Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement: "witness"

Witness

The following article by Ion Bria is the entry on witness from the revised edition of the Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement published jointly by the World Council of Churches and the Wm. Eerdmans in 2002.

The WCC’s New Delhi assembly (1961) considered witness, together with unity and service (see diakonia), as the primary concerns of the ecumenical movement. In the attempt to clarify missiological vocabulary in its ecumenical setting, "witness" has come to mean the total evangelizing presence and manifestation of the church (see evangelism).

The most original New Testament usage of witness (martyria) is in the gospel of John (RSV). The incarnation of the Word relates to the revelation and knowledge of God. "For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth" (18:37). Jesus speaks the words of God with authority because "he who comes from above... bears witness to what he has seen and heard" (3:31-32): "we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen" (3:11). Jesus as the Word incarnate speaks out of his communion with God, and therefore through him the disciples hear directly the word of God: "I have manifested thy name to the men... Now they know that everything that thou hast given me is from thee; for I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me" (17:6-8).

Jesus Christ, the faithful witness

Indeed, the heart of the NT is Jesus Christ, the unique and decisive witness of God, "the faithful and true witness" (Rev. 3:14), "who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession" (1 Tim. 6:13); he sealed the new covenant with his blood (see Heb. 9:24-28) by becoming "obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8). The faith, glory, thanksgiving and worship of the church converge in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb (Rev. 7). The Lamb is given glory because he has been slain (Rev. 5:9). The relationship between cross and resurrection, suffering servant and eschatological glory, is fundamental to the whole NT.

The witness of Christ – who sums up in his person the testimony borne by all prophets of the Old Testament and by all God’s messengers – is the foundation of the church, which at Pentecost bears witness to the resurrection. Any speculation about the essential role of martyrdom in the mission of the church, without recognizing Jesus Christ as the one witness of God, has no biblical foundation.

In common biblical use, "witness" refers to bearing testimony to the world, proclaiming and making known that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Lord of all humankind and of all creation. Jesus Christ himself commissioned the disciples to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit comes upon the faithful and makes them witnesses of Christ. The epistles describe some of the ways in which the early Christians testified to the resurrection of Christ. There are certain essential dimensions of the Christian witness: we have an apostolic-missionary commission (Matt. 28:19-20); without love, such a witness is only "a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" (1 Cor. 13:1); in bearing this witness, Christians are committing themselves to the diaconal service of others, for it is the good news of God they are bringing (Acts 13:32-33); the kingdom of God, whose coming they have to proclaim in word and deed, consists in "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17); witness includes the work of reconciliation of people with God coming together under the one Head, who is Christ (Eph. 1:10); the church must be ready to witness also before the principalities and powers of this world (Eph. 6:12; see also Rom. 8:38-39); the Christian witness draws its power and nourishment from the word and sacrament.

Eucharist as an act of witness

For the apostolic community the celebration of the eucharist is a proclamation of the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26). "Especially in difficult circumstances, the very celebration of the eucharist can constitute an act of witness. In ‘impossible’ situations, it proclaims that God alone creates a saving future. When it cries ‘maranatha’, the eucharistic community is calling for the overthrow of all that is opposed to God; it is praying for the final coming of God’s kingdom: ‘Let grace come: let this world pass away’ (Didache 10). This hoped-for future is already prefigured in the fact that the eucharistic community itself includes pardoned sinners, reconciled adversaries, and the desperate restored to life: all are welcomed by the Lord at his table of justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 14:17)" (Sharing in One Hope, 198).

Cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1)

The book of Revelation was written to increase the hope and determination of the church in a period of disturbance and bitter persecution. Thus, the book emphasizes the martyrs, those faithful disciples who live in conformity with the Lord to the point of death. They "had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne" (Rev. 6:9 RSV).

In the post-apostolic period Christians defended the gospel and established the church by the witness of their whole life; in certain circumstances, others bore this witness to the point of surrendering their lives in martyrs’ deaths. Church tradition holds that most of the apostles were martyred. At the beginning of the 2nd century, Ignatius of Antioch considered that his martyrdom would "grind" him into one bread with Christ. New local churches often followed where the first evangelists or disciples had suffered martyrdom. Liturgical altars were built over the tomb of martyrs. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," wrote Tertullian.

Indeed, the ancient church venerated the Christian martyr as a strong witness to the living God and to the coming of his kingdom. But it never absolutized those "prophetic" acts and attitudes, recognizing instead a diversity of choices and possibilities. Christians are called to bear witness also through their active daily involvement in the world.

The witness of the monastic life takes up again in the church the witness of the martyrs of the early centuries. By striving to be unattached to worldly possessions or to family and to be available for God and one’s fellow human beings, the monk or nun bears witness to the eschaton inside the church and thus exercises a truly prophetic ministry in showing forth the gospel’s way of the kingdom (see religious communities).

Common witness

The witness of the community as a whole has the same value and quality as the confession of those who followed the path of Christ in difficult or dangerous situations. But that witness has been undermined by the historical divisions among Christians and the churches. They are called nevertheless to give common witness to those divine gifts which they already share.

Common Christian witness cannot replace the theological debate searching for the unity in a common faith, but it can help Christians to realize, through their unity in evangelism and mission, the visibility of their incomplete universality. Common witness therefore gives a possibility of having a vision of catholicity and of detecting a possible historical and pastoral universality in the midst of the existing doctrinal and ecclesiological divisions.

Jesus Christ, the faithful witness

Eucharist as an act of witness

Cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1)

Common witness

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