SPIRITUAL ECUMENISM
Someone somewhere should be asking himself or herself whatever this whole spiritual ecumenism is all about? But as one questions, is also as one opens his or her mind to learn and live in the sense of
personal discipline that is consistent and coherent in a personal belief in what one
conceives God to be. Ecumenism is simply that way of approach where we put our belief
in contact with other religious beliefs who may not necessarily be in line with our way
of living but that sense of creating an open means of dialogue not in our terms and conditions but in an
open-minded way, respecting each other's views and expressions for in differences do we find our
being. Spiritual ecumenism is about rediscovering the brotherhood among
Christians. Today we can dare to say that dialogue has somehow faltered in situations and moods and in some ways, we are even now talking of religious crisis and tensions
Today spiritual ecumenism
and dialogue have to create a turning point in the spiritual realm. This calls
each committed Christian to enter into dialogue with ancient oriental and
orthodox churches, that talk that has to be based on Petrine ministry. The
debate is all about the consequences of reformation which have to be
reevaluated and confronted, for nothing is impossible that we cannot address as
a family, for a family that prays together, stays together. It's all centred on
the question of apostolic succession in the episcopate.
According to our catholic understanding, both are
constitutive for full church communion and therefore, Eucharistic fellowship
depends on the solution of these questions. It’s not easy and probably long. In
the start of ecumenical movements, it was driven by a special movement, by
spiritual ecumenism, which is the power behind the “Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity” started mainly by the Abbe Paul Couturier, the grand apostle
and power of spiritual ecumenism.
Church unity cannot be achieved by human endeavour alone;
the unity of the church is the work and gift of God's Holy Spirit. Only a
renewed Pentecost, a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit, can bestow on us
the unity of all disciples of Christ for which Jesus prayed on the eve of his
death on the cross: "That all may be one" (John 17:21). Ecumenical
work, therefore, is a spiritual task and can be nothing other participation in
the high priestly prayer of Jesus. Spiritual ecumenism is at the heart of
ecumenism. This will build itself on prayer, especially common ecumenical
prayer, for the unity of Christians, for personal conversion and individual
renewal, for repentance and the striving for personal sanctification (Unitatis Reintegratio, nn.5-8, There-in, UR).
The question of truth interacted with many non-theological
factors, and different experiences, which lead to mutual alienation and
consequently to misunderstanding and different doctrinal positions as well.
Eastern and Western Christianity didn't break apart at a certain point in
history, there was a long process of much alienation. Even today, we meet our
orthodox brothers and sisters despite our extensive common heritage, our almost
full communication in the same faith, as Paul VI observed, we still sense a
deep historical continued difference in culture and mentality, which sometimes
creates serious difficulties for dialogue.
The orient churches are sceptical
about the conceptual theology which has developed in the west since medieval
scholasticism, particularity in modern times. For them, it is the doxological
and apophatic theology and its underlying liturgical and mystical experience
which are important.
The churches of reformation are not so much concerned with
the doctrine of justification as with the extensional significance of the message
of justification. Our present intellectual milieu which on the one hand is
influenced by post-modern relation and scepticism and on the influenced by also
longs for spiritual experience and spiritual alternative to our modern and
post-modern lifestyle, which many feel to be empty and void. After the
breakdown of, and disillusionment.
Modern ideologies and utopias, there is a
distrust of any doctrinal position, yet at the same time a search for a
spiritual experience, vague and residual as it often maybe. In this context, we
will only be able to make progress in our missionary endeavour if we return to
the spiritual roots of Christianity in general and of ecumenism in particular
and search for a renewed ecumenical spirituality.
Ecumenical spirituality has its dangers and traps.
Spirituality is a much used and ambiguous concept, which has become a mere
slogan or merely an emotional sense as an escape from and a substitute for, an
objective confession of faith. There are lots of temptations which have emerged
with tendencies of seeking a spirituality apart from objective faith of the
churches, sooner or later becomes empty and void, it can’t help the churches to
overcome their differences and it becomes ecumenically useless. Spirituality is
a word borrowed from French Catholicism. Translated, it means 'piety'. But this
doesn't cover the whole meaning of the term. The dictionary of Christian spirituality
defines spirituality as the attitudes, faith convictions and practices which
determine the life of men and women that helps them to arrive at the perceptive
reality. This has to be understood as the spirit-effected way that Christians
conduct themselves before God. This will include faith, the exercise of piety
and conduct of life, it signifies a lifestyle guided by the spirit. This has to be grounded on development of the
Christian existence under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this is the base to
start.
