CHRUCH: COMMUNITY FOR THE KINGDOM
This book presents a vision of the Church that understands herself wholly from the standpoint of the Kingdom, find her identity in the presence of the Kingdom now and see her mission entirely in the service of the Kingdom.
First, the Church is the community where the Kingdom is now experienced and celebrated and where the future fulfilment of God’s great design for creation already dawns. She is the community where the future life with the Triune God is already happening in hidden but real sign, for it is an icon of the Trinity.
Second, the Church is for the Kingdom because her mission is totally geared to witness and proclaim it.
In our time the Church in Vatican II realized how necessary it was to go back once again and open herself to that fire of the Master so that the world may come to believe. The Council presented a vision of the Church that will remain a challenge for many years to come. New challenges arise and new models of how to conceive Church have to be sought and developed if she wants to remain faithful to her Master’s message.
Today the Church faces two big challenges: (1) how to make the Kingdom of God understood in the different cultures of the world and (2) how to live Jesus’ own life principle of justice and compassion in a world where the poor are getting poorer and the few rich are getting richer.
This book presents some models of Church in response to these challenges.
The two Models for the Future Church:
Basic Ecclesial Communities and Contrast Society
The first Model: Basic Ecclesial Communities
What is a Basic Ecclesial Community?
For practical reasons I would like to give definition of BEC according to the Council of the Conference of Brazilian Bishops in a statement issued in 1982:
“Basic Christians communities are formed by families, adults and youth, in a tight interpersonal relationship of faith …they celebrate the word of God and are nourished by the Eucharist … they enjoy solidarity and a common commitment.. They are cells of a greater community”
Qualities of Basic Ecclesial Community
1) A community in which the poor of the society feel at home, are free to express themselves and are able to contribute to life of others.
2) A community where there is no class distinction.
3) A community where the mission to the world is seen as the responsibilities of the whole community as such and not of the laity as distinct from the clergy.
4) The mission to the work is undertaken with sensitivity and in an openness to those not of the community. There is an awareness that the Church does not possess all the answers but can suggest some solutions through listening to the Word of God and being open to the Spirit.
Four Marks of Basic Ecclesial Community.
BEC can be recognized by their four marks:
1) They meet in their homes. They rotate their place of gathering so that each has a turn in hosting the group. The meeting need to be held on a basis – you cannot form community by meeting once a year. Usually the core members gather once a week, or once a fortnight.
2) The most important activity of their meting is gospel sharing. Through common reflection and sharing they meet the son of Jesus Himself.
3) The members of a Small Christian Community look to and another’s needs.
4) Each Small Christian Community is in unity with the universal Church
In short, we should say: an SCC community is a caring, sharing, faith-reflecting, praying and serving community in which ongoing Christian formation takes place.
The Second Model: the Church as Contrast Society
The Early Church as “Contrast Society
There are a number of texts, particularly in the writings of St. Paul we can see the Church as the Contrast Society where all are equal and class distinction exist no more.
“So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free men, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ, (Gal 3:28)
“The group of he believers was one in mind and heart. No one said that any of his belongings was his own, but they all shared with one another everything they had”. (Acts 4:32)
it is obvious from these texts that the Church is intended to transcend all other bases of unity such as being of the some race, sharing the same occupation or economic status, adhering to a particular political doctrine, belonging to a certain social class, sharing the same level of educational attainment.
The political novelty which God brings into the world is a community of those who serve instead of ruling, who suffer instead of inflicting suffering, whose fellowship crosses social lines instead of reinforcing them. This mew Christian community, in which the walls are broken down not by human idealism or democratic legalism but by the work of Christ, is not only a vehicle of the Gospel or fruit of the Gospel ; it is Good News. It is not merely the agent of mission or the constituency of a mission agency. This is the mission.
CONCLUSION
The two major challenges the Church faces today are enculturation and solidarity with the poor.
The Christian faith must incarnate itself into deferent cultures at the grass roots so that people can experience and celebrate god’s love and concern for them in their own values and customs and so come to know what God has in store for them.
All humans are brothers and sisters bound together by a basic human solidarity, in today’s world where this truth seems to get black- holed by economic and political values that extol competitiveness and success as ultimate determining social reality , the Church must offer different view of society in which all those who cannot complete will be regarded first as brothers and sisters in a society in which the ultimate values will be compassion and justice. Those are the values which Jesus chose and died for in order to bring God’s dream of a society into the world: the great community where everyone counts and everyone is brother or sister to the other, the Church today must become a “contrast society” where the values of the Kingdom count and are not compromised for other values no matter how appealing these values may be presented.
Like Joseph of Arimathea we need to take the poor from the cross on which they are nailed. Even more, we can no more allow any such inhumanity be done to the weaker ones whom God loves in a special way. And that brings to my mind the challenging words of Ashok Mehta:
“If it is the claim of the Christians that even to this day they feel the agony of Christ on the cross whenever humanity suffers, as it were, it has to be proved in action, not by any statement”.
As Johannes B. Metz the only real dowry the Christian faith can give to the world is the Church’s compassion for suffering humanity.
There is only one way to keep these two issues alive at all times in the Church: we must return to Jesus’ own life principle and to his message of the Kingdom. We must embrace all cultures. We must always and primarily preach the Good News to the poor.
Sri-On Thanya Mt. 16490
Urbaniana Universita
Facolta di Missiologia
