65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey 12 – God’s reign – and to call for a change of thinking and living. Not only his teaching but also his ‘miracles’ were signs of the Reign of God, a foreshadowing of what was to come. The theology of liberation helped us to bring God’s reign down to earth. Christianity had not delivered the peace it promised and, hence, we consoled ourselves with the peace to come; with heaven after death. As Karl Marx rightly saw, our faith helped us to carry our cross but not to change the cause of evil in the world. The Church was at the forefront in the alleviation of suffering through her works of charity, but not in the changing of the structures that caused it. Liberation theology was only taking seriously what the popes and Vatican II had stated. Like anything human, even Liberation Theology was not perfect, but its concern was central to the teaching of the Church in Vatican II. Gaudium et spes echoing Pacem in terris of John XXIII shows the new position of the Church, speaking “to all men in order to shed light on the mystery of man and to cooperate in finding the solutions to the outstanding problems of our time”. (10) Now the Church does not only alleviate the pain, it works together with the world to find solutions. The mission of the Church and the sacraments need to be seen in this light. Heaven is not forgotten but our task is to change not only our thinking and our life – metánoia –. but the thinking and life of the whole human society. It is through this involvement here on earth that after death we will live with Christ forever. The Missionary Nature of the Sacraments Sacrament of Baptism Baptism, in the pre-Vatican II days, was seen only in terms of personal, eternal salvation. The Johannine nisi quis, ‘unless one is baptised will not be saved,’ was the driving motif. Catholic nurses were urged to baptise the foetus in the womb of dead or dying mothers. Baptisms in periculo mortis, in danger of death were very common in PNG. We were very quick in invoking the ecclesia supplet axiom. The platonic, perfect Church up there, was able to fix these human problems in mysterious ways. We missionaries had to save souls from hell! The shift I witnessed and experienced since Vatican II was from the liturgical rite to the faith it was supposed to express. It is faith expressed in love that saves. The document on the Church, Lumen Gentium, of Vatican II expresses this clearly when it states: Catechumens who, moved by the Holy Spirit, seek with explicit intention to be incorporated into the Church are by that very intention joined to her. With love and solicitude Mother Church already embraces them as her own. (14) It is the faith that motivates these people that saves them. The rite only expresses it officially. If this active faith fails, baptism not only does not help, as a matter of fact it makes things worse for the one who received it. He is not saved, however, who, though he is part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity…. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word, and deed, not only will they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged. (14) The shift I witnessed and experienced since Vatican II was from the liturgical rite to the faith it was supposed to express. It is faith expressed in love that saves.
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