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CHURCHCOMMUNITY
FOR THE
KINGDOM
JOHN FUELLENBACH, SVD
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PART I:
THE CHURCH
IN SCRIPTURE
AND IN VATICAN II
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PART II:
MODELS OF THECHURCH
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Every human person, nomatter what his of herfaith and religion, mayeffectively be saved byfollowing his/her ownreligion and conscience.
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SALVATION MUSTBE HELD POSSIBLEOUTSIDE THECHURCH-Lumen Gentium
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All this holds true not forChristian only, but also for allmen of goodwill in whose heartsgrace is active invisibly-Gaudium et Spes
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SALVATION AS BOUND TO
COMMUNITY
Salvation is conceived as communitarian is
rooted in the TRIUNE GOD.
God is FAMILY and the ultimate goal of
creation is to participate in the communitarian
life of the Truine God.
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Being a Christian as a Call to Mission
To be called by Godmeans to be drawn into
Gods own plan and intothe mission of the Son,
which extends into the
mission of the church.
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The Keys of the Kingdomthe meaning is not that
only those who join the
Catholic Church will enterthe kingdom.
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JESUS AND THE KINGDOM
Throw like fire into this worldLuke 12:49
This fire is not to be understood as an
abstract idea or as a worldview but as a
world-transforming power.
Its sole aim is to extend the life of the Trinityinto the whole of creation, to draw all that
exists into Gods own communion and love.
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Jesus without the reign of Reign ofGod is an incomplete Jesus, Jesuswhose life and mission are notshaped by it is not way, the truthand the life (John 14:6)
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Gods Plan for the World
The deepest desire of every
human heart is complete
union with God, a union
that includes union with all
of Gods family and
harmony with the universe.
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The Dream of God for Creation
In a broad sense the Bible as a whole is thestory of the dream of God, beginning in
Genesis with paradise and ending withparadise restored in the great concludingvision of the Book of Revelation.
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The first paradise is twoindividuals in a garden, and thesecond paradise is communaland urban- the new Jerusalem,the city of God.
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THE DREAM OF GOD IS A SOCIAL ANDPOLITICAL VISION OF A WORLD OFJUSTICE AND PEACE IN WHICHHUMAN BEINGS DO NOT HURT,DESTROY, OPPRESS OR EXPLOITONE ANOTHER.IT IS THE DREAM EXPRESSED WITHMANY IMAGES AND BY MANYVOICES IN THE BIBLE.
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The dream of God is a vision of
SHALOM..
-a rich Hebrew word often translated
PEACE.
For this vision Jesus lived, labored,
suffered and died.
THIS IS THE VISION HE ENTRUSTEDTO HIS DISCIPLES: As the Father sent
me, so I send you(Jn. 20:21)
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The exclusion of some(hell) is possible
and cannot be denied as a real
possibility.
However, if some really will be excludedfrom the banquet, it is not ours to
know or to decide who they will be.
ONLY GOD WILL MAKE THISDECISION.
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What is impossible for
human beings, God canstill make possible (Mk.
10:27)
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The Kingdom cannot be separated
from the person of Jesus of
Nazareth if Christianity is to
remain true to its name.the good news is CHRIST.
(Redemptoris Missio)
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Christ is universal in thesense that He is available to
all who bear His peoples
proclamation of the Gospel,
but effective only to those
who believe.
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The early church came tounderstand its own identityand its mission in differentways, as the NewTestament clearly indicates,depending on the differentsituations and cultures intowhich it planted the gospelof the kingdom of God.
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JESUS AND THE CHURCHOnly by returning to the Jesus as He
presents Himself in the Gospels will we
find anew foundation for our self-understanding not only as individual
Christians but also as Church.
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The Churchcannot solve the crisis of its
historical identity and its societallegitimation in a purely interpretativeor hermeneutical manner, but only by
practical identification.
The Churchs crisis is due to a deficit in
discipleship and to difficulties inadapting to Jesus.
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The way out of the situation in which we findourselves today can only be once again a way
into fellowship with Jesus the Lord.
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SIGNPOSTS OF DISCIPLESHIP:
the obedience of the cross
poverty
freedom and joy attitudes and behavior that counted so
high in Jesus own life
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They (the bishops) felt theurgent need to return tothe root of the Christiancommitment, to the Jesuswho walked the earth anddied for a vision the worldtoday needs so badly.
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COMMUNITY OF DISCIPLES
A new conception of thechurch.(Avery Dulles)
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The basic vocation of any Christian is
first and foremost to be a DISCIPLETo follow the Lord as He walked over
this earth.
The emphasis here is on following the
LORD rather than following the
CHURCH.
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The church must be seen as the
community of those who have
made it their lives profession to
follow the Lord and, as such, to
build a community calledCHURCH.
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Discipleship gives to theindividual as well as to theChristian community aunique identity andpurpose.
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THE EXODUS STORY
God intends to lead all of
humanity by choosing one
particular people to be the
sign and instrument to
accomplish this goal.
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SCHEME OF ACTION IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT1. People are in distress
2. They cry out to God
3. God hears their cry and sees theirdistress
4. God intervenes and alleviates the
distress
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The Exodus opens up a new vision ofwhat it means to be human in theeyes of God.
The covenant with the people isGods view of how he envisions a
society in which human beings will
live as Gods children in JUSTICEand PEACE with one another.
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Jesus main mission must be seen in thiscontext of a broken covenant.
The dominant social vision of Jesustime was centered on HOLINESS andPURITY.
