The Church

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Ezekiel 33:7-9; Psalm 95; Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 18:15-20

“… listen even to the church…”
Matthew 18:17

This week we hear Ezekiel call out to us as a watchman on the tower.  The watchman’s duty was to sound the alarm if the enemy was coming.  In so doing he alerted the people to make ready for a defense. 

In today’s Gospel, our Lord outlines the way to resolve disputes.  First go to the person who has sinned against you.  If they cannot be reconciled then take two or three others.  If they won’t listen to them then tell it to the church.  And if they refuse to listen even to the church then let them be cast out.  But this begs the question in our modern day, “Which church?”

There are, by rough estimate, 30,000 denominations of Christianity.  In light of the fact that our fundamental message is love this is an indictment.  Truth be told, the divisions began even in the apostolic era.  But for our purposes we can see the first great division taking place in roughly 1054 A.D. with the split between East and West in what would result in what we now think of as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.  The next great division took place in the 16^th century with the Protestant Reformation.  Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and some others were among the first to break from the Catholic Church and form their own churches.  They were followed in time by the Anglicans and the Radical Reformation which brought about the Anabaptist stream and their modern descendants: the Brethren, the Mennonites, and the Amish.  Baptists, Methodists, Church of Christ, Holiness, Pentecostals, Charismatics, and non-denominationals would all follow in time until we have reached the regrettable situation we have now in our day where we are often sadly divided from one another.  True, that in more recent times there have been movements toward reconciliation and reunion.  But we still remain largely divided.

Again, this begs the question, “Which church is referred to in our Lord’s teaching?”  Naturally, we would respond by saying the Church which He founded.  Well, which one is that?  Or is it somehow all of them put together?  

Let’s quickly dispense with the second option.  Jesus speaks of both a visible church and a unified church so that its decisions stand and are not undone or reversed by the church down the street.  So we cannot imagine that He had the present situation in mind.  Let’s also dispense with the notion that there is no true Church.  Our Lord promised that His Church would endure and the gates of hell could not prevail against it.  Furthermore, the Holy Spirit was given, among other reasons, to guide the Church into all truth.  We cannot for a moment think that our Lord was unable to make good on His word or that the Holy Spirit has failed in His mission.

Then which Church is the true Church?  I contend that the Catholic Church is in full the true Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ, propagated by the apostles, entrusted to the Fathers, and persevering to the present day.

To be the true Church one would need to show an unbroken history that goes back to our Lord and His apostles.  That takes most groups out.  Most of our modern churches are not older than the 1500’s and most of our most popular churches originated within the last century or two, and some within the last decade.  These groups may think they have recovered the apostolic faith, but without a living tradition to guide them it’s like thinking you could reconstruct the ancient Roman Empire based on what is written about it.  It might be close, but it could never be exact.

Only the Orthodox have a sound argument at this point.  With them there are many more similarities than differences from the Catholic Church.  Where differences exist they require more explanation than I have space for here.  However, I will say that it largely centers on the papacy.  I believe the papacy is a vital aspect of the Church and without it we are cast adrift without a clear direction.  The theological deadlock that has existed in the various Orthodox Churches over a number of issues bears out my point.  Admittedly, there have been issues with the papacy through the years, but those issues had to do more with the man than his office.  The Pope has been the final court of appeal throughout the centuries and has guided the Church through many difficulties during that time.

Why this polemic on the Catholic Church?  Because our world needs to see the witness of a unified Church walking in love and providing unequivocally the truth which all people so desperately need.  I ask this question to our brothers and sisters in Christ outside of the Catholic Church: what fault have you found with the Catholic Church that keeps you outside?  Please, let us have conversation.  Let us reason together.  Let us see if the barriers can be removed and we can dwell together in love and unity.

To my fellow Catholics I make this plea: do not be content to merely belong to the Catholic Church, but rather to live out vibrantly all that she teaches.  Treasures untold have been bequeathed to us by our faithful forebears, but for most of us we are content to leave them as displays in museums rather than to appropriate them for our own lives.  May it not be so any longer!  Our Lord Jesus Christ has done all to give us salvation and this salvation comes to us through the primary means of grace: prayer and the Sacraments, not the least of which is the Holy Eucharist.  Lay hold of these treasures and enter into the holiest place to drink deeply of the love of God.

The watchman in our day is sounding the alarm.  The enemy is not only outside, but actually inside among us.  He sows division and discord.  His goal is the total destruction of the Church and the ruin of souls.  We cannot allow it to continue.  We must defend that for which our Lord gave all.  He gave us a Church- His Church, which continues to the present day in the Catholic Church.  If you agree, then rise up with me to sound the alarm.  And if you don’t agree then please at least tell us why.  Truth is too important to bypass for a passive peace.  The time is long past to rectify what divides us.  Souls hang in the balance and the Enemy must be driven out.  Let us not waste another moment!