Obedience and authority in Luigi Giussani's trilogy

I was fascinated to discover that neither "obedience" nor "authority" appear in the index to The Religious Sense! What can it mean? I can only imagine that adhering to authority and living in obedience are not for rank beginners!

Again, it is very interesting to note that "authority" does not occur in the index to At the Origin of the Christian Claim, and "obedience" makes its first appearance, but only shows up twice in this book. In the first instance, Fr. Giussani is recounting a dramatic event, recorded in chapter 8 of the Gospel of John. Jesus has been confronted by the Pharisees, who press him to explain who he claims to be. Jesus responds, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is your God. But you have not known him; I know him. If I said, I do not know him, I should be a liar like you; but I do know him and I keep his word" (John 8:54-55). Fr. Giussani doesn't refer directly to Jesus' obedience, but quotes from the work of two scholars, R. Schnackenburg and H.U. von Balthasar, who use this word to characterize Jesus' attitude. Balthasar comments, "the attack on Jesus' arrogance collapses on his obedience" (The Glory of the Lord, page 478). The only time in At the Origin of the Christian Claim when Fr. Giussani uses the word "obedience" himself comes toward the end of the book, in a discussion of the value of the human person. He characterizes Jesus as demonstrating, "a passion for the individual, an urgent desire for his happiness." Jesus expresses, "The problem of the world's existence is the happiness of each single person. 'For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?' (Matthew 16:26)" (page 84, in At the Origin...). Fr. Giussani concludes, "No force of energy and no paternal or maternal loving tenderness has ever impacted the heart of man more than these words of Christ, impassioned as he is about the life of man. Moreover, to listen to these radical questions Jesus poses, represents the first obedience to our own natures" (page 84, emphasis mine). Thus, even before introducing the idea of obedience to authority, Fr. Giussani first stresses Christ's own obedience to the Father, and with even greater emphasis, our need to be obedient to our own natures and irreducible value. I think these points are fundamental, and cannot be skipped over or forgotten. This type of obedience is an essential step; without it, we are not capable of obedience to authority.

Can you guess where Fr. Giussani first begins to speak about authority? Not until we are a good three quarters of the way into Why the Church? do we find a discussion of the subject. Authority, Fr. Giussani stresses, is a function of the life of the community: "The supreme authority of the magisterium is an explication of the conscience of the entire community as guided by Christ. It is not some magical, despotic substitution for it" (page 172). Then he goes on to discuss the Church's teaching authority, pointing out that even in the case of the dogmas that seem to have come down from "on high," in fact, in every case (The Assumption, The Immaculate Conception, papal infallibility), they are the fruit of the whole community; debated, voted upon, and tested, these dogmas were not proclaimed until the popes had come to the firm conclusion that the entire community's conscience had been sounded. Fr. Giussani observes, "Clearly, then, the vast majority of people have no idea of the Church's procedure leading to the proclamation of a dogma, never mind comprehending the meaning of the expression. But, as we have seen, it defines a value when that value has become a sure and living part of the conscience of the Christian community" (page 174). In other words, the Church's teaching authority derives from its unity (and consistency). This is a very different picture from the one conjured by the term, "authoritarian." Then, in the final chapter of Why the Church? Fr Giussani returns to the question of authority. If the Church's catholicity, that is its universality and unity, is a sign of its authority within space, then her apostolicity "is the characteristic of the Church which signified its capacity to address time in a unitary, structured way" (page 230). Then he says something that is really worth pausing over: "...Just as Christ's will was to bind his work and his presence in the world to the apostles and in doing so he indicated one of them as the authoritative point of reference, so, too, is the Church bound to Peter's and the apostles' successors -- the pope and his bishops" (230). Jesus stooped to bind his work and presence to particular persons (colorful, even sometimes idiotic persons!), and the Body of Christ makes the same gesture, in obedience to its own nature. There is a beautiful and audacious symmetry in this thought! For the Body of Christ to fill time and space, in order to be truly "all in all," then it teaches what is true for all (preserving its catholicity/universality) and it remains faithful to Christ's original method, to bind itself to a particular succession of persons, who become its authoritative point of reference (preserving its definitive presence in time). The concept of obedience to the Church also makes a brief appearance in this book on page 86 and is worth quoting at length:

Christians are often far from aware of this authentic source of their value, for we frequently find people who are either seeking clarity and security or a motive for their actions, and in so doing, they interpret their own community, or movement, or special association in a reductive way, depriving themselves of the source of unity that gives them life -- the mystery of the Church as Church. Or, there are those who in referring to the Church, mean a mechanical super-organism unrelated to their daily reality, the concrete community close to them. In this way, then they incorrectly separate themselves from the living Church. This is why one must learn what the total Church is, and this is why we must explore the depths of the ecclesiastical experience one has encountered, providing that is has all the characteristics of a true ecclesiastical experience. This means obedience to the total Church, depending on it, organizing one's life according to its rhythms, seeing oneself reflected in the other factors within the sphere of the Christian life. These are aspects which define the validity of gathering together...

We have thus demonstrated how reflection on the word "ecclesia" has helped us to understand the type of consciousness of the first Christians of the value of their community, a value which derived totally, entirely from participation in the one Church, the Church governed by the apostles. (pages 86-87, emphasis mine)

Far from recommending "blind obedience," Fr. Giussani is urging us to adhere to "the total Church" in order to assure that our gatherings are invested with the life of Christ.

Homily on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter

Archbishop Joseph Naumann, Kansas City in Kansas
Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter
Memorial Mass for Monsignor Luigi Giussani
Benedictine College
February 22, 2008

I
What Does Atchison Have in Common with New York?
It is a privilege to celebrate with you this afternoon this Feast of the Chair of St. Peter as we also prayerfully remember on the third anniversary of his death Monsignor Luigi Giussani. What do New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., Rochester, Minnesota and Atchison, Kansas have in common? Each of these great metro areas is blest to have Memores Domini community – the lay branch of Communion and Liberation – the movement which Father Giussani was the Holy Spirit’s instrument in giving birth.

