What is "Church"?

When I say the word “Church”, what image comes to your mind?

For most people, the word “church” means a building people use for worship. We might think of the building we have gathered in today to celebrate Mass. Or, we might think of the grand basilicas and cathedrals throughout the world such as Notre Dame in Paris or the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in the Ivory Coast.

For other people, the word “church” conjures up images of the Vatican in Rome with all its buildings and offices. They think of men in long robes scurrying down dark hallways keeping the bureaucracy of the Vatican going. For them, the Church is primarily made up of bishops, priests, deacons and nuns who dedicate their lives to keeping the Church’s structures throughout the world going.

However, buildings, bureaucracies and bishops make up only a tiny of fraction of the total mystery of the Church. In reality, the Church is made up of all the baptized. Every believer - married, single, rich, poor, farmer, firefighter, deacon or dressmaker - makes up the rich tapestry of the People of God. Even if all the church buildings in the world were torn down, even if every office in the Vatican were to be closed, there would still be a Church. You and I - along with every baptized believer throughout the world - are the Church.

While there are many images used to describe the mystery of the Church, Saint Paul uses one in today’s second reading which is probably the most helpful - the Church as the “Body of Christ”.

All of us understand ourselves to be one body made up of many parts. We have a head, arms, legs, internal organs, elbows and so on and yet remain one person. All these parts are vital to our health and well-being. Though our heart is only one part of our body, if it were to stop beating, the whole body would die. Also, though our foot is only one part of our body, our whole body would be in agony if we were to step on a nail. Just so, Saint Paul tells us, the Church is the one body of Christ spread throughout the world and throughout history.  Jesus is the head and we are the members.

All of us have a part to play in the Body of Christ. Some of us serve as teachers. Others of us have a gift of intercession to pray for the other members of the Church. Some of us are called to serve the Church as deacons or religious. Most of us are called to serve through the Sacrament of Matrimony, building up the Body of Christ by creating homes where children are nurtured. All of these roles are important. Even though some may seem more important than others, all of them work together to make sure that the Church, which is the Body of Christ, stays healthy and strong.

Understanding the Church as the Body of Christ is vitally important to understanding our faith. Many times people set up a false opposition of the Church to Jesus and the Bible. There are some who even go so far as to claim that we can know Jesus without the Church. This is because they see the Church only as buildings, bureaucracies and bishops. When we understand the teaching of Saint Paul that the Church is the Body of Christ, we also understand that we cannot know Jesus without the Church. In fact, Jesus and the Church are one, inseparable reality - one Body. Through the Church, Jesus makes Himself known to the world. He established the Church through the apostles so that His work would continue throughout the centuries.

We know this because the Bible tells us so. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says to Saint Peter, “You are Peter; and on this rock I will build my church (Mt 16:18).” In Luke’s gospel, Jesus tells the apostles, “Whoever hears you, hears me” (Lk 10:16). And when Saint Paul was working to put Christians to death, Jesus appears to him saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me” (Acts 9:4). It is only because the Church is His Body that Jesus can say that, whenever Paul persecuted a Christian, He was persecuting Christ. Jesus so identifies with His Body, the Church, that He can say, “Whatever you do to the least of my people, you do to me” (Mt 25:40).

As members of Jesus’ Body,then, we have a mission. He did not establish a Church so that we could congratulate each other about how good and holy we are. Rather, He established a Church to continue His work of bringing God’s love to a broken world. Jesus spells out for us what our job is to be in today’s gospel - “...to bring glad tidings to the poor...to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” There is much work to be done. It is not just up to the buildings, bureaucracies and bishops to do it. It is up to us - each one of us without exception.

This beautiful poem by Saint Teresa of Avila sums it up perfectly:

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

When this Mass ends, we will leave this building. However, we will not stop being Church. Rather, we are called to bring the Jesus we have encountered here into a broken world because He has no other hands and feet but ours.