A
story that addresses the opinion that says:
“I believe in God, yet not in the
Church.”
In a particular neighbourhood,
in an old mansion that was seven stories high, lived a father, his son, and the
son’s mother. Throughout the neighbourhood this family was highly regarded and
esteemed, because of their loving nature and hospitality which welcomed all
people of every race and class. One day a new man, who was relatively young and
lived on his own, moved into the neighbourhood; and upon hearing about this
saintly family he decided to pay them a visit. The following morning after
making this resolution, the man walked to this family’s home and knocked on
their door. At once they opened the door, embraced him as their own, and gave him
food and drink, and all the love and attention they could give him. He remained
there all day, and because it had gotten late, the man reluctantly forced
himself to leave in the evening, against the pleas of the family who begged him
to stay on a little longer. Upon arriving at his home a haunting silence
surrounded him, and all of a sudden he felt very lonely and sad. “But there I
was so loved,” he said to himself; “I must return, for these people mean so
much to me and I to them.”
The following morning he ran straight to the
family’s home and there they were delighted to see him. He spent the entire day
with them and together they laughed and shared food, stories, and drink. And so
it happened that as night approached the man would return to his home, only to
return again the following morning. This he did for many weeks, and never did
the family grow tired of him and nor did he of them. For every moment they all
spent together seemed like a dream of pleasantness; and constantly they grew in
love for one another.
However as a month passed, the
man started to notice that certain sections of the family’s home were in disrepair.
The ceiling in some rooms had water damage, the walls in certain places were
chipped, and some of the family’s furniture was old and tattered; and there was
one particular room that was repugnant with the smell of damp carpet and excessive
mould. At first the man was so rapt with the members of the family that he
had not been troubled by the poor condition of sections of the house. Yet after
he first began to notice, slowly he became aware of fault after fault, until
such thoughts plagued his mind.
And so it was that one morning
he knocked upon the door of the family’s home; yet whilst welcoming him in as they
usually did, he refused the invitation, and at once all the joy left each of the
faces of the family. “I
cannot and will not come into your house any more” spoke the man; “for it is a
rotten old place. However do not take offense, for I still want to see you, and
so if you would like to find a better home I will spend time with you there.” After
gathering himself together the father said to the man: “I know my family’s home is
not the most luxurious or perfect of places, yet the foundation is pure marble and is solid; and day
by day we renovate. This is our home and we cannot live anywhere else, we have
always dwelt here and always will. So please, can you not look past the faults
of our home? For we would love for you to come and dwell with us, and stay with
us. You will be a son to me and the son of my spouse, and will be as the
brother of my son. What do you say my child?” “I cannot and I will not, for I
despise your home and disagree with it. Make me your son without having me
dwell with you in this old place” replied the man. “This cannot be so” replied
the father, as tears trickled down his face. “For how can you be my son when you
spurn me and my family because of the tattered aspects of my home?” “But I love
you! It is just your home that I hate!” shouted the man earnestly. “You do not love
me, and nor do you love my son or my spouse. For you would love this home for
our sake if you truly loved us. This home is one with us, and we are one with
it. You reject our home, and so it is that you reject we who live here. We love
you, but now we know that you never really loved us at all; you merely loved
what you could get out of us. Goodbye my child, I pray you would change your
mind and would come to live with us one day.” And at that the family went away,
retreating into their home. Yet the father did not close the door and he never
did from that day on. The man went away.
Brief
Narrative Commentary
It is always best when stories
are not interpreted for an individual in advance. However if done sparingly and
in the right manner, such interpretations can help the reader draw greater
profit from the story, especially if they are unfamiliar with a particular theological
context.
The saintly family is in its primary
and deeper sense an allegory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit; whilst on another level, it can be interpreted as the Triune God as
manifested in the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary and Joseph; with Mary a living
mirror of the Holy Spirit, and St. Joseph a living mirror of God the Father. Whilst
Jesus is in His Humanity a mirror of the Triune Godhead, yet being one in
nature with the Godhead, unlike Mary and Joseph who share in Godlikeness not in
nature but by grace. Perhaps also, the saintly family could be an allegory of
the Triune God as operating within the Church Militant (the Church on earth).
Thus from this perspective perhaps one could view the father as the office of
the Papacy, the mother as the teachings of the Church and the son as the office
of the ministerial (ordained) priesthood.
