ekklesia, church - 23rd Sunday A 2017

In my diocese in the Philippines we have this prayer service which is sometimes erroneously referred to as a priest-less mass. The service presided by a lay person has all the readings on a given Sunday and one can even receive holy communion except that it has no consecration which only a priest can do.  That is why it is called priest-less.  These are usually in mountainous and remote areas.  So every Sunday the lay leaders would gather the people of their community and they would pray together.
On my part, I would train these lay leaders, provide them monthly copies of the prayers and readings and I would write sermons which they would read in their communities every Sunday.  Having been assigned in the seminary for a very long time now and with no parish of my own, it was a consolation on my part to serve these people in so many remote areas so that they can gather as a community to pray together.  But my contribution is nothing compared to some lay leaders in the parishes who must walk 3 to 4 hours every Sunday to get the consecrated hosts from the parish and to bring these to their communities. 

But why, why make so much effort to gather?  Why don’t they just pray on their own, or better still watch mass on television as some of us do (obviously they don’t have television or cable either).  But why do we have to gather? 

Because we are an ekklesia.  In Latin this Greek word is translated as Ecclesia, in Spanish, Iglesya and in English church.  Ekklesia means a people gathered by the Lord to worship him.  On a Sunday we are called to manifest our being church, and so we are called to gather for worship.  You can always pray at home, you can always worship at the privacy of your room, but on a Sunday we are called to gather, to gather in order to worship the Lord.  Why? because we are a church, we are a community.

In our gospel today Jesus is not just telling us the method of correcting an erring member of the community – first talk it over, then if nothing happens go and call two witnesses, if that fails too then bring in the community, then if it doesn’t work kick him out. More than this however Jesus is encouraging us to make every effort to become a community, to make every effort to create an environment where the presence of Jesus in our gatherings brings joy, acceptance, healing, forgiveness, affirmation, and should this be needed, correction.

I once saw in National Geographic magazine a picture of animals which under normal circumstances would have likely killed each other, but were now seen standing side by side on a small piece of higher ground because of a flood.  So lions and cheetahs stood together and so were the zebras and the gazelles.  They were not killing each other, and nobody was eating the other.

Most often life is like this.  Enemies become friends at least in the duration or for as long as the common problem or the common crisis or the common enemy, persist.  I had seen this, the world had seen this in you in 2001 when women and men in uniform went beyond the call of duty putting their lives on the line to rescue, to help, to keep safe.  Probably many of you here, joined hands on that day and the days following, to offer support, to offer help in whatever form and to whoever was in need.  Many were extra generous, most were particularly patient and caring. And some died helping others.

However, in our gospel today Jesus is asking us to normalize what we would naturally become in abnormal circumstances.  To make attitudes of communion a natural reflex in our day to day life not because it is triggered by a crisis or a calamity but simply because of our faith in Jesus and our love and concern for one another.

In the seminary where I came from, one seminarian committed a grave mistake and it was obvious that he was going to be punished.  True enough, his brother seminarians, the leaders of the community took away his privileges.  But what shocked him was the fact that the whole community was punished with him.  And so he pleaded to them telling them that he alone had committed the mistake and thus he alone should be punished.  But the community prevailed over him saying, we are brothers and we failed you in some ways and so it is only right that we carry this burden with you.

Our individualism may be strong, to each his own, but our faith in Jesus, our love and our concern for each other can make us a community, to become a church a people gathered in the Lord. Let this be our prayer and our task.