I have received a little feedback to last week’s call for suggestions of topics for this series in the Parish Newsletter. One thing that was suggested was a look at the history of the church and of the Mass. (I am still seeking further suggestions). So, let’s do a little on that.
The title of this week’s contribution is, as you see, ‘History Matters’. And it really does. The life of the Church and of all believers has always been a part of the history of their time. This means that there has been constant change as the Church has lived through different types of society, different ways of looking at life and the world. It also means that the life of the Church has never been ideal or complete; it has always been part of the concrete circumstances of the particular time in which it was living.
Once upon a time, there was a common idea that in the Catholic Church everything had always been the same. This was a particularly prominent idea when the Church saw itself against the churches deriving from the Reformation which it saw as ever changing. And in that same time there was a neglect of the study of Christian history and so a lack of awareness of the amount of change that had occurred in the Church over the twenty centuries of its existence.
From the very beginning, there has been change in the life of the Church. The constancy was in its faith in Jesus Christ and the things which he bequeathed to us. Even something as fundamental as that was frequently challenged and had to be clarified, explained and defended.
One of the tasks that falls to theologians in the Church is to continue to develop and clarify the faith of the Church and to show the continuity of the faith in the midst of many historical changes. In the coming weeks, we will seek to look into this changing history and to appreciate the depth and beauty of the faith as it developed and took to itself so many elements of human history and culture.
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Laura Facci says:
Looking forward to your articles on the history of the Church , Father Frank and thank you for leading us to a better understanding of our Catholic Faith.