the church - 19th week Tuesday 2013

Today we proclaim the ninth article of the faith saying, I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.  We know what holy is, we probably have an inkling what catholic means, but first let us ask ourselves, what is a church?  The word church comes from the Hebrew word, qahal, translated to Greek as Ekklesia, translated to Latin as Ecclesia and translated into Spanish as Iglesia.  Santa Iglesya means a people gathered, called out to an assembly – ang gintawag kag gintipon.  The word church is a reference to this kind of assembly – what kind of assembly, and therefore who assembles this people.  The word church comes from the Greek word Kyriake, Kirche in German and Church in English and the word means “that which belongs to the Lord.”  So this gathering, this assembly is not just any assembly, it is not just any gathering – it is a gathering of all that belongs to the Lord.  So we believe in the church that we are a people called together, called to gather, called to become one body and this assembly is an assembly that belongs to the Lord.  Thus we belong to the Lord because we belong to the church, to the people God called together.

There are some of us who think that the Lord merely commands us to make every Sunday holy by prayer and worship and so we say, makapangadi man ko diri sa balay ngaa makadto gid ko didto sa simbahan.  Makapangadi man ko diri sa akon balaligyaan ngaa matipon gid ako sa simbahan; kasabad pa na to, mainit, kadamo tawo, indi ako makapangadi kon damo tawo, indi ako makapangadi kon gutok.  If this is the way we think we are not church.  By doing this we cannot say I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, we cannot say I believe in the church because we separate ourselves from the community, we separate ourselves from the gathered people, from the people God calls his own.  Every day we are called to pray, sometimes as individuals and sometimes as a group but on a Sunday we are called to gather, we are called to be a people, we are called to worship God, to pray to God as a church.  Gutok is part of being church, may libagon is part of singing as a church, may distraction is part of living the life of a church, and as you worship may kairinit sa imo atubangan, may palahikay sa imo kilid, may indi manami nga tawo sa imo uluunhan, may magahod nga bata sa imo likod is part of being church.  In our gospel the Lord said, whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.  you have to accept even the little child, a child who has not rights, a child who has no say, a child who does have yet an individual personality in the community – even that you have to accept because we are church, we believe in the church.

There was a times in my life when I wanted to become a monk, when I wanted to become a hermit where I can be alone with God and live with God away from men and women.  It did not happen of course though I already wrote an application letter.  Years later I asked a monk in Trappist what is the greatest difficulty you have as a monk.  And replied, living with other monks.  I thought he would say the greatest difficulty is keeping the rule of silence or keeping the vow of chastity.  But he said living with other monks.

We are called to become church, not individuals serving the Lord but a community gathered by the Lord, a community serving the Lord, a community serving each other in the Lord.  In our first reading Moses is about to die.  He has been serving this little band of people, the qahal Yahweh, the gathered people of God, the Ekklesia, leading them to the promised land for 40 years.  Now he is passing the reins to Joshua his successor.  In those 40 years Moses has for several times wanted to leave this band, tak-an na sia – masabad, pala-reklamo, palabasol, salawayon, urugtasan.  You give them everything, basulon ka pa.  But God has to call him back to lead the qahal Yahweh.  Hapos man lang ni tani kon nag-masig-masig kita kadto sa promised land.  Kon indi sia bay-i da sia, lakat ta ya.  But they are church, called by God to become church.  They have to journey together.  And that too is what we are called to become.