Why Does The Church Exist?
Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR
Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Why does the Church exist? Is it to entertain us? Is it to provide programs for us to be involved in? Is it to babysit the kids on Sunday morning so that parents can catch up on their sleep? According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church exists because:
- God wants to call people to communion with him.
- God wants friendship with us.
- God wants us to share in his divine life. Simply speaking, God wants to draw all things and all people into a community around him and in him. God is a Fisher of people.
For the American evangelical pastor, Greg Laurie, the Church exists for three reasons:
- For the glorification of God— upward.
- For the edification of the saints— inward.
- For the evangelization of the world— outward.
Look at it this way. The Church exists to bring glory to God, not just in a praise and worship service, but also in the manner of our life. Christians are meant to glorify God in their lives, marriages, careers, in every aspect of their lives— in public and private. The Church also exists to build and equip the saints to live out their Christian life by encouraging them to continue to be faithful to God and to be of service to one another. How does the Church accomplish this? By means of the sacraments, Mass, preaching, Bible Study, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, prayers, retreats, fellowships (like Small Group Meetings) etc. Finally, the Church exists to evangelize and propagate the faith. Christians should share their joy and hope of salvation with others as Jesus told them to “go into all the world and proclaim the good news to every creature” (Mark 16:15), Christians should tell others the reason for their hope, the reason of their joy and the reason why they believe in God, pray to God, and look up to God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus sends the Twelve Apostles on their mission to proclaim and announce the nearness of the Kingdom. What do we need for this mission? Among other things, we need three things: one, a keen sense of God as the absolute center of our life. Two, the gift of piety, and three, the fear of the Lord. Now, these terms can sound fussy, puritanical and old-fashioned, but they are actually naming something strong and essential.
What does the fear of the Lord mean? Does it mean being afraid of God? Not at all! It means that to you, nothing is more important than God. It means that everything in your life is centered around God and subordinate to your love for God. What about piety? What does it mean? Piety means that you honor God above everything else, that you worship him alone. These spiritual gifts will enable you to find true balance; they allow you to know what your life is about. Equipped and endowed with these gifts, you are ready for mission and you can do exploits.
Sisters and brothers, we can do many things well, but if we don’t spread the word, if we don’t announce the good news, if we don’t invite lax Catholics back to Mass, the praise of God on earth will suffer, the building of the community will weaken, and humanity will completely go off kilter. I tell you this, I wouldn’t want to live in a world where the idea of God is obsolete. The task for us today is this: make it a top priority to invite at least one person back to the Church. The Church exists primarily to make disciples for Christ. If we stop doing it, we will become irrelevant. When was the last time you told someone about your faith? Look for someone you can bring back to the church. Don’t relent until you have done this. Standing on the promises of Christ Jesus our King, I say this to you: if you are successful in inviting one person back to church, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34).
God bless you!
No comments:
Post a Comment