YVES CONGAR ON THE FOURFOLD ATTRIBUTE OF THE CHURCH.pdf

ON THE FOUR ATTRIBUTES OF THE CHURCH: A STUDY OF YVES CONGAR’S PNEUMATOLOGICAL ECCLESIOLOGY

BY

JOHN-MARK IGBOALISI, OP

BEING A SEMINAR PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY, DOMINICAN INSTITUTE, IBADAN IN AFFILIATION WITH DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY, PENNSYLVANIA, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE:

FOUNDATIONS OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

LECTURER: FR ANTHONY A. AKINWALE, OP

IBADAN

MAY 2013

OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.0

THE SPIRIT AS THE CO-INSTITUTING PRINCIPLE OF THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . 1

2.0

THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.1

THE ONENESS OF THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.2

THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.3

THE APOSTOLICITY OF THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.4

THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

INTRODUCTION

Every organism has attributes or characteristics by which it is distinguished or recognized. The Church, likened to an organism, has distinguishing marks by which she is recognized. These attributes portray her uniqueness and reveal her identity. It is made p ossible by the Holy Spirit, who animates the Church, giving her these distinguishing attributes by which she is known. Yves Congar, in part one of his book, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. 2, attempts to demonstrate that the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Church is inextricable. Our objective is to attempt to retrieve Yves Congar’s understanding of the Holy Spirit as the principle of these attributes of the Church. To accomplish this, we shall proceed by considering the Spirit as co-instituting principle of the Church before examining the Church’s fourfold attribute of oneness, catholicity, apostolicity and holiness.

1.0

THE SPIRIT AS THE CO-INSTITUTING PRINCIPLE OF THE CHURCH

Yves Congar begins his attempt of elucidating the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Church, by reflecting on patristic understanding of the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Church. He notes that if we go far back in the sequence of confessions of faith or creedal statements, we would find the article on the Church linked to that of the Holy Spirit.1 Tertullian, in his articulation of the sacrament of Baptism, enunciates the correlation between the Trinity and the Church. He notes that the Trinity is the assurance of our hope. For after the pledging, both of the attestation of faith and the promise of salvation under the Trinity, there is added of necessity the

1

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. II , transl by David Smith (New York: The Seabury Press, 1983), p.5. 1

Church, inasmuch as wherever the Trinity is, there is the Church which is a body of three.2 Within this Tertullian understanding, we discover the identification of the Church not o nly as the Body of Christ, but as the fruit of the Trinity. Hence Yves Congar explains that it is not surprising that the First Council of Constantinople (381) added to the Nicene Creed, after the confession of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the article on the Church: one, holy, catholic and apostolic Yves Congar clarifies what it means to confess faith in God and the Church. He elucidates that in the West, the preposition eis or in is usually omitted before ecclesiam. This has been accorded a religious or theological significance. In explaining what this means, he n otes that it is possible to believe in God, to accept him as the end of one’s life, but it is not possible to believe in the same way in the Church. He acknowledges the commentary of Scholastic theologians with regard to this fact that one believes in the Holy Spirit, not only in himself, but as the one who makes the Church one, holy, catholic and apostolic. Since the Church is undoubtedly an object of faith, we trace her attributes back to their cause, which is divine and of the order of grace.3 The Catechism of the Council of Trent , which Yves Congar draws insight from, distinguishes faith in God and the Church. It explains that we believe in the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in such a way that we place our faith in them, and we profess to believe that there is a Church that is one, holy and catholic and not “in” the holy Church. This difference in expression demonstrates that God, who is the author of all things, is distinguished from all h is creatures, and in receiving all the precious good things that he has given to the Church, we refer them back to him.4 Hence Congar

2

Cf. Tertullian, On Baptism, 6.

3

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. II , pp.5-6.

