Sárospataki Füzetek 21. (2017)

2017 / 2. szám - ARTICLES-STUDIEN - INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE SINCE THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION-INTERKULTURELLER DIALOG SEIT DER REFORMATION - Gosker, Margriet: Erős vár a mi Istenünk: 500 years of protestantism in the netherlands in ecumenical perspective

Erős vára mi Istenünk: 500 Years of Protestantism in the Netherlands in Ecumenical Perspective

years as a festivity.10 Cardinal Kurt Koch, the head of the Vatican Pontifical Council for promoting Christian Unity, said in 2016, at the opening of the Plenary Assembly, that the schism of the Churches turned out to be exactly the opposite of what the Reformation was supposed to be. The 500 years of Reformation can be commemorated but hardly celebrated, because of the pain and the guilt of the separation.

Blessing in disguise

It is clear that Luther and the other great Reformers did not want to divide the church. They just wanted renewal, refreshment. They wanted to reset the church, as we would say today. Luther knew how much the church needed reformation. As an ecumenical theologian, he just wanted to make the church more catholic,11 but he was also well aware of his own frailty. He knew very well that the Reformation of the church is not our human work but it is God’s own work.12 Unfortunately, we are all aware that the Reformation was also the work of sinful human people. Despite all good intentions, the Reformation brought the Netherlands and Europe many struggles, divisions, much violence and aggression. People were called heretics and were sentenced to death. The iconoclastic fury in the Netherlands (1566), for example, was outrageous. There was conflict without communion everywhere. Everything was focused on heresy and heretics. Both parties emphasized the things that separated us from each other instead of looking for what united us.

“We accepted that the Gospel was mixed with the political and economic interests of those in power. Their failures resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Families were tom apart, people imprisoned and tortured, wars fought and religion and faith misused. Human beings suffered and the credibility of the Gospel was undermined with consequences that still impact us today. We must deeply regret the evil things that Catholics and Lutherans have mutually done to each other.”13

However, all things considered, the Reformation can be seen as a blessing in disguise. I am very grateful for the fact that for the first time in history, we can commemorate the Reformation centenary in a truly ecumenical way. We cannot just celebrate, and if we do, we do it in a different way than in previous times and contexts. “What

10 G. Bausenhart: Feiern oder begehen?: Eine katholische Perspektive auf 1517/2017, Ökumenische Rundschau, 61, 2012/1, 6-22. V. Leppin: 2017 - ein Jubiläum, Ökumenische Rundschau, 61, 2012/1,(23-351,23.

11 J. Vercammen, Archbishop of the Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands during a Summer School of the Protestant Theological University, gathering in the Dominican Monastery in Huissen, 11 July 2017.

12 H. J. Selderhuis: Luther: Een mens zoekt God, Apeldoorn, Uitgeverij De Banier, 2016, 71.

13 Common Prayer: From Conflict to Communion: Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017. Text by the Liturgical Task Force of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity, 14.

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