Submitted by Deacon Jim
Who are we as Church? What is the relationship between the Kingdom
of God and the Church? Who is in the church? Who is in the Body of
Christ? When I was a kid, the answer I was taught was easy. Practicing
Catholics true to every ritual were “in” and saved, everyone else was
“out.” It never occurred to me what that meant for my non-Catholic
mother. Over the years I have grown to see a different picture.
The most inclusive definition of the Kingdom of God comes from our
last Sunday before Advent: We used to call the day “Christ the King”
but that title has been expanded to “Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the
Universe.” The kingdom then encompasses all things seen and unseen.
Pope Paul VI, in his letter Lumen Gentium or its English translation,
Light of the Nations, says, “All men are called to belong to the new
people of God.”
Pope John Paul II talked about the relationship between Church and
Kingdom. He said that the action of Christ exists “outside the Church’s
visible boundaries” but also says, “one may not separate the kingdom
from the Church.” Putting these two statements together, we
understand that “all are invited” and many are “in,” but not all are
faithful subjects. This is enlightening. A person living in a jungle who has
never heard of Jesus may be more in tune with the action of Christ than
the card-carrying Catholic who fails to live Christ’s mission of love.
As the Pope said, all are called and have been from the beginning. All
were chosen through God’s act of creation. Humanity had a special
relationship with God brought forth by being made in the divine image
of God. Only by choice did man lose that state of belonging. The
sequence repeats in the covenant of Noah. God’s covenant after the
flood included all human beings: Later, the Jewish people became a
select slice of humanity as the “center of this presence of God.” A
theologian named Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote, about the incarnation.
He said, “Jesus became the means for God to again “mingle” with all
people.” The Church in our times builds on this teaching that all are
called to be among the People of God. It is not our business to go about
judging people around us as “in” or “out” with God.
Yet most of us older folk grew up with some kind of mindset that there
is, “No salvation outside the church.” This is not a new thought. St.
Augustine expressed that. What that simple statement does not define
is how broad is the Church. Recent Popes have gone to great lengths to
make it clear that the Church is the Body of Christ and that body
extends far and wide. The Popes echo the Gospel truth that Christ left
the Church with the mission to bring all people to Him. There were no
time or space limitations on that mission. Jesus gave his disciples the
statement of mission and authority to do it. By authority, I mean the
commission to bind and loose in matters of faith. He also gave one of
the twelve a special designation as the foundation. Jesus used the word
“church” to describe what he was building. We use the word “Pope” for
the one with the power to bind or loose on matters of faith.
A tragedy of a narrow definition of who is “in” the Church is inability to
appreciate people who have ways to relate to God that are different
from our own. That was the context for the events in our first reading.
Some people from Judea were imposing stringent requirements from
their Jewish tradition on anyone who wanted to accept Christ. Paul and
Barnabus imagined a broader invitation as they witnessed non-Jews
saying “yes” to Jesus. Paul appealed to the Church in Jerusalem. After
discussion, a settlement was reached. The Gentiles were invited to be
part of the Church without needing to accept all of the details of Jewish
life. Scripture tells us that under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the
young Church was “not to lay any burden beyond that which is strictly
necessary.” What was necessary was what we heard in the last few
weeks of Gospels; the fundamental rule of membership is living Jesus’
mission of love.
One of the temptations for many of us as believers is to identify the will
of God with our own will. Those who are old enough to remember the
Church before the 1960s, know how much the way we celebrate mass
changed. We also can recall attitudes toward non-Catholics that made
it deadly to walk into a Protestant church. There was no meat on
Fridays and a long list of holy days. Those details have changed but the
call to live lives of love with Christ as the model has not changed one
bit.
We are in this church building today because we find this Catholic
Church as our way to connect with God. We have that in common. But
beyond that, there any many differences from believer to believer
when it comes to the details– even in this building today. This is
especially true in worship and devotional life. We each discover favorite
devotions that feel most spiritual. We imagine how mass should really
be celebrated right down to the most minor movements. Because
something is good for us, we think others should do it too. If they don’t,
we disparage, downplay or otherwise make it clear that our way is
right. What we are doing is squeezing God’s will into our way. The
Pharisees that Jesus repeatedly challenged were good at that. Jesus had
to remind them that many of the ritual details have little to do with
living the mission of love.
One truth we should never forget. All ideologies and requirements, all
rituals all laws and traditions, would mean nothing if we don’t do what
the Gospel tells us. Simply said by Jesus the requirements are:
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”
So, our takeaway today is to be careful with judgments about who is in
or out of this Body of Christ. The Church may be bigger than we think.
We need to be part of bringing people to Christ, not a blocker to keep
people out. We also need to keep our priorities straight. Acts of the
Apostles tells how the first Christians lived. Their lives showed us the
priorities. Acts 2:42 says, “They devoted themselves to the teaching of
the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and
to the prayers.” Pretty simple.
That description of that simple way of Christian life described in Acts
does not include any words about fancy churches, liturgies, specific
words to be said, language, nice vestments, or other ritual details.
Those things have a place, but we need to keep them in their place.
Next time we get into a heated debate with someone about any of
those details, we must remember that all of those things are here to
help us get closer to Christ. But they are not the core of what being part
of the Church or being Christian means.
The fundamental truth is stated in that old song, “They’ll know we are
Christians by our love.” Living a life of love is the real deal. Let’s carry
that message to each other and beyond this building. Some might say
that’s Old Time Religion. I say it is the Gospel truth. AMEN