The church is catholic, and that catholicity means it will engage the world, embracing the diversity found in the world, finding a place for all of it in its unity. Christians can and should take the good from the various cultures of the world, and use it in their personal philosophical, theological, and spiritual reflections, but also, they can and should use what the learn in what they actually do. For example, they can enculturate themselves and so employ a variety of cultural traditions in their liturgical rites and practices. However, Christians must always remember their unity, they must always remember that the church is one, and its unity comes from and is founded on Christ (and not, for example, liturgical practices). Diversity must not be used to oppose such unity, that is, the good found in particular engagements of the faith should not be abused, claimed to be something more invaluable than they are; that is, no particular good should be turned into an idol.
No particular good should be confused with the supreme good, and so turned into something which all must embrace as the highest good and so the center of all Christian unity. For when this is done, it cuts the faithful away from Christ. Any particular good can be used to form a dangerous ideology which seeks to replace the true center of the Christian faith, Christ, with itself. When this happens, the ideology must be rejected. This does not mean we should deny the good involved in the ideology, but we must recognize how the good has been perverted and used contrary to its own integral unity with the greater good; the church must seek to restore the particular good to its rightful place, but to do so, sometimes it must also put a stop to the use of that good for a time, so that the spiritual cancer surrounding it will be eliminated. In such a situation, those who stand with Christ and the church will show themselves to be faithful to the church, while those who have truly become idolatrous will further reveal their idolatry as they accuse the church and its leaders of evil for not following them in their perversion of the faith.
While we might be able to cite examples of this dangerous interplay today, it is a problem which the church has had to deal with since its inception. Paul saw Christians forming various rival groups, some which were trying to assert themselves over and above the rest of the faithful. He saw where such rivalry was headed, but hoped that he could prevent it:
I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 1: 10 -12 RSV).
Paul did not want to be seen as the leader of a sub-group in the Christian faith because he knew that could easily have him turned into a rival to Christ. He pointed out that as Christians, their faith should be centered upon Christ. They were incorporated into Christ, not anyone else, at their baptism. Christians, therefore, should not be finding themselves united upon some person or some expression of the faith which separated them from Christ. “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? “(1 Cor. 10:13 RSV). The diversity of the church, therefore, should not be used as a way to ignore unity in Christ. Those who would like to make themselves feel superior to others because of the way they worship risk idolizing their worship practice, putting it ahead of the church and proper Christian unity; for this reason, if someone emphasizes their way of worship in this fashion, they have no one to blame other than themselves if they find themselves and their way of worship being cut off from the church.
Jesus never wanted to send anyone away who honestly came to him to be spiritual fed. He wanted, indeed, continues to want everyone to come to him, to be properly fed, not by their own ideologies, not by their own liturgical fancies, but by him. Those who come to him can be fed. This is one of the lessons which we can and should learn from the times he miraculously fed crowds:
Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children (Matt. 14:16-21 RSV).
Jesus doesn’t want to put up any barriers so as to turn anyone away who should come to him to be fed; if and when such barriers are put up, it is because we put them there. We either put them up in front of ourselves, or in front of others. But this runs contrary to Christ’s ways. Christ calls all to be fed; and no matter how much is given, there is always more left over – indeed, Christ feeds us of himself in and through the eucharist, so that, no matter how many come to him to eat, Christ is never be consumed, and for this reason, more and more should feel welcome to come to him and partake of the bread of life. However, those who come to Christ must truly come to him, to seek him out, to desire him and what he has to offer. Idolatry gets in the way of being properly fed, and as such, makes people sick; even if they receive some of the spiritual food Christ has to offer, they partake of it mixed, as it were, with a poisonous spice, a spiritual poison which, of course, does not hurt Christ, but rather, hurts those partake of that poison. This is why, whenever the church encounters such idolatry in its midst, it must work to counter it, to remove the poison so that those who come will not be sickened by it (even as it helps those who have tasted of it recover so that their spiritual health is restored). This is why the church must always remind Christians that their focus should be on Christ, so that they do not wander astray, and add a poisonous spice to their spiritual food. The diversity found in the church means that there are many ways the faithful can come to Christ, to embrace Christ, but we must always keep in mind, all those ways are good only insofar as we do not turn them into ends in and of themselves, for their value lies in the way the point to and direct us to the fullness of the good in Christ.
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