4

Cf. Catechism of the Council of Trent , I, art. 9. 2

enunciates that there is no real opposition between faith in the Holy Spirit who makes the Church one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and faith in the fulfilment of God’s promise in the Church. This does not detract from the Church from being an object of belief since the Church is the sign and the means of God’s intervention in our world and history.5 We see this intervention in the two ‘divine missions’ of which the Church is the fruit both in its life and origin. This is because the Church is historical and visible and its ‘founder’ is Jesus, who is always living and active in it and is its lasting foundation. And the Spirit gives life to the Church and enables the Church to grow as the Body of Christ. In elucidating the animation of the Church by the Spirit, he argues that the Spirit did not condescend simply in order to animate an institution that was already fully determined in all its structures, but he is really the co-instituting principle. He draws insight from some Church fathers like, Irenaeus and Didymus the Blind.6 Irenaeus argues that wherever the Church is, there is the Spirit of God. Wherever the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace. Hence those who do not partake of the Spirit are neither nourished into life, nor do they enjoy that most limpid fountain which issues from the body of Christ.7 This underscores that the life, which the Church dispenses to her children, comes from the Holy Spirit who animates the Church. In a bid to explain his position that the Holy Spirit is the co-instituting principle, he examines the sacramental experience of the Church. He notes that Christ gave to certain actions a signification of grace, but sacramental rites were determined by history. While, one may find scriptural support

5


6

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. II , pp.7, 9.

7

Cf. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, Bk III, Ch. 24, 2. 3

for the sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist and penance, he evinces that the thirteenth century Franciscan theologians, Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure, attributed the definitive institution of the sacraments of confirmation, ordination, marriage and anointing of the sick to the active inspiration of the Spirit in the Church and its coun cils. He enunciates that neither Trent nor Vatican II attributed the institution of different degrees of the sacramental ministry to Jesus, for in the actual meaning and ordination of ministers, it is through the intervention of the Spirit. Just like the succession of the apostolic ministry began with the initiative of the Holy Spirit.8

2.0

THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE CHURCH

2.1

THE ONENESS OF THE CHURCH

It is the Spirit that makes the Church one. Yves Congar explicates that when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and early Christians, they were gathered together. He makes recourse to Augustine and J. A. Möhler’s commentary, in hisSymbolik, on the expressions: “gathered together” and “of one mind.” Möhler explains that when the Holy Spirit condescended, the apostles and other Christians were not scattered in different places, but were gathered together in the same place and were of one heart. They formed a single community of brethren. For Augustine, on the one han d, it is necessary to be in the Body of Christ in order to have the Spirit of Christ and, on the other, one has the Spirit of Christ and live in that Spirit when one is in the Church, the Body of Christ. What this underscores is that the Spirit is received when believers are together and it is not because there is one body that there is one Spirit, rather it is because there is one Spirit of Christ that there is one Body. Hence the Spirit acts in order to enable people to enter that one Body through baptism, and

8

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. II , pp.9-10. 4

he is given to the Body and indwells in that Body that people who enter that Body may receive the gift of the Spirit.9 This raises some questions. First, is the Church a p erson in whom the Holy Spirit indwells? Congar answers in the affirmative. He notes that the person ‘Church’ cannot be reduced to the mere total of the individuals who compose the Church. This is b ecause the Church has its own reality to which specific properties like unity, holiness, catholicity, apostolicity and indefectibility can appropriately be ascribed. Secondly, how can we understand the p ersonality of the Church? Is it a created personality or should we rather say that Christ is the “I” of the Church or that the Spirit is its supreme personality or transcendent “I”? And if Christ is the “I” of the Church, how can the Church be his bride? And if the Holy Spirit is the “I” of the Church, how can it be the Body of Christ?10 In addressing this series of questions, Congar enunciates that the unity that is peculiar to the Church has its reality in the Church itself, but its foundation resides in God This means that the foundation of the unity of the Church is from the unity of the Trinity. He asserts that this is related to the mystery of the divine will and purpose. This means that the person-Church is the one, total reality envisaged by this plan and it is at the same time the term of that plan. This reality and the term are the one mystical Body of Christ, which is also the fruit of the two divine missions. Hence by appropriation, it is the Holy Spirit that brings about the personality of the Church though he is not consubstantial with us. In Christ, the Word assumed a humanity that is consubstantial with us. He united it to himself in a unity that is personal and substantial. Since that time, God has ceased to

9

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol II, p.15.

