I. Introduction

My topic today is "The Church which prolongs the Incarnation." The Church's mission of prolonging the Incarnation has many dimensions. In the sacraments and liturgy, especially the Eucharist, the death and resurrection of the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ continues to conquer sin and death and give supernatural life to believers throughout human history. Through the Church's catechesis, preaching and evangelization Jesus' divine revelation is prolonged in history. Through Her pastoral work, spiritual counsel, hierarchy, parishes, schools, etc., the small Church founded by Jesus continues to grow and develop generation after generation. Jesus' care for the sick, compassion for the poor, mercy and forgiveness toward sinners is prolonged in the Church's many ministries till today. Any of these dimensions is worth exploring in depth. But today I have been asked to reflect upon the Church's prolonging of the incarnation in the light of Gaudium e Spes 3, which says: "this Council can provide no more eloquent proof of its solidarity with, as well as its respect and love for the entire human family with which it is bound up, than by engaging with it in conversation about these various problems [of the modern world]. The council brings to mankind light kindled from the Gospel, and puts at its disposal those saving resources which the Church herself, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, receives from her Founder."

If we seek to clarify further in what way does Gaudium e Spes seek to prolong the work of the Incarnation, perhaps this formulation is acceptable: during his earthly life Jesus recognized that the new, divine truths He was bringing to His world need time, explanation and respectful dialogue in order to be understood and accepted. Whatever good but limited truths were already present in the religion and culture of Israel He confirmed, while at the same time showing their need for completion and perfection through the divine truths that only the Incarnate Son, who was sent by the Father, could reveal. Gaudium e Spes is an attempt to discern and confirm what is good in the modern world; but more importantly it seeks to show that these truths will find their fulfillment only when integrated with the truths of Christ's revelation. In this talk we will, therefore, look at three aspects of Gaudium e Spes: first, using the summary of John Paul II, examine the critical content of GS; second, using the work of the historian James Hitchcock, reflect upon why we have not yet seen the positive fruits expected from GS; third, we will at John Paul II's Gospel of Life as presenting a different program for engagement with what is now the post-modern world and ask if it might not be necessary to first complete the mission of re-building a culture of life before the mission outlined in GS can bear substantial fruit.

II. Content and Hope of GS

In a speech marking the thirtieth anniversary of the promulgation of GS, John Paul II explained that the central message of GS is that "the nature and destiny of man and the whole world cannot be definitively unveiled if not by the light of Christ, crucified and resurrected." In the 2,000 year history of the Church, GS is the first document of an ecumenical council to "focus with such profound involvement its pastoral preoccupation on the temporal events of humanity." Through GS "the Church really wanted to embrace the world . . . [it produced] a kind of 'magna carta' of human dignity to defend and promote."

Starting from this proclamation of human dignity, "all the positive forces in the modern world-- the desire for meaning, the thirst for justice, the demands for honesty and authenticity-- are treated by [GS] as . . . cries for help, manifesting an underlying wisdom and goodness in modern man." In answering these cries GS offers many proposals in the social, economic, cultural and political spheres to aid modern men in achieving a more just, peaceful, joyful and hopeful temporal order. Yet these hopes GS understands cannot be realized "without Christ, without welcoming His grace, which works invisibly in the heart of every man of good will." It is a fact that, on the whole, the modern world has not responded to the grace of Christ as GS hoped. Why not? The historian James Hitchcock offers some reasons.

III. Historical Reflections

James Hitchcock calls John Paul II "the most accomplished theologian ever to occupy the papal throne . . . above all the man who has articulated, once and for all, the most sublime Catholic understanding of human sexuality." For this reason it is ironic "that his pontificate has been marked by systematic attacks on Catholic sexual morality in all areas, much of it mounted by priests, religious, even Bishops." These attacks are symptoms of the crisis of authority that began in the Church with the public dissent from Humanae Vitae; these attacks have not only obstructed the dialogue between the Church and modern world hoped for in GS, much worse, they have led to the acceptance, in vast areas of the Church, of the moral disvalues of post-modernism. This crisis has become so severe that in the "Gospel of Life" Pope John Paul laments that once Catholic cultures have lost their moral sense: in once Catholic nations and regions such as Belgium, France, Spain, Quebec, Italy, etc., abortion, contraception, pre-marital sex, homosexual marriage, even euthanasia are acceptable practice. How did this come about.