Spirituality has to be understood in two components: that
from above which is beyond the human reach, this is the working of God's
spirit, the other from below that is represented by human conditions and
circumstances of the Christian existence. This emergence the tensions between
unity and diversity. Spirituality has to be understood as a proper understanding
of tensions and conflicts between the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the world,
as it is understood from the biblical perspective.
In the 16th Century, Luther could no longer
reconcile his spiritual experience, centred on the experience of justification,
in faith and grace that he expressed itself in the piety of indulgences and the
whole system of priestly sacramental and institutional meditation of grace as
it developed in the late middle ages. This means that different spiritualties
have a high probability of division, where the doctrines divide but
spirituality unites.
This shows that we do not stand from that which divides us
but with what we have in common. This starts with a common Christian
experience. These experiences help us to understand our differences better.
Therefore spiritual empathy is needed. Spiritual spirituality is about
listening and opening through different forms of piety, it means readiness to
rethink and convert, but also to bear the otherness of the other, which
requires tolerance, patience, respect and not least goodwill and love which
doesn't boast but rejoice in the truth(1 Cor 13:4-6).
Economical dialogue only succeeds where all this works to
some extent, to succeed, trust is built and friendship established. Where this
is not possible, everybody is sufficiently intelligent to find objections to
opposing arguments, such dialogues will never conclude. We have to leave it to
the lord whether they will ultimately, lead to heaven or hell. But when there
is friendship and common spiritual ground, the situation changes.
Ecumenical spirituality, however, is not a magic formula
which will easily solve ecumenical questions and present ecumenical crisis.
Spiritualties, which are faith incarnate in the world and culture, so carry the
danger of syncretism. Spiritualties can also be appropriated for political
reasons and aims, giving the Christian ideologically pseudo-spiritual
character. Every spirituality must be questioned about the spirit behind it,
whether it is the Holy Spirit or the spirit of the world.
Spirituality demands
the discernment of spirits. This spirituality is not an exclusively emotional
affair devoid of the question of truth, rather, it helps, enables, and even
composes us to seek the truth. It doesn't mean a painless escape from theology.
Spirituality demands theological reflection and theological discernment.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Discernment has come to us with a bang hence, today, it sounds a sort of slogan in religious circles because it is being used in almost every retreat, conference and
religious catholic gatherings. But what needs to be understood from the time go, is that this comes to as a retreat manual of St. Ignatius of Loyola, that is being re-read from the ecumenical point of view. There is a
wind breeze creating a breath for better respiration and a sign of new life. The Spirit is a vital principle of human life, the place that holds a person’s
intellectual perceptions and attitudes of a will. Therefore, this can be understood in the spiritual realm as the Spirit of God that is creative, a life force in all things, that which works in full reality
of what we today can call creation. Therefore, we can say that the Spirit of the lord is indeed that which fills the whole
world, and that which holds all things together (Wisdom 1:7, 7:22-8:11). This will drive us to start everything from a divine perspective. Hence, this Spirit can't be hidden behind the church walls or withdrawn to its innermost self. Wherever true-life appears, God's Spirit is at work.
John Paul II in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio. He states:
The Spirit, therefore, is the very source of man's
existential and religious questioning, a questioning which is occasioned not
only by contingent situations but by the very structure of His being… The
Spirit's presence and activity affect not only individuals but also society and
history, people's, culture and religions. The Spirit is at the origin of the
noble ideals and undertakings which benefit humanity on its journey through the
history
Ecumenism is not an end in itself, ecumenical spirituality
too must look beyond itself. Jesus prayed that all may be one so that the world
may believe (John 17:21). Bearing common witness to the world and more
convincingly in the Christian witness in the world following the underlying principle derived from the late Middle Ages in the thoughts of Ignatius of Loyola where God can be
found in all things.
