What does Church mean?

The word ‘Church’ means different things to different people. For some it is a building, for others it an organisation, for others it is the Mystical Body. Sadly, for many it is a concept, an external thing that they think about and react to in different ways. In reality it is an entity we can only appreciate properly when we see it as a life-force of which we are a member not a spectator. It can only be understood from within, or sensed by those seeking truth.

Spectators often marvel at the way the Church keeps going when its members show such weakness and sinfulness. That is because they are unaware of the life-force and how it operates. It is in fact the Holy Spirit of God who enters the hearts of believers and joins them to Christ. By definition, they are sinners. The question should be not ‘why does the Church have sinful members?’ but ‘are its member generally growing in goodness’? Also you might ask ‘is the progression of the Church in the story of sinful humanity a force for good or for destruction?’

The Church’s enemies orchestrate a noisy cataloguing of the failures and vices of Church members, but they are silent about the vastly greater picture of successes and saints, and the Church organisations which have influenced the development of humanity. We must not be silent about those great lives and efforts of holy people. Neither must we be ignorant of the way in which the Spirit has drawn these people into the life-force of God. To know history is to be Catholic.

What is Holiness?

‘Holiness’ like ‘Church’ is a word which is much used, and not explained nearly enough. Again, most people think of it as a quality possessed by someone else or some place or object, but not an inner dynamism which is developing their own hearts. This is understandable, because holiness is a mysterious quality intimately connecting us with God whom we are incapable of knowing fully. But in contemplation we begin to delve into the mystery of knowing God through love, and that makes us increasingly aware of the Spirit working in the depths of our hearts.

We pass from knowing about holiness, to experiencing it in ourselves. It is a continual process of growing in the knowing and friendship of Jesus, and going with him into the mystery of the presence of the Father. That is the dynamic which the Holy Spirit exercise in our spirits. As he works in all people, it is the dynamic of the Church.

The Apostles addressed the early Christians as ‘saints’. We have mistakenly narrowed that word to mean only those who have stood out spectacularly as holy. That is a sadly inadequate definition of sainthood. The saint is one who is being sanctified, not only one who sees God face to face in heaven. A saint is one who has been set aside for ‘holiness’ by being brought into the holy Family of God. No wonder, Pope St. Leo the Great cries out: ‘Oh Christian, know your dignity!’

The Family of God

The Trinity is a family of blissful unity. Those who are baptised into the Family of God need to see their new birth not only as an individual process, but as a family event. I have often been surprised at the warmth of welcome given to those who have been received into the Church on Easter night by members of the congregation who are perfect strangers. Instinctively, and without their thinking deeply about it, they recognise that here is one who is not a stranger. Here is a sister. Here is a brother.

In many of today’s film dramas we hear the phrase ‘he’s family’, ‘she’s family’. Indeed it is often implied that this is the deepest value of humanity, and needs no explaining. Blood relationship needs no theorising; it is obvious and universally felt. Look at how adopted people often yearn to meet their biological relatives. What is not so obvious is the deep family bond within the Body of Christ, his Church.

We sense this Church family bond, but seldom appreciate its deep power. We hear it referred to frequently in the letters of the Apostles. They called each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister’. They had experience powerfully the birth of new life in the disciples and converts, and they readily recognised the Holy Spirit in each other.

Also they drew a great distinction between themselves and the non-believers; they were a highly motivated minority. This sense of separateness was strengthened by the belief in the first century of the Church that Christ was returning imminently, and they had to salvage as many souls as possible before the end of the world and the final judgment. That changed dramatically when Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire, and almost everyone joined the Church. The deep sense of identity gradually shifted to being attached to a nation that recognised itself to be ‘Christian’, or an organisation within a nation they called ‘the Church’.

God allowed this huge shift in the Christian sense of identity. In a way, it may have been in order to face us with the question of ‘how are all mankind involved in salvation, not just a chosen few?’ It has taken many centuries for this question mark to become clear. God wishes all people to be saved, that is to choose the path of journeying into God. We will only discover the answer to this great question of the salvation of all if we deepen our sense of the way the Family of God operates.

The deeper ties

The fact is that, deeper than blood ties, the spiritual ties between human beings are enormously powerful. In reality, my sins effect you, and your acts of love and goodness affect me. We will not be saved without each other. Jesus and the members of his body are on the cross until all are saved. We cannot escape this; we cannot separate ourselves from all the human family, which God desires to bring completely into the Family of the Trinity.

People recognise the truth, ‘No man is an island’. Few however realise that this is not just about the social bond between human beings; it is much more really a spiritual bond. Through contemplating the loving Father, the realisation dawns that his grand design is to unite the whole of humanity spiritually as the Trinity is united. Do we not assert that in heaven we will know everyone, and be in loving communion for ever? Well, that form of eternal living is revealed as redeveloping here and now. It is the Communion of Saints. It is the Church.

The earthly economy works by mutual assistance, but that is driven by self-interest. The spiritual economy, which is the far deeper project of humanity, also works by mutual assistance, but it is driven by the love of God and others. It is an indisputable fact that every one of your right acts, every travail endured for others, every sacrifice made in love, every prayer helps someone else through the economy of the Holy Spirit. Here is the real mother-load of gold for the ‘saints’ to mine. The engine for digging is contemplation, the process of manufacturing the gold is intercession and sacrifice. That is how the Church that jumble of sinners which so shocks us, is gradually transforming people into saints. We sinners are already operating as a Communion of Saints.

As we increasingly share in God’s love for everyone, we become the light of the world. Jesus prayed at the last supper to the Father: ‘may they be so completely one that the world will realize that it was you who sent me’ (John 18; 23). We rightly spend much time giving an account of our hope to the people of our age, but it is our love for God and other people that will prove to them that he has come. Jesus told us that by our love he will be glorified when he prayed for us at the last supper, ‘in them I am glorified’ (John 17: 10).

The Martyrs of Compiegne

The martyrs of Compiegne were an instance in which the glory of Jesus was dramatically witnessed in his people. Sister Gabriella of the Incarnation writes on the website, Where Peter Is: ‘These Carmelites were 16 nuns of the monastery of Compiegne in France, and when the French Revolution broke out and Catholicism was outlawed, they all vowed to offer their lives for the faith and for France. They repeated this vow each day. At first, they were allowed to live their religious life, but then they were evicted from their monastery and ordered to take off their religious habit and to cease living as religious. They broke up into small groups of 3 or 4 and lived in apartments, keeping in touch with one another and doing their best to live their Carmelite life as best they could. They were arrested in June 1794, and a few weeks later, on July 17, they were sent to the guillotine. They sang on the way to the scaffold, and each repeated her vows in the hands of the Prioress before she mounted the steps to the guillotine. The usually raucous, jeering crowd was totally silent as the nuns died one by one’. Even the most degenerate person can recognise one who is full of the love of God.