The
second century; that’s one thousand, nine hundred years ago. The years on our calendars this century begin with a “20”; that century, they began with “1”.
People who had heard and known the Apostles were still alive in the
second century. Many texts we treasure
were newly written down, including the “Memoirs of the Apostles” as they then
called the Gospels. One of the texts
that was treasured enough to be saved, though its author’s name is lost, was a
homily, given doubtless at Mass in that early Church. I found this excerpt in the Divine Office this
week, and hope you will read it closely enough to see how the truth of Jesus
Christ was expressed then, and how timely it sounds now.
“My name is constantly blasphemed by
unbelievers,” says the Lord. “Woe to the man who causes my name to be
blasphemed.” Why is the Lord’s name
blasphemed? Because we say one thing and
do another. When they hear the words of
God on our lips, unbelievers are amazed at their beauty and power, but when
they see that those words have no effect in our lives, their admiration turns
to scorn, and they dismiss such words as myths and fairy tales.
They listen, for example, when we tell them
that God has said: “It is no credit to you if you love those who love you, but
only if you love your enemies, and those who hate you.” They are full of admiration at such
extraordinary virtue, but when they observe that we not only fail to love
people who hate us, but even those who love us, they laugh us to scorn, and the
Name is blasphemed.
Therefore, brothers, if we do the will of God
the Father, we shall be members of the first spiritual Church that was created
before the sun and the moon; but if we fail to do the will of the Lord, we
shall be among those to whom it is said in Scripture: “My house has been made
into a robbers’ den.” We must choose then, if we want to be saved, to be
members of the Church of life.
You surely cannot be ignorant of the fact that
the living Church is the body of Christ; for Scripture says: God “made man male
and female.” Now the male signifies
Christ, and the female signifies the Church, which, according to both the Old
and the New Testament, is no recent creation, but has existed from the
beginning. At first the Church was
purely spiritual, even as our Jesus was spiritual, but it appeared in the last
days to save us.
For the spiritual Church was made manifest in
the body of Christ, in order to show us that if we uphold its honor in the
outward, visible form, and do not defile it, we shall, through the Holy Spirit
be made its members in the true, spiritual sense. For the body of the Church is a copy of the
Spirit, and no one who defaces the copy can have any part in what the copy
represents. In other words, brothers,
you must preserve the honor of the body in order to share in the Spirit. For if
we say that the body is the Church and the Spirit is Christ, it follows that
anyone who dishonors his body, dishonors the Church. Such a man will have no
part in the Sprit, which is Christ. But
if the Holy Spirit is joined to it, this body can receive an immortal life that
is wonderful beyond words, for the blessings God has made ready for his chosen
ones surpass all human powers of description.
That
sounds as fresh and timely as if it were written for this week’s bulletin. Let the Church say, Amen!
Monsignor Smith
