I. Liberation Theology and Vatican II

Commentators and liberation theologians rightly point to the foundational impact of Vatican II on the development of liberation theology, particularly in terms of Medellín.Footnote ⁶ As with all who engage the council, however, liberation theologians privilege some texts and ideas over others. Three themes from Vatican II stand out most prominently in standard readings of liberation theology, each of which is grounded in the words of John XXIII and finds its fullest expression in Gaudium et Spes: (1) a general spirit of openness toward the world and the process of worldly development; (2) the call to read the signs of the times; and (3) John XXIII's notion of the “church of the poor.”

It is clear that Vatican II represents a greater openness and engagement with the world, and this very basic orientation—along with the related link between the kingdom of God and worldly development—is strongly embraced by liberation theologians. John XXIII's opening speech and the oft-quoted opening lines of Gaudium et Spes represent this tendency at the council.Footnote ⁷ Furthermore, in Gaudium et Spes we find a greater recognition of not only what is positive in the modern world, but also of how the church has indeed been enriched by developments in the world (GS §44). Key here is a strong sense of unity between salvation and history, between the church and the world. As Pope Paul VI told the council, “The church sees [the world] with deep understanding, with true appreciation, sincerely desiring not to conquer it but to serve it; not to disparage it but to value it; not to condemn it but to comfort and save it.”Footnote ⁸ This insight is further reflected in the council's (somewhat hesitant) recognition that earthly progress “is of vital concern to the Kingdom” and that the promotion of human dignity, community, and freedom reflects the presence of the kingdom of God on earth (GS §39).Footnote ⁹ Liberation theology develops this basic connection by insisting that salvation must be understood as comprehensive and integral and that history must be understood as one; there is no clear separation between salvation history and profane history.Footnote ¹⁰

The promotion of greater openness and recognition of the presence of God's kingdom in the world more broadly provides the foundation for a second theme taken up again and again by liberation theologians: the responsibility of reading the signs of the times (GS §4). How is the church to proclaim the gospel and serve God in this age? To answer this question a discernment of spirits is necessary, and liberation theology finds its roots in just such an attempt to discern the will and presence of God and the truth of the gospel in a situation shaped by poverty and oppression. For Gutiérrez the central sign to be interpreted is the “irruption of the poor,” the new presence of those who have been absent or ignored in society and the church and who yearn for liberation, freedom, justice, and, ultimately, life. He then sees liberation theology as in part “an attempt to accept the invitation of Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council [to] interpret this sign of the times by reflecting on it critically in the light of God's word.”Footnote ¹¹ A central ecclesial moment in this process of discernment was Medellín.

A third theme is John XXIII's notion of the “church of the poor,” though Gutiérrez sees this theme as having left only a “faint mark” on the conciliar documents themselves.Footnote ¹² It is reflected in discussions of human dignity and the common good in Gaudium et Spes (GS §26 among others), missionary work and joining with the “poor and afflicted” (Ad Gentes §12), and the affirmation in Lumen Gentium §8 that “the Church encompasses with her love all those who are afflicted by human misery and she recognizes in those who are poor and who suffer, the image of her poor and suffering founder. She does all in her power to relieve their need and in them she strives to serve Christ.” Medellín (and liberation theology more generally) represents this seed sown by John XXIII bearing fruit as the church seeks to truly become a church of the poor, a church that opts preferentially for and works in solidarity with those who suffer.Footnote ¹³ This is the key achievement of Medellín, one that is the fruit of Vatican II while also representing a significant development. At Medellín the church not only relates the faith and church to the world and history (an accomplishment of the council), but also now in a fundamental way to the poor.Footnote ¹⁴

