Father
Timothy Radcliffe speaks out in Sydney
In
the ambient Salvation Army Hall on Wednesday 24th June,
Marea Donovan, Chair Person for the Catalyst-organized event,
introduced Fr Timothy Radcliffe, author of Why Go to Church?, greeted distinguished guests and offered the
apologies of Cardinal Pell and others.
She described the inauguration of Catalyst for Renewal and
acknowledged the participation, from its very beginnings, of Geraldine
Doogue, who was to conduct the conversation with Fr Timothy. Marea
confirmed Catalyst’s prime directive to "keep
the conversation going"
and of the importance placed on conversation and dialogue
in the documents of Vatican II. Marea
referred to the writings of Fr Timothy and in particular to his
statements of our "human
community being sustained by conversation"
and to "Jesus as
a man of conversation".
Fr
Tim was introduced as a man whose glittering career is dominated by a
hope that the church of the future will avoid either assimilation into
secularism, or becoming a ghetto of obsolescence.
And so, to the conversation held between Fr Tim and Geraldine
... Geraldine targetted key ideas in her responses and questions,
allowing the conversation to flow..
Fr Tim sees the Church as sign of hope in this difficult time when
the current ideological catastrophe is creating new, different and
particular problems. Christ, he said, is a model for facing difficult
times, giving his body as the sign of hope. For the Church to really
become that sign, the challenge is to find ways to embody that hope, and
to make a commitment to the hopelessness of people: the unemployed in
the financial crisis, the young, countries in conflict......... whose
condition is a result of these particular times.
Father Tim considered next the ways to share our faith. He sees,
as a starting point, that people need to be accepted in the way that
they see themselves and that they need to be understood and joined in
that place in the hope of deepening and challenging their ideas. He sees that modern society classifies
lack of happiness as depression, when in fact it may well be the lack of
the depth that faith, hope and love can bring to lived experience.
Father Tim proposed that the deepening of experience is to recognise that the desire for happiness is a
desire for God. He affirmed that the Church has globally and recently,
more vocally, been an institution for providing an answer for the
world’s desires. The future, he predicts, holds a massive revival in
religious life in the way that the Church has traditionally responded to
world needs. For the present time, the revival of the Contemplative life
with a profound commitment to think, reflect and review will renew the
wisdom of the tradition. The recent and popular film Into Great Silence showed the wisdom and authority of an old monk emerging from a life of
contemplation and silence. The combination of traditional wisdom and
progressive organization will renew the face of the Church.
Father Tim sees that the role of lay people is being encouraged by
the Pope who considers that they are ‘co-responsible’.
Decentralization of the Church and inclusiveness fosters a challenge to
the culture of control within the Church. Robin Williams, Archbishop of
Canterbury is a model for catholicity, having invited Fr Tim to write
their Lenten programme for the Anglican Church.
The Church has to represent Christ’s welcome.
It has to offer mercy and forgiveness, to help people recognize
their way of life and offer a way forward. Christ provides the Vision of
offering his body, His self as a gift. Fundamentally grounded in love,
it is possible to bring an understanding of love to ethical questions,
for example sexuality and women and priesthood.
Lay people need to hear the call from God and be the public face
of that human vocation, as well as having the courage and confidence to
take the initiative and make the church immediate and continuous, 24/7!!
To help the world see differently, to “see the world through
loving eyes” Fr Tim quoted from Pope John 23rd. The language of faith
needs to be the language of the imagination and reveal the poetry of
existence. Atheism, which took such a hold in the 20th Century with the God is Dead refrain, has been shown up. Life without God is not that exciting, but
the irreverent spirituality of Generation X is.
This vision for the world needs to go beyond moral imperatives of
right and wrong; prohibition and obedience. The Augustine stance
“love, and do what you will” is the Cardinal and Theological virtue
for knowing what is right and acting spontaneously – like Jesus- moved
by the heart. The young, he said, need
to be offered doctrine that is open. An exploration of the Trinity would
translate, in doctrine that is not doctrinaire, as the dynamic of love
between the Father, Son & Spirit that flows through, with and in Him
to all. The heart that is encultured through thinking, reflection,
prayer and discipline learns that loving makes you free. Hope, better
than optimism, is learned. Temperance, not desiring less, but desiring
well, is learned.
The
conclusion- as Augustine says, Show me someone
who loves and they will understand.
