4th Meeting of WITTENBERG 2017 in Casa Divin Maestro, Ariccia

By Hans Scholz

Translated by John Martin

1. In Saint Peter’s Cathedral

The group travelled by bus to Saint Peter’s Cathedral on the 26th of October. On the way everyone was supposed to reflect on what this church meant to us, how every one of us approaches the institution it represents, the “Catholic Church”. The Catholics were especially asked to confess the “sins of the church”. After Pope Francis had expressly done this with the respect to the leader of the Waldensian Church, everyone felt a strong encouragement in this direction. My first reaction was: That has nothing to do with me. That’s their problem! But I was not able to maintain this observer-attitude for long. I had the sneaking feeling that I was going to weep a lot. But I could not crystalize it in a clear thought.

The group gathered on the left and right at the very front of the cathedral, in an area not accessible to the public. The prayer of repentance was led by Auxiliary Bishop E., so that, at first, it was mainly the Catholics who spoke aloud about the sins of selling indulgences, the abuse of papal power, the suppression of the Word of God, the exploitation of the people in the church and the persecution of the Reformers and more. Almost all of these statements contained resonances of personal pain and deep regret about the effects of Catholic wrongdoing on the children of the Reformation.

I listened to this prayer of repentance as one being allowed to look into the hearts of the Catholics and their plea for grace. Grateful. The Holy Spirit prompted me to leave my position as an interested observer and kneel on the ground beside my Catholic brothers and sisters. I, a Lutheran, fell to my knees before God literally at the foundation of their Catholic identity, in the heart of their church. I was able to feel their pain and make it my prayer for them.

During all of this my past experiences with the Catholic Church awakened deep in my soul. Recently have received the gift of several wonderful ecumenical worship services with Catholic colleagues. My wife and I enjoy the regular brotherly meeting with a lay pastor and his wife very much! We understand that we belong together. In this time of repentance, I became painfully aware of the downside of this brotherly contact became: The “Mother Church” had treated its children differently. Unjustly. It speaks of the “separated brothers,” who do not get what “her” children receive. Even with many good experiences, there still remains the insight: As a Lutheran, you don’t really belong to it.

Who wants to bring an accusation aloud? Who wants to fight? We Lutherans just do what we think is right. Let’s do better. And with all this insight into our shortcomings: There are good reasons to be Lutheran! From this position, we can emphasize and celebrate the many commonalities. We just can’t touch the sore spots. In any case, not unless it is a matter of healing our relationships.

I recalled two Catholic masses from the prior year. In one of them I had been expressly recognized as a Lutheran Pastor. This made clear to me what had been said to me beforehand: When Communion was distributed, I had to remain seated. After that I had resolved that I would never get into a situation like that again. But it was unavoidable. A couple of weeks later I was invited to preach in a Catholic service, after which Mass was celebrated – and this time I sat on the pew with my Pastoral collar and robe. What are the Catholics thinking now? For me it was clear: The grace of God unites us. We have accepted each other as siblings. We belong together. The rules of the church thankfully allowed us to gather at the Lord’s table! Are they even aware that their “Mother” gives the food of eternal life to her own children but denies it to the children of her divorce?

While I formulated these thoughts in prayer, I heard with the ears of my heart: “You are a legitimate son of my church! “In response, I ask: What does “legitimate” mean? I understand that it was the Lord’s answer to my inner uncertainty. It touched a painful point of my spiritual existence. More unconsciously than consciously, I often felt that I was more of a petitioner before God than his child, able to count on his father’s favor.

I thought about the explications of the 4th Commandment which we had heard in a short teaching the night before: “Honor your mother and father” is not just to be understand in the physical dimension. This also applies to persons and instances which in certain respects are in superior positions to us, such as teachers, the state and the church. “Jesus, I admit I have a broken relationship to the Catholic Church. But I feel how closely bound I am to her. Like a child with its mother. I have never been able to see it like that even though it was so obvious. Yes, I can say it now: I accept her! My Mother Church. The Holy Catholic… Christian Church. I acknowledge her and stand with her. For my part, I reach out to her. Regardless of whether or not she changes.” I felt the need to weep heavily, shaken right to my core. That was the time in which my hard memories which had been deep in my subconscious became soft and dissolved, healed and washed out with tears.