Almost any short summary appraisal of the relationship between Vatican II and liberation theology will reflect upon one or more of these three themes—and rightfully so, as they are at the core of liberation theology's reception of Vatican II. Generally speaking, however, the relationship between liberation theology and Lumen Gentium receives too little attention. If mentioned at all, two points usually come to the fore: the image of the church as the people of God (LG §§9–17) and the emphasis on the local church (LG §§23, 26). A possible third point is Leonardo Boff's appeal to the image of the church as sacrament in Church, Charism, and Power as a means to contrast the current structure of the institutional church with the charismatic nature of the whole people of God.Footnote ¹⁵ Beyond noting this moment, and in particular the implications of points in the Vatican's condemnation of Boff's book,Footnote ¹⁶ Boff's interpretation of the church-as-sacrament does not receive a great deal of attention today, although he is the liberation theologian most likely to be mentioned on this point and in connection to Lumen Gentium.Footnote ¹⁷

It is also instructive to look at the reception of liberationist thought within the literature on Lumen Gentium more generally. Here I will mention just three works, all of which are quite helpful and insightful pieces for our understanding of the council, key ecclesiological texts, and postconciliar interpretations. First is a recent and useful review essay by Peter De Mey.Footnote ¹⁸ After providing a basic introduction to the first four decades of interpretation of Lumen Gentium, De Mey's main task is to give an overview of books in Catholic ecclesiology published since 2005. With the exception of noting the importance of the Vatican's notification on Boff, it is telling that we find no mention of liberation theologians (from Latin America or otherwise) in any part of the review of important works on Lumen Gentium. Such an omission would be immediately recognized as fatal if one were tracing the history of interpretation of Gaudium et Spes, but with Lumen Gentium it is rather typical to find only the interpretative tradition of American and European scholars engaged.

Another instructive example is a fine textbook on ecclesiology, The Gift of the Church.Footnote ¹⁹ Offering a basic introduction to a wide variety of ecclesiological topics, almost every author in the volume gives Vatican II pride of place. Lumen Gentium and the image of the church as a sacrament are engaged throughout the volume. Liberation theology—particularly the conferences at Medellín and Puebla—also plays a role, albeit a minor one. In particular (and almost exclusively), the insights of liberation theology enter into discussions of evangelization and social mission (into discussions of Ad Gentes and Gaudium et Spes). Discussions focused primarily on the nature and structure of the church draw upon other (European and American) sources.

One of the most important works on Vatican II in the last decade is the five-volume Herders Theologischer Kommentar zum Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil. Footnote ²⁰ This series is more successful than many in bringing reflections from Latin America to bear on our understanding of Lumen Gentium. In particular, Peter Hünermann nicely details the reflections of the Chilean bishops during the developmental stages of Lumen Gentium.Footnote ²¹ Furthermore, in the concluding volume, which draws together various theological themes, a section on the church as sacrament does eventually make a connection between this image and the call to witness to the dynamism of God's salvation in the world through solidarity, particularly with the poor.Footnote ²² Overall there is a greater recognition of the need to engage liberationist ideas in the series. Yet beyond a reflection on Lumen Gentium §8, the actual commentary on Lumen Gentium does not exhibit deep engagement. There is certainly nothing comparable to the treatment in the commentary on Gaudium et Spes.Footnote ²³

Many other examples could be marshaled that fit with these examples—most of them similar to the first two.Footnote ²⁴ Yet, as is demonstrated below, liberation theologians have deeply engaged Lumen Gentium and the theme of the church as a sacrament of salvation and unity, starting almost immediately after the council. Indeed, the themes of openness to the world, reading the signs of the times, and becoming the church of the poor are grounded in a particular understanding of the nature of the church as sacrament. Recognizing this point is important for our understanding of both Lumen Gentium and liberation theology. In the next two sections I look at Lumen Gentium's use of the image of the church as a sacrament and then explore how liberation theologians take up the image in a distinctive way.

