thunder their witness that God's dwelling is being constructed throughout the world, and yet all the while frogs are croaking from the swamp, "We are the only Christians"!

En. in ps. 95, 11

UNIVERSALITY/CATHOLIC

What weakens the universality of the Church?

RacismNationalism/ProvincialismAbandonment of missionary spiritSchismNational or tribal exceptionalism

CATHOLIC In the early Church, a Christian travelling away from

home might take with him a letter from his own bishop confirming his Christian identity, so that he might then participate in the Eucharist in his host church.

Catholicity was also expressed by the gathering of bishops together in synods to discuss mutual problems and to share their common faith.

Catholicity is often associated with “çommunion’’. The fact that local churches shared the same sacraments, the same faith and the same desire for the conversion of the world brought them into a spiritual and indeed physical communion with each other.

This catholicity or communio ensured a delicate unity that was above the racial, language and cultural differences that were real among them.

CYRIL OF JERUSALEM ON CATHOLICITY

There is no explanation of the term until the mid-fourth century with Cyril of Jerusalem. (CatechesIs 18:23)

The Church is catholic, he said, for five reasons:

1) “it extends to the ends of the earth;2) it teaches all the doctrines needed for

salvation;3) it brings every sort of human being under

obedience.4) it cures every kind of sin; 5) and it possesses every form of virtue.”

CATHOLIC

In virtue of this catholicity, each individual part contributes through its own special gifts to the good of the other parts and of the whole Church. Lumen Gentium 13

APOSTOLIC The Church is founded on the Apostles. The variety of the patristic church was a

large part of its wealth of theological expression.

By the 3rd century, a definite hierarchy of bishops had evolved. Patriarchal sees were revered more than others.

Rome was the primary patriarchal see of the West. This status was based upon her claim to her foundation by Peter and Paul. No other Church could claim two apostles as its founders. Peter’s accepted role as the leader of the Apostles also gave Rome immense prestige.

APOSTOLIC Patriarchal bishops in Alexandria, Antioch

and later, in Constantinople came to be regarded as focuses for the Church’s unity and catholicity.

Alexandria claimed St. mark as its founder. Antioch was founded by St. Peter. Constantinople claimed St. Peter because it

considered itself the “New Rome.” The Church at Jerusalem was recognized a

patriarchal at the Council of Nicea, (325ad) but not with the same status as the others. This was because the city had been destroyed and so it was not an im portant center of Christian life.

LUMEN GENTIUM

Lumen Gentium recognized this special position of the patriarchal churches of the East.

Apostolic origin is still a mark of the status of a diocese.

Consider the status of Baltimore as the premier see of the United States. It did not have apostolic origin, but it was the first local Church in the United States.

Churches such as Milan have immense status because they are founded by great saints, not apostles admittedly.

APOSTOLIC

Apostolic origin is still a mark of the status of a diocese.

But even without an apostle, churches have a certain order of importance based on their saint founder.

Consider the status of Baltimore as the premier see of the United States. It did not have apostolic origin, nor was it founded by a saint, but it was the first local Church in the United States.

Churches such as Milan have immense status because they are founded by great saints, not apostles admittedly.

END OF ‘FOUR MARKS OF THE CHURCH’

Section 2 WEEK 1

Old Testament and Ekklesia or

qahal

Ekklesia and qahal both are derived from the verbs meaning "call

or summon (kalew, lh;q"-ar'q')", while both synagoge and edah from

the verbs meaning "meet or gather (sunagw, d[;y")."

CHURCH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

In Byzantine and Orthodox art, the prophets and patriarchs are often shown in Christian pose, sometimes with Christ beside them.

l In this case Moses and Aaron are shown at an altar in the tabernacle of the Lord God. If you observe closely, the altar is Christian with a Madonna and Child image.

There is a chalice and a paten on the altar.