10


govern his creation at the natural and the supernatural level exclusively on the basis of his divinity, but he governs it also in and through that man, Jesus Christ, assumed in his glory. Hence the humanity of Christ, made entirely holy by the S pirit, is the instrumental cause, the voluntary organ, of the communication of grace. And since that time, the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit have together been the authors of the Church in its unity. But while Christ is the author as the Head of the Body, homogeneous with its members, in a way that is absolutely his own and strictly personal, the Holy Spirit is author not as the Head which is homogeneous with its members, but as the principle which animates the Body. Congar asserts that this is the reason why the Church is the Body, not of the Holy Spirit and not even of the Word, but of Christ.11 Is this oneness or unity of the Church concretely manifested or revealed since this explication appear to be on the realm of the ideal? Congar enunciates that this communion is an authentic reality, yet it is so sublime. He gives examples of how in the past black and white Catholics communicated and received communion at the same altar, but they returned to their places without relating with each other. He acknowledges Jean Séguy’s answer that then, on the concrete level, there was communion at the level of faith and liturgical practice, but there was no trace of sociological communion. Although this same kind of situation might be the case in some places, like people who say they do not feel the warmth or sense of welcome in the Church, yet there are also instances of people who have felt this communion of how their fellow Catholics have journeyed with them in faith. The Church is made up of people of different race and language, yet the Spirit brings all these different elements to unity. Hence the Christian solidarity is expressed and made visible by the charity which the Spirit has placed in our hearts. This charity is not only sublime, but also very

11

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol II , pp.19-20. 6

concrete. This charity forms the basis of the communion of saints, an d the principle of this charity is the Holy Spirit.12 What this means is that every member of the Church must dispose himself to the love of God which has been poured into our hearts and express it in concrete terms, thereby fostering also, what Jean Séguy calls, sociological communion, under the inspiration of the Spirit. 2.2

THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH

To speak of the catholicity of the Church is to speak of unity of many according to the whole. This is because unity has, by its very vocation, a universal extension. Congar attempts to articulate this using the mission of Christ. He notes that it is not possible to deprive Christ, despite his particular mission which was situated in time and space (own country), of his universal value as the light of the world and Lord of all. This is because the reality of Christ as man-God goes far beyond any purely philosophical approach. He argues that this can also be applied to the Church although one would have to keep in mind the difference between Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, the continuity between Christ and the Church is formed, on the one hand, by what comes to the Church from him institutionally like words, baptism, Eucharist, apostolic mission and so on, and on the other hand, the Spirit communicated by him to the Church. It is this same Spirit that makes the Church catholic both in space, that is, in the world, and in time, that is in history.13 On Pentecost, the Church was established in the world. This gave it a vocation of universality which was to be achieved not by means of a uniform extension, but by the fact that everyone understood and expressed the marvels in his o wn language. Congar explains that through the mission and gift of the Holy Spirit, the Church was born universal, being born manifold and particular. He

12

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. II , pp.16-17,21-22.

13

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. II , p.24. 7

makes the assertion that the Church is catholic because it is particular and it has the fulness of gifts because each has his own gifts. The catholicity which the Church has as an attribute is not a return of uniformity like the Babel of old, but she is the ‘new Babel’ by her proclamation of the Gospel and faith in varied and diverse cultural soils and human spaces.14 The Second Vatican Council, which Congar often makes recourse, teaches that all men are called to belong to the new People of God. This People, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world (space) and to all ages (time) in order that the design of God’s will may be fulfilled. This one People of God is present in all the nations of the earth and all the faithful scattered throughout the world are in communion with each other in the Holy Spirit. Hence the character of universality which adorns the Church is a gift from the Lord, whereby the Catholic ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for return of all humanity and all goods unde r Christ who is the Head in the unity of his Spirit.15 In his explanation of how the Spirit makes the Church catholic in history, Congar elucidates that the Spirit makes the Word present. It is the Spirit that makes the Easter event of Christ present with the eschatological destiny of creation in mind . He makes Christ’s revelation present and thrusts the Gospel forward into a period of history that has not yet come. For if all the aspects of the Christevent happened once then this ‘once’ should be welcomed and should take root and bear fruit in humanity. It is the Spirit that links what has been acquired once and for all time and what is always new. It is through the Spirit that the Church is able to speak the Word to each generation, in every cultural environment and in all kinds of circumstances. He asserts that the catholicity of the Church

14


15

Cf. Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, 13. 8

is the catholicity of Christ because the Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Church is able to be completely open to accomplish its catholicity which is also the catholicity of Christ in the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit.16 2.3

