Why is the Church important?

By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami

Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily during Mass Sept. 18, 2019, at the annual convocation of archdiocesan priests, being held Sept. 17-19 at the Hilton in downtown Miami.

The readings today are the same we had in our previous convocation. We just happen to be meeting again during the 24th week of ordinary time. And so, I had to resist a temptation – to give the same homily I gave last year. I’m sure most of you would not have noticed; and, of course, several of you are new to the Archdiocese and were not here last year. Well, I decided to resist that temptation – and instead of preaching about the Gospel reading which I treated in last year’s homily, I’ll preach on the first reading from Paul’s first letter to Timothy.

Paul’s words to Timothy beg the question: Why is the Church important? Hopefully, as priests, I don’t need to convince you that the Church is important. If the Church isn’t important, then who we are and what we do does not matter much.

Of course, today, many people – even some of those who sit in our pews out of habit and not out of conviction – do not think that the Church is that important. Secularization has marginalized the Church. Those concerned about separation of church and state do not invite us to offer prayers any more at civil functions. And those who believe that we are “haters” because of what we believe about marriage certainly do not want to give us a platform. Scandal – whether sex abuse, financial misfeasance or whatever – has also made the Church seem not only unimportant in promoting human flourishing in society but, at least in the eyes of some, as something sinister.

Some may see us as relic of another time and age, irrelevant to the world that they inhabit today. They may occasionally visit us, like a tourist might visit a museum on a rainy day. Sure, there are those who still think we have an important role to play: they like our schools so that their kids can get into better colleges; they might admire our social services. (If they’re hungry, we’ll feed them – and we’ll do so without making them sit through a Mass.) So they may think us important for utilitarian reasons: what we can still do for them – but for this life and not in view of eternity.

So, what does Paul say about the importance of the Church? And, in this short reading, he really does say a lot about it. The Church is important because she reveals Christ even as Christ reveals God in human flesh. Christ is God incarnate – and the Church is Christ incarnate. For Paul, the Church is important, vitally important, because she is the Body of Christ and because the eternal destiny of everybody on this earth depends on his or her being in a right relationship to Christ who will come as King and Judge of the world. And if Paul was to die a martyr in the cause of Christ, it was also because he believed that the souls of those pagans he preached to were worth saving.

We might not be considered important anymore by worldly standards. This might not be such a terrible thing, because we must be willing to die to such worldly standards so that we will know the power of Christ’s resurrection. It is in this way we should understand Pope Francis’ criticism of clericalism and careerism in the Church.

The Church will be important to us if we understand her to be “the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.” We are the Body of Christ, living in history. And if his resurrected body still bore the wounds of his Passion, we should not be put off by the fact that the Body of Christ, which is the Church, is also wounded by the sins of her members.

Paul says, “you should know how to behave in the household of God.” This means a commitment to a living relationship with the “living God.” This means a commitment to one another as members of God’s household. We must commit ourselves to know, to live by and defend God’s Word of Truth.

The Church is important because she is necessary for salvation. And we are important for we are her ministers of Word and Sacrament. Again, the eternal destiny of everybody on this earth depends on their being brought into a right relationship to Christ through his Body, the Church. Today, Christ has no hands, no voice but ours. And like St. Paul, we must believe that the souls of those to whom we are sent are worth being saved.

This is what pastoral charity is. No one is excluded. Everyone is worth our effort to bring them to the knowledge of Christ. In season and out of season, we must bring the Gospel to the least, the last and the lost for their eternal destiny — and ours — depends on Christ being preached to them.

“Undeniably, great is the mystery... Who was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up into glory.”