The Church is a Communion
by Fr. David M. Knight
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Thirtieth Week of the Year
Eph 6:1-9/Lk 13:22-30 (Lectionary 481)
For Paul, Christianity was simply the mystery of Christ. But it is impossible to understand the Person of Jesus, God the Son, except in his relatedness, as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, to the Father and Spirit within the one Nature of God. So it is natural that Paul always sees persons in the Church in their relatedness to one another within the one Body of Christ.
In Ephesians 6:1-9 Paul speaks to children, fathers, slaves and their masters in terms of their relatedness to each other. He urges all to deal with their counterparts according to their existing relationship—even though, as in the case of slaves, the relationship should not exist. This doesn’t make Paul pro-slavery; just a realist advising what is best under actual circumstances, leaving open the hope of change.
Within the same vision, we need to see the Church as a communion of persons within the organized structure of the “institutional Church.” There is no such thing as a “non-institutional Church.” A completely unorganized, unstructured group of people would be simply a “school of thought” or belief, with no resemblance to the Scriptural “body of Christ,” or the “vine and the branches.” When people complain of the “institutional Church,” they are really condemning the absence of relatedness between persons in top-down rule by the hierarchy without the consultation, dialogue, and “collaborative ministry” called for by the bishops at Vatican II. (John 15:5. See Vatican II, Church, nos. 12, 22, 23. 26, 27. 28. 30-32, 35, 37.)
The council taught that the church is a communion between God and ourselves (the vertical dimension) and... with one another in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit (the horizontal dimension).
Because the church is a communion, its institutional structure is collegial rather than monarchical.... not a single international parish under the pastoral leadership of the pope... [but] a communion of local churches, or dioceses... [whose] unity one with another is rooted in the presence and sanctifying activity of the Holy Spirit....
Especially in those areas of the world like our own... where democratic, collaborative, and participatory forms of governance are taken for granted, the church, too, needs to act in an increasingly collegial and collaborative manner.
Yesterday’s Gospel has us conclude:
No one can hold back the future -- or the irrepressible work of the Holy Spirit. For it is the Holy Spirit, not the hierarchy, not even the pope, who governs the church and leads it through all of human history to its final destiny in the Kingdom of God. (From National Catholic Reporter, (ncronline.org) Richard McBrien's blog, “The Church as Communion,” Aug. 8, 2011.)
Luke 13:22-30: The “narrowest” course is a straight line: “the shortest distance between two points”: ourselves and Jesus, who is the “fixed star.”
Initiative: Think “both-and”- the Church as institution and as communion.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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