Excerpt from Trinitarian Ecclesiology: Charles Journet, the Divine Missions, and the Mystery of the Church— by John F. O’Neill and foreword by John Baptist Ku
Introduction
Venerable Fulton Sheen once famously said that “there are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be—which is, of course, quite a different thing.” This is true for people of every nation of the world throughout history since the Church’s founding by Christ. Although the Catholic Church exists in the world and is encountered by people of every nation and tongue, her true nature and mission is nevertheless opaque to most, especially in our modern world that rejects not only divine revelation but even natural knowledge of God obtainable by reason. Rather than perceiving a mystery that contains the presence of God and provides us with the means to attain our perfect happiness in him, many see the Church as an outdated human institution that limits, and even threatens, our freedom. This raises the question of the proper understanding of the Church. What is the nature of the Church and what is her mission? Charles Cardinal Journet, who authored a scientific and sapiential treatise on the Church in the last century, L’Église du Verbe incarné, outlines three different ways of perceiving the Church that correspond to how one regards Christ. Only the third way of viewing the Church reveals her true nature. Journet holds that during the time that our Lord lived here among us there were three possible ways of regarding him. Many regarded Jesus as one man among others. Al though they were at times astonished by his teachings, they ranked him among the enlightened or the political revolutionaries. None of these saw past the mere externals. Others had a more penetrating vision and saw a unique wisdom and holiness of life, as well as a power in his deeds not from man. These men saw the miracle of Jesus, but not his mystery. These first two groups looked upon Jesus only by the light of reason. The last group beheld Jesus by the supernatural light of faith and believed in the mystery of the Word made flesh.
Similarly, there are three ways of viewing the Church. The first is the look of the superficial observer who limits himself to a mere description of the Church. The Church appears to him as one religious society among others. From this perspective the Church can be distinguished easily enough from other Christian or non-Christian religions, and her structures, teachings, forms of worship, etc., can be identified. Yet some observers will penetrate more deeply. They will see in the marks of the Church something miraculous: her steadfast ness in her unity and universality, or in her effects of sanctity. This can be perceived even while remaining outside her unity. Finally, the Church may also be perceived by the eyes of faith: “Then the Church is seen in her mystery, in her profound reality, as the Body of Christ, inhabited by the Holy Spirit, who directs her and dwells in her as her Guest.” This perspective of mystery was chosen by the Second Vatican Council in order to present the Church’s own self-understanding in the opening chapter of Lumen gentium. After an originally apologetic stance proposed by the schema de Ecclesia, which opened with a chapter on the “Nature of the Church Militant,” a new document was proposed with an understanding of the Church as “mystery.” In the opening lines of the chapter the Council identifies the Church as being “in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very close-knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race.” The doctrine of “sacrament” has a clear connection to mystery; although the Greek word μυστήριον was sometimes transliterated into Latin as mysterium, it was also translated as sacramentum. This idea of the Church as a sacrament has been taken up by many authors, both before and after the Council.4 Nevertheless, the chapter unfolds the notion of mystery in other ways as well, particularly in relation to the divine persons: the plan of the Father and the visible missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Incarnation and on the day of Pentecost. By beginning with the divine persons, the Church is understood in relation to her divine origin and inner most depths, rather than being identified merely by her visible exteriority. The Church herself lives on earth by the light of faith, and understands herself by this same light. Under this light, she appears to herself as a mystery wrapped up in the mystery of God and of Christ, as “a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. ”This emphasis on mystery is also at the heart of the ecclesiology of Journet. In the introduction to his monumental work of ecclesiology, L’Église du Verbe incarné, Journet explains how works on the Church undertaken since St. Thomas’s time have been chiefly directed to defending the Church’s authority, with the result that the questions mainly concerned the hierarchy or the marks of the Church.
By concentrating on apologetic, Journet judged that these treatises de Ecclesia tended to exclude “all deeper study of the intimate constitution and essential mystery of the Church.”7 It was precisely this, however—usually treated under the heading of the Mystical Body of Christ—that primarily interested Journet. In or der to avoid a division between two theological treatises, one on the Church, treating the hierarchical organization, and the other on the Mystical Body, treating the inner life of the members of Christ, Jour net set out to explain the Church in light of her four causes on which she essentially depends. From this perspective the hierarchy is understood as the immediate efficient cause of the Church, and the inner life of the Church is given its proper place without being relegated to a separate treatise. In addition to properly situating the inner life of the Church within a single treatise on the Church, the order of Journet’s work according to the four causes also allows him to treat the Church in relation to the divine persons. Although the four causes provide for the overall structure of the work, the theme at the head and the heart of his work is the divine missions: The visible mission of the Son concerns Christ, who is the Head. The visible missions of the Spirit, ordered to that of Pentecost, concern the Church, which is the Body: twice the Spirit is sent to Christ to signify that he begins to found the Church, and twice Christ sends Him to the apostles, in the cenacle, to complete this foundation. Thus, the visible missions terminate, the one, in Christ, who is the Head; the other four in the Church, which is the Body. After them, the Church is finished, in her Head and in her Body.