II. The Church as Sacrament in Lumen Gentium

Originating in the early church and experiencing a resurgence in the decades leading up to Vatican II, the idea of the church as a sacrament was popularized by Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, Edward Schillebeeckx, and Otto Semmelroth, among others.Footnote ²⁵ It is the central image of the opening paragraph of Lumen Gentium, and it is worth pausing to consider this text: as a sacrament, the church is “a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all [human beings].” Designating the church as “sacrament” thus indicates two aspects and a twofold goal: the church is a visible sign of what God intends for the world and actually serves as an instrument of this final goal; and the telos of the church is understood both vertically and horizontally, communion with the triune God and unity among humanity. This basic statement of the church as a sacrament also grounds many of the key ecclesiological discussions later in the dogmatic constitution, including the nature of the church as the people of God (LG §9), the affirmation of ecclesial diversity and catholicity (§§12–13), the nature and purpose of the papacy (§§18, 23), the role of the laity (§§34, 36), the value of the evangelical counsels (§44), the pilgrim nature of the church (§48), and much else. Most fundamentally, however, a close reading of Lumen Gentium demonstrates that the sacramental nature of the church consists in its Christological foundation and eschatological orientation. Attending to these two fundamental commitments is essential to understanding how the church is a sacrament of unity and salvation.

Lumen Gentium begins its exploration of the nature and mission of the church with a description of the Trinitarian structure of salvation history (LG §§2–4) that finds its center in Christ. The church is the seed of the kingdom of God preached by Christ, “a seed of unity, hope, and salvation for the whole human race” (LG §9). As a sacrament, the church is both a sign and an instrument of the salvific grace of Christ: by the power of the Holy Spirit, it both points to and confers the grace Christ offered to humanity, particularly in the eucharistic liturgy (LG §11; Sacrosanctum Concilium §8). Rather than an “empty sign,” “where the Church as sacrament is present, the grace of Christ will not be absent.”Footnote ²⁶ In entering the church one encounters the unifying force of the grace of Christ, which draws one into deeper union with God and others.Footnote ²⁷

Yet, the eschatological nature of the church as sacrament prevents a simple identification of the church with Christ's saving grace or the kingdom of God to which it points. As a pilgrim in history, the church “will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven” (LG §48); it is “at once holy and always in need of purification” (LG §8).Footnote ²⁸ These two passages highlight two aspects of the sacramentality of the church. First, from an eschatological perspective, the church has a certain provisional character: “The pilgrim Church, in its sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass” (LG §48).Footnote ²⁹ It is a sign and anticipation of the greater reality that is to come: the renewal of all things. Second, as always in need of purification, to be a sign of grace and the kingdom of God is not simply a gift given to the church; it is a task to be taken up in every age: “The Church on earth must continually labor to become a credible sign of the future glory to which it points.”Footnote ³⁰ As a result of human sinfulness, “the radiance of the Church's face shines less brightly” than it should (Unitatis Redintegratio §4). Indeed, it is possible for Christians individually and communally to act as a countersign as they fail to reflect and enact God's love in the world.Footnote ³¹ Thus, the affirmation of the church as a sacrament of unity includes within it an affirmation of the church as grounded in the salvific work of Christ (and the Trinity) and a call to become an ever more credible sign of that salvation in the world.Footnote ³²

III. The Church as Sacrament in Gutiérrez and Sobrino

Latin American bishops and liberation theologians took up the idea of the church as a sacrament soon after Vatican II. Many of the speeches at Medellín explore the sacramental nature of the church; most notably, Eduardo Pironio, general secretary of CELAM, provides extensive reflections on Lumen Gentium in light of the church as a sign and instrument of unity and salvation.Footnote ³³ Later at Puebla (the third conference of CELAM, held in 1979) the image of the church as a sacrament is the fundamental frame for the ecclesiology of the final document; here the church is recognized as a sacrament of communion, a church, which “in a history marked by conflicts, contributes irreplaceable energies to promote the reconciliation and solidary unity of our peoples.”Footnote ³⁴ In his first pastoral letter as archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero centers his ecclesiological reflections upon the church as a sign and instrument of Easter in the world, and this theme shapes his three subsequent letters as well.Footnote ³⁵ Deep reflections on the theme are likewise found in the works of Leonardo Boff, Ignacio Ellacuría, and others.Footnote ³⁶ While the works of each of these could be used to further our understanding of this theme of Lumen Gentium, the most obvious source—and most important, given its influence—is Gutiérrez's seminal work, A Theology of Liberation.

