The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18:20

People like to feel involved and to experience things for themselves. They love to climb Mount Everest if they are up to it; they like to ascend the Statue of Liberty up to the very torch itself, tour The White House, see the inside of Air-Force-One, or travel to the Holy Land where Jesus walked. This is, indeed, an admirable quality and it can be put to good use when it comes to being a community of faith.

If we were to look for the site of the first Christian church of Jerusalem, we would be out of luck. Those first Christians described in the gospel of Matthew did not have “churches.” They were the church, and their church was a community of faith. They gathered in each other’s homes to share the word of the risen Christ. They prayed together; they shared their earthly goods and property; they shared their meals after they “broke bread”, that is, the Eucharist.

The scriptural notion of “church” is the “gathering” or “assembly” of believers: “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I among them.”( Matthew 18: 20). The Church is the people of God, and the people of God are the Church. This community of believers is special because its members share a common bond of faith. This is cause for rejoicing. Faith in the risen Lord leads to “inexpressible joy touched with glory.” ( 1 Peter 1:8). Why? Because, in giving expression to your faith in the risen Lord, you are achieving 1ife’s spiritual goa1: your sa1vation and the renewal of the world.

Everything Matthew says in chapter eighteen is a portrait of community which we, not only identify with, but in fact are. This is a present-day, historical Church, not of bricks and mortar, not of stained glass or steeples, but of people of faith, anywhere and everywhere throughout the world. It is a portrait of people, who humble themselves; who avoid temptation; who constantly need to be reconciled and forgiven; who pray in the name of Jesus for themselves and for one another. When we see Jesus in the least of our brethren by coming to their aid in times of need, we see the need to be part of a community of faith to help us and support us on our spiritual journey.

There is a great deal of power displayed in this kind of church. This power is the power of the spirit used only as the Lord himself used it: to heal broken bodies and broken hearts, to ignite faith, to loosen purses, to prompt compassion, to encourage a giving kind of love, to feed empty bellies, to support and renew one another; and to give glory to God.

This is what it means to be Church.

Fr. Hugh Duffy