Where is the church
going? Many Catholics are unconsciously puzzled by the many activities of the
Church and individual religious men and women whose mentality are also
distorted. Unconscious because the Church somehow jibes with the modern
thinking of doing things like going to concert for fund raising, which they see
religious perform and dance the modern way, and distorted because they think
and do the way people in modern and secular world do, like doing business and becoming
materialistic. People know to group them where they belong, either the
traditional thinking or modern thinking. But understanding deeply what Pope
Benedict XVI is saying about hermeneutic of Continuity and hermeneutic of
rupture, one would rather be able to appreciate the right direction of the
Church as a whole, which many of the religious do know but not keeping it, or
just hanging around in their comfort zone and be ignorant with advantage.
The term Hermeneutic
The word
‘hermeneutic’ derives from a messenger, whose name is ‘Hermes.’ He is a
messenger in Greek mythology. And the Church, in her theology, adopted that
word in its critical understanding and interpretation of the Biblical text. It
is very important to do that in order to bring out the essence of God’s word or
message and put things in its proper place together with the teaching documents
done by the teaching authority of the Church called the Magisterium. The
magisterium serves well the Sacred Scripture and the Sacred Tradition according
to the document Dei Verbum.
Hermeneutic of Rupture
The term rupture implies a decisive break and an
entity, totally new, emerges. And this kind of mentality is found with
satisfaction because it is totally different from what has been accustomed to.
This is an attempt of what is going on to disrupt the Church mission to teach
faithfully all what the Lord has commanded to his first disciples. It is an
attempt to introduce a new perspective, as influenced by modernization and
secularization. It is modernization because it is something new, and
secularization because it is something peculiar to the Church – it is
not-church related. An example to this is the introduction of same-sex marriage
– totally new from what has been practiced for many centuries, that is, not
same-sex marriage or a boy-girl union.
Hermeneutic of
Continuity
The term continuity implies evolution, a forming
out of something better. This is the kind of path being followed by the Church.
It is something different to many or some of us, but definitely it is a
combination of the old and the new. It is old because the Church remains
faithful to what has been handed down to them by the Lord, and it is something
new because what has been handed down is being implemented according to the
situation of the time. When the Church speaks about each Catholic as a
missionary in his own right, she speaks the truth about the nature of the
sacrament of baptism – the three-fold mission of Christ given to the newly
baptized.
The Church and the
Hermeneutic of Continuity
The position of the Church is very clear that
she follows the hermeneutic of continuity. By this the Church do not just come
up with something new policy or let us say, rules and regulations that is not
in accordance with her doctrines and with the Code of Canon Law. The right term
here is corroborates and enhances what has been implemented. And
what has been implemented before is being subjected to the signs of the times.
And behind this hermeneutic of continuity is the principle of infallibility by
the pope that guides the whole activities of the Church to the right path, and
frees her from all errors that contradicts her teachings. When the Church is
talking about the immorality of corruption in the government, it is not a sign
of being rebellious against the politicians. It is indeed a sign of her mission
as part of matters in faith and morals.
Source: http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=296
