Church

Don Maloney, a close friend, wrote me:

"I come back to a statement I heard Rahner make, and which I have mentioned before, that the constant temptation of the Church throughout the ages, one to which it had often succumbed, was 'idolatry,' that is, absolutizing itself and its structures, and making itself the object of worship instead of the mystery it was proclaiming (but could not fully 'apprehend'). "

I replied, "You did it! You helped me see what it is I could never see clearly."

Church was there all the time, but I got so mesmerized in the clutter of gowns and extravaganzas and the three Cs -- Creed, Clergy, Canon -- followed by the three Ds -- Doctrine, Dogma, Discipline -- that I was welded to the display and
not the reality it was proclaiming. The Church looked like all those things, just as a certain football team looks like a winner, with its yellow O on a green background and dots on the shoulders, but it isn't. Not any more than the team is its jerseys.

Church is: the worshiping place; the sanctuary where sacrifice is offered; prayer lifted up by men in black; a gathering of leaders in purple and scarlet, one in white; together with other men in suits and blue jeans, and women in dresses and slacks, and children, toddlers and youths, in all the costumes of the young.

Church is not the object of worship, an institution sanctified, a holy relic untouchable by unconsecrated hands, not even the Sacred Host.

 Church is the place where, the organization from which, the provider to which -- all of us come and go and have our daily being.

Church is there for baptizing, confirming, marrying, ordaining, confessing, eucharistizing, blessing when sick or on the way.

Church is not the baptism, nor the confirmation, nor the wife or husband, nor the priest, nor the penitent, nor the Body of Christ, nor the way. They and those are what it does, not what it is.

Church is The Thin Place, where God and we are friends.

Church is us, all of us. It truly is the Mystical Body.

 I had been staring at, was consumed by the appearances, in such a concentrated form and manner that I could not see the Church.  Like Aristotle's substance and accidents? I looked at colors and shapes; heard sounds and music; smelled incense and candles; tasted wafer and wine; felt marble and wood.

I thought that I saw, listened to, obeyed single men, solitary or in groups, claiming to be leaders and teachers, urging me to follow them. Confused, I became deaf and blind in my own heart, where Jesus was whispering, "Come, follow me."

 In idolatry, I knelt to the idol and named it Rome, deeming myself in a Roman Catnolic Church. And of course, when disillusioned by the idol, I turned on it and created a dream Church in my mind to take its place, facetiously naming it simply, solely, Catholic. No local adjectives. No qualifiers. Universal. I now know the second one is an idol, too. It exists nowhere but in my imagination, a creative place, yes, but not an assembly where others gather. I was alone.

Church needs to be defined now, not by me, but by an authority, who relies on sterling authorities. Richard P. McBrien, does so at page 354, in his The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism. New York: Harper One, 2008.

 

"The Church Defined

The Church, which is the object of ecclesiology's study, is the community of those who confess the lordship of Jesus (that he is 'the way, the truth, and the life'-John 14:6) and who strive to live their lives in accordance with his example and teachings. The Church is also known as the People of God, the Body of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Spirit as well as by other names. The first three titles, however, accentuate the trinitarian context for an understanding of the Church, a context that is also employed by Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (nn. 2-4).

A more detailed definition of the Church, embraced by the Church's greatest ecclesiologist, Yves Congar, himself, describes the Church as 'the whole body, or congregation, of persons who are called by God the Father to acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus, the Son, in word, in sacrament, in witness, and in service, and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to collaborate with Jesus' historic mission for the sake of the Kingdom of God.' Indeed, as Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church expresses it: 'The church has but one sole purpose that the kingdom of God may come and the salvation of the human race may be accomplished' (n. 45)."

 

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