At the “climax of the cumulative argument of [the book],” as Robert McAfee Brown describes it, Gutiérrez turns his attention to ecclesiology and in particular to the church as a sacrament.Footnote ³⁷ Gutiérrez recognizes that speaking of the church as a sacrament “is undoubtedly one of the most important and permanent contributions of [Vatican II],”Footnote ³⁸ and he affirms the basic framing given in the previous section: the church must be understood in the context of salvation history and the call to participate communally in the Trinitarian life of God. The church is grounded in the work of Christ and the Spirit as it operates as a sacrament of this salvation. Gutiérrez likewise draws out the eschatological and provisional character of the church and brings these together with particular emphasis the church as a sign of salvation:

In his account of the sign character of the church, Gutiérrez affirms the Christological foundation of the church—that it is as sign of salvation and unity—but puts further emphasis on the eschatological orientation of church and the call to become an ever more credible sign of the salvation promised by God in Christ. This emphasis is reflected later at Puebla as well: “In fidelity to its status as a sacrament, [the church] tries more and more to be a transparent sign or living model of the loving communion in Christ that it proclaims and is striving to realize.”Footnote ⁴⁰ All of this is a fairly straightforward reading of Lumen Gentium, balancing both the importance of the church as the work of Christ and the Spirit and the need to decenter the church, since it is not an end in and of itself.

Yet Gutiérrez offers his own distinctive take on what it means for the church to be both a sign and an instrument of unity. Put simply, the church cannot be a credible sign of the kingdom of God unless it makes a preferential option for the poor.Footnote ⁴¹ It is worth noting that although Lumen Gentium does not put it in exactly this way, Gutiérrez's position has clear grounding in the text. The most obvious place is the famous and already quoted passage in paragraph 8: “The Church encompasses with her love all those who are afflicted by human misery and she recognizes in those who are poor and who suffer the image of her poor and suffering founder. She does all in her power to relieve their need and in them she strives to serve Christ.”Footnote ⁴² Gutiérrez also sees himself following the basic position of Medellín: the church must be “a ‘poor church’”—that is, a church that in order to be a sacrament of salvation involves itself with the poor and with poverty.Footnote ⁴³

At the most basic level, Gutiérrez insists that the sacramental character of the church places the church in the midst of the movement toward a just union among humanity in history: “Its fidelity to the Gospel leaves no alternative: the Church must be the visible sign of the presence of the Lord within the aspiration for liberation and the struggle for a more human and just society.”Footnote ⁴⁴ Gutiérrez sees the task of proclaiming the gospel as fundamental to the church as a sacrament, and, as is implied in the previous quotation, this proclamation is two-sided: a message of hope for salvation and a rejection of sin. Thus, an essential part of the proclamation of the church as a mediator of unity is the revelation of disunity, of the things that rupture our relationship with God and others. This includes personal sin and selfishness—the “fundamental alienation which lies below every other human alienation”—but also social structures that dehumanize and oppress: “If a situation of injustice and exploitation is incompatible with the coming of the Kingdom, the Word which announces this coming ought normally to point out this incompatibility.”Footnote ⁴⁵ In short, the first step on the way forward toward final reconciliation is often the revelation of what opposes and prevents authentic communion.