Simply speaking, the young man
is symbolic of the person who believes in God and considers themselves to love
God, and yet who rejects, renounces and/or despises the Church, believing it to
be unnecessary and man-made. Such an individual often has many fair reasons for
this perspective, since they look at the many wicked people that have or do
belong to the Church, or they look at the wicked things many have done in the
name of the Church; and therefore they conclude that the Church is evil,
redundant, separate from God and obviously man-made, since how could the Church
be like this if it were made by God? Yet this story seeks to challenge this
perspective; affirming that the Church is Holy because of Christ (foundation), and whilst many of Her members (on earth in the Church Militant) remain sinful (tattered aspects of the
home); regardless, the truth is that God (i.e. the father, mother, and son) efficaciously
dwells in and works through His Church by the power of the Holy Spirit (seven
gifts of the Spirit) and in the Seven Sacraments (i.e. seven stories of the
mansion), in providing love and care to the members of His Church (i.e.
guests).
The old mansion, house and
home refers to the Catholic Church, which means, the Universal Church (see bellow for quotations). This is
the Church founded by Christ Jesus when He lived on earth, and traces its
origins to Peter the Apostle who was the first Pope [click
here for a historical list of all the Popes]. Thus Jesus said to Peter:
“That
thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church” (Mt 16:18). And here
Jesus refers to Peter as the Rock of the Church and not exclusively Himself
(although it is Christ in Peter that makes him the rock), since in another
Gospel Jesus says:
“Thou art Simon the son of Jona. Thou shalt be called Cephas
[which means rock in Aramaic],
which is interpreted Peter.” (Jn 1:42). So it is
that the solid pure marble stone of the house (Church) refers to the Papacy and
the Magisterium and its infallibility
in regards to teachings on faith and morals. For as Paul says in Ephesians, the
Church is
“built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ep 2:20). So
it is that on this foundation, the Church, no matter how many wicked people are
within it or seek to destroy it, will always endure and remain faithful in
dogma and doctrine to the message of the Gospel: both Written and Oral. Since
it is written:
“And the rain fell, and
the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell
not, for it was founded on a rock.” (Mt 7:25). Furthermore, Jesus
says “thou art Peter; and upon this rock I
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
(Mt 16:18). Besides the proof of Scripture -proof for those who believe- history and the current state of
the Church speaks loudly enough on this point. For what institution, unless it
was sustained supernaturally, could endure and remain for over 2000 years, teaching
the same message and carrying on the same spiritual Traditions, when in the earthly realm it is almost
filled with the most inadequate and worst of people. No cooperation would last more
than a decade in the same situation; so truly it is a mark of the Divine.
Yet primarily the foundation
of solid pure marble stone is Christ Himself, and it is with, in and through
Him that the Papacy and the Magisterium (Bishops in union with the Pope) form
part of this foundation stone also. Thus one comes to an understanding why it
is said that Christ is the Foundation stone in one place
: “For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid: which
is Christ Jesus.” (1 Cor 3:11); and the apostles and prophets in another
place:
“Built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets” (Ep 2:20). It is thus because of Christ –the solid
pure marble stone- that no matter how wicked the members of the Church are (the
tattered aspects of the home), the Church remains Holy, because although filled
with a mingling of saints and sinners, Christ is Holy and nothing can stain
this holiness. This is why this foundation stone is referred to as
pure marble stone; for Christ is Purity
Itself, and His Holiness as the Immutable God cannot be marred. This foundation
stone is referred to as
marble stone
for it was marble stone that paved the floor of the Temple of Solomon (2 Chron
3:6), and Christ is the living fulfillment of such pavement which formed the
place where the men of old could meet with God; for in Christ the
pure marble stone we meet with the
Triune God (symbolised by the saintly family in the story) within the Church,
no matter how disheveled the members of the Church may be –the ceiling, walls
and rooms of the house. Since all aspects of the house draw their value from
Christ the foundation stone, and not the other way around. Is not this exemplified
by the fact that no matter how sinful a priest may be –even if he is in the
state of mortal sin- when he performs the consecration over the bread and wine
by invoking the Holy Spirit, they still become the Body and Blood of Christ (
Ex opere operato).