As the speaker from the prior evening made clear, there is a tight parallel in the relationship between the individual and the Church and the relationship to one’s physical mother or father. That is a chapter of psychology I don’t want to just pass over. During these minutes when I was on my knees, I became aware of something: Our Lutheran Church is to me more like a father than a mother. But the question arose: How does my perception of my church, if I expressly accept the Catholic Church as my “mother” -in spite of everything? It became immediately clear: I am support to accept and honor my “father” as well. How quickly this all happened: “Jesus, I thank you for my Lutheran Church! I accept her with all of her agreeable and disagreeable aspects!” Of course, that thought could not be pursued further just now…

While I stretched out my hands, still kneeling on the ground and embracing my “Mother Church”, I heard Jesus: “Take the ring on your left hand.” I thought immediately of the story of the prodigal son, whose original rights were restored when he was given his father‘ signet ring. That is the consequence of repentance: Take responsibility for the larger picture. It is not just a matter of one’s own church, one’s own denomination, one’s own tradition. It is also about more than the connection between Lutherans and Catholics. Jesus Christus is the Lord of the Church and King in the Kingdom of God. And that is more than the totality of all Christian Churches. This includes Israel, God’s chosen people. All of the church will finally sit at the table in the kingdom of heaven with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Mt 8:11). For that reason the acceptance of this signet ring means taking responsibility for the manifold gifts in the Kingdom of God: Mainly this means striving to assert and do what is right in the kingdom of God (Mt 6:33), meaning that the churches with their traditions and Israel (Lk 2:32) would come into their own.

The decision was certainly clear: „Thank you, Jesus, that you trust me with this ring and show me how I should deal with this responsibility!“ Later it became clear to me that it is the signet ring of the Lamb, to be used in shaping one’s everyday affairs: Through forgiveness of sins, reconciliation and healing. Actively shaping the life of the community and the church, not remaining at the mercy of the conditions: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall, I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?“ (Ps. 27:1) In a choir concert a couple of days later at home, the last song sung was: “The Lord has commanded his angels, that they protect you on all your ways…“ (Ps. 91:11) I recalled the signet ring: Whoever uses it has to assume that he has the cover the Lord, assuming without any legal uncertainty.

With my rational mind, I attempted to grasp the difference between the “Catholic” and the “Christian” church. It is a matter of renewing my relationship to the Roman-Catholic Church. I felt the hard marble under my knees. I opened my heart before God with my Catholic brothers and sisters on this floor, let myself be touched and healed. During my prayers, I had repeatedly occasionally heard the voices and isolated words from the others. It was so special that I could not get right no to the relationship with the Orthodox Church and the non-denominational churches. Another time. Perhaps there are opportunities for reconciliation. However: The preconditions will not be the same. A legitimate son of the Church of Jesus Christ stood up from the floor of Saint Peter’s Cathedral and will have to figure out how he is going to deal with others from this new self-understanding.

Summary

It was only Vatican II that allowed reading Holy Scripture, made church services in the national languages possible and started taking the lay apostolate seriously. The commission expressed in “The New Evangelization” was given great emphasis. The relationship between the church and the Jews was renewed, the power of the Holy Spirit in other denominations affirmed. This broke the damn on the inability to confess the sins of the church.

In 1993/94 John Paul II admitted the sins of some persons of authority in the Church. That did not go far enough with respect to sins such as those committed by Inquisition, for example, but it opened a door for acknowledging the sins of the church as an institution: The Catholic claim to the only true church was relativized.

Pope Francis expresses this repentance radically: The church has no right to assert is authority over the other churches. He also wants to tear down the hierarchy within the church. The sole power of the church is love.

This creates a great challenge for other Christians: How do you react? Do you want to pray for this repentance? Do you want to confess your own lack of faith? We need each other, along with the Orthodox and the Jews.

What happened in the meeting of this group from various denominations in WITTENBERG 2017 was only possible because of the readiness to embrace humility and repentance in the spirit of Jesus. This should be possible in many ways on the path to the Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017. What individual believers could achieve in their personal devotion! But what will happen if the office holders and dignitaries of the various denominations approach each other in an attitude of humility, share the pain of the church and experience reconciliation and healing through repentance?

Before our group drove to Saint Peter’s Cathedral, we had been in one of the Catacombs of Rome, very near the origin point of the Roman church. There the pastors and priests washed each other’s feet. What a healing touch! What life-giving freshness! Everyone was able to sense that he was able to walk in a newness of life, with a lightened step, freed from personal guilt and cares, but also with respect to the community and church in which each one of us lives.