Article Tools
- Text Size
- Add a comment (2)
- Print this article
- Email this article
Pope John XXIII’s main goal in calling the Second Vatican Council was to bring the church up to date by opening its doors to the wind of the Spirit.
John knew that if the doors were open, the church could be renewed, and believers could be sent out into the world with the refreshing message of the gospel. And after John’s death, Paul VI continued with the same convictions and saw the church through the challenging time of transition.
An Optimistic Wind. Pope John’s vision for the Council, and for the church as a whole, was very optimistic and positive. He believed that the winds of the Holy Spirit could change the world. In his opening speech at the start of the Council, John was very candid about the challenges he faced, and about what he felt the Spirit was telling him:
In the daily exercise of our pastoral office, we sometimes have to listen, much to our regret, to voices of persons who, though burning with zeal, are not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure. In these modern times they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin. They say that our era, in comparison with past eras, is getting worse… . We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand.
For John, the present time was not a time of darkness. For him, it was a time of great promise—with its fair share of challenges, of course, but also filled with hope. Where some looked out on the technological revolution and saw only the threat of humanity becoming enslaved to machines, John saw the hope of people being lifted out of poverty and vast new opportunities for preaching the gospel. Where some saw lay involvement in the church as a threat to the purity of the gospel, John saw thousands of workers bringing in the harvest. Where some looked at the ecumenical movement as not much more than a gathering of heresies, John saw the hope for reconciliation and unity among all Christians.
For John, the “outside world” was not a wilderness of falsehood fraught with dangers. It was the theater on which God was unfolding the great drama of salvation. And it was here, in the world at large, that John longed to see the church exert greater influence. It was here that he longed to see the healing power of the gospel take greater effect. How? By offering the world what he called the “medicine of mercy.”
Applying the “Medicine of Mercy.” John was aware of the dangers, for example, of Communist regimes that persecuted Christians and publicly promoted atheism. He also knew the threat, especially in the Western world, posed by materialism and the temptations that come with financial prosperity. And yet he proclaimed:
We see, in fact, as one age succeeds another, that the opinions of men follow one another and exclude each other. And often errors vanish as quickly as they arise, like fog before the sun. The church has always opposed these errors. Frequently she has condemned them with the greatest severity. Nowadays however, the spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.
The world was hearing enough voices of judgment against the sins of the day. But what the world wasn’t hearing enough about was the promise and hope at the heart of the gospel. And so John wanted the church to speak in a whole new way—a way that sought to integrate the truths of the faith with the experiences of everyday people. He wanted the Council to go beyond making dogmatic statements about Catholic faith and to explain as well how these truths are relevant to people in their day-to-day lives.
In John’s mind, the old formulations had to be rethought. The old terms and methods had to be brought up to date so that the glory of the gospel could shine out once more and pierce people’s hearts: “The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another,” he said.
John wanted to open the doors this way because he saw how confusing the changes in modern life had become. He wanted the church to proclaim that Jesus is with us in every circumstance, offering us his strength, his wisdom, and his healing. Gathering bishops from the four corners of the earth, he announced that Jesus is not limited to cathedrals, churches, shrines, and seminaries. He is with us at work and at home, wherever we go, as we face all the ups and downs of our lives. He stands at the door of our hearts, asking us to let him in so he can work in us and through us (Revelation 3:20).
This is the gospel that brings relief to guilty consciences, hope to the downtrodden, and the expectation of the miraculous to those who already believe and are longing for a deeper relationship with God.
One Body, Many Members. A seasoned diplomat himself, Pope John saw how advances in technology and mass communication were bringing the nations of the world together more and more. And so he concluded that the church needed to become more “global” in its approach. He knew that the body of Christ is made up of people from many cultures, traditions, and practices, and that the church needed to praise and uphold all the positive things in these different cultures. As a result, the Council gave believers in Africa and Asia, in South America and Australia, the freedom to blend their local traditions with the message of the gospel so that these traditions might be used to glorify the Lord and reflect his love.