According to Hitchcock, Pius XII was the last Pope "who actually ruled-- his authority was both respected and feared, his decrees obeyed. The Church of the 1950s was a cohesive institution whose members showed a high degree of commitment." One example of this spirit of unity, commitment and obedience was the ability of the Legion of Decency to prevent Hollywood from producing indecent films from the late 1930's till just after Vatican II. Pope John XXIII change the papal style to that of friendly pastor and assumed the optimistic tone characteristic of the early 1960s. The relative strength and flourishing of the Church, coupled with this general feeling of optimism contributed to the spirit of optimism characteristic of GS. For Hitchcock the failure of GS, or at least the failure of those who interpreted it after Vatican II, was its "failure to acknowledge the full power of evil in the world, particularly the reality of evil motives in human affairs" as well as the "metaphysical nihilism" that is the root of modernity. Hitchcock believes that this led to a "strained optimism" which is inhibiting the Church's ability to solve the disasters that has resulted from the ascendancy of post-modern disvalues within the Church itself: disasters such as "the loss of missionary zeal, the collapse of religious life, the sacrilegious liturgies, and the general public acceptance of the sexual revolution." Hitchcock calls instead for a moral realism. In the "Gospel of Life," John Paul provides such moral realism in his analysis of the roots of post-modern world's culture of death and in his program to build a culture of life.

III. The Mission of the Gospel of Life

Anyone who believes with the Church that "each human being must be treated as a person from the moment of conception" can only conclude that the contemporary world is in an unending war against the unborn, that we are living daily through a world wide holocaust. The Gospel of Life directly faces this evil, tracing out its spiritual roots and stating clearly that the culture of death is a conspiracy of some of the richest nations, multinational cooperations, international organizations and foundations which promotes systematically the murder of the innocent as a means of solving individual, social and economic problems. While admitting that from a human point of view the forces promoting the culture of death have overwhelming material and political power in the modern world, John Paul II tells us that we as Christian have a realistic hope of overcoming this evil power based on our faith in Jesus, who is Life itself.

It is impossible here to go into the details of John Paul II's program for overcoming the culture death and building a culture of life, but two critical elements can be stated: evangelism, or re-evangelism, and active resistance to the unjust laws that make abortion legal. John Paul's program will succeed if it is followed. It is deeply unfortunate, however, the in Europe and North America the Pope and hierarchy are unable to rule in the sense of having the decrees of Humanae Vitae and the Gospel of Life obeyed. As long as Catholic theologians, priests, politicians and even some Bishops are able publicly and often vehemently to oppose the Church's teaching on human life and human procreation without any effective sanctions, it is as Hitchcock says "wishful thinking" rather than theological hope to believe re-evangelization or effective resistance to abortion laws can take place. On the positive side in this regard, recently some Bishops have told Catholic politicians who support legal abortion they may not receive communion; yet at the same time, a famous Catholic moral theologian has publicly declared to a State legislature that the Catholic Church does not favor a law limiting marriage to one man and one woman. Not only has this religious priest received no sanctions, he has recently received tenure and been given a prestigious chair in a famous Catholic university.

IV. Conclusion

I began this talk examining the mission of dialogue with the modern world envisioned in GS as a prolongation of the Incarnation. I will end by proposing that in this historical moment, so accurately described John Paul II in the Gospel of Life, the signs of the times demand we place priority on the more urgent missions of evangelism, re-evangelism and resistance to the culture of death. To do this we need more courageous Bishops who are willing to defend the unborn and thereby, when necessary, prolong the rejection by the world, passion and Cross accepted by our Incarnate savior, Jesus Christ.

1. John Paul II, The Council Took Place, Hope for the World

2. James Hitchcock, "A Strained Optimism-- Possibly a Product of the Era in which the Second Vatican Council Met-- Thwarts Realistic Attempts to Address the Crisis in Catholicism Today."

3. JP II, "The Council Took Place"

4. Hitchcock, "Strained Optimism"

5. Hitchcock, "Strained Optimism"