170 Chapter 13
WHY IT WAS WORTHWHILE
antagonistic, or at best, irrelevant, to the whole process, and continues
to be so.
Catholic theology has thus far provided the magisterium with very
little ability to articulate the profound covenantal freedom of Man's
'private' worship, its creativity ex nihilo. Catholic theology's
fundamental intellectual and scientific location within a dehistoricized
cosmology -- whether of 'natural' law or of 'liberation' -- simply has no
place for genuine surprise, for intelligible free covenantal relation, for
'private' worship that is simultaneously a "vanity" -- mere juggling --
and a completion in 'flesh' of Christ's afflictions -- a surprise to God
himself.
The theological or intellectual key to
the evangelization of the New Class
appears to be a theological
articulation of true covenantal
relation.
Present day Catholic theology, fundamentally based on the
articulation of the necessary and the arbitrary, can not really even
account for the surprise of the New Class's contribution to the human
race -- let alone thank the New Class for it.
1
How could Catholic
theology find the words to thank the New Class for a surprise, when
the entire concept of genuine surprise is eliminated in advance by its
fundamental intellectual commitment to dehistoricized cosmology?
Catholic theology's categorical inability to imagine, let alone
articulate, true covenantal relation in any intellectually coherent way,
has had devastating consequences. Intellectually, present day Catholic
theology must agree with the New Class, that, in the end, the only
possible future that Catholic thought can imagine for the New Class is
its necessary 'humiliation,' the subsumption of the New Class by 'right
reason' into 'Faith.'
Should we really expect the New Class, enslaved in its own chosen
dehistoricized cosmology, to be able to imagine covenantal relation on
its own, and then teach Catholic theologians of its existence? Of course
the New Class is only able to imagine that the faith of the Church
should be subsumed into the New Class! The task of establishing the
intellectual possibility of a covenantal relation of love must perforce be
performed by Catholic thinkers, not secular ones. It is to be hoped that
any reader who has come this far in this book can understand that even
the intellectual possibility of covenantal relation only exists in the
Eucharistic Event.
2
How then can 'the modern world' be evangelized, if Catholic
theology can provide no intellectually coherent way to offer the New
Class covenantal relation -- true love -- and can, in the end, only
predict the New Class's 'necessary' humiliation and subsumption?
Catholics of the present age have often acted as if the
evangelization of the New Class world were (either directly or
implicitly) a matter of responding to New Class charges against
Catholicism. That's getting the cart before the horse. Fallen Man can
1. This is no glorification of the New Class.
The New Class as apart from the New
Covenant is, pure and simple, a "vanity" --
as it too knows in its heart of hearts. It too
has no room for genuine surprise -- just ask
Mr. Minsky. Only the New Covenant in the
Lord's Blood relates 'flesh' to the Eucharistic
'order' in which all men -- including the
New Class man -- may worship, enter
meaningful time, make history.
2. This is actually a large point, so it
deserves a little extra emphasis. The primary
burden of both evangelization and
ecumenism falls squarely on Catholic
shoulders, and no other. The very words --
the very thoughts -- out of which persons
are evangelized and churches are made one
in Christ do not come from some
dehistoricized place 'naturally' available to
fallen Man, if only he would stand within
the 'correct' critical distance. All
evangelization, all ecumenism, must come
from the acts in time of the Lord of history
in and through the free liturgical mediation
of the faith of his Bride. They must come
from the Eucharistic Event. Thus another
devastating consequence of the enslavement
of Catholic theology to dehistoricized
cosmology is the lack of both theological
and practical instinct that both
evangelization and ecumenism have to be
primarily a directly Catholic responsibility,
not because Catholics are more 'guilty' (or
more 'triumphant'), but because the fullness
of the risen Lord's presence -- the one thing
necessary -- is solely re-presented in the
Church's worship.
N.B. This is an html-ized copy of a page from the pdf file, The Knucklehead's Guide to Covenantal Theology.