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The Second Vatican Council--Third in a Three-Part SeriesBy John Houk If the first two parts of this series did not succeed in getting you (the reader) interested in reading the documents of Vatican II, then beware that I intend to try one final time. First, I tried to appeal to your intellectual curiosity and one’s desire to live a reflective faith. My second appeal was an attempt to draw you in with the Council’s own spirit of promoting everyone’s participation. If those approaches didn’t get you to open the book or web site on these documents, then I want to tell you that there are powerful people who want to take it all away. Shock and awe; a glimpse of the awe and wonder of God.Reflections on Jesus’ post resurrection appearances “Shock and awe” is now a well recognized term for U.S. military strategy. (70 years ago the equivalent term was “blitzkrieg”) Thinking about the disciples despair after Jesus’ crucifixion I would suppose that these terms might apply to their reaction to Jesus post resurrection appearances. However to me one of the most amazing features of the eleven post resurrection gospel stories in which Jesus appears suddenly is the lack of amazement with which they are recounted. When Jesus does appear the disciples reactions are seldom mentioned. Even when Jesus appears out of nowhere despite closed doors, the disciples reactions are described in the fewest words possible as being afraid, but then reassured by touching Jesus and by eating with him. I don’t know how reassuring it would be for me to find that someone who becomes present in this way actually has a body that I can touch and feel like an ordinary body, or that this someone can actually consume food.
The Second Vatican Council--Second in a Three-Part SeriesBy John Houk It may strike some as rather dry and uninteresting to plow through documents The Second Vatican Council swept away hard-core Catholic positions that had The Council, as I now understand it, was an invitation to discipleship, and The Second Vatican Council -- The first in a Three Part SeriesBy John Houk Forty years ago in December the final document of the Second Vatican Council was published concluding the two-year process of publication. The whole Council was, and remains, unprecedented in its scope and tone with the final document having its own unique history. The agenda for the Council was established prior to its first session. The documents to be developed were laid before the world’s bishops to discuss and refine. This is the way of things in large organizations that flow from the top down. But the tone of this Council set up a new counter dynamic. This dynamic spoke to the action of the Spirit at all levels of the Church, and there is no better example of this new dynamic than the final document called, “Gaudium et Spes” (joy and hope) with its full title, “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World”. This document was not on the official top down agenda, but instead rose from within the gathering of bishops who essentially said, “We need this,” and indeed we did, and do. |
Micah 6:8
©1996 Cards by Anne |