In God’s Church
I must confess that when I started praying the Liturgy of the Hours, a form of prayer in the Church which marks times during the day to pause and pray, I often wondered why the Church had feast days like the one we celebrate this Sunday, November 9 – The Dedication of Saint John Lateran Church, which is located in Rome, and was built by the Emperor Constantine, in the early centuries of the Church. I suppose, rather self-righteously, I wondered why we were glorifying church buildings. After all, as we hear in our second reading from 1 Corinthians (3:9c-11, 16-17), St. Paul writes to his fellow Christians: “You are God’s building.”
I know now how places, especially particular churches, can be important to people. For me, though, what is most important is that feasts like this invite us to reflect on what it means to be church. In our Gospel reading (John 2:13-22), Jesus enters the temple area, and finds merchants selling animals for sacrifice, and moneychangers converting Roman money to money to be used in the temple. Incensed at the sight, Jesus fashions a whip out of cords and drives the merchants and the moneychangers out, saying, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” The incident called to mind for the disciples the Scripture: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Jesus didn’t want the temple to be something it wasn’t created to be — a place for commerce.
I know people can complain when the pastor talks about money, but the money is for the church to continue its mission, not to make a profit.
In these times, there are other things we need to consider that the church is not meant to be. It is not meant to be a place of condemnation. It is not meant to give in to hate and fear. It is not meant to be a community that believes in life as a zero-sum game, but rather a community that trusts in the love and generosity of God and is willing to be welcoming and generous to others.
For me, a great image of church is found in our first reading from Ezekiel (47:1-2, 8-9, 12). Unfortunately, the way the whole reading has been abridged, it seems that water is only trickling from the temple, but when you read the whole passage, you see that the stream does indeed begin as a trickle but grows into a stream that can only be crossed by swimming. And as the angel describes this stream to the prophet, it is clear that this stream is life-giving, supporting all life, and giving it abundance. And I’ve thought, for some time now, what a way to imagine the Church! Instead of water flowing from the Church, what if it were the love of God in Jesus Christ? What if the love of God in Jesus Christ would flow out of us as a community of faith, bringing life and hope and healing wherever we went? We wouldn’t be indulging in passing judgment or looking down on others or looking to push people out. We would be engaged in following Christ and helping lift others up. Wouldn’t that be Good News?
May we be the Church God calls us to be.
I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.
In Christ,
Phil, CP