THE WORD “CHURCH

In English, we use the word “Church”, which has no

etymological connection to the Latin word “”ecclesia”

In northern Europe the word “Kirsche”, in Scotland

“Kirk" are derived from kuriake, i.e., what belong to

the kurioj, (the Greek for Lord)

MOSES GIVES THE LAW TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

Prefiguration of the Church in the story of Israel in the Old

Testament

CHURCH IN THE OLD TESTAMENTVEILED TRUTH

The image of Moses with a veil over his face when he returns from seeing God on Sinai is an allegory for the veil that hangs over the Old Testament. It contains veiled truths which cannot be appreciated without knowledge of Christ. “While Moses was read, the veil is upon their heart; for the veil was not yet removed, because Christ had not yet come.” (Augustine Tractate 24, 5 on John)

When Matthew’s Gospel (27: 51) reports that the veil of the Temple is rent in two upon the death of Jesus, that appeared to some patristic readers to signify that the obscurity over the true meaning of the Old testament was removed. “The Scripture was closed; no one understood it; the Lord was crucified, and the Scripture was melted away like wax, so that all the weak ones should understand it.” (Augustine Enerr in Psalmos 21, II, 15)

This famous scene - Abraham welcomes the strangers at Mamre.

It is interpreted as a visit by the Trinity to the fledgling Israel, God’s church, which is still unconcieved.

Abraham and Sarai are a prototypical Church or assembly of God.

Hence, Abraham is truly our father since the nascent Church is still in his loins.

Sarai makes bread for the visitors.

She laughed at their suggestion that she will get pregnant.

CHURCH EXISTED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

In Sermon 4 St. Augustine says that saints were recorded in the time of the patriarchs and prophets and kings. The Church existed before Christ, but was veiled from the view of mankind.

“Now by Church, brothers, you must understand not only those who began to be saints after the Lord’s Advent and nativity, but all who have been saints belong to the same Church. You cannot say that our father Abraham does not belong to us, just because he lived before Christ was born of the Virgin.”

“THE OLD TESTAMENT PREFIGURES THE NEW: THE NEW TESTAMENT FULFILS THE OLD.” ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Perhaps we may benefit from remembering that the early Christian Church read the Old Testament only in order to enhance their understanding of the New Testament. Hence, early Christians read the Old Testament for ‘types’ of the Church. Our study will include looking at O.T. scenes which were later read by Christians as references to the Church.

LOUIS BOUYER WAS A FRENCH ORATORIAN PRIEST AND SCHOLAR. IN 1970 HE PUBLISHED A CLASSIC TEXT ON ECCLESIOLOGY, “L’EGLISE DE DIEU”, OR “THE CHURCH OF GOD: BODY OF CHRIST AND TEMPLE OF THE SPIRIT.”

“It is impossible to understand anything about Christ, the Word of God made flesh, if we do not begin by following the progress of the Divine Word in the Old Testament.

Similarly, we cannot hope to understand the Church other than of the formation of the people of God in Israel.”

GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE

Israel saw herself as “people of God” a nation chosen out of all the peoples of the earth to be God’s people. She is God’s ‘elect’, set apart for the work of God.

“A holy people, a royal nation, a people set apart.” God loves Israel more than any other nation. She is his portion.

Deut. 7:6-8 “Israel is a holy people to the Lord your God.”

OLD TESTAMENT REFERENCES TO CHURCH

Abraham is told to leave his father’s house and his own people to become the father of a new nation. “Go into the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation.”

The Call of Abraham is not for his own sake. God has a purpose for a new nation and Abraham is the instrument of the Lord’s wish.

ABRAHAM OUR FATHER IN FAITH

Abraham is prepared to sacrifice his only Son in obedience to God.

Isaac is a symbol/type of Christ Himself. Irenaeus of Lyons once wrote that the

Incarnation of God among humans began when Abraham offered up his son, figuratively.

Hence Christians saw a type here for the Incarnation and for the beginning of the Church.

BOTH ISRAEL AND CHURCH ARE BORN OUT OF A SACRIFICE

By means of his sacrifice, Abraham makes a covenant with God. It is a covenant for all his people. The people of the covenant is Israel

By means of God’s sacrifice of His Son, he creates a New Covenant in the blood of the Victim. The covenant is for all the people, whether Jew or gentile.

MOSES AND THE COVENANT AT SINAI After the Law has been given to Moses, he

gathers the assembly together in front of the mountain in order to seal a relationship between God and Israel.

The Quhal Yahweh or Assembly of God.

The gathered tribes become “God’s holy people.”

