From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age

by University of Mary

In 1974, Archbishop Fulton Sheen said in a conference, “We are at the end of Christendom. Not of Christianity, not of the Church, but of Christendom. Now what is meant by Christendom? Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending — we’ve seen it die.” But he went on to say, “These are great and wonderful days in which to be alive. … It is not a gloomy picture — it is a picture of the Church in the midst of increasing opposition from the world. And therefore live your lives in the full consciousness of this hour of testing, and rally close to the heart of Christ.”

Ours is not an age of change, but a change of the ages.

We are dealing with the first culture in history that was once deeply Christian but that by a slow and thorough process has been consciously ridding itself of its Christian basis. Our society is full of many — including those baptized and raised with some exposure to faith — who believe that they have seen enough of Christianity to see that it has little to offer them. We are therefore not attempting to make converts from pagans; we are attempting to bring back to the Church those knowingly or unknowingly in the grasp of apostasy, a different and more difficult challenge. C. S. Lewis once described this difference as that between a man wooing a young maiden and a man winning a cynical divorcée back to her previous marriage.

Faith gives us, from God himself, the overall narrative for the human race: who we are, who God is, what his purposes toward us are, how we have gotten into our current state, what God is doing about it, what is coming in the future, and therefore, how we should live. Reason keeps that narrative from wandering into superstition or bigotry or incoherency, such that it can provide a good and true basis for handling life.

In a Christendom society fundamental law and basic moral understanding are rooted in Christian truth. This is an advantage for many reasons, not least for family life and the raising of children. With good example and good influence readily available and the stated ideals of the society clear — if not universally followed — Christians can count on the wider culture for basic support. What Christian parents are teaching their children at home will resonate with the ideals held out by the authorities of the society. For those who grow up under its influence, a Christian vision will tend to become part of the furniture of the mind. As the fundamentals of the Faith become first principles of thought and behavior, there comes to prevail an instinctive resonance with Christian truth for which there will hardly be need to argue.

Nonetheless, Christendom also brings with it stiff challenges, due in part to its successes. When Christianity becomes the main cultural current, many tend to be lukewarm in their pursuit of their faith, more or less going along for the ride. Christian devotion can become conventional, losing its radical character and thus its dynamism and attractiveness. The great sin of Christendom is hypocrisy, pretending to be more interested in God and in virtue than one is. Professing Christianity is the norm; living the Faith as a genuine disciple is the exception.

In a Christendom culture the Church as a whole is tempted to lose its spiritual and otherworldly character and to become merely a this-worldly body, a department of state or a promising career path, a center of civilized activities rather than the mystical body of Christ. Because in a Christendom society to profess Christ leads to respectability and can bring power and wealth, because Christ is a name to conjure with and by which to gain influence, greedy and power-hungry people prey upon the Church and use its influence to further their own selfish aims. Sins of buying Church offices, of absentee bishops and priests, of avarice and the hoarding of wealth, of a general creeping worldliness among those whose task it is to lead others to Christ can become rampant. Even for those who avoid such glaring sins, the message of Christ can become overlaid with the categories of success originating in the temporal order and can cease to be a liberating force. Priesthood can become merely a job rather than a mission. Attending to the moral and ritual life of the Church can become perfunctory, valued only for immediately tangible effects. This is the sort of concern that sparked the reforming spirit of the sixteenth century, both Protestant and Catholic. To reform the Church truly in such times is no easy task.

Holiness, prayer, humility, hidden acts of charity are the spiritual means by which the Church is visibly upheld.

Because one has to pay a serious price for the Faith in an apostolic time, there is less hypocrisy than in a Christendom age.

In an apostolic age there is by necessity greater purity of intention in priests and bishops, which makes for truer and more dynamic leadership. A higher standard of holiness among the clergy is more natural and easier to sustain. Those who might pursue Church offices for money or social prestige will usually find something else to do.

In an apostolic age every Christian is by necessity a witness and an evangelist; the role of the laity and the importance of lay holiness emerge with greater clarity as necessary for the Church to complete her mission. Confessing Christ in the face of hostility even to the point of martyrdom has always been accounted the greatest of Christian blessings, the most privileged way to imitate Christ, but it is hard to come by in a Christendom age. In an apostolic age the possibility of suffering for the Faith, even undergoing martyrdom, is present, as a heroic spirit of witnessing with courage animates the whole of the Church.

Precisely because of the high cost of discipleship, the great temptation in an apostolic age is not to hypocrisy but to cowardice. While in Christendom people are tempted to profess more faith and virtue than they possess, in an apostolic age they are tempted to profess less. Open apostasy motivated by fear becomes more common.

WHATEVER THE advantages and disadvantages of a Christendom or an apostolic cultural situation may be, we do not get to choose the sort of society we would prefer. We receive from Christ both the times in which we are to live and the grace to engage our world as it is.

There is a telling event in the life of the prophet Elisha, recounted in the Second Book of Kings (6:23-8). An alliance of hostile powers had invaded Israel, and an army was laying siege to the city where Elisha was staying with his servant. In this dire predicament the servant grew anxious, but Elisha encouraged him with the words, “Don’t be afraid; those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” This made no sense to the servant, who could see no allies but only a vast army of enemies. So Elisha prayed that the servant’s eyes would be opened to see the spiritual world, to catch a glimpse of the genuine reality. The young man’s eyes were opened, and he saw an army of heavenly horsemen and chariots around Elisha more than equal to the task of handling the enemy forces. This is not just a charming story; it is the expression of a truth of great practical importance. The Church will regularly appear to be the underdog when an assessment of her fortunes looks only at the visible world of politics, economics, cultural clout, and numbers. But when the Church is seen truly, as a divine society transcending space and time, filled with the presence and strength of God, resplendent with the power and beauty of angels and perfected humans, bringing all the authority of heaven to bear on the world’s affairs, the picture looks quite different. An apostolic age, especially one now emerging from the ruins of a Christendom culture, needs to be clear about the sources of the...