from John Chuchman... Early in the fourth century, Christian Liturgy was taken out of the home. Constantine, the emperor, claimed a conversion, offering Christians the supposed opportunity to worship publicly in official facilities. He gave to the church of Rome the land on the Lateran hill, where this Basilica of St. John Lateran is built. Though his action gave Christians the chance to celebrate publicly, it began the systematic institutionalization of Christianity and the removal of the Sacred Table from our homes, though House Churches flourished in the rural areas for many centuries. Church thus took on the characteristics of Constantine the emperor and the Roman Empire. When the church was made up of small communities of disciples, they had no power, they had no wealth. But as Christianity began to flourish in a public way, it followed the ways of the empire, and that was a tragedy for the Church. We still suffer from it because the empire gave no rights to women at all, not recognized even as citizens, infecting the Church to this day. In the empire, slaves were a common thing, part of the economic system. Church accepted the institution of slavery, and, in fact, never condemned slavery until the 20th century at the Vatican council. So, in some ways, Church was corrupted from the very beginning. And so thats one of the reasons why, throughout the history of the church, weve always insisted that there must be reform. We are always a church in need of reform, challenged to come back to the original vision of Jesus, which is a community of disciples, of brothers and sisters, all equal in freedom and dignity, all committed to the one task of proclaiming the good news of Gods love wherever we go. We are challenged to become again real communities of disciples of Jesus, undoing Constantines institutionalization and the Churchs subsequent Romanization. St. Paul points out that every Christian community, every community of disciples, is itself the living temple of God. Pauls words are very clear when he tells the people of Corinth, Do you not know you are Gods temple and that Gods spirit abides in you? If anyone destroys this temple of God, God will destroy that person. Gods temple is holy, and you are that temple. Does Church Hierarchy respect communities of disciples as the very temple of God, trying to nurture and build Small Faith Groups/ Intentional Eucharistic Communities? Numerous strong living communities, people who are bound together because they share the common faith in Jesus, really committed to be his disciples, are popping up all over America in bonds of Love. Church Hierarchy takes the position that Church does not need those communities, in fact, condemning them. How many times do those people making these condemnations ever visit one of these communities to experience the bonds of love and joy and the beautiful celebrations of liturgy that take place. Every one of these communities, according to St. Paul, is a temple of God. Over 30 million Catholics in our country have walked away from the church. The leadership says, Well, we need to get more vocations. They wont get more vocations; Theres more than enough amongst the married men and women. What has happened to those 30 million American Catholics that have walked away? They have not fallen away, just simply moved on. What St. Paul writes is relevant today; we are called to form and nurture and grow communities of faith, Small Faith Groups, Intentional Eucharistic Communities, House/Home Churches, Emerging Church. They were the Church of our past and they may be the Church of the future. Love, John
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 23:33:40 +0000
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