CHRISTOLOGICAL BASIS
In the Bible, the Spirit is not only God's creative power
but also God's power over history. It speaks through the prophets and is
promised as a messianic spirit (Is. 11:12; 42:1). It's the power of the new
creation which turns the desert into paradise and creation which turns the
desert into paradise and create a place of justice and righteousness (Is
42:15)…Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of
hosts" (Zech 4:6). The spirit rests upon him so that he can preach good
news to the poor and proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the
blind and liberty for those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18). His resurrection
happens in the power of the spirit (Rom 1:3) and the power of the spirit (2 Cor
3:17). No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit (1
Cor 12:3).
No one has ever seen God. It is God the only son, who is
close to the Father’s heart who has made him known” (John 1:18). The new start
from Christ. Discipleship of Jesus shows itself in modesty and humility, and in
what Paul calls the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22).
Jesus is present through word and sacrament. Renewal of our
baptismal vows and liturgical commemoration of baptism is, therefore, a basic
element of ecumenical spirituality. Baptism is oriented towards Eucharistic
sharing. In the one Eucharistic bread, we become one ecclesial body (1 Cor
10:17). It's, therefore, a deep pain for all who are engaged in the ecumenical
movement that normally they cannot share the Lord’s Table. This suffering of so
many Christians must be a further impulse for all who are responsible for
promoting Christian unity.
The Eucharist is a mystery of faith, where we reach
consensus only by an exchange of faith lived out in a deep Eucharistic
spirituality. An ecumenical spirituality of prayer, centring on the week of
prayer for Christian unity celebrated in January or the week before Pentecost.
Like Jesus himself, an ecumenical spirituality lives by prayer and, like Jesus
on the cross, suffers and endures in prayer the experience of being forsaken by
the Spirit and by God. (Mk 15:34), the experience of our ecumenical
difficulties and disappointments, our ecumenical desert experience.
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH
The Spirit is given for general good, the different gifts of
the Spirit, therefore, have to serve each other (1 Cor 12:4-30). The spirit is
given to all beliefs and the church as a whole. The church as a whole is the
temple of the spirit (1 Cor 3:16-17, 17; 2 Cor 2:16; Eph 2:21), built up by all
the faithful as a living stone (1 Pt. 2:5). The spirit doesn't work in
opposition, but in togetherness and the working for each other. The highest government
of the spirit is love, without which all other charisms are worth nothing.
"Love is not jealousy and doesn’t boast, is not arrogant or rude…It bears
all things and endures all things” (1 Cor 13:4-7). Where there is a church
there is also the spirit of God, where is the spirit of God, there is also the
church and all grace.
Thus the Spirit is the principle of the life of the
church, the spirit's function in the church can be compared with the function
of the soul in the human body (LG n.7). Ecumenical spirituality, therefore, is
ecclesial, the community spirit, that lives by the witness and celebration of
the liturgy. Ecumenical spirituality is cultivated in ecumenical groups and
gatherings. These groups should not separate themselves from a community of the church, from which it bleeds. Its critical conscience of the
church, reminding her not to withdraw into confessional self-sufficiency, but
rather undertake courageously all possible and responsible steps to promote
Christian unity through and “exchange of gifts” taking and using the riches of
other traditions and thus seeking greater ecumenical unity in order to achieve
the whole concrete fullness of catholicity.
Ecumenical spirituality is about an examination of
conscience in the existing reality of the Church, always thinking ahead prophetically.
It calls for working patiently and persistently to find consensus. We need to
always attempt to keep the unity of the Spirit (Eph 4:3). John Paul II
described such spirituality of communion as the recognition of the other in his
or her otherness. The spirituality of communion means to know how to make room
for our brothers and sisters, bearing each other’s burden” (Gal 6:2) and
resisting the selfish distrust and jealousy.
There should be no illusions
unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will
serve very little purpose. They would become a mechanism without a seal,
“masks” of communion rather than its means of expression and growth (Novo Millennio ineunte, n.43). Without
the spirituality of communion, institutional communion becomes a mere machine
without a soul. One God in three persons, existing in an intimate exchange of
life.
ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE
Ecumenical spirituality is an anchored revelation that comes through Jesus Christ once and for all. (Heb 9:25). No human
concept, no dogma can fathom these riches. All our knowledge is partial (1 Cor
13:9); the dogmas of the Church are true because they point with absolute
certainty beyond themselves to the Church as true with
absolute certainty beyond themselves to the unfathomable mystery of God. Thus
the church is the people of God, on the way in that faithful assurance and
absolute certainty that these are being held in the truth, yet nevertheless
recognizing that truth which has been revealed once for all. The Second Vatican
Council states “Through the centuries the Church has constantly been striving for the fullness of divine truth” (DV.8).
Thus the Church is the people of
God, on the way, in the faithful assurance and absolute certainty that they are
being held in the truth, recognizing that they are also on the way, being led
over more deeply into the truth which has been revealed once and for all. The Church must always strive for the fullness of divine truth. (John 16:13). One
way is through spiritual experience that includes ecumenical spiritual
experience. Ecumenical dialogue is not only an exchange of ideas but an
exchange of spiritual gifts and spiritual experiences (UU n.28). Every
Christian can do this, in his or her place and manner, for everyone is an
expert in his or her way, someone who has had an experience and wants to pass
it on. “When you meet, each of you contributes” (1 Cor 14:26).
Ecumenical dialogue doesn't mean abandoning one's own
identity in favour of ecumenical "hotch-potch".
It's a profound misunderstanding to see it as fostering doctrinal relativism.
Ecumenical dialogue doesn't aim at spiritual impoverishment but mutual
spiritual enrichment. We discover the truth of the other as our truth. The
spirit leads us into the whole truth, he heals the wounds of our divisions and
endows us with full catholicity. We have all by now learnt a lot from the
experiences of our protestant brothers and sisters about the significance of
the Word of God, about Holy Scripture and its exegesis, in turn, they are
leaning from our sacramental reality of signs and from our way of celebrating
the liturgy.
In our relationship with the oriental churches, we can learn
from their spiritual wealth and their respect for the mysterious, in a relationship
we can share our pastoral experience and our lived experiences, in dealing with
the modern world. In the words of Pope John Paul II which have practically
become a slogan nowadays, the church can learn again to breathe with both
lungs.
Ecumenical dialogue doesn’t aim at converting others to our
side. Naturally, individual conversions cannot be excluded, one has to treat
them with great respect for the underlying decisions of conscience.
It is not a
question of conversion to another church but a conversion of all to the full
truth of Jesus Christ. These are no ecumenism without conversion and church
renewal (UR, n.7), a continuing and never-ending process. We are all being
called to conversion that will lead us to the examination of conscience and
cannot be separated from personal conversion and the desire for church reform
(UUS, n.16); 24; 83). Eph 4:13, we become one, we become one in Jesus Christ.
He is our unity, overcoming our historical divisions. Dialogue should always
lead us to reconciliation. Reconciliation doesn't mean abolishing the different
positions of the partner, nor does it take over the partners or absorb him.
Reconciliation recognizes the partner in his or her otherness. Becoming one in
love in that identity of the other is not abolished or absorbed but rather
confirmed and fulfilled. This unity is grounded on the love between Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. The archetype of the church unity is like an icon of the
trinity (LG, n. 4, UR n. 3).
We are called upon to remove misunderstandings and divisive
difference and reconcile them again through reintegration them in the whole of
the Gospel. We are to recognize the different forms and formulas, the same
truth, the truth that is so rich that it cannot be fully expressed in one
formula but only with complementary formulae, which we need to reach a
theological agreement.
Unity can only be understood and accepted as a spiritual experience,
an experience that, naturally, cannot be the only individual but must have
ecclesial character. An act of trust in the other, with different formulae,
images, symbols, and concepts, means and believes the same mystery of faith
that we retain in our tradition. The consensus is always declared by a
spiritual judgment of the church. It never drops form the sky. It has to be
prepared by many at different levels of the life of the truth. The unity of God
prepares the unity of Christians. It's not us to set deadlines, the spirit
alone determines the time. For that during the second Vatican II, Pope John
XXIII spoke about such as a new Pentecost. Ecumenism needs magnanimity and
hope, as far as what we do rightly God’s spirit will one day give us this
renewed Pentecost.
© Nyamunga Joseph Baptist'19
Books consulted