THE APOSTOLICITY OF THE CHURCH

The word ‘apostolic’ means relating to the apostles or in conformity with the apostles. This word indicates a reference to or a conformity with the origin of Christianity. However, Congar considers this description as needing amplification since it reveals only half truth. He considers the other half of the truth as a reference to eschatology. He identifies Christ as the Alpha an d Omega, and apostolicity, which is a mark of the Church, is both a gift of grace and a task. It makes the Church fill the space between the Alpha and the Omega by ensuring that there is continuity between the two and a substantial identity between the Omega and the Alpha. He examines ho w apostolicity in reference to eschatology is related to the last judgment and the mission of Christ. Co ncerning the former, he notes that the apostles will judge whether what reaches the Omega through which history has traversed is in conformity with what was given at the Alpha. As regards the latter, apostolicity is the identity, almost the oneness, of the apostolic mission throughout the centuries until the end, while people who carry out the mission die one after the other and are succeeded by others. This is the sharing of the mission of Christ.17 In his bid to explain how the Holy Spirit brings about and maintains the continuity and identity between the Alpha and the Omega, Congar makes use of Ragnar Asting’s view with regard to witnessing. Asting considered testimony as vorwärtsgerichtet meaning ‘directed forward’ and not

16

Cf. Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. II , pp.27-28, 34-35.

17


‘backwards-looking’, zurückschauend. He notes that the Christian witness refers to Christ’s death and resurrection and to his status as Lord, and it is always directed forward. This is because it looks beyond the affirmation that these things in fact took place, rather it proclaims their saving value and their present and effective reality for the world. Congar enunciates that in the messianic and eschatological era which began with the mission and gift of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit both values of witness are combined, the value of recollection and attestation of what has already taken place and the value of a dynamic affirmation of the present effectiveness of those realities and their fulfilment in the apostolic mission until they are eschatologically consummated.18 It is the Spirit that makes the Church apostolic. It was to the Church assembled and unanimous in the company of apostles, who were witnesses, that the Spirit condescended at Pentecost. Hence the apostolicity of the Church is a communion with the apostles and with and through them a communion with the Trinity, and the Holy Spirit is the principle of that communion. He elucidates that the transmission of the Spirit, which enables the Church to be faithful to and united to her faith, is tied to the function of bishops who succeeded the apostles. Nonetheless, universal apostolicity of the Church is fundamentally an apostolicity, but it is also an apostolicity of service, witness, suffering and struggle. For ‘apostolic succession,’ in the technical sense, has to be situated within the context of this apostolicity since it is possible to speak of apostolic succession in the case of all believers with the wider ambience of the faithful transmission of faith. It is the Spirit that keeps the Church faithful to the faith of the apostles and the structures of the covenant and also to confess, affirm and define that faith in an infallible way.19 Richard P. McBrien views

18


19


Congar’s explication of apostolicity of the Church as walking a fine line between exaggerating the role of the bishops, on the one hand, and ignoring them entirely, on the other since apostolic succession also applies to the whole Church.20 We consider Congar’s position as an attempt to be faithful to the other half of apostolicity which is eschatological: the beginning and the end. This faith is given to the Church and everyone, including the bishops, is a recipient of this apostolic faith. Nevertheless, Congar still recognizes the fact of the “special heritage” of the bishops as successors of the apostles and custodians or witnesses of this faith, with the task of authentic interpretation of the Word of God. 2.4

THE HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH

Congar acknowledges that all the attributes are connected and a re not to be seen in isolation because they interpenetrate each other. He argues that the Church’s oneness is holy. It is also apostolic because it is the continuity of a mission and a communion with God. Lastly, it is catholic and it is different from multi-national or world-wide expansion.21 Thomas Aquinas, from whom Yves Congar somewhat built his articulation on pneumatology, argues that the holiness of the Church rests on the fact that it is the temple of God, and the temple of God is holy because God is holy. Hence the Church is called Holy Church. He gives four considerations with regard to the holiness of the faithful. First, just as the Ch urch is cleansed materially when it is consecrated, so also her members are washed in the blood of Christ. Secondly, just as there is the anointing of the Church, so also the faithful are anointed with a spiritual unction in order to be sanctified, otherwise

