What is Church?

Avery Dulles, presents 5 Models of the Church in this week’s readings.  As I read through them I couldn’t help but feel like Goldilocks searching for the one that was "just right".  In thinking about this, I realized that I have encountered many of these models in my faith formation.

I was born as Vatican II was being written so my spiritual formation came in the duality of the pre and post Vatican II doctrine.  My aunt, a devout Catholic who helped raised me, would probably feel most comfortable with The Institutional Model of Church.  She believed without question what church leaders taught and would never question the authority of the male clergy. I did learn the importance of God and going to mass from her even though I found that model to be a bit oppressive. 

In junior high school I was introduced to the Model of Church as a Mystical Communion,or as  LumenGentium reaffirms, the Body of Christ. Dulles  describes the Church structure as “an instrument serving Christ’s Spirit, who vivifies it in the building up his Body". (48) Vivify - to give life to, animate, to enliven  That is exactly how I would describe my experience, thanks in part to the Teresian Sisters who taught me. They introduced me to liturgical dance, they enlivened me in the spirit of God’s love, they welcomed me into the Body of Christ and made it real for me.  I felt part of the church as Yves Congar described it, “a fellowship of men with God and with one another in Christ”. This feeling sustained me for years, yet I wanted more. 

In college I was part of the Awakening Community.  At this point I more fully experienced Church as Sacrament. Community and fellowship continued to be important to me but attending mass and becoming a Eucharistic Minister had renewed importance.    “The Church, then, is the place where it appears most clearly that the love that reconciles men to God and to one another is a participation in what God communicates most fully in Christ”.  (66) 

Having experienced 3 models of church each of which added to my faith formation, perhaps its not a question of choosing one over the other but learning from each of them and integrating the positive points.   

In reflecting on my experience of  Church it seems to me that a sound model would encompass a living church , a People of God rooted in tradition, led by sound doctrine and the Word, able to speak to today’s generation and able to tend to God’s people through service.  If we are all a part of the church, do we help shape it through our individual gifts?  How do we help shape the Church today?

Through Spiritual Direction, I have begun to explore some of these same aspects in my life. How do I balance fellowship,  prayer, worship, sacraments, theology and service? I am learning what my gifts are and how God is calling them out (Ekklesia) in service to Him and His Church.  In pursuing an internship in spiritual direction I hope to help others find their own balance of communion, sacrament, worship and prayer and to hear  and answer God’s call.   

Church, Sacraments and Liturgy, 1-13-2015

Church, Sacraments and Liturgy

January 13, 2015

            I did not know that the Liturgy of the Hours is a public prayer of the Church, along with the Mass (Sockey, 11). I thought it a private prayer and am intrigued and pleased to learn about its practice that unites with others around the world (Sockey, viii). The Liturgy opens up the rest of the Bible in an organized format that invites the celebration and reflection of each day/evening.  In keeping the focus on “the praises of God” (Sacrosanctum Concillium, ch. 4, “The Divine Office,”¶ 84), it turns or “returns” our attention to the holiness of every moment. It underscores Julian of Norwich’s “All is well.” Its form complements our human activities throughout the day/evening with nature’s flow from sunrise to sunset to moonrise. While recognizing the already busy-ness of each day, I look forward to incorporating it into my daily life.

            Vondey, People of Bread: “companion” = sharing bread together (42). What a beautiful image of bread as God “providing his companionship” to the Israelites and then, to all (45). “Companionship” nourishes both body and soul (44), thus making bread the “unmistakable symbol of the social nature of the people of God” (44).

            As a Eucharistic bread baker for my worship community, I am aware of the special blessing conferred on me in participating in this ministry. While I do not always succeed, I try to honor God and my community in attending to the Eucharistic bread preparation and baking when I am rested, gracious and grateful. I plan to add a baking prayer to my preparation “that recognizes God as ‘the nourisher and the Father of all’ (Vondey 46). My small role in the sharing of God’s companionship lets me extend and participate in God’s hospitality to a small part of the world (Vondey 101-02).

Hospitality, the work of the Church

I have had much to chew on over the past week or so as I've nibbled my through the first half of Wolfgang Vondey's People of Bread: rediscovering ecclesiology.  Drawing upon Jewish and Christian Scriptures, he sets forth a thought-model of Church rooted in the biblical images of God's relationship with God's people as mediated through bread.  Most crusty in the first three chapters, has been the section dealing with hospitality (Vondey 70-105).  The moral character of God's People, Israel in the case of Genesis and Exodus, hinges on their faithfulness in extending hospitality to strangers.  Hospitality sets Abraham and Lot apart, particularly from Lot's neighbors in Sodom.  The Sodomites are described as satisfied and self-sufficient (full of bread), yet they act with extreme inhospitable hostility to strangers (Gen 19:5).  For his part, Abraham minimizes the feast he offers, central to which are bread-cakes made by Sarah from over 90 cups of flour, yet he recognizes that by welcoming the stranger he may well be entertaining angels (Gen 18).  Citing Jeffery Geohagan, he underlines the parallels between this Gen 18-19 with the Passover narrative in Exodus.  The takeaway being that "the imitation and emulation of God's actions stands at the root of the biblical concept of hospitality" (Vondey 96).

My association with the Catholic Worker movement has taught me to see hospitality as a form of resistance.  Welcoming the stranger can be a bit counter-cultural.  Particularly in the case of someone who is homeless, undocumented, transgendered, or Republican, depending on your circles, to welcome her extravagantly to a family gathering might ruffle some feathers.  It is even better to see hospitality as Vondey describes it, inspired by the "vision to live in a world without strangers" (99).  In a world governed by laws and mores that discourage social mixing, hospitality frees both host and guest as they are elevated through shared bread to companionship with each other and with God (103). 

In my ministry, I am often feel the pressure of not having enough resources to go around or time to spend getting to know those with whom I work on a deeper level.  If I can give them a fraction of what they need, they often go away grateful, but unfilled.  What would it look like to meet not only John Chrysostom's minimal standard of hospitality (civility, attention, and restraint), but to go beyond this and to remove the shame of being in need of hospitality through attentive service and a demonstration of word and deed that to receive a guest is to receive (not bestow) a favor (*Vondey 86,100)? What attitude toward my own time must I adopt?  How can I dispose of the goods that have been entrusted to me for others' benefit in an equitable, yet generous, way?  How much energy ought I devote to increasing the resources available in general as opposed to rationing what I already I know I have? 

*John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 41.26 (in French) and Homily 14


Photo Credit: http://stnickporticons.com/hospitality.html