Introduction

INTRODUCTION EVERY age seeks self-understanding, insight into its sources of strength and its areas of weakness, clarification of the direction it is taking in reality as well as in intent. Ages past have, in the perspective of time, been called "golden" or "dark"; an era, a century, a reign, or a decade has been characterized as renaissance, revolutionary, glorious, or uproarious. How should the twentieth century understand itself? How will the twentieth century appear in the pages of history? Some would see it already characterized by the mushroom cloud of the atom bomb: a century of fear, of anxiety. For others, despite the tremendous technical advance in transportation and communication, or perhaps because of this, the twentieth is the century of loneliness in which man is estranged from his fellow man; or of emptiness in which the control over the earth, maybe the stars, has served to reveal a tragic impoverishment of the human spirit. God gave to this twentieth century Pope John XXIII and John gave to it a new meaning. He saw himself as an optimist and as an optimist he appeared and appealed to men everywhere. His words were many and of them many were powerful. Yet what he was, what he did, more than what he said, entranced a world. He gave hope in being hopeful, confidently reaching for goods long since abandoned in despair. He preached love most effectively in the daily, generous exercise of his own universal fatherhood. He lived through many wars, two of which were rightly called "world"; they effected in him a profound vision of "peace on earth." Paradoxically he restored a warm hope of unity and peace while nations still chose sides in a cold war; he restored man to personal dignity by personifying the inestimable value of simplicity. In all, a rich interior goodness overflowed as most vigorous, robust, triumphant living. John was, in the phrase of St. Catherine Xl xu INTRODUCTION of Siena, " Christ on earth " and all men seeing Christ in him were in some measure, small or great, renewed in themselves. " Renewal " early became the watchword of the Council called by Pope John. Thus on October ~0, 196~, the Conciliar Fathers declared: " Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we intend in this assembly to seek the most effective ways of renewing ourselves and of becoming increasingly more faithful witnesses of the Gospel of Christ. We will strive to propose to the men of our time the truth of God in its entirety and purity so that they may understand it and accept it freely." 1 The hope and love, the quest for peace and simplicity, the witness to Our Lord characteristic of Pope John have animated the Council. The reason for the Christian vitality of both Pope and Council is the one Holy Spirit, font of light and love for the Church of Christ, abiding in the Holy Father and the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. The Church renews herself from within and deep within her is God's Spirit. Through John He manifested, even dramatically, His power to draw the hearts of men. Through the Council He would change those hearts, fill them with His love. From the first moment of planning, the perspective of the Second Vatican Council has been pastoral, not polemic. Holy Mother Church is engaged, not primarly in forging weapons for combat, but in opening wide the arms of love to embrace all men in Christ. She seeks to deepen and intensify the inner life of her children, to bring all men to partake of that life. "We humbly and ardently invite all," affirmed the assembled Bishops, "not only those brothers whom we serve as pastors, but all our brothers who believe in Christ and all men of good will ... to collaborate with us in establishing a more ordered way of living and greater brotherhood." 2 The way must be His way, the way of truth. Life is ordered, love is nourished, men are drawn one to another in unity and 1 " The Council Fathers Speak to the World" The Pope Speaks, Vol. 8, No. 8 (1968) , p. 802. • Ibid., p. 808. INTRODUCTION Xlll peace by truth. The...