Signs of Hope: The Future of the Church

“Jesus’ Way of Life is centered on the simultaneous practice of a number of virtues.”

The Catholic Church includes a community of disciples of Jesus of Nazareth,
Jesus, the Christ. Most of them, certainly the Roman Catholics among them,
become formed into a community through the rite of Baptism, and are nourished
regularly by the Eucharist and other sacraments.

As disciples of Jesus each individual in the community strives to adopt his perspective on life, his Way of Life and his aims or goals in this life. He is the center and founder of the community, and as such, the community derives its legitimacy totally from him.

The community, has over the years, formed itself into a church, or a number of churches. But, it is first and foremost a community of his followers. The community would not exist except for its members, and they, individually,  would not be a community on their own.

Jesus’ perspective on life is entirely positive. It is based on his belief that God is radically oriented to the welfare of his creatures, human beings that he makes his sons and daughters through a similar expression of Jesus’ trust in that belief. This belief gives the followers of Jesus a totally positive view of life itself and all of its consequences.

Jesus’ Way of Life is centered on the simultaneous practice of a number of virtues. This author lists humility, gratitude, trust, forgiveness, detachment and compassion among them. You may list other virtues and that is fair enough. The point is that the followers of Jesus strive to follow a similar Way of Life.

The aims or goals of life of Jesus are those he ascribes to the Father, the welfare of human beings and the world they live in. Those general aims or goals are pursued by his followers, individually and as a community. Particular application of these general goals are made by individuals and local communities. The individual is paramount here, but the individual alone is limited by his or her talents and opportunities. For the accomplishment of many goals action by a community of persons is necessary.

The Roman Catholic Church is one such community. Moreover, since Vatican Council II it is a community that has improved its access to Jesus Christ through the updating of many of its resources, namely the scriptures, the creeds, several of the sacraments, and its organizational apparatus, especially on the parish level. It is a work that has not been completed, and much remains to be done on every level. It is a work that is urgently needed. On the level of size alone, the Roman Catholic is the largest and has the greatest potential  of any of the various Christian communities.

For example, while the updating of the key sacraments of baptism and the eucharist have received a considerable amount of attention, the sacraments of penance and the last rites have received almost no attention, and this is regrettable indeed.

The Sacrament of Penance has been used often to define Roman Catholics. In the past, this sacrament was connected with the Roman Catholic community in a special way. Today, that is not the case and the practice of the sacrament in unusual, although nothing has taken its place in the Catholic community.

It seems to this author that is a shame. One way to restore the importance of the sacrament in the life of the community would be to shape it to  help individuals in their efforts to be followers of Jesus. For the individual to make a periodic examination of his or her efforts to follow the perspective of Jesus and his Way of Life in the presence of a representative of the community, it would seem ideal and invaluable. The present custom is to make such an examination based on the first ten of the commandments listed by Moses. This does not seem to this author to be particularly helpful or useful in these times, for most people. The same might be done by an entire community when it comes to implementing the aims or goals of Jesus. Further thought needs to be given to the implementation of the last rites. This, too, is a sacrament that was a vital action of the life of members of the community and is now generally discarded.

It seems to this author that the future depends upon what happens at the local level, that is, at the parish level. It is there that the future church will be formed, both on the individual and the collective levels. Meanwhile the ordinary structure of the church, that of the bishops and the Holy See will remain intact, it will simply remain largely irrelevant, and more a case of window dressing than anything else. Again, it is the layperson on the local level that will prove decisive. Either the lay person will assume more of a role of leadership, or not in the American Catholic church. If the layperson does assume that responsibility and if it is the rightly motivated layperson, the future is hopeful. If not, the disintegration of the institutional church will continue, to the detriment of all.

It seems that was the vision of Jesus. And, in this way, as in so many others, it is the correct vision.