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| Balintubber Abbey in Ireland where mass has been celebrated for over 500 years. |
We are living in
a time when we are seeing a lot of religious extremism. You could call it
religion at its worst, when people do terrible things in the name of religion
and of course it gives religion a bad name. What it often amounts to is the
weakness of human nature and how one group can decide that it is right while
everyone else is wrong or that they have the right to force their ideas on
others. It can happen with any religion. I suppose one thing it brings up is
the question of what the purpose of religion is in the first place. Why do we
have a Church and what is its purpose?
We believe the
Church is here because Jesus established it. The reason Jesus established it
was to pass on his teaching about God; so that all people might come to know
God and what God has done for us.
You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates
of the underworld can never overpower it. I will give you the keys of the
kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Mt 16: 18-20).
The difficulty is
that the Church is made up of weak, sinful human beings. In Jesus’ life-time on
earth he was let down several times by the very people he chose to lead his
Church and that problem continues to this day. Because we are dealing with the
weakness of the human condition, we are continually faced with similar
problems. People in charge forget what they are about, or get caught up in the
need for power, or whatever it might be. It has always been this way and
probably always will.
It’s interesting
what happens in today’s Gospel. James and John ask for ‘power’ and recognition.
‘Grant that we may have places at your right and left hand…’ And then Jesus
tells them and us something interesting:
You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over
them…This is not to happen among you… For the Son of man did not come to be
served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
The first
reading also confirms this:
The Lord has been pleased to crush his servant with suffering.
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| Maynooth seminary in Ireland where over 12,000 priests have been ordained |
What God is
saying to us is that his way is a very different way to what we are used to. It
is not the way of power and might, but of littleness and of transformation
through suffering. This is something that is very hard for us to get our heads
around. We want our Church to be big and
powerful. We want everyone to be part of it and to see how ‘right’ we are, but
Jesus tells us that that is not how it works. ‘The Son of man came to serve…and
to give his life as a ransom for many.’ We are not meant to be big and
powerful.
So what exactly
is the mission, or purpose of the Church? Jesus’ coming among us had a twofold
purpose. He came among us to teach us about God; who God is and how God looks
after us; about the reality of life after death; about the reason why we are
here in the first place: to love and serve.
The second
reason Jesus came among us was to die for us. Think of the line in the mass
where the priest prays over the chalice: ‘This is the cup of my blood which
will be poured out for you and for many for
the forgiveness of sins.’ That is why Jesus came among us; so that our sins
could be forgiven and that we would be able to reach the happiness that God created
for us, which we call heaven. You could say that Jesus came among us for our
happiness. The mission of the Church is
to make that known to all people. If it is really true, as we believe it is,
then all people have a right to know this. They don’t have to believe it or
accept it, but they do have a right to know about it and it is our mission to
make that message known to everyone we can, because Jesus asked us to. Is this
mission still being fulfilled today? It
certainly is. Here am I in front of you 2000 years after Jesus walked on earth,
proclaiming the same message.
In the news we
continually read about all the terrible things that are done in the Church and
in the name of religion and there are terrible things done. However, we don’t
hear about the wonderful work that is continually done all over the world and
we don’t hear about the fact that the Church continues to preach this message
of Jesus—what we call the Good News or Gospel—all over the world. I’m sure it
will continue to be done in messy, inefficient ways, because we are dealing
with human beings, but none the less it is being done.
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| St. Patrick's seminary, Ireland |
How do we know
that the Church is from God at all? To
me the greatest proof of this is the fact that it is still there at all. When
you think of all the great superpowers that have come and gone: the Roman
Empire, the Chinese dynasties, the great European superpowers. All were highly
organised and efficient, yet the Church, in spite of bad example, scandals, bad
preaching, etc., is still here. How can that be? Because it is the power of God
working in and through it. It is not dependent on human beings, but on the power
of God and so we continually turn to the power of God and pray that we will
continue to be the kind of messengers and servants that He calls us to be.
Jesus Christ is
Lord and Son of God. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He taught us about God and
he suffered and died for us. Because of him we can have happiness with God when
we die. He is the one who makes sense of why we are here. This is the message
we believe in and this is the message we will continue to try and pass on to
all peoples.
‘The Son of Man
did not come to be served but to serve
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