Embodied Words, Spoken Signs: Sacramentality and the Word in Rahner and Chauvet

Conclusion

6 Conclusion Foundations for a Roman Catholic Theology of the Word in the Twenty-First Century As the preceding chapters indicate, the Christian tradition offers contemporary theologians a rich tapestry depicting the many ways in which God’s grace has been recognized as effective in the world. In the history of the theological tradition, some have focused on the word of God, preserved in the scriptures and proclaimed both in liturgy and the broader realm of evangelization. Others have emphasized sacramental visible signs—the material elements and ritual, visible signs, that mediate grace to embodied humanity. Those who have looked most carefully have sought to understand word and sacrament together, as transformative signs of the ongoing relationship between God and humanity in history. They have emphasized the ways in which the word of God is always an embodied word, and the ways in which material elements are a necessary part of the divine communication that signifies an invisible reality. In the previous chapters we have examined the ways in which several significant theologians in the Christian tradition have contributed to the development of a theology of the word that attends to the significance of material reality and the context of the created world. Now we turn to a specific examination of some of the traits of twentieth-century Roman Catholic work on theology of the word. These traits reflect a concern for the ritual sacramental context, an evolving understanding of the sacramentality of creation, and an increasingly more trinitarian approach to reflection on God’s presence and absence in the world. The Word of God Heard and Proclaimed in the Ritual Context One of the most significant contributions of twentieth-century Roman Catholic work on a theology of the word is an expanded understanding of 177 the word as sacramental within the ritual context. While previous generations had focused narrowly on the words of institution, or other words that most immediately accompanied the sacramental actions, the twentieth century witnessed a movement within Catholic theology to consider the sacramental qualities of other ritual words, such as the preached word, or the word proclaimed in the readings from scripture. Karl Rahner’s early work was central to this effort. In the latter part of the twentieth century, Louis-Marie Chauvet built on Rahner’s work, offering a theology of the word that seeks to transcend the difference that Rahner sought to bridge. Rahner’s early work reflects a pre-conciliar effort to bridge theological understanding of word and sacrament. Rahner seeks to accomplish this through his understanding of the word as the primary means of God’s selfcommunication , and through a subsequent link between preaching and the ritual words of the sacrament. In this effort, he draws on explanations similar to those put forth by Augustine, Aquinas, and Luther. The result is a compelling argument that helps to reestablish the fundamental relationship between word and sacrament, particularly in the ritual context. Rahner seeks to remind his readers that words and signs are not opposites. He recognizes as Augustine did that words are in fact signs and function as such within the sacramental context.1 Sacraments therefore do not exist as a kind of parallel track to the word of God, but are in reality expressions of the word of God. “Grace is always present in the form of the word . . . from the first word of preaching to the sacrament inclusively, in the form of the word.”2 Rahner is thus able to discuss the significance of the word by means of a sacramental explanation, and simultaneously to re-classify the sacraments under the broader category of God’s free and self-communicating word. Like Aquinas, Rahner recognizes that although God communicates with humanity in a variety of media, there is only one salvific word of God. Making the link between the sacramental proclamation of the word and the scriptural proclamation, Aquinas recognizes that the two media serve the same purpose. “Now it is God who represents spiritual realities for us by sensible things in the sacraments, and by figurative words in the Scriptures.”3 As Rahner describes it, “the event of grace (event of salvation) and revelation are the same and. . 1. “Among the intrinsic constitutive elements of the presence of a fact of salvation within human history—here in the first place the saving reality of Christ himself—must be numbered the word as sign.” Karl Rahner, “Priestly Existence,” in Theological Investigations, vol. 3, trans. Karl-H. and Boniface Kruger (Baltimore...