Tomáš Halík at the Belfast Jesuit Centre
On Wednesday 30th October, the Belfast Jesuit Centre Book Club hosted a question-and-answer session with author and theologian Monsignor Prof. Tomáš Halík. His considered and provocative book The Afternoon of Christianity: The Courage to Change was their latest read, and the book club says it was an honour to be joined by its author via Zoom. Joanne Savage is a member of the Belfast Jesuit Center book club. You can read her appreciation of the evening below.
The Courage to Change
By way of context, The Afternoon of Christianity is trailblazing in its interrogation of what Halík regards as a prioritisation of doctrine, dogma and a hierarchical conception of the Church, that has led so many seekers to turn away from its doors. He contends that “if the Catholic Church is to be truly Catholic, it must complete the shift begun at the Second Vatican Council: the shift from Catholicism to catholicity.
All churches and all Christians that recite the Apostles’ or the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed thereby proclaim their duty to develop the catholicity of Christianity: that openness of the Church that mirrors the arms of Jesus on the Cross.” He adds unequivocally: “No one is outside the love of Christ.” Halík believes that while we must have respect for the traditions and the rich heritage of the Catholic Church, we also have a responsibility to be open and to integrate new ideas – Aquinas, as one example he referenced, had the courage to integrate Aristotelian concepts into his theology – something that had not been done before.
In The Afternoon of Christianity – The Courage to Change, Halík expounds on his belief that, by reading the ‘kairology’ (signs of the times), the Church could, through dialogue, open-mindedness, prayer and courage, become the ‘field hospital’ envisaged by Pope Francis; a place that is welcoming to all and where each of us can find enrichment, encountering God through our practice of the Christian virtues; faith, hope and love.
Monsignor Tomáš also explained his contention that it is now time for a “self-transcendence of Christianity” – meaning that we are not just concerned about ourselves as Christians but should always instead be reaching out to those who have different belief systems or those with none, since if God is love then his reality is relevant to everyone.
Halík described love as a form of self-transcendence – since to love someone is to overcome our own egotism and to become self-abnegating and self-giving in the process. “The Church,” added Halík, “should be a laboratory of love” intent on going out always beyond its limits and into the world to help those in whom we most encounter Jesus – the poor, the sick, the outcast and the broken-hearted, so that we may tend to both their physical and spiritual wounds.”
Professor Tomáš shared some thoughts on how prayer endows us with the sensitivity to understand the answers that God is giving us. If God does not grant us exactly what we pray for, it does not mean that he is not answering us. He spoke about a Jewish woman who had been praying for a long time to win the lottery and when this did not happen, she asked her Rabbi why God was not answering her. The Rabbi suggested that God had answered her, clearly, and that his answer was, “No.”
Professor Halík suggested that we must consider what the Holy Spirit is saying to us, when despite our fervent prayer for vocations, they are decreasing, and church attendance is falling. He recalled how when the disciples had been casting their nets all night and caught nothing, Jesus commanded them to go out deeper and to cast their nets wider. Despite their weariness they did so, and in the end were fruitful by having followed Christ’s command. Halík reflected with us on how the faithful are seekers who must be prepared to push out into the deep time and again.
Professor Halík described faith, with his trademark eloquence, as having the courage to “enter the cloud of mystery” and live bravely with the many paradoxes of life. He elaborated that whilst Church tradition is to be revered and respected, laity and clergy must walk beyond existent structures to meaningfully accompany people throughout their lives, so that faith is no longer perceived, as it so often is, as a matter of lofty doctrine that is beyond the reach of the man and woman in the street, but is lived and experienced in relationship with others. He advocated strongly for a ministry of spiritual accompaniment to help people push out into the deep.
On the question of the existence of hell, Halík said that it is a real consequence of our freedom, but he shared his hope that hell might be empty, stating that “God’s mercy is even more powerful than God’s justice.”
Further, Halík spoke of how Christians need not only courage but patience and encouraged us by explaining that everybody confronts the silence of God or “long dark nights of the soul”; but that love, an ever-patient love, in tandem with hope, can aid us in overcoming our spiritual struggles, reminding us that even the Messiah experienced a sense of desolation or separation from God at Calvary.
On the question of synodality, Halík believes it is the work of the Holy Spirit – but all the works of the Holy Spirit are unfinished until the eschatological moment. We are on a faith journey so that it would be triumphalist to say that we have arrived, or that our theology has all the answers that we seek.
One of our members asked Professor Halík about how the Church might allow for a greater contribution from women and this was met with interest and enthusiasm by Monsignor Tomáš, who told us that it cannot have been the case that only 12 men followed Jesus, but that there were many women also among their number and that female ‘charism’ should surely have an important place within the Church. He reflected that on the question of women deacons the Pope has said that the door should remain open.
Professor Tomáš also told us about his new book, which is based upon a dream he had in which he encountered a future Pope named Raphael (the name chosen because it means ‘medicine of God’) standing on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In his dream scenario he imagines himself in dialogue with Pope Raphael, discussing matters of faith that are closest to his heart.
In a world of rampant individualism with its almost ironclad, monological focus on consumerism and materiality at the expense of the spiritual, it is now arguably more than ever that we must prepare for a transformation of Christianity that has simplified its thesis into a universal doctrine of love. “Who, then,” asks Halík “is an authentic believer?” His answer is utterly simple: “One who loves.” So much of Professor Halík’s writing is surely charged with what can only be the Holy Spirit: “God is bigger than our hearts – than the human heart, in which belief and unbelief, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, are always wrestling.”
Professor Monsignor Halík ended his talk by leading us in prayer in which we recognised that where we find the Holy Spirit at work, we find freedom. Together we asked God to grant us open hearts, and as we find ourselves at the ‘afternoon of Christianity’ (which in Biblical concepts of time is the moment when a new day begins), that we should endeavour not to miss the moment when the first star appears in the evening sky – this star being a sign or kairos that the courage to change is needed now. With true humility Tomáš asked us that we also pray for him – showing that one of the foremost theologians of today is clearly a true follower of the Man who laid down his life for his friends.
Joanne Savage, Belfast, November 2024
Photo: Tomáš Halík in April, 2017. Center for the Study of Europe, Boston University (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