Vatican II can be understood, in part, as a call for openness to the world. As one would expect, Gutiérrez places great importance on this aspect of the council, but equally emphasizes, countering any naïve optimism, that the world is shaped by sharp, sometimes oppressive divisions. The church is to be a sacrament of unity in this world and thus cannot overlook such division; passivity or a neutral position is not possible if true unity is sought.Footnote ⁴⁶ Instead, “in a divided world the role of the ecclesial community is to struggle against the radical causes of social division. If it does so, it will be an authentic and effective sign of unity under the universal love of God.”Footnote ⁴⁷ Put in another register, the church is called to be a sacrament of life, a sign and instrument of God's ultimate gift. However, unless it stands against the forces of death, including “persistent structural violence, terrorist violence of various kinds, and the violence of indiscriminate repression,” the church cannot be a credible sign and effective servant of life.Footnote ⁴⁸ Thus, the church must be historically and socially engaged, striking at the structural causes of oppression and “taking a position, opposing certain groups of persons, rejecting certain activities, and facing hostilities.”Footnote ⁴⁹ At times, this will mean a strong critique of the role the church has often played in society. As Joseph Ratzinger sensed at the conclusion of the council, the need for the church to break with an identification with ruling classes is “a project of fundamental importance.”Footnote ⁵⁰

In sum, Gutiérrez argues that if the church is to be a sacrament as Lumen Gentium describes, the work of the church for unity with God and among humanity is inherently preferential and even conflictual. It sides with those who suffer because of unjust structures and violence and calls to conversion those who benefit from and support these structures. Gutiérrez insists that these issues must be framed in terms of the church as sacrament—and not just as part of Catholic social teaching or the work of the secretariat for social affairs. They are at the heart of what it means for the church to be the church in a world marked by poverty and injustice.Footnote ⁵¹ Unless the church “defends and protects the poor . . . there is a contradiction of the very essence of the ecclesial community.”Footnote ⁵²

Jon Sobrino also insists that the church's existence be shaped by the option for the poor.Footnote ⁵³ He sees this as a necessary way forward to a more faithful and accurate understanding of the church:

We thus see here that Sobrino confirms Gutiérrez's fundamental point. It is, in part, through a partiality toward the poor—those who have been marginalized and excluded—that the church is a sign and instrument of universal unity. In addition to reinforcing this fundamental claim, Sobrino's work also builds up and specifies Gutiérrez's work on the church-as-sacrament in three significant ways.Footnote ⁵⁵ He provides a more significant Christological foundation, offers an apocalyptic framing, and points to mercy as the guiding principle for the church's preferential-unifying action.

Gutiérrez does discuss Christology, but he does not offer the same depth of Christological analysis as Sobrino. This is not the place to summarize Sobrino's extensive Christological reflections on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.Footnote ⁵⁶ Instead, I focus more narrowly on the way in which Sobrino's account of ecclesiological praxis flows out of his Christological reflections on the person and life of Jesus. Much of Sobrino's project could be seen as a prophetic call to ensure that the one whom we follow in faith is actually Jesus of Nazareth. One may be orthodox in one's confession of Jesus as fully human and fully divine while at the same time constructing a Christology that is insufficiently grounded in the concrete particularity of Jesus and his praxis on behalf of the kingdom of God;Footnote ⁵⁷ instead one ideologically makes of Christ what one wills. The danger here is captured well in the opening of Sobrino's Jesus the Liberator: “Let us remember that this continent has been subjected to centuries of inhuman and anti-Christian oppression, without Christology giving any sign of having noticed this and certainly without it providing any prophetic denunciation in the name of Jesus Christ.”Footnote ⁵⁸

In the praxis of Jesus, we see one who brings good news to the poor, who further reveals a God who has compassion for the poor and oppressed. In a world marked by sin, suffering, and oppression, Jesus sides with the poor: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. . . . But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation” (Luke 6:20, 24). The initial task of the Christian is to accept this Jesus as the Christ, to allow oneself to be challenged by a God who may not fit one's expectations or desires: “We must necessarily listen and answer, and in this we achieve our right relationship with God . . . . We have to let God appear as God, whatever such manifestation may be (such as the always scandalous manifestation of God's partiality toward the victims of this world) and whichever the path along which God leads us may be.” And then “we have to put the word we have heard into action.”Footnote ⁵⁹ This basic move, along with Sobrino's actual analyses of the person and work of Jesus, places Gutiérrez's basic position on a strong Christological foundation. The church's praxis as a sacrament of salvation must reflect that of the Savior;Footnote ⁶⁰ the universality of love and the task to bring about unity among humanity operate preferentially and conflictively in a world shaped by sinful and oppressive divisions.

