www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Taking Our Charge to Be Eastern Seriously

Glory to Jesus Christ!
I had a very basic question that comes to mind as I read many threads.

If we Eastern Catholics have been charged to really follow our Orthodox Brethren and this charge is under 20 years old in the ~400 years post reunion, why is there such uproar over a failure to be consistent? Why do we not pray "Lord have mercy" over witnessing an "incorrect" omophorion/liturgy/anaphora/proskomedia/absence of vespers/etc.?

I will do what I can to live out this vision, and am blessed with both a parish and a monastery in my vicinity that (in my opinion) does share the vision of being Orthodox in communion with Rome. Perhaps that is why I don't share the frustration over a Tradition that has been latinized not becoming Orthodox in communion with Rome fast enough.

But my main question is, do any on this site doubt that this is a genuine/attainable goal in Eastern Catholicism? If so, why?

Blessings,
Jonathan

I suggest you find an article by Father Robert Taft called "Liturgy in the Life of the Church" that gives a very good, if necessarily incomplete answer.

We have not. We have been charged with having the courage to be ourselves not the fear of not being someone else. Being ourselves means "Taking Our Charge to Be Eastern Seriously."

Regarding the omophorion for example: It is just a matter of low esteem and a blind inferiority complex where one can feel good by engaging in misguided self-chastisement. See the current omophorion thread ( link ) as an example of what I mean. Some of our self-criticism is unfounded and ill-advised.

Again, seeing ones identity only in terms of the other?

Exchanging then one foreign identity that should have been easy to spot (latinization) and solving it by assuming a different one ("Orthodox") in which we share as equals and not as some mongrel trying to legitimize ourselves.

We, Eastern Catholics, need to be true to our -- especially eastern -- patrimony and be able to articulate convincingly why we are Catholic.

Dear ajk,
I never wrote that we ought view our identity solely in terms of the other.

Allow a better writer than myself to express this concept:

It has been stressed several times that the full union of the Catholic Eastern Churches with the Church of Rome which has already been achieved must not imply a diminished awareness of their own authenticity and originality.[58] Wherever this occurred, the Second Vatican Council has urged them to rediscover their full identity, because they have "the right and the duty to govern themselves according to their own special disciplines. For these are guaranteed by ancient tradition, and seem to be better suited to the customs of their faithful and to the good of their souls".[59] - Pope John Paul II, Orientale Lumen


My original point can be restated then, using the above quote, as follows:

When people on this forum and elsewhere are frustrated by the apparent lack of consistency in

{rediscover[ing] their full identity, because they have the right and the duty to govern themselves according to their own special disciplines}

it strikes me that this is less than fully patient, especially that this particular charge from a Pope came only about 15 years ago in a history of ~400 years of (re)union.


Forgive me, a sinner, who makes these observations.

Jonathan

You did not (explicitly) and I understand you do not hold to that. My remarks were to the forum, not just to you (though based on your words), and that particular statement was in the form of a rhetorical question: there is a question mark at the end of my comment, suggesting a reevaluation of a certain perspective:


On the other hand:

I agree, and he didn't have to mention the Orthodox or the Latins. And his reference goes back to VCII, the mid-60's, almost 50 years now. For the Ruthenians, the promulgation of the Recension, aimed in part in focusing on "full identity," goes back to the early 40's, some 70 years.

It would also be good for Rome to put its fine words into (better) practice.

Hi all,

As one who is feels the pull of the East, but doesn't want to get into a "half-baked" situation, I find the question that was raised a good reality check for me, and I thank j.a. for it. It is easy to look for the "perfect" church, the one that has everything you want and nothing you don't, and miss what you are really looking for because it doesn't live up to the image of what you think you want.

To easy for me is to fall into the trap that was called out in the Music Man, when a mother was talking to her stubborn daughter about a potential husband:

"I know all about your standards
And if you don't mind my sayin' so
There's not a man alive
Who could hope to measure up to that blend'a
Paul Bunyan, Saint Pat and Noah Webster
You've got concocted for yourself outta your Irish imagination,
Your Iowa stubbornness, and your liberry fulla' books!"

Perhaps we are called to come into a Eastern Catholic Church and work to help restore the fullness of the Church's identity as a authentic entity in it's own right.

Lech

Well said, Lech!

Many years,

Neil