Lumen Gentium
In the interest of creativity vs authority I plead with the National Council of American Bishops to address this long forgotten document and to recognize laymen outside the employment of the diocese for their potential help in solving the crisis in our present Catholic Church. I am embarrassed by the current "Advancing the mission" program which employs professional fund raisers and uses the deepening of faith and service to promote a major fund raising effort.
DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH‘ LUMEN GENTIUM ‘SECTION 37 PARAGRAPH 3
LET THE SPIRITUAL SHEPHERDS RECOGNIZE AND PROMOTE THE DIGNITY AS WELL AS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LAITY IN THE CHURCH. LET THEM WILLINGLY EMPLOY THEIR PRUDENT ADVICE. LET THEM CONFIDENTLY ASSIGN DUTIES TO THEM IN THE SERVICE OF THE CHURCH ALLOWING THEM FREEDOM AND ROOM FOR ACTION. FURTHER, LET THEM ENCOURAGE LAY PEOPLE SO THEY MAY UNDERTAKE TASKS ON THEIR OWN INITIATIVE. ATTENTIVELY, IN CHRIST, LET THEM CONSIDER WITH FATHERLY LOVE THE PROJECTS, SUGGESTIONS AND DESIRES PROPOSED BY THE LAITY.* HOWEVER, LET THE SHEPHERDS RESPECTFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT JUST FREEDOM WHICH BELONGS TO EVERYONE IN THIS EARTHLY CITY.
* 1 THES 5:19 1 JN 4:1 SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED BY POPE PAUL IV 11/21/64
Is anyone interested in developing dialogue with the Bishops rather than the usual monologue?
Curtis L Biggar
Appleton Wi
THE LIGHT OF THE PEOPLE In
THE LIGHT OF THE PEOPLE
In the beginning was the Word
And the Word was with God
And the Word was in God
And the Word is God.
The Word is made flesh
And dwells among us.
May the Word open us to Light
May the Word open us to Love
May the Word open us to Truth
May the Word open us to Peace
! ! ! Peace on Earth ! ! !
! ! ! Peace be with YOU ! ! !
Christmas 2006
Amen, Sylvester, and with
Amen, Sylvester, and with ALL of YOU!!!
Chris, You asked, "Is anyone
Chris,
You asked, "Is anyone interested in developing dialogue with the Bishops rather than the usual monologue?"
That would be wonderful, provided the Bishops could/would be willing and able.
I reallly question the freedom of any Bishop to enter into an honest and open dislogue. Even if, deep down in their hearts, there are some who wrestle with the same questions we do, I really wonder if they would dare express their thoughts in public.
Yes. I would like to know if
Yes. I would like to know if any bishop takes seriously Constitution IV of Vatican II with respect to the series of problems "as important as can be" (Gaudium et spes, Introduction, #5) that need to be redressed from the perspective of evolutionary consciousness instead of being contorted to fit the Aristotelian, Scholastic form. I think informed lay people could provide useful insights in updating pastoral and theological problems that have no credible resolution in Scholasticism. I'm way out of my field, but somebody has to begin somewhere!
Bishops should be "light to
Bishops should be "light to the people" especially in troubled times. These are troubled times. Where's the light? There is an apparent radical disconnect of bishops from the people  a disconect that has come to be habituated in the culture of dominion theology (in my opinion). Bishops talk, laity listens.
Although Vatican II established a new understanding of church that means to open the road to two-way communication, it hasn't happened, except under episcopal terms. When laity tries to talk to bishops, what seems to happen is this: bishops don't hear because they are insulated from the laity by walls of separation, real and/or mental; they hear but they ignore; they ignore because the question (issue) is trivial; the issue isn't trivial but they don't have answers; they have answers but they don't like the question or the answers.
On December 8, 2006, I e-mailed an Open Letter to the First Bishop, the "Primus", Pope Benedict, and copied it to my Archbishop. According to precedent it is a virtual certainty that there will be no reply. So now, I will put my Open Letter on the Table at NCR Cafe to see if even one bishope will read and reply to it. The letter is about "Ontogenesis/Cosmogenesis, an Analysis and Synthesis", hardly a trivial topic.
OPEN LETTER, 8 December 2006
EXPECTATION: the Psychic Precondition of Ontogeny/Cosmogeny
Dear Holy Father:
A PURPOSE to Every Season: The Church Year begins with the Season of Expectation celebrating the mutuality of the Divine/Feminine Supposition. The Church Year ends reflecting on Alpha/Omega, Word-made-flesh. Alpha/Omega seamlessly transforms the Cosmos in the Expectations of Light  what is the Psychic Precondition of Communal Harmony, what is Trinitarian Resonance in Ultimate Reality.
