Fifth Sunday of Easter, 2012
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Gospel: John 15:1-8 “I am the true vine.”
Full text of sermon: If you think about last week’s Latin Mass gospel, you will realize why we need the Church. It is precisely because we need Christ—who is no longer here with us—and this of course is what He is trying to indicate to the apostles when He tells them—“in little while you will not see Me—and then in a little while you will see me.” He is saying “Even though I must go to my Father, and you will not see me—I will still be here. I will not abandon you.” He will be with us—and we with Him—by means of the Church—the Catholic Church.
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But there is a problem because we modern Americans often enough understand the Church—not as the presence of Our Lord—Teaching, Ruling and Sanctifying the world—but as an organization—a club that we can either dismiss at will or criticize at will—as if it were no more than the religious version of a political party.
Of course that comes from the fact that we live in a formerly Protestant and presently secular country. And yes Obama is right—this is not a Christian country any more. Of course he is the proof of that—would a Christian leader countenance as a fundamental human right the killing of millions of unborn babies? Of course not.
A supernatural and divine reality
But to say that this was a Protestant country is at least to acknowledge that there is a residual Protestant instinct suffusing this whole country so that when we talk about religion or the Church we easily slip into Protestant categories of thought and belief—a sort of default position. In this way we can think that the Church rather than being a supernatural and divine reality is more like one of our human organizations by which we order our external religious lives.
In this very American and congregational understanding, we go to church each week and try to get inspired by the readings and the sermon and the music—and then at the end of it all we receive a little wafer and a little plastic cup of wine that symbolizes how we should all get along.
And that’s it. And if something displeases us, well then we move on from that church and go to another or make up our own church. It is all exceedingly personal and external and private. Membership in the church for the typical American is just like salvation—it is all pretty much up to us.
You see how God’s presence in that kind of Church is more symbolic than anything else. There certainly would be no real teaching authority for that kind of Church either. The only thing that would compel belief in the teachings of one of these churches would be if it had good ideas—good sermons—nice music and flawless lives lived by its leaders and ministers—then this would be the one to which we should belong—at least until we hear of a church with better ideas and better sermons and nicer music and even more flawless ministers and leaders.
A teaching authority
It is never a question of, is this belief true or false? It is never a question of asking if there might be some teaching authority that divinely guarantees the truth of what this church believes? It is only a question of: does this way of believing satisfy our need right now? They conclude that this is the best we can do since Jesus is no longer here.
That is why Episcopalians and Methodists and Presbyterians, evangelicals and Baptists and people who just call themselves Christians of no particular denomination can be against birth control and abortion one year and for it the next. That is why this little Episcopalian congregation can be against gay marriage—and two miles down the road—those Episcopalians are ordaining lesbian Bishops. That is why Jesus can be God for some and not-God for others—or how this congregation believes He truly rose from the dead and that congregation believes in the Resurrection only figuratively. It is all just a matter of whose argument is at any one moment more persuasive—and do I like the music? Do you see how different—how alien we Catholics must seem to our American hosts? We believe that the Church is actually the Mystical Body of Christ. We believe that Jesus left us a Church to teach, rule and sanctify the world—in His Name and by His Authority—and with his sure Presence to guarantee it all.
That notion of the Mystical Body of Christ is not just beautiful poetry that Saint Paul came up with. Paul means for us to take it literally.
“Why are you persecuting Me?”
Remember how Saint Paul was on his way to round up another group of Christians—and bring them to Pharisaical justice—jail, punishment and eventual execution—and he was famous for his antipathy to these Christians.
And Jesus strikes Paul down and says to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” You will notice that Jesus did not ask why Paul was persecuting the Church—or his disciples or his friends— as if these people whom Paul was hurting were part of some exterior reality. No. Jesus identifies Himself with the very people that Paul is chasing down. “Why are you persecuting Me?” Jesus wants Paul to understand that if he is hurting these Christians he is hurting Jesus Himself—for the Church and Jesus are one. And in that moment Paul understands for the first time not only that Jesus is God— but also that these Christians belong to God in the deepest possible sense. They are one with God in a supernatural relationship that is utterly unique. We call that the Church and we call the Church the Mystical Body of Christ. And the Catholic Church is the very same Church of Christ.
As if they listened to God
Therefore, no one may touch the Church and harm it with impunity, because they would therefore be touching God and trying to harm Him. And by the same token, everyone must listen to the Church as they would listen to God. It is that simple—it is that profound—it is that mysterious.
But because the concept that the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ is so mysterious it takes faith to accept it. That means for those Catholics anywhere in the world whose faith has been harmed by modern categories of thought—Americanism and Protestantism and rationalism and secularism and modernism—each denying that there is an objective truth and moral order taught authoritatively by the Catholic Church— then for them, the Church is not the Body of Christ—Mystical or otherwise. For them the Church is just a club with ideas and rules and theories that we can accept or reject at will. For them the teaching Church is just a bunch of guys in Italy making rules for us in America or elsewhere.
That is how over three hundred priests in Austria, with the connivance of their bishops, have declared their unbelief in the traditional priesthood. Apparently they don’t believe that the Catholic Church is connected intimately to Our Lord. They therefore deny that the Church has the authority to teach them what is the essence of Priesthood.
That is why so many German priests have declared that they will not say the words of Consecration correctly and use pro multis. They too obviously don’t believe the Catholic Church speaks for Christ or with His voice or with His authority.
That is what is behind the recent letter from the Vatican trying to work with one particular liberal nun’s organization in the United States that has spent the last forty years playing footsie with the promoters of abortion and birth control. This organization also doesn’t seem to believe that the Church teaches with the authority of Jesus what we must believe or do to be saved. Or how about the millions of ex-Catholics who have left the Church? You have to conclude that whatever they think they left, they did not think that they were leaving the Church of Christ.
Founded by Christ
How could they leave it if it was the Church of Christ? Can any of these groups be said to actually believe that the Church is the Body of Christ when they act in so contrary a manner? To refuse the teachings of the Church—and the discipline of the Church— is that not to refuse Jesus Himself? Indeed it is Jesus Himself in a mystical but real way. This is what we have to believe if we are to remain strong in the face of the pressures that are being mounted against us. If we are to save our souls we must believe that the Catholic Church is the One True church—founded by Christ and is His presence in the world— despite wicked priests and feckless bishops. We must believe that the connection and the union and the nature of the Church is such that the same grace that flows through me by virtue of my Baptism—flows through each one of us by virtue of all our baptisms.
It is that grace, the life and Being and Love of God, which binds us together and binds us to Jesus. It is that which constitutes us as the Church—and it is that which constitutes the Church as the Body of Christ—and nothing less than the Catholic Church will get us to heaven or teach us how to get there.