Christ and the Church are presented here in relation to visible missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, but in different ways. Christ is the Son sent visibly into the world for our salvation. The Church, too, is understood in relation to visible missions of a divine person, but only in order to found the Church. The Spirit is sent visibly both to Christ and to the apostles to manifest the Head of the Church and his ministers, upon whom he would in some way found his Church. The visibility of the Son’s mission is permanent in the In carnation, while the visibility of these missions of the Spirit is fleeting and they manifest him only as dwelling in Christ and the apostles who are sources of the Spirit for others through the preaching of the Gospel and the administering of the sacraments. The Holy Spirit, nevertheless, remains invisibly present within the Church as in a Temple, and even as a Soul within a Body. This presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, however, and the relation of the Church to the Holy Spirit, is articulated by Journet primarily in terms of appropriation. He appropriates both the efficient cause of the Church and the divine indwelling presence within the Church to the Holy Spirit. He does, nevertheless, distinguish between the entitative and intentional aspects of grace and glory: God is not only the cause of grace, but also the object of supernatural knowledge and love. While many authors have taken up an account of the Church according to her designation as a sacrament, few have undertaken a treatment of the Church in relation to the divine persons in light of the divine missions. However, this approach is not altogether ab sent, for whenever Thomistic authors present the doctrine of the divine missions some reference to the Church is often included, since it is Thomas’s doctrine that the missions are at the foundation of the Church. Nevertheless, it is usually the Church that is mentioned within a treatise on the divine missions, rather than beginning with the divine missions in order to develop a treatise on the Church.
One notable exception is a dissertation by Fr. Nicolas Glasson that presents the doctrine of the divine missions as the foundation and the principle of unity of Journet’s ecclesiology.10 Sr. Alexandra Diriart also has a work that presents Journet’s ecclesiology, but she focuses on the anthropological analogy used by Journet rather than the divine missions. Although Journet often recognizes the intentional aspect of grace (the divine persons are objects of our knowledge and love), he primarily explains the relation between the Church and the Holy Spirit in terms of appropriation. Since the time of Journet, however, there has been important research and work on Thomas’s speculative Trinitarian theology, which includes the divine missions. Among the fruits of this research is a greater appreciation of the proper role of each divine person in the act of creation as well as the different ways creatures relate to God as One and Three. Gilles Emery has led this research and has published a vast number of books and articles on the subject, which includes Trinitarian theology proper, the divine missions, the creative Trinity, as well as the origin of Trinitarian faith and theology in Scripture. Dominic Legge has taken up the work One notable exception is a dissertation by Fr. Nicolas Glasson that presents the doctrine of the divine missions as the foundation and the principle of unity of Journet’s ecclesiology. Sr. Alexandra Diriart also has a work that presents Journet’s ecclesiology, but she focuses on the anthropological analogy used by Journet rather than the divine missions. Although Journet often recognizes the intentional aspect of grace (the divine persons are objects of our knowledge and love), he primarily explains the relation between the Church and the Holy Spirit in terms of appropriation. Since the time of Journet, however, there has been important research and work on Thomas’s speculative Trinitarian theology, which includes the divine missions. Among the fruits of this research is a greater appreciation of the proper role of each divine person in the act of creation as well as the different ways creatures relate to God as One and Three. Gilles Emery has led this research and has published a vast number of books and articles on the subject, which includes Trinitarian theology proper, the divine missions, the creative Trinity, as well as the origin of Trinitarian faith and theology in Scripture.12 Dominic Legge has taken up the work as the visible mission of the Holy Spirit. According to this under standing, the Church is not merely founded by visible missions of the Holy Spirit to Christ and to the apostles; rather, the Church is the visible mission of the Holy Spirit such that the very visibility of the Church, as belonging to the term of the Spirit’s mission, manifests the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. The great mystery of Christ and the Church, then, is seen as the visible missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit, but in different ways, as we show. We use recent research into the Trinitarian theology and Christology of Aquinas as well as the Trinitarian ecclesiology of Journet in order to argue for this position.
This work will be divided into three parts. Part 1 contains preliminary material that prepares us for the presentation of the causes of the Church. We begin in chapter 1 by outlining the notion of “mystery” as contained in Lumen gentium. We argue for the fittingness of the doctrine of the divine missions as a way of accounting for the Church as a mystery. Chapter 2 presents the speculative Trinitarian principles of St. Thomas necessary for understanding the nature and division of the divine missions. We focus on the rational distinction between the common and the proper in God in order to understand a divine person, his mode of action in creation, and how a created relation can terminate in something essential or personal in God. Part 2 presents the Trinitarian ecclesiology of Charles Cardinal Journet according to the four causes of the Church, as well as the ages of the Church. This second part has its own introduction