I. Evolving Consciousness
1. For five decades I’ve been struggling to develop an understanding and theory of “ultimate reality� in a way compatible with Catholic Faith Tradition and cosmic evolution. On the way I came to discover and have grown with such visionaries as Thomas Berry (1) and David Toolan (4). Everything in nature is essentially connected and dependent; by which essential dependence all nature experiences infolding (implication) and unfolding (explication).
2. The relationships of the individual to the whole (cosmos) and of the whole to the individual have been the nuclear preoccupation of my thinking, for these relationships are to me fundamental to understanding Self (self), Religion and Eucharist. What religious and “Eucharistic� thinking are about is: the relationship of the individual to the whole and about mutuality and dependency in the becoming (genesis) of the individual and the whole.
3. The many individual geneses, taken totally, are the expressive dynamisms of the whole universe, of the cosmos. Individual genesis is “ontogenesis�. The genesis of the universe is “cosmogenesis�. The individual and the whole, the person and the cosmos, are means/end (alpha/omega) to each other.
4. I have a theoretical sense that constellations of Psychic Precondition, the superstring theory of everything (2), exist in infinite realms of consciousness  what is “divine instance�. The calculus of superstring theory allows for multiple universes, what are realms psychically open and immaterial in character. This suggests that there are hierarchical constellations of interactive harmonic energy, qualified psychically but not necessarily physically  what are the precondition of reflective consciousness and the post-condition after life.
5. Energy resonance preconditions the expansion of cosmic substantiation (light energy), the psychology of physical constructs and the energetic relationships within and between them. The various hierarchies of psychic consciousness function in multiple realms of rationality and may be accessed by intentional focus, whether within or outside physical constructs. An analog of hierarchical “precondition� may be suggested, for example, in the signs of the zodiac under which insights into predispositions of emotional/rational intelligence and the indigenous wisdom of ancient cultures have basis.
II. Relational Identity
1. Psychic Precondition invests a constellation theory of harmonic complexity that functions in and across hierarchies of cosmic energy, what are “possible universes�. Covenant trust is sustainable bonding across barriers. Prior realms of harmonic resonances envelope the later realm complexes of energy / matter  which is to say that evolving energy / matter supposes the prior realms of energetic resonance  Psychic Precondition.
2. The expanding potentials of cosmic amplification are actualized in individuality; individuality capitulates actuality; thus the saying “ontogeny capitulates phylogeny�. We cannot understand ourselves except we understand how we belong to the cosmos, to nature. “Belonging� is not obsessive possession rather “belonging� pertains to the harmonic continuity of transformational relationship, of the self and other, of selves “expanding into each other�. Being “Eucharist� is about relating affirmatively to one another, but more than that, it is the expenditure of self in other-interest. We are “in� each other as we are “in� ourselves, whether we are obsessive and consumptive or whether altruistic and giving.
3. When consumerist obsession drives predation, the soul of self and other is trashed. The way to destruction and extinction is the way of out-of-control consumption, predation. The messianic lesson of ontogenic / cosmogenic fulfillment is the way of altruism, of Eucharist. When we behave obsessively, consumptively, we are predatory and destructive of each other; and when we are altruistic and giving we attend to each other and the universe we co-inhabit. This is the lesson of divinity, of Light.
4. The lesson for humanity is that when we affirm divinity  Essential Eucharist  we affirm higher consciousness and conscience; their affirmation expands moral, social consciousness and harmonic community. We affirm ourselves when we affirm each other. When we are predatory we cause darkness to overcome light; we breach trust. Excessive ego-affirmation overreaches, disorders self and the holy continuity of the cosmos. Jesus Christ the universal Exemplar of authentic divinity / humanity embodies in / for us true altruism and authentic self-affirmation.
5. Mutual implication and explication are of the essence of ontogenesis and cosmogenesis. “Cosmogeny� is about the implicate potentials of the expanding cosmos and “ontogeny’ is about the explicate actualizing of the cosmos in individuality. Ontogeny and cosmogeny are essentially codependent in the mutual expression of inherency/coherency. The individual supposes the cosmos as the cosmos supposes the individual. The implication of individuality in the cosmos supposes the explication of the cosmos as well as self-explication.
III. Covenant of Trust
1. Psychic Precondition (predisposition) permeates dark and light energy; alterations and bondings of wave resonances weave complex patterns of continuity and stability, more enduring than erratic physical bondings that are subject to entropic degrading. Human soul, Earth-soul and intentional consciousness are commonly stabilized and secured in faith awareness, in the resonant compatibilities of preconditioned harmonics accessible for attenuation.