LOUIS BOUYER, THE CHURCH OF GOD P. 203

“By its constitution and structure, this assembly had a normative import throughout the later history of the People. In it, it can be said, the People will, for the first time, attain awareness .. Of what they are in the plan of election. Consequently, all major developments of the People throughout the history of their salvation, will be registered and embodied definitively …through like assemblies. Precisely at the end of this process, we find the Christian Church.”

QAHAL / EKKLESIS When the Hebrew scriptures were translated into

Greek in the third century B.C. by the writers of the Septuagint, they translated the word QAHAL into ‘ekklesia’.

New Testament writers chose that Greek word ekklesia to describe the group who are the ‘new elect’ who make up the Church of Jesus.

These same Septuagint writers translated the Hebrew word ‘edah’ as ‘synagogue’ meaning a gathering of all the people.

EZEKIEL 36:22-36 “I will glorify my great name, …and gather you from all

countries…I will sprinkle clean water upon you …a new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.”

Even though Israel had betrayed God, He remains faithful.

ZECHARIAH 8:23

“Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

Prophets are called for leadership. The Prophet is almost always

murdered. The prophet leads people to God. His gift of prophecy is a gift he must

share.

THE NATION, THE GROUP, THE TRIBE

The assembly of God is never simply a group of like-minded zealots or holy men and women.

The assembly is a larger group composed of people at various stages of conversion.

In Israel, the kings became the religious leaders in the age of the first Temple. But David and his descendents were personally sinful men.

Nevertheless, the nation they led was God’s holy people.

NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES TO

CHURCH

WORD “CHURCH” IN THE BIBLE

1. Basic meaning = ecclesia from verb EK-KALEO "to call out." So it's a called out group--selected from a larger group by a call.

2. Biblical usage: a. Secular group-- Acts 19:32,39 (political

assembly) b. Jewish group -- Acts 7:38 (assembly in

wilderness at Mt. Sinai) c. Church universal (Body of Christ) --

Matt16:18; Eph 1:22-23;5:25 d. Local church -- Acts 14:23; I Cor 1:2 e. Group of churches -- Acts 9:31

CHURCH IN GOSPELS

The actual word EKKLESIA occurs only once in the gospels.

“Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh nor blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Therefore you are Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her.”

LET’S TALK

Every day in class we will discuss matters that will impact your future ministries and how a good knowledge edge of ecclesiology might help.

August 25th

What do average Catholics know about the Church and her history?

How often does a priest preach on the history in your parish?

Why is knowing history important to the salvation of souls?

WHAT ABOUT GETTING ALONG WITH THE PASTOR?

One of the problems with the restoration of the permanent diaconate is that in many cases priests and deacons do not like each other and the relationship becomes a well known feature of the parish.

How does the deacon’s wife relate to the pastor?

What is the relationship between parish staff and a deacon?

AUGUSTINE AND THE MIXED SOCIETY – SOCIETAS PERMIXTA

Augustine defined the Church as having two realities, the visible church and the invisible Church. The Visible church contains everyone who claims to be a Christian. The second reality is a church of saints. But this invisible reality can only be seen by God. The sinner and the lukewarm Christian belong inside the public or visible Church.

AUGUSTINE AND RELIANCE OF THE CHURCH ON CHRIST

Augustine and the Moon as figure for the Church The moon allegorically represents the Church, because on the spiritual side the Church is

bright, but on the carnal side it is dark. Sometimes the spiritual part shows itself to men and women in good works, but sometimes it is hidden in the conscience and is known only to God, because it is only when it takes bodily form that people can recognize it. This is what happens when we pray in the heart and seem to be doing nothing, since it is not to the earth but to the Lord that we are ordered to have our hearts raised. To God.

Others say that the moon does not have her own light, but is illuminated by the sun. When she is with the Sun, she turns toward us the side on which she is not lit up, and that is the reason no ligbt is seen in her. But when she begins to draw away from the sun, she is lit up also on that part which is turned toward the earth; this process necessarily begins with the borns, until on the fifteenth day she is directly opposite the sun. On this day, as the sun sets, the moon rises, and so, if you watch the sun setting, and at the moment when it becomes invisible turn to the east, you see the moon rising. Conversely, as the moon begins to draw near to the sun again, her other side, which is not lit up, is turned toward us, until the light is reduced to horns and then disappears altogether, because the illuminated portion is directed upward toward the sky, and only the part which the sun's rays cannot reach is turned toward the earth. According to this theory too, therefore, the moon is understood as the Church, because she does not have her own light but is lit up by the only-begotten Son of God, who in many places in the sacred scriptures is allegorically called the sun. Certain heretics, not knowing him and not being able to see him, try to turn away the minds of the simple to this ordinary material sun which everyone can see, the light of which is common to the bodily life of human beings and even flies.

