JESUS IS RISEN…AND IS PRESENT IN HIS CHURCH

Greetings my brothers and sisters,

As I write this article we are about to enter the holiest of weeks, in which Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem at the beginning of the week to shouts of “Hosanna in the highest” and exited that same city at the end of the week, headed to Calvary, to shouts of “Crucify him, crucify him”. Why holy then? Because on the first day of the following week, upon reaching the tomb where his body had been laid, he was not found dead, but alive! Risen from the dead! Never to die again!

It is this same Jesus that we know and love and serve as our Lord and Savior. He who died on the cross to free us of our sins and of death, is alive and is calling us to be one with him, in the unity of God, Father, Son and Spirit. This call he makes to each and every human being through the Church that he founded. That is to say, Jesus continues to come to us and call us through the ministry of evangelization, sanctification, and governance of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

This is how this mystery of Jesus presence in the Church is stated in the Vatican II Document, Lumen Gentium:

Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated truth and grace to all…This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as “the pillar and mainstay of the truth”. This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. (#8)

This demonstrates the importance of all people being made known of the gift which Christ offers to them through the ministry and life of his Body, the Catholic Church. While the same document notes that “many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure”, it goes on to state: These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.” So, though Christ is present in some other churches which have these “elements of sanctification and of truth”, the fullness of Christ is found in the Catholic Church. And Christ wants all human beings to participate fully in his life!

Thus, we are called to not only enjoy our blessed life in Christ in the Catholic Church, but to invite others to do so as well. Always an invitation, never an obligation. Christ always calls and invites, he does not oblige. However, we know that if we hope to be at peace and in joy and happiness, we can only do so in Jesus and Jesus is found fully and completely in his Church.

In these years of the Eucharistic Revival, called for by the successors of the Apostles, our bishops in the US, we must seek to spend time before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, so that we might be strengthened and encouraged to witness to his presence both in this wonderful gift and in the fullness of his Church. And by this witness to discover our own vocation, our own particular call to know, love and serve Jesus in his Church. And, in discovering our vocation, to invite others to share in the glorious and salvific presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in his Church. Jesus is Risen! Alleluia!! He is Risen, indeed! Alleluia!!

Fr. Brian, OSJ