Receiving the Council: Theological and Canonical Insights and Debates by Ladislas Orsy

Author:Ladislas Orsy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Published: 2010-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

To begin an exposition on the state of canon law with a poetic passage from the prophet Isaiah is unusual. But the allegory of the vineyard captures the inner core of my study. Yahweh built the vineyard, and he built a protective enclosure for it so that the life hidden in the vine may unfold and bring forth fruit. Isaiah sees a neat distinction between the external provisions (the clearing of the soil and the building of the watchtower) and the internal provisions (the wealth of the vines blessed with life) called to produce good wine.

The supporting structures of the vineyard—the walls, the beds, the paths, the watchtower—are meant to provide protection for the vines to grow and produce an abundant harvest of grapes. They are necessary but not life-giving. Life is in the plants and only there.

It is the same with the church. Structures, laws, and organizations are needed to provide an environment for life to unfold and expand. But life is in the people—only there and nowhere else.

Every allegory concerning the church, of course, only approximates a reality that is too mysterious to be expressed in our limited concepts and images. Nonetheless, the allegory of the vineyard, when judiciously applied, is a good way of representing the relationship between law and life in God’s own domain that is the church.

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