This is also part of the reason why one of the first issues addressed at Vatican II—and the biggest change to come under John’s leadership—had to do with the way the Mass was celebrated. For the first time in centuries, people could offer Mass in their own languages. Different forms of music and worship were introduced. The priest faced the people as a gesture of unity and intimacy, increasing the sense that the whole church was celebrating the Eucharist together.
Praying for Winds of Renewal. In June of 1963, three weeks after Pope John XXIII died, Paul VI was elected in his place. Paul immediately announced that he would continue the work John had begun. Like his predecessor, Pope Paul was determined to open the doors and let the winds of renewal continue to blow through the church. And so it was under Paul that the Council focused its attention on the nature of the church and the role of the bishop in the world—a focus most evident in the constitution Lumen Gentium. (See the article beginning on page 10.) It was also under Paul that the groundbreaking document On the Church in the Modern World was published.
It was also Paul’s dream that the winds of Vatican II heal the wounds of division among the different churches and denominations. He personally repented for any way in which the Catholic Church contributed to the divisions. During the final days of the council, Pope Paul and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I jointly expressed regret for many of the past actions that led up to the Great Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in 1054.
Let the Winds Blow! From the first day of the Council in October of 1962 to its closing in December of 1965, the Holy Spirit offered the church one surprise after another. No one who arrived in Rome in 1962 could have possibly dared to hope for the powerful force of renewal that flowed. Pope John XXIII wanted to fling open the doors of the church to let the Holy Spirit flow freely, and after he died, Pope Paul VI kept those doors open. As a result, the Spirit poured out his medicine of mercy not only upon the people of the church, but upon everyone in the world.
For those four years, the Council Fathers charted a course that would see the church into a new millennium and beyond. They heard the Spirit talk about a global church, and they responded by praising the different ways people around the world worshipped and followed Jesus and by encouraging Catholics to respect, honor, and even pray with Christians from other denominations and traditions. They heard the Spirit talk about the needs of the modern world, and they responded by bringing the liturgy up to date and openly telling the world how the promises of the gospel are integrated with the joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears that all people face. They heard the Sprit talk about his deep desire to speak to all believers, and they responded by urging believers and unbelievers alike to read the Scriptures and seek the Lord in prayer.
Today, forty-seven years later, the renewing wind of Spirit is still blowing. In all these areas and more, the Spirit is still at work, urging us to lift up our eyes to heaven, even as we go out announcing the good news of Jesus. Let’s continue to pray for the church. Let’s continue to work for the kingdom. And most importantly, let’s continue to let the wind blow upon us and—through us—out to the world.
Cardinal Bernadin wrote a wonderful pastoral letter in about 1985 in which he detailed the frustration felt by clergy and layity alike by Vatican II. It now seems that there has been little resolution of that frustration in the Church in America. The Bishops seem intent on taking us back to the church of smells and bells. I find the changes somewhat comforting, being raised Catholic in pre-Vatican II times. However the swing back to the 50’s church may bring with it unintended poor consequences, the greatest of these being a return to a passive and spectating community instead of the Celebrating Community we should have. Respectable awe is good. Proactive participation is better.
Great article! Thanks! Lately I’ve been feeling led to pray for a great furhering of the renewal of our worship - a great renewal of both reverence and active celebratory participation - these are not opposite poles. i think it’s the Book of Numbers where it mentions the people raising their hands in worship and falling down prostrate - both celebration and reverence flowing naturally as two aspects of Spirit-filled worship. I pray our Mass on Sundays could last longer than an hour, with longer times of quiet after each reading, with the laity bringing their Bibles to follow along and the homilies explaining a bit more the background of the readings - please, let’s stop putting reigns on the Holy Spirit by insisting our priests stick to 15-min homilies - also, I’d love to see an extended time of reverent and joyful adoration while the priest is elevating the Host - after he says, “Through Him, with Him & in Him, all glory & honor are Yours, Almighty God & Father” (or something close to that) - this is the greatest moment of our worship & it just doesn’t feel right to rush through it. Lastly, it’d be so great to have more time after Communion with songs to just dwell with the Lord Whom we have just received, rather than rushing into the announcements. All this is not to criticize our priests, but rather to say I think we laity have put this pressure on our priests to rush through the Mass. Our worship should be filled with life, joy & reverence! :-)