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June 18, 2023: Keep Holy the Sabbath
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There are some mistaken ecclesiological understandings floating around out there regarding Mother Church, and how necessary She is in the faith life of a Catholic Christian. I don’t discuss the ecclesiology of Protestant denominations because I’m not a Protestant minister. I remember a Protestant Church in West Boylston, a Church I used to make deliveries to in my former UPS days. The minister at this Church at the time was a very nice man. If I encountered him during the course of a delivery and if he was the person who signed for the packages for his Church, there would be some short commentary back and forth about some topic of small talk. One could see the genuineness in him as a person, his goodness, sincerity, respect, and love for neighbor. He was a good minister – or Pastor – with a heart for God. I remember also when he found out I was entering Catholic seminary to study for the priesthood, he was sincerely happy for me. And one more thing I remember, which piqued my curiosity, was how he and his family would leave for the summer, head to the Green State of Vermont for vacation, while his parishioners who remained home would travel down the road a short ways from their Church to another Protestant Church while he and his family enjoyed the relaxed beauty of Vermont. As a Catholic, of course, I thought it a bit odd that Sundays in June, July, and August, Church services at this certain house of God were put on hold. “See you in September,” as the song says.
Catholics, we know, do not do this. Many Catholics head either slightly north or south for the summer, a few go east or west, but we all know that not attending Church on Sundays during the summer months of June, July, and August are not part of commandment number 3, to keep holy the Sabbath. Our mindset differs from that of a Protestant Church in West Boylston or any city or town who close their doors for a few months respite, saving finances on the air conditioning. We know and have been taught that keeping holy the Sabbath is an annual, 12-month, 52-week journey with the Lord, and to intentionally remain absent on Sunday or Holy Days without valid reason – which God knows – remains a serious offense against God and commandment number 3 given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. God is the one who gives the commandment, not yours truly or any other priest. It is not a suggestion, as some may consider it to be, but an obligation (oops, there’s that word I’m not supposed to use) on our part to “keep holy the Sabbath.” And the first way we do so as Catholics is to be present for the number one experience of heaven on earth, which is the Holy Liturgy where Christ is present in the body of the people as one; present in the priest by way of in persona Christi established at his reception of Holy Orders; present in the Lector who proclaims the word of God in the Scriptures; present in the Deacon who proclaims the Gospel and his homily if he preaches; and most solemnly present in the Eucharistic species of bread and wine after certain prayers and actions are performed at the altar of God, allowing us to consume the Body & Blood of Christ Jesus after commanding us to “take and eat.”
My concern in this short article, however, is the mistaken theology, under the discipline of ecclesiology (Church), that sees the Church as an unnecessary Mother, a Mother not always needed for us Catholics to attain God’s gift of salvation. Again, I write this for Catholics and how our beliefs and teachings on this important matter are understood with accuracy. As to whether a God-fearing believer wishes to accept them or not, well, we own it when we refuse what God has given to us, and not what human beings speak personally on this topic. What I express here is of God, and not of Fr. Riley, or any person who presents a view contrary to the Lord’s revelation on the matter of Church and her essential importance in the life of a Christian. Really, I write this short piece because of misunderstandings in the present culture where many Catholics are affected, it seems, by culture’s thinking and practice rather than what God calls us to for our good spiritual benefit.
What dominates this thinking and practice, again, is the mindset and practice of how God’s Church is not necessary every Sunday and Holy Day for the gift of our eternal salvation. Anyone who presently lives and practices this mindset could not be more wrong. With statements such as “I don’t need the Church in order to believe in Jesus,” or, “I don’t need the Church. I have a personal relationship with Jesus,” I will ask in return, “Why do you wish to divorce Jesus from his Bride?” St. Paul calls the Church “The Bride of Christ.” And he meant it. Paul wasn’t doing some wordplay regarding the Church that Jesus established at Pentecost. He saw Mother Church as the Bride of Jesus, and Christ as the Groom. In other words, the two are one, the same as an earthly marriage between man and woman. And, like any earthly marriage, if the two are divorced, then the marriage is, shall we say, disassembled. It is broken. So, to separate Mother Church from Jesus the Groom who created his Bride as the central means of salvation, as the central means in this world to be close to him through the Sacraments and Scripture, to humanly abolish the Lord’s Divine structure of God’s people coming together to keep holy the Sabbath as one in unity… Well, in all honesty, we then purposely divorce in our lives the Lord Jesus from his Bride, the Bride he loves, cherishes, holds close, and shares with us for the purpose of bringing us to our true home after this very short life is finished. Sunday morning Flea Markets and hanging around Dunkin Donuts with your pals are not ways of how Catholics keep holy the Sabbath. Nor is the way of heading to the beach for the summer while not making time for Holy Mother Church when there.
The central understanding that seems to be missing here is the understanding that the Church of Christ is first a Divine institution guided by the Holy Spirit, while occupied by human beings (sinners) for the express purpose of walking the surest path to heaven. The central misunderstanding is the false belief that the Church of Christ is a human institution. It seems that Catholics believe the Lord’s Church is first a human institution when it is not. The Church of Christ takes on the same two natures of the Lord himself, Divine and human. But she is first and foremost Divine in that Mother Church is made visible through the work of the Lord, guided by the Holy Spirit. Without this first of ecclesiological truths, the Church would cease to exist.
Again, the Church is so intimately close to Christ the Person that St. Paul calls her the Bride of Christ. Mother Church and Jesus are one, as a newly married couple is now one. And, the Church is human by way of those who are part of the community in their Baptism. I spoke this in a homily earlier this year, and I’ll say it again; those who are not baptized, including your lovely little sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, are not part of the Church community. Why? Because Baptism is what includes them in the Church community. These are not my words. They are the words of Christ; “No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” This is a direct reference Jesus makes to Baptism. The worst decision a parent can make for their child is to say, “I’ll let them make their own decision when they get older.” This thinking is not Catholic. It never has been. It is present cultural thinking that sounds good and thoughtful on the surface, but opens the door for a child/future adult to be captured by the values of a sinful culture rather than guided by parents who live and practice their Christian faith by keeping the Lord’s Day holy, passing their devoted faith on to their children as has been practiced since the first century, teaching them what it means to be joyfully Catholic.
In the first reading this week, God instructs Moses to say thus to the Israelites; “If you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine.” On the topic of Church and what this means for Catholics, many of my brothers and sisters are missing the boat on the essentialness and beauty of the Bride of Christ. Too many excuses are being made to change what God has given to us. I have yet to hear one good reason (not an excuse) from the lips of any Catholic as to why they truly do not need the Church on this journey of faith. Honestly, not one. What I keep hearing are human inventions about God’s work on our behalf that lands the Bride of Christ in some secondary place, or even lower, as to how necessary She is to the living out of our Catholic faith, and how necessary She is for salvation. When this happens, we refuse to hear God’s voice; we do not keep his covenant; we are not his special possession by our own statements and actions; and we are not dearer to him because we seem not to want the Lord very dear to us.
We live in a time of separation mentality, beginning with the profoundly erroneous one of separating our politics from our faith. The day my Christian faith does not touch some part of my life, may God have mercy on me for pushing him aside. This separation mentality has unfortunately crept into the living out of our faith as connected to Mother Church, the Bride of Christ. This door, I pray, will be closed in the lives of those who profess Catholicism, allowing all of us to live the great truth of what Christ Jesus has personally given to the world; a Church that is not separated in any degree from Him. A Church that is not separated from his Body. The fullest unity with Jesus is far more than “a personal relationship with Christ.” It is being part of his Church, his Body, and living in our lives the Divine beauty realized in the words, “Keep holy the Sabbath.”