Emil S. Payer
Liturgy and Revolution Can the Church create a liturgy of peace in a world charged with tension? The author believes it can be done by a Christian Community unafraid to challenge the world it lives in.
"Just as living organisms cannot survive without selective adaptation to their environment, the Church herself must continually adjust through the modern world. And today the world needs a liturgy which will help bring the faithful and others closer to the Church and its Lord." Augustine Cardinal Bea. The Church is a human community, not solely a divine institution but also a human, sociological and historical ¡structure. No one can deny that the Church is in the world, and, conversely, the world is in the Church. "This world exerts its influence on the Church in a thousand ways, and places conditions on its daily conduct." (Ecclesiam Suam, Par. -U) And the world in which she lives is made up of many little worlds. By this I mean that there are worlds of culture. nationality and customs. When the Church wishes to 1¡each them, she must become similar to them, at least to a certain degree. Because of such a composition, the Church is to an incalculable degree affected by the spiritual condition of her members and the purity, greatness, and strength of individual personalitieS. No one can deny that the Church is composed of sinful beings, and if her members are sinful and, as sinners, remain her members, then she herself is sinful. Thus, as Hans Kung 297