A reflection on the readings for April 28, 2024 — The Fifth Sunday of Easter
In 21st-century American Christianity, there appears to be a strong desire to separate belief in Christ from membership in the Church. This is backed up by strong anecdotal evidence, the proliferation of Christian movements who resist the “church” label, and the fact that most polling indicates only a tiny fraction of those who have renounced membership in any church reject the core tenants of Christian belief. All signs suggest that we are not suffering through a crisis of belief but a crisis of belonging.
Today’s gospel reminds us that we shouldn’t ask ourselves, “Should I join a church?” but instead, “Should I place my trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?” That is the only question because once you answer it, you have already decided whether to belong to the Church. Being a Christian means being part of the Church the same way being a human being means being part of the human race. I wouldn’t ask, “Should I join the human race?” I’m part of the human race already. The question is only whether I will make a good contribution to it or not.
There is a tendency to think of the Church primarily as an institution, a set of rules, an organization, a collection of moral teachings, and a place where there is a hierarchy with authority. The Church has all those things, but those things aren’t the Church. The Church isn’t a building, it isn’t the Pope, it isn’t the catechism, it’s something much deeper, much more profound, much more real.
Quite simply, the Church is the community of believers. The Church exists whenever one person shares the good news about Jesus with another person. That’s it. Now, there are plenty of ways we can share the good news. We can preach the Gospel message. We can share in sacraments. We can treat another person with the radical love and charity Christ calls us to. The thing is, each of those things requires at least two people to be involved. Remember “Where two or three are gathered in my name”? If you believe in Jesus Christ, you believe in him because someone else told you about him. Your parents may have had you baptized and raised you in the faith. You may have met another person at some point in your life who shared their faith with you. You may have had an inspiring interaction with a Catholic who gave you hope during a dark time. But in each of those examples, your faith was a shared experience. It came from another person.
We share the news of the risen Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has died for us and risen from the dead. But we also share more than that. We share something deeply personal. We share the life and action of the Holy Spirit within us. You hear it in parents all the time: I want to give my children something. When you give someone else your faith, you are not just providing information they can accept or reject; you are changing them and yourself in the process. You give them hope for the future, comfort in the present, and direction throughout life. Those are life-changing things. You are welcoming them into a communion. There is a bond there that goes deeper than simply being in the same organization or holding the same beliefs. It is a divine action. It is communion.
I always think of one of my favorite miniseries, Band of Brothers. It follows the Easy Company, part of the 101st Airborne Division during WWII. It follows them throughout their training and the war’s closing days in Europe. It is called Band of Brothers because the directors chose to focus on the fact that the shared experience of these men has created a bond, a closeness that goes beyond their working relationship.
If we’re lucky, we have all experienced this at some point in our lives: a group of people with whom we share an experience, a situation, or our lives. It could be from our childhood, a college fraternity or sorority, work, our family, or military service. What develops is a link, a bond. We are connected with them in a deep way.
In the Church we share a bond in the Holy Spirit. It is supernatural. We hear all sorts of language to describe this in the Bible. Jesus says he is the vine, and we are the branches. Paul tells us we are the body of Christ. The Old Testament talks about the pilgrim People of God. Each of them is trying to get at something profound. A connection that our faith creates. It connects us to God, but it also inseparably connects us.
At the Second Vatican Council, we reconnected with this truth in a new way. When people looked at the Church for a long time, they thought of a hierarchy: the Pope, the bishops, and the priests. This is why Lumen Gentium, the Council’s constitution on the Church, focuses on the phrase People of God to describe the Church. People of God highlights the fact that the Pope, bishops, and clergy exist for the Church, but they do not exhaust its meaning. We are all the Church and called to strive after holiness, not just as individuals but corporately as the Body of Christ.
So, we know that the Church exists wherever one person shares the faith with another. And we believe that when that happens, a person enters into communion with God and with his or her fellow Christians, and this communion is truly what the Church is all about. But what about all of the other things, the things people usually associate with the Church? Where do they come in?
I suspect that in Heaven the Church will be a communion in its purest sense, all of us joined together with God and one another through the Holy Spirit. The problem is we’re not in Heaven. We are human beings on earth.
We have particular needs because we are human beings with weaknesses and deficiencies. We must be given signs and symbols that God is present in our lives. We must preserve the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and his teachings to pass them on. Because we are human, we need a human way to do this. So we have the institutional Church with its sacraments, teachings, and hierarchies to continue sharing the faith and living together in communion with God and each other.
A sacrament is a sign or a symbol God gives us that draws us into communion with him. A sign or symbol that makes us aware of his presence and strengthens us. In the broad sense, any part of creation can be a sacrament. In a more particular sense, we have seven sacraments in the Church, seven ways Christ is made uniquely present to us. Each of the sacraments corresponds to an important moment or aspect of our lives, making us aware of and giving us God’s presence in those moments.
We have a written Bible because the Holy Spirit helped early Christians write down an account of Jesus’ coming to be passed on. We have bishops and priests because God desired us to have leaders in worship, prayer, and individuals to represent Jesus before the community. We have religious sisters and brothers because they provide a witness to the poverty and charity that we all should be living. We have parishes because it is good to have a gathering place locally to pray and come together. We have liturgy and specific prayers because it is our way of keeping the focus on God and not on ourselves. We have a pope and a college of bishops because we believe that Christ’s Church should be unified as one, should move together, and should be able to link itself back to the faith of the earliest Church.
Each of the elements of the Church exists to help us pass on the faith that we have received through our words, actions, and lives. Each exists to deepen that communion with God and one another through the Holy Spirit.
You’ll notice that I didn’t mention the Pope, Church teaching, or hierarchy until the end of this reflection, almost as afterthoughts. That’s not because I believe they aren’t important; it’s because I believe it is impossible to start with them.
Pope Francis’s teaching is clear. We must always begin with an encounter with Jesus Christ, with a personal sharing of the faith that leads to the bond of communion. Everything flows from that. When we begin with things like rules and hierarchies, we end up like the Pharisees, preaching empty rules with no personal conversion. The other parts are important, some instituted by Jesus himself, but they are not what the Church is in its essence. Those elements come, but they come in their proper order.
When we hear the question, “Should I be part of the Church, or can I follow Jesus on my own?” we should pause for a second and consider the silliness of the question. Without a Church, you would not have received the Good News of Jesus Christ; without a Church, you cannot live out the Good News of Jesus Christ, which calls us to communion with God and one another. When we allow the Holy Spirit into our lives and profess our belief in Jesus Christ, we are already members of the Church. The question becomes, how much of a commitment will we make? How much do we want to contribute to the presence of Christ in the world? How much of ourselves do we want to give to ensure that His Word is preached through words, actions, and lives? The call to follow Jesus is never one we undertake alone. The entire Church follows Jesus because that is what the Church is: the pilgrim People of God, on a journey.
Image: Adobe Stock. By Hunman.
Fr. Alex Roche is the pastor of St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Laflin, Pennsylvania and serves as the director of vocations for the Diocese of Scranton. Ordained in 2012, he has a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Lateran University. He went to college with a girl who went to high school with the niece of the guy who played Al in Quantum Leap.
You can listen to his podcast at www.wadicherith.com.
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