Christ is not Distant

Ignatius of Latakia (a port city in Syria, historically known as Laodicea) delivered these words before the World Council of Churches in 1968:

“Without the Holy Spirit, God is far away, Christ stays in the past, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church is simply an organization, authority a matter of domination, mission a matter of propaganda, liturgy is only nostalgia, and Christian living a slave morality. But with the Holy Spirit, God is with us, the universe is resurrected and groans with the birth pangs of the kingdom, the risen Christ is here, the Gospel is a living force, the Church is a communion in the life of the Trinity—the body of the living Christ—authority is a service that liberates people, mission is Pentecost, the liturgy is memory and anticipation, and human action is God’s work in the world.”

The Church needs to reimagine (again) what it means to be human in inhumane circumstances and to be faithful witnesses of God’s loving presence in an unloving world. By the conviction and courage granted to us by the Holy Spirit, the Church can live so that our neighbors can know that, despite the inhumane and unloving actions of many, Christ Jesus, the One the gospels bear witness to, is not distant.