Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology

Permanent URI for this collection

http://192.168.4.170:4000/handle/20.500.12342/183

Welcome to Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology collection

Browse

Browsing Degree of Baccalaureate in Theology by Author "Awogya, Alfred W."

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Jesus Christ, the Sacrament of God: Source, Inspiration and Model of Inculturation Today
    (2011) Awogya, Alfred W.
    The Second Vatican Council (1962-5) was very conscious of the enormous task that still besets the Church in the twenty-first century. The Council thus "sought to renew the Church's life and activity in the light of the needs of the contemporary world" (RM, 1) so that it may more meaningfiffly speak to the hearts of modem man and woman. It affirmed the Church's "missionary nature," called continuously to proclaim the Good News of Christ to all peoples (AG, 1), in obedience to the command of her founder, Jesus Christ (cf. Mk 16: 15). It is this mission, "the Mission of Christ the Redeemer entrusted to the Church," Pope John Paul II says, that "is still very far from completion" (RM, 1, cf. AG, 10). The Church, which "exists in order to evangelize" (EN, 14) must ask herself how she must carry on her evangelizing mission today (cf EA, 46). She is called to respond to modem man and woman in the concrete cultural situations of their lives, in their joy and hope, grief and anguish (cf. GS, 1) so that she may continue to be the "sacrament of salvation" to the nations (cf. AG, 1). If the Church will succeed in this enormous task, which, according to Pope John Paul II, is only starting, inculturation, the process whereby the power of the Gospel is brought into the very heart of culture and cultures (GDC, 109), becomes not just an option but an urgent necessity (cf. RM, 52; EA, 59). Has the message of Christ in all its richness (cf. Col 3:16) penetrated the deepest strata of human society and persons? Has Christ gone into the very centre of every culture so that every person may authentically respond to Jesus' fundamental question, "Who do you say that I am?" (Mt 15:16). In the face of such tough challenge to contemporary mission, Pope John Paul II recognizes that though the need for inculturation has marked the Church's pilgrimage throughout her history, it remains a particularly urgent priority today (cf. RM, 52). If not inculturated, Christianity runs the risk of remaining a "strange religion," not touching the deepest reality of people's lives. Indeed "just as 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (Jn 1:14), so too the Good News, the Word of Jesus Christ proclaimed to the nations, must take root in the life-situation of the hearers of the Word" (EA, 60).