IF COMMUNITY IS OUR END, WHAT NOW?

Strictly speaking, God alone is not the ultimate end toward which we should direct our lives. That end is integral communal fulfillment in God's kingdom, which will be a marvelous communion of divine Persons, human persons, and other created persons. Every human member of the kingdom will be richly fulfilled not only in attaining God by beatific vision but in respect to all the fundamental human goods.

Germain Grisez
"The True Ultimate End of Human Beings: The Kingdom, not God Alone"
Theological Studies, 69 (2008), 38-61
pp. 58-59

When the truth of God as he is in himself falls upon the human intellect, the end is met and all other desires are thrust aside--or so Aquinas claims. Here is the ultimate end, beyond which satisfaction flows over the edges of the soul: God himself.

Grisez disagrees. As Christ, in flesh even while in glory, enjoys God and saints and creation, so we who are transformed into his image enjoy--even desire--these things. So, humanity's ultimate end is not in God himself, but in God's kingdom: that communal enjoyment of God and persons and creation. This is integral communal fulfillment.

• Assuming ICF is ultimate--or even penultimate--what must change in the structure and practices of your church to bring the community toward that end?
• What of our enjoyment from and blessing toward God? Persons? Creation?
• How do you live these out in your faith community?
  

Resources

• The many nations gathered around the throne, Revelation 7
• Blessings on the nations through Abraham, Genesis 12
• Links to critiques of Grisez thesis
• Wikipedia on "beatific vision"
• Wikipedia on Aquinas' view of the goal of human life
  
• The Original Catholic Encyclopedia on "beatific vision"
• Theopedia on "kingdom of God"
  

Tag(s): ecclesiology church christian theology

KINGDOM NOW, THEN, and WHEN?

The first stage [of the Kingdom] was the presence of spiritual power in the Holy Spirit under the intercessory ministry of a heavenly Christ, and the second stage [is] the future, visible return of the Lord in his glory to reign with his saints judging and putting his enemies under his feet... [The first stage] suggests that we see church as the sphere in which the coming eschatological Kingdom's power is active. This power of the coming Kingdom is today visible in the church.

The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus
by Mark Saucy
Word Publishing
(C) 1997
pg. 347

Here, in this last section , Saucy draws a picture of the Kingdom--offered by the incarnate Christ, rejected by the Jewish establishment, gone underground in mysteries (like a hidden seed, growing covertly), and yet awaiting the physical, political, historical, and ethnic fulfillment: The King will sit on his throne!

In stage one (the in-between-time of covert operations) where is the Kingdom active? With Son as the seated Intercessor and the Spirit as the indwelling Advocate, the power of the Kingdom of God leaks--indeed, pours--through the life of the Church.

• What are the means through which the Kingdom's power is expressed through the church?
• Given society's opinion of Church in the West, it does not seem a stretch to say that Kingdom power is not evident. Which beliefs, affections, and behaviors might be hindering the expression of Kingdom power?
• How can we better submit to and live by in eschatological Kingdom power?
  

Doctrine of the Holy Spirit articles on bible.org
UnChristian by David Kinnaman
Kingdom in Matthew (passages)
Kingdom in Matthew (article at bible.org)

Tag(s): ecclesiology church christian theology