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He understood His community tobe a place where all people
would be brothers and sisters,where justice and compassion
would reign under the
Fatherhood of God.
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KINGDOM AND CHURCH IN THE
GOSPELSThe word church-found only twice
on the lips of Jesus (Mt. 16 and 18)
kingdom-92 times in Jesus own
words.
In comparison: (VATICAN II)Church-2, 000
Kingdom of God-75
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Ekklesia
Simply means public gathering(Greek)
The early Christian community perceivedthe term ekklesia from this original
meaning:
God had called or convoked them and
established them into a sacred
assembly
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The early Christians called
themselves different names:
Followers of the way
The koinonia
Christians
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But the most important andlasting name the Christiancommunity, universal as wellas local, gave itself fromthe moment of its birthwas
EKKLESIA
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It is therefore correct to say that
the kingdom of God and the
Church are two key New
Testament concepts, both arecrucial for the understanding of
Gods plan for humanity.
Th Ki d Vi i M di d
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The Kingdom Vision Mediated
through the ChurchSome scholars claim that the
ineffectiveness of the church in
many sectors of its apostolate today
is due to the fact that we have noadequate image of the church into
which people can plausibly fit what
they think they ought to be doing.
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IF WE COULD FASHION AN
INSPIRING AND REALISTICIMAGE OF THE CHURCH, WE
MIGHT BE ABLE TO ACT
CONFIDENTLY AND IN SUCH A
WAY THAT OUR SELF-
UNDERSTANDING WOULD BEREINFORCED BY FEEDBACK
FROM OTHERS.
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Although Jesus may have seldomif ever used the word church, it
is amazing to see with how much
ease the early Christian
communities linked Jesus to the
church and the church to thekingdom and Israel of Old.
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the Church originated fromthe death and resurrectionof Jesus, through the workof the Holy Spirit.
It remains a provisionalentity. What is ultimate isthe kingdom of God.
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The better the Church
understands its interim status
and is determined by the
ultimate (the kingdom) , the
more it will be able to
correspond with Jesusministry.
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The kingdom demandsthe transformation of
all human reality, andthe church must be an
agent of thistransformation.
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The council starts off bydescribing the church as themystery of Christ. In it isrealized the eternal plan of theFather, manifested in JesusChrist, to bring humanity to itseternal glory.
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God has inaugurated the kingdom in the world
and in history in two stages.
First, the kingdom was initiated through the
earthly life of Jesus, his words and works,
and fully inaugurated through the Paschal
Mystery of his death and resurrection. Thiskingdom, present in history, must now grow
through history to reach its eschatological
fullness at the end of time. ..
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it seeks to be, first, objective-rational and theological; second,
pastoral-witnessing, creating,
and strengthening our faith; andthird, spiritual-nurturing,
enhancing, and vivifying our ownfaith (Fuellenbach)
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Karl Rahner, envisioning thechurch of the future, voiced
the same concern. Facing the
crisis of the church in Europe,
he insisted that the members
of that church would have tobe mystics.
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What he meant was that in a world ofsecularism only those who had a deeppersonal experience of God and who intheir lives could make this experienceaccessible to a totally secularised worldcould survive in their faith. Secularism isa worldwide phenomenon and affectsevery society.
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Secularism may stem from explicit
unbelief, the denial of the existence
of God or of
any religious dimension to humanlife. Such unbelief is rarely the
product of a formal,atheistic,
rational philosophy
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In the face of secularism the
model of small faith
communities can be seen as
one answer to help the
individual believers to
preserve their faith.
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As the saying goes,faith that is notshared dies.
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Individuals may not be able tomaintain their enthusiasm forChrist and his message withoutthe support of a community thatshares with them that enthusiasmand joy which come with a trueencounter with Christ and hisSpirit.
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THREEFOLD MISSION
To proclaim in word andsacrament that thekingdom of God has comein the person of Jesus ofNazareth
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To create church communities(localchurch) everywhere and, in sodoing, present the churchcommunity as a place where thekingdom of God makes itself visible.
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To engage in dialogue with the world and
with the other religious traditions.
First: to challenge society as a whole, to
transform itself along the basic
principles of the kingdom now present:
JUSTICE, PEACE,
BROTHERHOOD/SISTERHOOD ANDHUMAN RIGHTS
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Second: to engage indialogue with otherreligious traditions inwhich Gods kingdommakes itself present aswell.
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The Churchs mission is to revealthrough the ages the hidden
plan of God and to lead
humankind toward its final
destiny.
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The CHURCH is not
placed at her ownservice: she entirely
oriented towards the
Kingdom of God that
is coming.
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For only the Kingdom,as the fullness of
Gods manifestation,
is ABSOLUTE
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THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE
WILL HAVE TWO MAJOR
ISSUES TO DEAL WITH IF ITWANTS TO REMAIN FAITHFUL
TO THE KINGDOMENTRUSTEDTO IT:
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1. To inculturate the Christian
message in a way that it can be
understood and offer salvationin respective cultural contexts is
demanded from all localchurches, wherever thay may be.
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2. Solidarity with the poor and
marginalized of the world, refers tothe basic root of Jesus message of
the kingdom.If the church puts its concern for
these people in second or third
place, it will not have much to say inthe future.
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If the church loses the poor, those
left out, the ones who do not count,it has betrayed the very purpose for
its existence, which is to proclaim
the good news of the kingdom to
the poor in the way Jesus
understood his mission.
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Christ yesterday, today andtomorrow!WE KNOW HE WILLNOT LEAVE HISCHURCH.