Meditation Eighteen, Second Week of July 2003

The Holy Catholic Church

Readings: Matt 16: 13 - 20; John 21: 9 - 171 Thess 5: 12 - 22; 1 Tim 3: 14 - 16

Since the very earliest days after the Resurrection, it is evident in scripture itself that the community we call the Church has existed. The scripture readings we have just considered are only a small but significant sample of quotations that reveal that Christ intended to begin a community that would last until the end of the world. Despite their failure on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, the apostles confirmed by the Holy Spirit would be the first overseers, or bishops (what overseer means) of this Church or ecclesia (a word that in Greek and Latin means congregation and which in English is translated Church). Christ gave to these apostle overseers the power to forgive sins, to celebrate the mysterious Eucharist, to baptize and heal the sick. As the New Testament moved on past the time of the Gospels, we see St. Paul giving advice to members and leaders of the Church, especially in what are called the pastoral epistles-1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. We see the life of the Church developing in all the epistles, including those of Peter, John, James, and Jude. The author of the Book of Revelation has warnings and messages for various specific churches in different locations. In the sixteenth century, when the Church was weakened by such calamities as the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War, some devout Catholics decided to abandon the Church with all its ills and establish a new community based on their reading of the New Testament. This was a church without bishops or priests, without any sacraments except baptism. These people were first called Anabaptists, but the community they founded was not at all like the early Church, which possessed not only baptism but also the apostolic teaching authority and the other sacraments. Even Luther and Calvin never meant to start a new church and claimed that they kept the teachings and institutions of the early Church. Actually, they added new doctrines like predestination and omitted the teaching on the Eucharist as a representation of the sacrificial death of Christ. With all the ills of the Church during that time, we should not judge those who left it, because we do not know what we would have done if we were in their situation. Many saintly Catholics-Catherine of Siena, Bernardine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross- joined the rising call for reform within the Church, begun in part by St. Catherine of Genoa, who died before Luther's departure from the Church. The fact is that Christ had prophesied that the powers of hell would attack the Church but they would not prevail. This is what we see happening right now around us. It is a time to be loyal to Christ and, because of this loyalty, to be loyal to the Church He founded.

Quotation for Meditation

St. Augustine on the Church

Hold this fast and keep it entirely fixed in your memory, as children of the Church's training and of the Catholic Faith, that you may perceive Christ to be the Head and the Body, and the same Christ to be also the Word of God, the Only-begotten, equal to the Father, and so may see how great is the grace whereby you pertain to God, that He, Who is one with the Father, has willed to be one with us. . . . Christ and the Church are two in one flesh. The "two" you must refer to the distance of His Majesty from us. Clearly there are two. For we are not also the Word; we are not also God in the beginning with God: we are not also He by Whom all things were made (John 1, 1-3).

Commentary on Psalm 142

The whole Christ is Head and Body, which truth I doubt not you know well: the Head is our Saviour Himself. . . . But His body is the Church, not this one or that, but spread throughout the whole world. Nor is it only that which now is among men who are living in the present life, but it is in those belonging to it who have been before us and in those who are to come after us, even unto the end of the world. For the whole Church, which consists of all the faithful, since all the faithful are members of Christ, hath that Head set in Heaven, and it governeth His body. And although it is separated from our vision, yet is it joined together in charity. Hence the whole Christ is Head and its body.

Commentary on Psalm 5

Quiet Time and Then Discussion

Questions for Meditation

1. Have the present scandals eroded my faith in the Church?

2. Should any scandal really affect my faith?

3. How do I help others whose faith has been weakened?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, at the very time of Your betrayal and death, You appointed the apostles to take Your place, to feed and shepherd Your sheep. Many pages of Church history of the are filled with great souls and holiness, but other pages are dark and shocking, like Good Friday. Give us all the grace through the Holy Spirit to love and serve Your Church, which according to Paul is Your mysterious and spiritual body. Amen.