With church pews beginning to fill, restaurants accommodating more diners and masks becoming optional for the fully vaccinated, life is beginning to return to normal. In celebration of the relaxed protocols, feelings of relief and gratitude are all but palpable.
This past week, family members whom we hadn’t see for almost 18 months came for a reunion, and at no time had their visit felt more like a celebration. So much so that we had a photographer come to the house and take pictures.
Having gone so long without seeing one another made us realize how precious time spent together can be. In anticipation of the gathering, the celebratory mood of community spilled over even to our neighbors.
Prior to our family gathering, one neighbor contributed 10 pounds of ribs; another brought over a honey baked ham and thoroughly enjoyed watching the family portraits being photographed in our backyard.
Catching up on all that had transpired in everyone’s life during the past year and a half gives credence to the fact that despite COVID restrictions, life continues to move with time, changing people and events that surround us.
Hearing in person all that had transpired in the interim was a reminder that phone calls and social media will never replace personal encounters. The same can be said about our relationship with the Body of Christ.
While livestreaming liturgies and parish meetings provided an avenue of inclusion for those who were reticent to attend in person, it can never replace the blessings received when we are present and able to actively participate at Mass and receive the precious Body and Blood of Christ. Hopefully all will welcome the return, especially those who have been absent.
While it’s true that God can be found in nature, in our neighbor and in service to others, only during a liturgical assembly can our voice be added to the voices of the saints and angels that gather around the altar of God. Only in the Eucharist does God, whom the entire universe cannot contain, allow himself to be contained in a piece of bread and a drop of wine. And only in the consecrated bread and wine are we able to taste and experience God who became man so that we may become like God.
Church brings people together so that when we leave, we do not leave alone. When we’re dismissed, we leave the church as a new Exodus undertaken by the people of God, assured that God is accompanying us both in the deserts of life and on the mountaintops.
Church is a place where we can stumble and fall, forgive and seek forgiveness. It’s a place where we grow in faith, learn to hope and respond in love during good times and in bad.
The word “church” means convocation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church proclaims that the Church is “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.” It refers to it as the “Body of Christ” and “Temple of the Holy Spirit,” but nowhere is it referred to as a building.
And yet, church buildings are important. They provide space where people can gather to pray as a community and where they encounter Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Churches are a visible testimony to the secular world that God is real, and that only when we enter a space dedicated to quiet prayer and communal worship can our deepest hunger be satisfied.
God doesn’t need our church buildings. We do. We are physical beings, and just as we provide a home for our family to reside in comfort and safety, so it is perfectly natural to provide a place where our spiritual family can gather and call home. Just as we don’t confuse a house with a home, so we shouldn’t mistake a church building for the Church.
Absent a community of believers, the church building, no matter how lovely, is only a facade that portends to have spiritual significance. Without a vibrant community that gathers regularly to worship, the tabernacle light remains the only evidence of Christ’s light. Jesus reminded us that we are the light of the world.
The Gospels tell us that the people who followed Jesus often left their towns and villages, gathered in an open space to hear the Word of God, and were fed. When we enter a church, we leave behind our solitary existence to gather as a community of believers.
As members of the Body of Christ, we are a movement called to evangelize, mobilized to serve while remaining steadfast in hope, holding fast to the belief that one day, all the world will be Church.