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Is the church necessary?
Summer is a good time for reading; but this summer the book market has been inundated with pseudo- religious literature that is in fashion thanks to bestsellers such as Dan Brown’s book, The DaVinci Code.
According to much of this literature, Christ and the church are reflected as two completely independent realities. Moreover, the church would be nothing but a useless institution dedicated to hiding the alleged “truth” about Jesus Christ.
Nevertheless, each Sunday, we Catholics say in the Creed: “we believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.”
How can we say that the church is holy when we know that some of her members are capable of committing serious offenses? For a very simple reason: Because, as St. Paul says, Christ “is the head of the body, which is the church,” (Col 1:18) and he is holy. St. Augustine tells us that Christ and the church form the “total Christ.”
We members of the church acknowledge that we are sinners in need of conversion and purification. But we also acknowledge that in the church, thanks to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, we find all the means necessary to achieve the human vocation that is holiness. In other words, the church is not holy because of its members, who are all sinners, but because Christ has placed in her all the means to achieve holiness, and He constantly purifies her with his love.
And why do we say that the church is “catholic?” The original Greek term “katolikos” means “universal”— the church, in fact, not only administers all the means of salvation, but has been sent on a mission to all peoples of every time or culture. The fact is that Christ is manifested through the church, a view opposite to that of some contemporary writers who say that she is a curtain that “hides” Christ. Christ and the church are intimately united.
We also say in the Creed that the church is “apostolic.” In fact, the church must announce the Gospel to the whole world, because Christ has commanded: “Go therefore and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt 28:19)
But she is also apostolic because, as St. Paul explains, the church was built “upon the foundation of the apostles.” (Eph 2:20) It is the apostles, their successors — the bishops and especially Peter’s successor — the pope, who govern the church until the coming of Christ.
A few days ago, when I was in Rome, I was able to once again experience that special unity which, as part of the church of San Antonio, we experience with the universal church and the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.
Next week, on July 11, we celebrate the feast of a great saint, St. Benedict of Nursia, who helps us understand the profound unity between Christ and his church. After converting to a life of complete devotion to Christ, living alone on Mount Subiaco in Italy, he understood that the encounter with Christ could not remain a private experience.
Thus endowed with great wisdom, he wrote a monastic rule that he spread throughout the known world, guided by the idea, “Ubi Ecclesia, ibi Cristo” (Where the church is, there is Christ).
The work of St. Benedict is known today in Europe even by nonbelievers: his conviction that the personal encounter with Christ leads to a deeper love and to a more enthusiastic propagation of the church, led him to transform hundreds of Benedictine monasteries in Europe into true centers of faith and culture, which saved Europe from cultural extinction.
Let us ask the Lord Jesus, who explicitly wanted to leave us a church formed and governed by men, to never let us separate him from the church, and instead, that we recognize the great gift he left us in the church, of which he himself is the head.
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