The father in the
story tells the man that when he rejects his home, he also rejects himself and
his entire family, for he and his family are one with their home. Since indeed a
home is what it is, not because of the building itself, but because of the
union between the building and those who live there. This is analogous of how
God and the Church are one, because the Church is His spiritual home, and is His
adopted family by grace. Concerning the oneness of the Church with God it is
written:
“For this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become
one flesh.” This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to
Christ and the church” (Eph 5:31-32). So it is that if one rejects the
Church, one rejects God. We draw clarity from the Douay-Rheims translation of
the final verse above:
“This is a great
sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the church.” (Eph 5:32). Wherefore the union between
the Church and Christ is sacramental; thus the Church is a Sacrament; and what
is a sacrament? An efficacious instrument of grace and means of relating with
God (
CCC 772-776). So it is that through the Church, man comes to Christ, and
through Christ man comes to God and thus spiritualising the language of the
story: without the Home one cannot really be in union with the Trinitarian Family,
He who is One God yet Three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And finally, note how in the story the family did not ask the man to become perfect before coming to abide in their home, but rather they accepted him as he was, all they asked was for him to accept themselves and their home, and to look past the faults of the home for the sake of love of them. In the same manner, God does not ask man to become perfect before coming to Him and before becoming a member of the Church; rather all He asks is for us to come to Him as we are; to turn away from our old ways -our old homes- and come to dwell with Him; whilst loving our neighbour and the Church, bearing with all faults out of love for Him. And so our Triune God calls out to each soul
: "Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline
thy ear: and forget thy people and thy father’s house. And the king shall
greatly desire thy beauty; for he is the Lord thy God" (Ps 45:10-11a). Wherefore this invitation of
love -to love and to be loved- fulfils the desire of each soul, a desire which
many repress yet some allow to surface and be thus satisfied: "One thing I have asked of the Lord,
this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life. That I may see the delight of the Lord...[and] feast and rejoice before God: and [so] be delighted with gladness. [And may
come to] taste and see that the Lord is
sweet" (Ps 27:4-5a, 68:3, 34:8). Since after all, "God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep
we might live with him." and thus have life and have it to the full (1
Thes 5:9-10; Jn 10:10).
Several relevant excerpts
from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
What does
"catholic" mean?
830 The word "catholic" means
"universal," in the sense of "according to the totality" or
"in keeping with the whole." The Church is catholic in a double
sense:
First, the
Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. "Where there is
Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church." In her subsists the fullness
of Christ's body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him
"the fullness of the means of salvation"308 which he has
willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and
ordained ministry in apostolic succession. The Church was, in this fundamental
sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost and will always be so until the day of
the Parousia [Second Coming].
831 Secondly, the Church is catholic because she
has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race:
Who belongs
to the Catholic Church?
836 "All men are called to this catholic unity of the
People of God. . . . And to it, in different ways, belong or are ordered: the
Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all mankind,
called by God's grace to salvation."
838 "The Church knows that she is joined in many ways
to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess
the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under
the successor of Peter." Those "who believe in Christ and have been
properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the
Catholic Church." With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so
profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a
common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist."
Several relevant excerpts
from Lumen Gentium:
(6). Often the Church has also been called the building of God. (34) The Lord
Himself compared Himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but which was
made into the cornerstone. (35) On this foundation the Church is built by the
apostles, (36) and from it the Church receives durability and consolidation. This
edifice has many names to describe it: the house of God (37) in which dwells His
family; the household of God in the Spirit; (38) the dwelling place of God among
men; (39) and, especially, the holy temple. This Temple, symbolized in places of
worship built out of stone, is praised by the Holy Fathers and, not without
reason, is compared in the liturgy to the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (5*). As
living stones we here on earth are built into it. (40) John contemplates this
holy city coming down from heaven at the renewal of the world as a bride made
ready and adorned for her husband.
(8). While Christ, holy, innocent and undefiled (81) knew nothing of sin, (82) but came
to expiate only the sins of the people,(83) the Church, embracing in its bosom
sinners, at the same time holy and always in need of being purified, always
follows the way of penance and renewal. The Church, "like a stranger in a
foreign land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the
consolations of God"(14*), announcing the cross and death of the Lord until
He comes."(84) By the power of the risen Lord it is given strength that it
might, in patience and in love, overcome its sorrows and its challenges, both
within itself and from without, and that it might reveal to the world,
faithfully though darkly, the mystery of its Lord until, in the end, it will be
manifested in full light.
(Italics added).
