Light for the Nations: Themes of "Lumen gentium", Fifty Years Later | Douglas Bushman
A retrospective on Vatican II's "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church" ought to place the primacy on the Church as end, and particularly on holiness
November 21, 2014 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the promulgation of Vatican II’s central document, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. If the articles that this occasions reflect a strain of theological commentary on this text that narrowly focused on the issue of collegiality of bishops, then one can expect a chorus of writers to lament the fact that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI resisted accepting and implementing what the Council taught about the relationship of pope and bishops.
The importance of Chapter Three of Lumen gentium, where this subject is treated, is incontestable. At the time of the Council, everyone was aware of the need to provide a complement to the teaching of Vatican I on papal primacy and infallibility. Cut short by political and military disruptions of the time, that Council’s full agenda was left unfinished. Nevertheless, Vatican II recognized that apostolic authority is a divinely instituted means, not an end in itself. It is totally at the service of the Church’s unity, holiness, and catholicity. Since the value of a means derives from the end to which it is ordered, a fifty-year retrospective on Lumen gentium ought to place the primacy on the Church as end, and particularly on holiness, as the best way to be faithful to the authentic spirit of Vatican II
The Christ-centeredness (Christocentricity) of Lumen gentium
Taking its name from first two Latin words, Lumen gentium—which means “light for the nations”—the constitution’s first assertion is about Christ. “Christ is the light for nations.” Fully developed, the theological content of this could fill a small book. Some of the more relevant aspects of a theology of ‘light for the nations’ are:
1) As Christ is light for all the nations, so the Church is called to bring that light to all of mankind.
2) “Light for the nations” is a theme that links the Old and New Testaments. Jesus, the light of the world (Jn 8:12), fulfills Israel’s vocation to be light for the nations (Is 42:6 and 49:6), as Simeon proclaimed (Lk 2:32). This highlights the unity of God’s plan of salvation, Israel’s privileged place, and the fulfillment of the plan in Christ.
3) The Church relates to Christ as John the Baptist to Jesus. John is not the light; his mission is to bear witness to the light (Jn 1:7-9). So too, the Church exists in order to bear witness to Christ. The Church makes her own the spirituality of the Baptist, who said, referring to Jesus: “He must grow greater, I must grow less” (Jn 3:30).
4) The preaching and life of the Baptist caused the religious leaders to ask him: “What do you say of yourself” (Jn 1:22). This is precisely the question that the Church responded to at Vatican II: Ecclesia, quid dicis de te ipsa (“Church, what do you say of yourself?”). As John defined himself in relation to Christ, so does the Church.
Underscoring this Christocentricity, The Extraordinary Synod of Bishops of 1985 proclaimed: “The Church makes herself more credible if she speaks less of herself and ever more preaches Christ crucified (see 1 Cor 2:2) and witnesses with her own life… The whole importance of the Church derives from her connection with Christ.”
The Church Speaks of Herself Only to Speak of Christ.
An attentive reader might object that there is a contradiction here.
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