The second way in which Sobrino develops Gutiérrez's point is his apocalyptic construal of our historical situation. Apocalypticism has always taken many different forms.Footnote ⁶¹ Its biblical iterations include a theological hope for the interruption of injustice, and this basic hope is key to Sobrino's use of apocalyptic.Footnote ⁶² In addition to this, three other traditional apocalyptic themes find their way into Sobrino's work, and each shapes the way in which he understands the mission of the church in our world. First, Sobrino paints the crises of history in much starker terms than we find in Gutiérrez. In accord with apocalyptic ideas, this world is filled with powerful forces that resist the coming of God's kingdom, persons and structures that resist a more just society and liberation for the poor. On one side of history we have the God of life, the coming kingdom, and those who fight for this kingdom in solidarity with the poor; on the other side of history we have the idols of death, the anti-kingdom, and those who violently or passively maintain an oppressive status quo that is contrary to God's will.Footnote ⁶³ To be for God, to be a follower of Jesus, is to be against those idols of death that create victims in history. Only a church that decisively sides with the victims and against forces of oppression can be a credible sign and instrument of the salvation and unity brought by Jesus.

Second, as with traditional apocalyptic, Sobrino seeks to make the crises of history transparent and visible. An unveiling of the apocalyptic division of history into polarities of good and evil is necessary so that one is able to place oneself on God's side of the struggle. Traditional apocalyptic literature often relies upon visions in order to illuminate God's saving activity in the drama of history. For Sobrino, illumination comes from the option for the poor—that is, from choosing to see reality from the perspective of those who suffer unjustly. It is from this perspective that one sees reality most accurately and thus can name historical forces in terms of the apocalyptic duality of kingdom and anti-kingdom. Such a process is obviously fraught with difficulties and prone to many dangers.Footnote ⁶⁴ What we need, according to Sobrino, is a spirituality of honesty with reality, an openness to being affected by the immense reality of suffering that is the lot of the majority of humanity. We need to name its root causes in human actions and structures and seek to transform reality to bring life. Only such a movement—even if it involves seemingly harsh prophetic rhetoric—will bring a true unity and peace that is grounded in justice. Such is the mission of the church-as-sacrament.Footnote ⁶⁵

The third important aspect of apocalyptic literature is its relation to situations of crisis. Usually originating from these situations, apocalyptic literature seeks to make a particular crisis clear, awaken the readers, and enable a community to “continue living faithfully and creatively in a world which appears to render such a life futile and absurd.”Footnote ⁶⁶ This is a perfect description of Sobrino's theological project and his use of the images of the God of life/idols of death and kingdom/anti-kingdom. Sobrino describes his Christology as “a sort of parable about Jesus Christ, which, like all parables, forces its readers/hearers to adopt a stance and make a decision.”Footnote ⁶⁷ Such a description could be extended to Sobrino's theological engagements with spirituality, the martyrs, and, not surprisingly, the church. The church must both respond with urgency in defense of the poor and be an agent that awakens others from their slumber.Footnote ⁶⁸

