CHRISTIANITY/ What is Church?

These categories of person flow out of an Incarnational ecclesiology. We see this duality in the life of our Lord. He is both the manifestation of God's faithfulness to humanity and humanity's faithfulness to God. Jesus Christ is God's answer to man and He is man's answer to God, as Pope John Paul II said, "Jesus Christ is the answer to the question that is every human life." He is the good Shepherd (John 10), the way, the truth and life (John 14) and He is also the obedient Son who desires to do the Father's will (John 4:34; 5:30). The implications of this participatory Christology are evidenced in the life of the Church. Christ is the one who received the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33), thus, the Church receives the Holy Spirit (John 14; 16; Acts 2). Christ is the Chief Shepherd (1st Peter 5:4) thus, the Church has under-shepherds (1st Peter 5:2). Christ is the faithful, obedient and humble Son, thus, the Church is called to model His life (Phil 2:1-11). Christ is the King, thus, the Church has a Prime Minister (Is 22; Matt 16). The salvation that our Lord wrought came through suffering (Heb 2:10; 1st Pet 2:20-24) thus, the Church is called to share in and complete His suffering for (Acts 9; Rom 8:17; 1st Peter 2:20; 2nd Cor 4:10-11; Col 1:24).

There are many implications that can be teased out in reflection on participatory Christology, but for the sake of brevity we have touched just the surface of the implications. Suffice to say, there is a connection between Christ and the Church that is manifested in the whole Church, that is to say, its structure, institution, hierarchy, and faithful. Christ cannot be any more distilled from the life of the Church than the U.S. Constitution can be distilled from our government. This is why students of Scripture must be very careful when they speak about the Church, specifically when they speak against the Church. At the end of the day the authority of Christ is made known in the Church He founded upon Peter and the Bishops in Communion with Peter.

If we cannot trust the Church, then whom can we trust? For the Catholic, as the late Father Neuhaus once said, “Faith in Christ and faith in His Church are one act of faith.” It does no good for us to meander about aimlessly wondering what it is that God wants us to believe. He has given us a Church, His Church, as a sure guide in an ever-changing world.

As Jesus said to His disciples, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). Let us listen to voice of the Church and in so doing we shall hear the voice of Christ.