At this time of Synod when the bishops are questioning themselves about where the Church is going, it is perhaps the moment to look again at where it has been in the past, especially in times of changing ideas. Christ in his parting remarks said that there were many true things which we were not yet prepared to bear, but that the Holy Spirit would reveal them to us in due time. Looking back at how fiercely the Church has fought against certain truths in the past, before accepting them and moving on, one begins to wonder if the Holy Spirit has not already been trying to talk to us, but has not been able to get a word in.
A few major turning points come immediately to mind: the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Copernican Revolution – close together in time and therefore inter-dependent – but each requiring a different kind of adjustment, a linked series of reactions with the acceptance of previously unacknowledged truths. Out of this period came translation of the scriptures into vernacular languages, detachment from the literal meaning of the words to permit a deeper understanding of what holy writ was actually saying, and the beginnings of a changed relation between God and Man, which would take centuries to work out and indeed is still in progress. Truth had not changed, but thinkers were obliged to revise their world picture.
A second series of nudges accompanied the Enlightenment, with the rise of Deism, the classification of Species, and the discovery of the Unconscious. All these the Church has had to deal with, with varied success. Many adjustments are still taking place, some quite painful. But these are certainly seen as genuine issues, needing an enlightened response. Gradually the idea is gaining ground, that facts must be faced with truthful responses, not concealed behind superstitious ducking and diving.
If the Holy Spirit is indeed trying to nudge us into thinking differently, it is inevitable – man being man, and the Spirit being pliable – that new ideas will be presented in an extreme form, to be whittled and smoothed into an accepted doctrine after due deliberation and refinement. Darwin's hesitation before publishing the Origin of Species is entirely understandable. One of the disadvantages of Deism is that it suggests that only man is responsible, that God plays little or no part in human affairs. Darwin's enemies therefore had at hand a label easy to apply to anyone proposing new ideas – namely that they were damnable heretics. But the bishops of Darwin's day got it wrong. DNA now confirms what the exhaustive collections of specimens in the Jardin des Plantes had already suggested: that all animal forms follow an apparent similarity, reflecting both order and chance in their - shared - evolutionary history.
Once again, facts appeared to deny the truth of written scripture. Several more nudges were required, before the prelates got their heads round what the professors were professing.
One cannot help wondering if it wouldn't be a good idea to examine one by one the contentious issues the Church has resisted and condemned, and try to see if there is a common underlying motive force bringing an idea to the surface at a particular historical moment, which – if it knows what is good for it – the Church might in its wisdom take to heart and meditate. In this it would be following the example of the Lord's holy Mother after the family pilgrimage of his twelfth year found him at work in the Temple of Jerusalem, nudging the pastoral leaders of his day into thinking again about the interpretation of scripture, the signs of our times, and the place of factual information in religious life. Let us listen for the Voice of the Lord, and see if we can recognize a new Epiphany.
Happy 2022! (Alec)
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