Thus far we have seen a twofold development of Gutiérrez's understanding of the church as sacrament of salvation and unity by Sobrino. Sobrino provides a thicker Christological account to ground ecclesiological praxis, and an apocalyptic framing that puts a more critical edge on the crises and decisions before the Christian community. A third point, though equally important, can be treated more briefly. At the heart of Sobrino's Christology, anthropology, ecclesiology, and martyrology—and which likewise shapes how one understands the church as a sacrament of salvation—is what he calls the “principle of mercy.” As the reaction to the suffering of another that seeks to eradicate that suffering, mercy is for Sobrino the core of God's activity and what is concretized in the life and praxis of Jesus.Footnote ⁶⁹ The church in turn is to be a sacrament of this mercy, a corporate body that makes visible and effective God's mercy: “The church, too, even qua church, should reread the parable of the good Samaritan and listen to it with the same rapt attention, and the same fear and trembling, with which Jesus' hearers first heard it.” And further echoing the language of Lumen Gentium §1, Sobrino sees the credibility of the church (its sign character) aligned with the degree and consistency of its mercy.Footnote ⁷⁰

Sobrino's emphasis throughout his reflections is that mercy must not be reduced to a few “works of mercy”; rather, it must be the guiding principle of a church that follows Jesus. In doing this, the church should expect significant resistance:

Thus, in making mercy the central impulse in the church's existence as a sacrament, the initially conflictual nature of this sacrament may actually be accentuated as one opposes those forces that victimize and oppress. Mercy is inherently linked with the option for the poor, the option for the most vulnerable. And in the last analysis, it is only a merciful church that can be a credible sign of the love of God for humanity.

IV. Concluding Reflections

In this article I have laid out the contribution made by liberation theologians to understanding Lumen Gentium's affirmation of the church as a sacrament of “communion with God and of unity among all [human beings].” Before looking at one concrete situation that exists today, I will briefly summarize three important gains.

First, we saw in our initial reading of Lumen Gentium that viewing the church as a sacrament places the church firmly within the Trinitarian context of salvation history and orients it eschatologically. The church is to be a sign and instrument of the unity and salvation found in Christ and the final consummation of the world for which we hope. This eschatological orientation also draws our attention to the pilgrim character of the church; as at once holy and always in need of purification, the church is a sacrament of salvation and yet must ever seek to become a more transparent sign and effective instrument of God's saving grace.

Second, the most basic contribution to our inquiry from liberation theologians is that the salvific and unifying mission of the church must be shaped by the preferential option for the poor if the church is to be a credible sign and effective instrument of God's love. As Gutiérrez argued, in a world marked by oppressive structures and divisions, the church's unifying work must operate preferentially. Sobrino's work solidly grounds this basic move in the praxis of God seen in Christ. Furthermore, we must not underestimate the strength and pervasiveness of those forces that rupture and prevent true unity; they are the forces of the anti-kingdom and the idols of death, which resist God's salvific and unifying will. In such a situation, the church cannot be a passive sacrament of unity. Instead, the church must name those forces that oppress, enter into the struggle for justice, and be willing to suffer with the most vulnerable. In every context, this work of the church must be guided by the principle of mercy. The church must tend to the wounds of those who suffer, but also mercifully seek to overcome the human-made and structural causes of oppression and victimization. Furthermore, it is an attentiveness and compassion for those who suffer that help the church see the forces and structures of oppression more clearly, as well as possible ways forward in diverse situations.

Third, at a more general level the reflections above should unsettle certain conceptions of liberation theology and its relation to Vatican II. It would be almost unimaginable for someone to give an account of Gaudium et Spes and its impact on the church without attending to its influence on liberation theology—and equally unimaginable for a genealogical account of liberation theology to omit references to Gaudium et Spes. Emphasizing this connection is proper and accurate.Footnote ⁷² Nevertheless, this emphasis can also convey the idea that liberation theology must be consulted primarily when we are thinking about pastoral issues or the relationship of the church to the modern world rather than when we consider core dogmatic issues relating to the nature and mission of the church. This article affirms the arguments of Gutiérrez and Sobrino that the preferential option is not merely a matter of social teaching, as important as this is. Rather, it goes right to the heart of what it means for the church to be the church, to be a credible and intelligible sign and instrument of salvation and unity in the world.

