I have been linking to Pope Leo XIV’s ongoing catechesis on the teachings of the Second Vatican Council since he began them at the start of the year. Last week (Feb. 18), he began examining Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, and it deserves more than a mere paragraph.
The pope began by noting how Lumen Gentium reflected the council fathers’ desire to explain the origins of the church. They chose the Pauline word “mystery.” Leo clarifies: “By choosing this word, it did not intend to say that the Church is something obscure or incomprehensible, as is commonly thought when the word ‘mystery’ is heard. It is exactly the opposite: indeed, when Saint Paul uses the word, especially in the Letter to the Ephesians, he wishes to indicate a reality that was previously hidden and is now revealed.”
Revelation is our Christian data. Yes, we should still be attentive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, who calls us still. The circumstances we face are often far different from those St. Paul and the Ephesians faced. But we test our thoughts and our deeds to see if they warrant the adjective Christian by examining them in the light of revelation. As I have noted often, just because a Christian has an idea does not mean it is a Christian idea.
The Holy Father then goes on to explain that the mystery is God’s plan “to unite all creatures thanks to the reconciliatory action of Jesus Christ, an action that was accomplished through his death on the cross. This is experienced first of all in the assembly gathered for the liturgical celebration: there, differences are relativized, and what counts is being together because we are drawn by the Love of Christ, that broke down the wall of separation between people and social groups (cf. Ephesians 2:14).”
If I had 10 minutes with Leo, one of the questions I would ask him is why he began this catechetical series with Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation and not with Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, which was the first constitution issued by the Second Vatican Council. Chronology is an easy organizing tool. What is clear, however, is that the pope recognizes these constitutions are all intertwined, and you can’t really grasp the richness of any of them without seeing them as a whole.
To continue reading this article, click here.
With thanks to National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Michael Sean Winters, where this article originally appeared.