20

Cf. Richard P. McBrien, “ I Believe in the Holy Spirit: The Role of Pneumatology in Yves Congar’s Theology” in Yves Congar: Theologian of the Church edited by Gabriel Flynn (Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2005), p.316. 21


they would not be called Christians, for Christ is the same as Anointed. This a nointing is the grace of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, the faithful are made holy because of the Trinity who dwells in the Church since wherever God dwells, that place is holy. Fourthly, the faithful are sanctified because God is invoked in the Church.22 Yves Congar, in his interpretation of what Thomas Aquinas says about the C hurch as temple, explicates that temple and house suggest the idea of dwelling or habitation. The New Testament speaks of an indwelling not simply of the Father and the Son, but explicitly of the Spirit. He notes that Scholastic theologians, as well as Thomas Aquin as, acquiesce to this explanation. Nevertheless certain difficulties are encountered as thomists have attempted to explain this indwelling as substantial indwelling: how can it be applied to the Church as such? He notes that for Thomas Aquinas, this difficult does not really exist. First, the Church is the assembly of believers. And if each soul is the Church then the Church is even more clearly characterized as the house of God in which believers are present as ‘living stones’. Secondly, if it is on the basis of charity that God dwells fully, then only the Church, as the Body of Christ, is certain always to have a faith that is fashioned by charity since every individual is able to falter. Hence it was to the Church that the promises were made and the term ‘Church’ is not simply the assembled believers or what Henri de Lubac called ecclesia congregata, but ecclesia congregans, the essential element of the apostolic institution. For the Church, which is the house of the living God, is the sacrament of salvation for humankind. It is not simply liturgy offered to God, but a sign of God’s love for everyone and of his kingdom.23

22

Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed , a.9.

23


Henri de Lubac makes the distinction between two senses of understanding the Church: ecclesia convocans et congregans ( the divine calling-together) and ecclesia convocata et congregata (community of the called-together). He notes that the active sense which is the former is primary, but this does not mean that the passive sense or the latter is less necessary or less important. He asserts that to forget it or allow it to blur in the mind would be to enter on the dangerous path. For we profess belief that the Church is holy (credo sanctam Ecclesiam) and that she is the Church of the holy ( Ecclesia sanctorum). The latter does not mean that there are no sinners in the Chu rch, but it means that she is both the sanctifying Church and the Church sanctified by the Holy Spirit, the Church of the sanctified. She is the Church that confers baptism of regeneration and the Church that receives it. She is a reconciling power and also the family of all the reconciled.24 This captures what Congar describes as the struggles of the Holy Church of sinners. It is the struggle of her members for holiness. In history, some of her members have lived outside this holiness to which they have been called and some have lived exemplary lives of holiness. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit is the principle of the Church’s holiness.25

CONCLUSION

Our objective was to attempt a retrieval of Yves Congar’s understanding of the inextricable relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Church. This relationship reveals that the Holy Spirit, who animates the Church, is the principle of the oneness, the catholicity, the apostolicity and the

24

Cf. Henri de Lubac, The Splendor of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), pp.104-106. 25


holiness of the Church. Our starting point was to establish that the Holy Spirit is the co-instituting principle of the Church. We then examined the attributes of the Church in relation to the Holy Spirit as the principle of these attributes. John Chrysostom, whom Yves Congar used to set the tone o f his work on the Holy Spirit and the Church, in his Sermons on Pentecost, Hom.1, 4, teaches that if the Holy Spirit did not exist, we would not be able to pray to God. If he did not exist, the discourses about wisdom and knowledge would not be in the Church. If the Spirit did not exist, there would not be pastors or teachers (theologians) in the Church. And if the Spirit did not exist, the Church would not form a consistent whole.26 If the Spirit did not exist, there would be no attribute to distinguish the Church.

26


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aquinas, Thomas. Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed. Retrieved from http://dhspriory.org/thomas/Creed.htm#9 (22nd May 2013). Catechism of the Council of Trent . Retrieved from Catholic Primer Library http://www.saintwiki.com/index.php?title=Catholic_Primer_Library (22nd may 2013). Congar, Yves. I Believe in the Holy Spirit Vol. II , transl by David Smith. New York: The Seabury Press, 1983. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses. Retrieved from New Advent http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103324.htm (22nd May 2013). Lubac, Henri de. The Splendor of the Church. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986. McBrien, Richard P. “ I Believe in the Holy Spirit: The Role of Pneumatology in Yves Congar’s Theology” in Yves Congar: Theologian of the Church edited by Gabriel Flynn. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2005, pp.303-328. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents Vol. I, ed. by Austin Flannery. Mumbai: St Pauls, 2001. Tertullian, On Baptism, 6. Retrieved from New Advent http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0321.htm (22nd May, 2013).

YVES CONGAR ON THE FOURFOLD ATTRIBUTE OF THE CHURCH.pdf

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