II
Communion with Peter and His Successors
Today, in the liturgical calendar we celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. We remember the great apostle upon which Jesus chose to build his Church. The fact that the great Basilica of St. Peter in Rome is built upon the tomb of Peter provides a striking metaphor on how the Lord has built his Church on the Rock of Peter and his successors.

I wear the Pallium that was given to me on the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul the same year of Monsignor Giussani’s death, by the current Successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI. The lambs, who gave the wool for this Pallium, had been blest by the late Pope John Paul II on the Feast of St. Agnes and the finished product was laid on the tomb of Peter, blest and bestowed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Monsignor Giussani was a dear personal friend to both of these Popes. Yet, in addition to his personal relationship with Karol Wojtyla and Joseph Ratzinger, he was a friend of the Successors of St. Peter because he was a friend to their Lord and his Lord. This Pallium, in part,symbolizes my communion and the communion of my ministry as the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kansas City and the Province of Kansas with the ministry of the Successor of Peter on behalf of the universal church.

It is also a reminder of the truths: 1) I do not carry this responsibility alone but Jesus bears this yoke with me – making it light and 2) I am not charged to teach my own philosophy or theology, thank God, but to teach Jesus and the fullness of the Faith entrusted to Peter and the Apostles and their Successors. This Feast is a reminder of the great blessing that Jesus gave to His Church by entrusting the keys to Peter and His successors, giving the Church a magisterium – a teaching authority in the person of Peter in communion with the other Apostles and their successors who under the guidance of the Holy Spirit were charged to guard the integrity of the Gospel of Jesus and make its application to the unique circumstances and challenges presented by each age.

We thus pray in a very special way for Pope Benedict XVI today that the Lord may continue to bless and make fruitful his ministry as Shepherd of the universal Church. How could we not be reminded of our Holy Father when we listened to the first reading today from the First Epistle of St. Peter exhorting priests to be humble and faithful shepherds of the flock of Jesus?

III
You are the Christ the Son of the Living God

The Gospel today presents us with Peter’s great profession of faith at Caesarea Philippi. When Jesus asks the Apostles the pointed and personal question: “Who do you say that I am?”, it is Peter who answers: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter’s great strength was not his superior intelligence, not his personal strength of character, not his leadership skills. Peter’s strength was his relationship with Jesus. Whatever his personal weaknesses and flaws, which the Gospel documents were many, Peter knew who Jesus was, and Peter knew of the love of Jesus for him!

From Peter’s realization of his own unworthiness to be in the company of Jesus after the great catch when Jesus first invited Peter to put out into the deep to Peter’s desire to have his feet and hands and head washed when Jesus instructs Peter: “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”, the Father had given Peter special insight into the true identity of Jesus. It was the power of the depth of Peter’s love for Jesus that, despite his sinking in the water, his attempts to dissuade Jesus from the cross, and even his cowardly denial of Jesus in the Courtyard of the High Priest, made Peter indeed a rock upon which Jesus could build his church.

IV
Begging for Jesus

Monsignor Giussani understood the primacy of the relationship with Jesus for every Christian. It was because he sought this in his own life and formed this constant yearning for Jesus in the formation of those who became part of Communion and Liberation that the Holy Spirit was able to make his ministry so remarkably fruitful.

Monsignor Giussani understood prayer to be first and foremost this seeking of communion with Jesus, this begging for Jesus to enter his heart. He wrote: “…Christ reveals Himself to me, He reveals His presence to me and comes into my life the more I ask for Him, because He does not come in where He is not awaited. The essence of prayer is begging for Christ: `Come, Lord Jesus,’ it is the last word in the Bible and first word of the early Christians. … Prayer is the only phenomenon in which man engages his whole stature. Whoever follows the life of the Movement can testify that I personally do not talk about anything else, in comparison, more than this. Because man is aspiration, he is a search; he is neither aspiration nor search if he is not an entreaty.”

Page Three

V
From the One Who is Truth Comes Freedom

Monsignor Giussani understood that it is in this seeking of Jesus, seeking the one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, that true liberation and freedom is to be found. Monsignor Giussani believed not just in his mind but in his heart the instruction of Jesus: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it.”

The future Pope Benedict XVI described this abandonment of himself in the pursuit of Jesus in a homily he gave at Monsignor Giussani’s funeral Mass:

This love affair with Christ, this love story which is the whole of his life was however far from every superficial enthusiasm, from every vague romanticism. Really seeing Christ, he knew to encounter Christ means to follow Christ. This encounter is a road, a journey, a journey that passes also – as we heard in the psalm – through the ‘valley of darkness.’ In the Gospel, we heard of the last darkness of Christ’s suffering, of the apparent absence of God, when the world’s sun was eclipsed. He knew that to follow is to pass through a valley of darkness,’ to take the way of the cross, and to live all the same in true joy.

“Why is it so? The Lord himself translated this mystery on the cross, which is really the mystery of love, with a formula in which the whole reality of our life is explained. The Lord says, ‘Whoever seeks his life, will lose it and whoever lose his life, will find it.

VI
Seek Communion with Jesus above all Else

On this Feast of Peter, let us pray for the gift to recognize Jesus for who He is: “…the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” As we come forward to receive the Eucharist, let us beg that the Holy Spirit might open us to receive the one who desires to reside in the tabernacle of our hearts. May we seek communion with Jesus above all else! May we seek to lose our own ambitions and desires and thus find life, freedom and joy in He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!