AUGUSTINE AND RELIANCE OF THE CHURCH ON CHRIST

Others say that the moon does not have her own light, but is illuminated by the sun.

When she is with the Sun, she turns toward us the side on which she is not lit up, and that is the reason no ligbt is seen in her.

According to this theory too, therefore, the moon is understood as the Church, because she does not have her own light but is lit up by the only-begotten Son of God, who in many places in the sacred scriptures is allegorically called the sun.

Certain heretics, not knowing him and not being able to see him, try to turn away the minds of the simple to this ordinary material sun which everyone can see, the light of which is common to the bodily life of human beings and even flies.

ECCLESIOLOGY AFTER THE REFORMATION

For many of us Catholics, our ideas about the nature and structure of the Church, even after 50 years of development following Lumen Gentium, comes from the model that came into vogue after the Protestant Reformation.

In the Tridentine period, i.e. the period of the late 1500’s and the 1600’s , the period of the counter-Reformation, the ecclesiology of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine laid great stress on the need of the church to function as an institution complete in and of itself, parallel (and superior) to the state, whose structures the church mirrors but which does not have the perfection of the church.

This notion of church stressed the need for top-down, hierarchical, monarchical government in the church, a model that mirrored the contemporary political structure.

Indeed, the perfect society model made being church synonymous with monarchy, with absolute control (perfect control) of the whole church exercised from the top down through a hierarchical chain of command.

ROBERT BELLARMINE

Bellarmine’s perfect society model prevailed from the Tridentine period of the church through the first Vatican Council and up to Vatican II. Vatican I endorsed the model, adding to it the new twist of papal infallibility.

During this period of its history, the Catholic church appeared to be locked into a bitter battle against secular society—against the world. Only in the church, which was a fortress of truth and light in the midst of a surrounding culture of error and darkness, could one find salvation. Only in the Catholic church could one find the perfect society that guarantees salvation

SEPTEMBER 24TH 2012

IGNATIUS THE GODBEARER.

Now we turn to the letters of Ignatius of Antioch for a view of the sub-Apostolic Church of the second century.Ignatius of Antioch lives in the generation which sees the death of the last Apostles and disciples the witnesses of the resurrection.l He is bishop of Antioch in Syria. He is described as such by Eusebius and Origen. He is martyred in a Roman amphitheatre under Trajan circa 115 ad.

IGNATIUS BISHOP OF ANTIOCHIGNATIUS WAS ARRESTED AND BROUGHT FROM SYRIA THROUGH MODERN TURKEY TO THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA, FROM WHERE HE WAS SHIPPED TO ROME FOR TRIAL AND EXECUTION. ON THE WAY HE VISITED MANY CITIES. THE CHURCHES IN THOSE TOWNS WANTED TO SEE THE GREAT BISHOP. HE WRITES LETTERS AS HE MAKES HIS WAY. THESE LETTERS ARE TO THE CHURCHES AT PHILADELPHIA, LAODICEA, SMYRNA, EPHESUS, MAGNESIA, TRALLES AND A PERSONAL LETTER TO POLYCARP OF SMYRNA. HE EVENTUALLY ARRIVES AT ROME IN 115 AD AND IS EXECUTED AS A

MARTYR.

IGNATIUS’ CONCERNS

His letters are principally concerned About

1. martyrdom 2.obedience to authority in the Church3. the defeat of heresy

We look at # 2 Obedience in the Church

OBEDIENCE IN THE CHURCH

“Thus, united under the bishop and the presbyters, and in submission to them, you will become real saints.” (Eph 2,2)

l “I speed to encourage you to harmonize your

actions with the mind of God. For Jesus Christ is the mind of the father, as also the bishops, appointed all over the world, reflect the mind

of Jesus.” Eph 3, 2)