What liberation theology forces us to see, therefore, is that calling the church a sacrament of unity points to the ethical or political dimensions of its vocation. I want to close with one brief, concrete illustration of that vocation. Sobrino's thought matured in the midst of the Salvadoran civil war and in response to the many martyrs and ordinary people who lost their lives in large part because of oppressive regimes devoted to “national security.” While the situation in El Salvador has improved since the 1980s, in many ways the life of the poor is just as precarious. Poverty still means death, whether through violence or through the slow processes of malnutrition and insufficient health care. Indeed, over the past decade El Salvador has routinely been among the top two countries globally for homicides per capita.Footnote ⁷³ Many factors contribute to this situation,Footnote ⁷⁴ but two of the most important are the drug trade and organized crime. Due in part to gang intimidation, extortion, kidnapping, and murder, social instability remains high, and the poor and most vulnerable are the ones who most often pay the price.

What would it mean for the church to be a sacrament of unity and salvation in this context? In many ways, this situation still seems quite apocalyptic. There is an urgent crisis and a massive systemic problem that leads to the death of many people; clearly the hope for the interruption of injustice at the core of apocalyptic remains. Yet the line between the oppressors and oppressed is less clear than it was during the civil war. And the problem does not need to be “revealed”; everyone already sees it. The question, instead, is how to move forward. The harsh antigang legislation passed in 2010 represents one way forward;Footnote ⁷⁵ in this option, the state must wage war and defeat the “anti-kingdom” represented by the drug gangs. Such a straightforward, confrontational approach would seem to flow from Sobrino's apocalyptic rhetorical strategy. However, current events in El Salvador show the limits of a simple application of earlier rhetoric to the new situation, even if the impulse of mercy and the preferential option remain essential.Footnote ⁷⁶ A new way forward is needed, and there is today at least a glimmer of hope.Footnote ⁷⁷ Prior to March 2012, there were fourteen murders per day in El Salvador; after March 2012 that number fell to five per day (with April 15, 2012, being the first murder-free day in El Salvador in three years). This sharp decline is attributable almost exclusively to a truce between major Salvadoran drug gangs negotiated centrally by Catholic bishop Fabio Colindres. Since that time, Bishop Colindres has worked with ex-congressman Raúl Mijango to negotiate “special zones of peace” in which gangs would refrain from aggression, murder, extortion, and other crimes,Footnote ⁷⁸ and has drawn together a coalition of churches in a “pastoral initiative for life and peace” to work toward lasting peace and healing.Footnote ⁷⁹ Other positive developments can be seen in increased grants from the US Agency for International Development and the involvement of private businesses in helping gang members reintegrate into society and in finding job opportunities for young people.Footnote ⁸⁰ Without such economic developments, the underlying situation that leads young people to gang life will undermine the positive steps taken thus far. It is too early to know what the end results of this work will be, and more recently there have been significant spikes in violence.Footnote ⁸¹ Nevertheless, this work represents a moment of hope, a possible way forward in a situation fraught with many difficulties, and one powerful example of the church operating as a sacrament of unity in our world.

These initial stages of healing within Salvadoran society represent just one small movement toward unity in a world marked by oppressive inequality and divisions. As a sacrament of unity, the church will often have to speak prophetically, naming oppressive relations that are largely ignored or covered up. In the US context the issue of racial injustice deserves much more attention, because of both its pervasiveness and a basic misunderstanding of how racism works in our age of colorblindness.Footnote ⁸² Such an issue demands work toward healing and unity that first brings the truth of the situation out into the open—even if this initially creates tensions inside and outside the Christian community. In order to illuminate this situation and many others, the church must follow Gutiérrez's call to approach the world preferentially from the perspective of those who suffer systematic oppression and injustice. The church must be further guided by the fundamental impulse of mercy as it seeks to compassionately overturn structures that prevent the flourishing of the most vulnerable. Only by following this path can the church continue to be and become a sacrament of unity with God and among humanity.