Christ in the Church

Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time A-1

Entrance Antiphon Upon a lofty throne, I saw a man seated, whom a host of angels adore, singing in unison: Behold him, the name of whose empire is eternal.

Collect Attend to the pleas of your people with heavenly care, O Lord, we pray, that they may see what must be done and gain strength to do what they have seen. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: 1 Samuel 1:9-20; 1 Samuel 2; Mark 1:21-28

They entered Capharnaum and immediately going into the synagogue on the Sabbath day Jesus began to teach. They were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority and not like the scribes. Now there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out, “What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Jesus threatened him, saying: “Speak no more, and go out of the man.” The unclean spirit convulsed him, and crying out with a loud voice went out of him. They were all amazed and they questioned among themselves, saying: “What is this? What is this new doctrine? With authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” And his fame spread immediately throughout all of Galilee. (Mark 1:21-28)

Christ in the Church There are two things we notice about the activity of our Lord as reported in our Gospel passage today. Firstly, we see that he teaches. There are countless forms of wonderful service that the stream of mankind is engaged in, and the Son of God made man could have come to serve man in any one of them. For the years of his hidden life our Lord served as a carpenter‑builder, but once his public mission began, his work was to teach, to teach and preach the word of God as the Prophet long foretold. Let us notice that his distinguishing characteristic precisely as a teacher in the eyes of the people was his authority. His authority as a teacher appeared to be supreme. While other rabbis and scribes quoted authorities and supporting opinions, Jesus deferred to no one. Even in that most sacred and defining institution, the Sabbath Day, Christ interpreted its practice as one with independent authority. He was Lord of the Sabbath, he said. John the Baptist, even before our Lord had so much as begun his ministry and before he had something of a record to his credit, had said that he himself was not worthy even to undo his sandal straps. We read in the Gospels how if any of the leaders of the people chose to challenge him they were effortlessly worsted in debate. He silenced them all, to the extent that finally no one, we read in the Gospels, dared to question him further. Indeed, if we think of the broad sweep of human history it would be difficult to think of any other individual who claimed and exercised such authority to teach as did Jesus. It provoked a tremendous jealousy among the leaders of the people, which even Pilate could see when they brought Christ before him. But there is a second feature of Christ’s ministry which our passage today highlights. It is his sheer power. I do no mean a power over others derived from political or sociological influence. I mean his power over nature and over the supernatural. He effortlessly dominated and silenced the unseen demons. Whence came the power? It was innate to him because of his divine nature. He was God.

But now, the wonderful thing is that this same Jesus lives still in his entire reality and he continues to teach and to exercise the power he manifested then. Take any teacher of the past, any great religious founder, any philosopher or theorist. He is dead, and it is his teaching that lives on in the minds of those who choose to study his thought and writings. But Christ is not dead. He is alive, and alive not just in his spirit but in his entire spiritual and bodily reality — but of course unseen. Christ rose from the dead and lives now. But where is he? Where can he be located and reached? Where does he continue to act just as he acted in our Gospel passage today? His abode is the Church he founded. His House, his Temple, his body is the Church he founded on Peter. “You are Peter,” he solemnly said to Simon, “and on this rock I will build my Church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. I give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.” The Christ of the Gospels abides in his Church, and the Church’s purpose is to enable whoever wishes to approach Christ and to live in union with him to be able to do so. The Church’s purpose is to bring her treasure which is Christ to the world. The world’s everlasting jewel is the person of Jesus, and he dwells among us still in all his risen reality, and he does so in his body the Church. It is through the ministry of his Church that he comes to abide in the hearts of the baptized. What is Christ doing in the life of the Church? He is doing what he did in our Gospel scene today (Mark 1:21‑28) but at a deeper and more significant level. He teaches the word of God with all authority and he does this above all in the teaching of the Church and in the Church’s own Book, the Holy Scriptures. He exercises his saving power in the channels of grace which are the Sacraments. In each of the Sacraments it is Christ who is encountered. It is there that he drives out sin and Satan and fills the soul with his life. All this is to say that the Christ of the Gospels lives and ministers still in his Church, and the Church is nothing other than his body, with him as her head.

The exciting thing about the Church and about being a member of the Church is that the living and real person of Jesus is there in the Church’s midst. The Church is Christ’s creation. He is the life and the centre of the Church’s ministry. It is he who teaches when the Church teaches. It is he who acts when the Sacraments are administered. It is he who preaches when the authorized pastors of the Church preach. He is the head and we the Church’s members make up his body. Let us realize where our great treasure is, and that in and through us the Church brings him to the world.

(E.J.Tyler)

---------------------