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. One group can decide that they are 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, as always, is that the Church is made up of weak, sinful, human beings. In Jesus’ 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 and prestige. It has always been this way
and probably always will be.
At
one point, the Apostles 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 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.
Jesus' way is different.
The Lord has been
pleased to crush his servant with suffering.
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.’ So the first thing is that we are not meant to be big
and powerful.
So
then 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 He 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 chalice 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. 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. But 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.
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 here 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, 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
and to give his life as
a ransom for many.'
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