The Vatican
document remains out of public scrutiny
Evangelii
Gaudium (or The Joy of Gospel), brought out by Vatican, is a
harsh critique of the entire Church, including parish, diocese, priests and
faithful. It demolishes the precepts and concepts within the church, and takes
everyone to task for various omissions and commissions.
Though it’s more than a month since the
apostolic exhortation was brought out, it’s yet to reach the Christian
community across the world. It remains a mystery that this document has not yet
come into the public limelight.
These are some of the gems from the document:
DON’T MAKE CHURCH
A MUSEUM PIECE: In some people we see an ostentatious preoccupation for the
liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but without any concern
that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people and the concrete
needs of the present time. In this way, the life of the Church turns into a museum
piece or something which is the property of a select few.
CHURCH NOT FOR CLIMBING SOCIAL LADDER: A
spiritual worldliness lurks behind a fascination with social and political
gain, or pride in their ability to manage practical affairs, or an obsession with
programmes of self-help and self-realization.
It can also translate into a concern to be
seen, into a social life full of appearances, meetings, dinners and receptions.
It can also lead to a business mentality, caught up with management,
statistics, plans and evaluations whose principal beneficiary is not God’s
people but the Church as an institution.
CHURCH NOT FOR CHOSEN FEW: The church should be in contact with the
homes and the lives of its people, and does not become a useless structure out
of touch with people or a self-absorbed group made up of a chosen few. The
parish is the presence of the Church in a given territory, an environment for
hearing God’s word, for growth in the Christian life, for dialogue,
proclamation, charitable outreach, worship and celebration.
WHY CHURCH
IS NOT CLOSER TO PEOPLE? We must admit, though, that the call to review
and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to
make them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them
completely mission-oriented.
PRIVATISED LIFESTYLE: We must
reject the temptation to offer a privatized and individualistic spirituality
which ill accords with the demands of charity, to say nothing of the
implications of the incarnation. There is always the risk that some moments of
prayer can become an excuse for not offering one’s life in mission; a
privatized lifestyle can lead Christians to take refuge in some false forms of
spirituality.
WEB OF OBSESSIONS & PROCEDURES: I do not
want a Church concerned with being at the centre and which then ends by being
caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly
disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our
brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation
born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support
them, without meaning and a goal in life.
NOT A TORTURE CHAMBER: I want to remind
priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber but rather an
encounter with the Lord’s mercy which spurs us on to do our best. A small step,
in the midst of great human limitations, can be more pleasing to God than a
life which appears outwardly in order but moves through the day without confronting
great difficulties.
NOT ARIBTERS OF GRACE: The Eucharist, although
it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a
powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. These convictions have pastoral
consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness.
Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators.
CHURCH IS NOT A TOLL HOUSE: The Church is not
a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for
everyone, with all their problems.