2. Harmony is about affirmative relationship, about expanding one another’s potential by energy attenuation. Implication/explication is the way of self-fulfillment, of fulfilling one another and of amplifying cosmic potential. “Divine instance� is about enlargement of cosmic potential and the amplification of Self in other. Divinity is the Word/Work of cosmic amplification, of cosmic self extenuation and fulfillment in divinity. In the principled correlation of divinity / humanity, humankind supposes divinity even as divinity supposes humankind. The reconciliation of the divine and the human is necessarily ongoing and changing, and by it human awareness amplifies.
3. Earth-life, for example, interactively builds on gradations of light complexes which endure in phases of wave/particle iterations. Self-reflectivity finds its grounding, its continuity, its subjectivity, its stability and its amplification in preconditions of resonance. Intuitional reflectivity communicates consciously and subconsciously with energetic (spiritual) insights that are intentionally accessed. We personally metamorphose from within the “sea of infinite substance� (St. John Damascene’s description of God); we are nurtured in amniotic consciousness and delivered purposely in / from the Cosmic Womb.
4. The universal (cosmic) psyche of purposefully patterned resonances (Intelligent Design) influences social (memetic) patterning and comes to be culturally encoded. Gene-coding implicates resonance patterns in psychological development. These patterns are rational complexes that inform religious consciousness and form the faith-basis of moral relationship. “Moral ordering� is a complex of evolving insights, woven in patterns of purposeful, cultural consciousness and in communion with the reflective resonances of Psychic Precondition; the evolution of intelligence occurs by the process of “trimorphic resonance� (3) and by implication in subatomic (wave/particle) renewal.
5. The psychic connection between the living and the “non-living� is a long celebrated awareness, recognized in Christian experience as the “Communion of Saints�. The holiness of cosmic order characterizes the holiness of the living person and the preconditioning of intentional faith-life. We, who have experienced the passing of a specially loved one, experience a new closeness and “communion� of psychic awareness that was not possible previous to the passing of the loved one. The holistic journey of deep cosmic faith-life is real. Awaken to its possibilities. We belong to it and we can own it consciously.
Sylvester L. Steffen
References:
(1) Thomas Berry, “Evening Thoughts, Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community�, Edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker, 2006, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco
(2) Brian Greene, “The Fabric of the Cosmos. Space. Time. And the Texture of Reality�, 2004, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, NY
(3) Sylvester Steffen, “The Possible Journey, Uncompromised Trust�, 2006, www.authorhouse.com
(4) David Toolan, “At Home in the Cosmos�, 2001, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY
Hi there, that's a
Hi there,
that's a beautiful paragraph from Lumen Gentium.
We also must remember the preceding paragraph, however, if we believe the Church to have been established by Christ (and thus has an invisible supernatural dimention as well as the visible, like Christ in His incarnation, which is why LG's opening paragraph explains: "...the Church is in Christ like a sacrament"). LG 37 paragraph 2 reads:
"The laity should, as all Christians, promptly accept in Christian obedience decisions of their spiritual shepherds, since they are representatives of Christ as well as teachers and rulers in the Church. Let them follow the example of Christ, who by His obedience even unto death, opened to all men the blessed way of the liberty of the children of God. Nor should they omit to pray for those placed over them, for they keep watch as having to render an account of their souls, so that they may do this with joy and not with grief.(211)"
I think it is to be read within the context of the whole of Chapter IV ('The Laity', from no. 30 onward) - it's crucial to know where our charism is directed. This from LG 31:
"What specifically characterizes the laity is their secular nature. It is true that those in holy orders can at times be engaged in secular activities, and even have a secular profession. But they are by reason of their particular vocation especially and professedly ordained to the sacred ministry. Similarly, by their state in life, religious give splendid and striking testimony that the world cannot be transformed and offered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes. But the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity. Therefore, since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs in such a way that they may come into being and then continually increase according to Christ to the praise of the Creator and the Redeemer."
Our priestly charism is first of all directed outwardly (as opposed to the ordained ministry's inwardly directed charism), toward the world. This is why no. 32 para. 2 reads, "For the distinction which the Lord made between sacred ministers and the rest of the People of God bears within it a certain union, since pastors and the other faithful are bound to each other by a mutual need." The ordained ministry exists as a service - which consecrates the Eucharist - in order to make lay ministry - of consecrating the world - possible. Thus, we are at once a people of God and the Body of Christ with its diverse members working in harmony according to their particular charisms.