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The Community Dimension of Grace: Perspectives from the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences

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The Community Dimension of Grace: Perspectives from the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences The Community Dimension of Grace: Perspectives from the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences Author: Arnel De Castro Aquino SJ Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104458 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2012 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College Graduate School of Arts and Sciences School of Theology and Ministry THE COMMUNITY DIMENSION OF GRACE: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE FEDERATION OF ASIAN BISHOPS’ CONFERENCES a dissertation by ARNEL DECASTRO AQUINO, S.J. submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Sacred Theology May, 2011 © Copyright by ARNEL DE CASTRO AQUINO, S.J. 2012 The Community Dimension of Grace: Perspectives From the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences A dissertation by Arnel de Castro Aquino, S.J. Director: John Randall Sachs, S.J. ABSTRACT This dissertation explains how divine grace, that is, God’s self-communication to humanity, is a communitarian reality specifically in its participative, dialogical, and prophetic core as well as its manifestations, characteristics, and consequences. It draws from two main sources: Karl Rahner’s understanding of grace and the pastoral statements and reflections of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference (FABC) from 1974 to 2010. Religious and cultural pluralism and the abiding poverty in Asian communities are the realities that frame the discussion both of the FABC documents and the main theme of this dissertation. The FABC believes that in order to respond to God’s call for the Asian Church to be “a communion of communities”, the Asian Church—hierarchy, religious, and laity—must reckon with these permanent realities through which God reveals divine self and will. They must therefore figure significantly upon the Church’s ways of evangelizing, theologizing, and living in community. For this reason, the FABC understands being a communion of communities as God’s call for the Church to be more participative, dialogical, and prophetic in evangelization and attitude with and towards other communities. The life-giving relationship in the experience of grace does not remain restricted to God and individual persons. God gives Godself gratuitously not simply to individuals but to the whole human community. Divine self-giving creates loving, self-donating persons in communion with Godself and one another. The community is therefore a privileged place where one experiences grace especially in the shared effort to respond to God’s unifying presence and call to greater participation, dialogue, and prophetic action with other communities. As the ground of grace, God’s presence and activity in the world is always participative in human realities, dialogical with persons, and prophetic in its thrust for the poor. The response to this grace also takes on communitarian characteristics, that is, participative, dialogical, and prophetic attributes. Self-consciousness and self-forgetfulness form a significant dialectic that takes place in the experience of grace—both on the side of the Giver and of the recipients of the gift. A community that enjoys God’s grace is constantly aware of the fact that the grace is due to God’s gratuitous, selfless love for all. At the same time, grace empowers a community towards self- forgetfulness as God’s self-communication always calls forth shared self-denial and servanthood as witnessed to by the total self-outpouring of Christ to the world. The grace of God therefore becomes clearly manifest in a community whose members willingly participate in fostering well-being, when they strive for deeper harmony through constant and open dialogue, and most of all, when they take care of their poor sisters and brothers. CONTENTS Abstract Introduction....................................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Grace as God’s Gratuitous Self-Communication To Persons.........................14 Rahner’s Two Conceptual Models of God’s Action in Grace.......................................................14 Grace and Nature ...........................................................................................................................18 The Central Place of the Incarnation .............................................................................................22 Grace and Communion ..................................................................................................................23 Pentecost and Community .............................................................................................................25 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................27 Chapter Two: The Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences ................................................29 The Asian Bishops’ Meeting: Precursor of the FABC .................................................................29 The Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences Structure and Mission ........................................37 Structure of the Federation ......................................................................................................38 Asia Through the FABC Eyes: A “Composition of Place” .....................................................41 The Asia of Many Cultures................................................................................................43 The Asia of Many Religions .............................................................................................47 The Asia of the Poor .........................................................................................................51 Mission and Evangelization: The Triple Dialogue with Religions, Cultures, and the Poor....55 Key Foundations in the Theology and Methodology of the Federation ........................................64 God Draws All Creation Unto Godself....................................................................................64 Asian Realities: A Vital Context in Theological Reflection....................................................67 Chapter Three: The Communitarian Reality of Grace ...........................................................76 The New Way of Being Church in Asia: A Participatory, Dialogical, and Prophetic Communion of Communities .............................................................................................................................76 The God of Grace is Participative, Dialogical, and Prophetic.......................................................84 Introduction: The Community-Forming Spirit .......................................................................84 The Church Images the God of Communion...........................................................................86 Christ Reveals God as Communion...................................................................................88 The God of Communion is Participative ................................................................................91 The God of Communion is Dialogical.....................................................................................95 The God of Communion is Prophetic ....................................................................................101 Grace is Participative, Dialogical, and Prophetic .......................................................................106 Grace as Participative ............................................................................................................106 Grace as Dialogical................................................................................................................115 Grace as Prophetic .................................................................................................................120 Conclusion: Grace as the Wideness of God’s Love.....................................................................126 Chapter Four: The Dynamic of Self-Consciousness and Self-Forgetfulness in Grace as Shown in Ecclesial Hospitality..................................................................................................131 Self-Consciousness and Self-Forgetfulness in Grace .................................................................132 Shared Self-Consciousness ...................................................................................................132 Shared Self-Forgetfulness .....................................................................................................134 Hospitality and the Dynamic of Self-Consciousness and Self-Forgetfulness .............................136 Hospitality..............................................................................................................................136 Self-Consciousness/Forgetfulness in Hospitality .................................................................138 Ecclesial Hospitality: Gracious Self-Consciousness/Forgetfulness in Fostering the Communion of Communities............................................................................................................................140 Ecclesial Hospitality through Participation and Receptivity to the Lay Communities .........140 Ecclesial Hospitality through Welcoming Cultural and Religious Pluralism........................147 Ecclesial Hospitality through Working Towards Harmony and Dialogue
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