2022/10/31

63. Paul and Cognitive Distortions

Over the last few issues, we have discussed how the Catholic Church of today has understood the Church itself and priests from the perspective of "cognitive distortions." These discussions have been done with some awareness of the Synodal Journey initiative, which is currently underway worldwide. This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. So, in this issue, I would like to continue my previous reflections going back to the documents of the Council. First, I would like to take up the expression from Lumen Gentium, which I also introduced in this blog №59: "Christ loves the Church as His bride, having become the model of a man loving his wife as his body" (Lumen Gentium, section 7). This expression is taken from Paul's letter to Ephesians (5:25-28). Here, Paul, while taking a form of a recommendation to husband and wife, attempted to explain the relationship between Christ and the Church by likening it to the relationship between wife and husband, but in the meanwhile, he realized his reasonings did not make sense (cf. Ephesians 5:22-33). When he said, "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24), the word "his father and his mother" must have struck a chord with him. So, Paul abruptly cuts his discourse short, saying, "This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband" (Ephesians 5:32-33). He then quickly shifts the subject to the relationship between children and their fathers (cf. Ephesians 6:1-4). However, the expression in Lumen Gentium applied the relationship between wife and husband directly to the relationship between Christ and the Church. A cognitive distortion has occurred. The relationship between a wife and a husband becomes that of a mother and a father through their child. Unlike that, the relationship between Christ and the Church becomes that of mother and child without any intermediary, according to the following words of Jesus: "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Matthew 12:49-50). "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven" signifies not only those who gather around Christ, but also Jesus himself, who said: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38). Christ is the brother, sister and mother of the Church. So, the community of Christians gathered at the Mass consists of the priest, a mother, and the faithful, brothers and sisters as her children. The priest becomes a mother who, in collaboration with the Holy Spirit, asks in the name of Jesus that the bread and wine may become the body and blood of Christ through the Word. The faithful become children who hear the Word through the mother and take and eat the Body of Christ with faith. Therefore, at the last supper, Jesus, who instituted the Eucharist and was about to give birth to the Church on the Cross, said to the Apostles, who were to fulfil the same duty as his: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples" (John 15:7-8).

Maria K. M.