The Church I Now Know and the Church I Knew Before

          Often times, human as we are, we utter words we do not actually know. We just burst out and speak out things without knowing everything about those words. I admit and can not deny the fact that I also do because it is really tempting especially when I hear words for the first time and when they sound so pleasing to me. I use them. I can still clearly remember how I pointed out to the infrastructure alone every time I was asked by my teacher in grade school what a Church was for me. However, what’s worse is that she affirmed with what I said and she was my teacher so I thought I was completely right. That was how I simply and naively thought about the mysterious word, Church.

          It is, indeed, quite embarrassing that I had been pointing out to something just as I knew it without having any certainty with what I was saying. Nonetheless, I can’t blame myself because I grew up with it. I was oriented the wrong way or, perhaps, not really the wrong way but it is just that its commonality is perfectly incomplete.
Nevertheless, I will just charge it to experience- a concrete proof that I really learned something from my stay in a minor seminary and now, in a major seminary wherein better and more things about this important word are unraveled.

          Church, indeed, is not just a mere building or infrastructures where we pray, venerate saints, and adore God. The Church is not Church with just 1 or 2 persons. The Church is not only the pope nor the bishops. Church is not only for priests nor for lay people. The Church is not for the rich alone or for the poor alone. The Church is not only for those in need or for those who are bountiful. The Church is not only for the problematic or for those who can sleep soundly. Instead, the Church pertains to the people of common belief and one faith which include us.

          The Church has different roles in the life of a believer. First, it is a Sacrament. God uses the Church as instruments and means of communicating with his people. It serves as the visible sign of his presence in the midst of people’s materialistic behaviors and unwarranted attachment to material things per se. God continues to shower upon us the Graces we need and the graces, he knows, we are ready to receive. Like, in the form of the seven sacraments- baptism, confirmation, holy Eucharist, reconciliation anointing of the sick, matrimony, and holy orders. Second, it is an institution. The Church has its own identity as Church and as one people of God. It has maintained order in its people through the bishops and priest under the jurisdiction of the pope. The institutionality of the Church only signifies that members need each other especially in terms of cooperation in spreading our belief as a Christian. Thirdly, it is a community of believers and of common faith. It focuses on its people. It continuously encourages its people to live as one people of God. It also encourages all believers to become dependent to others in such away that they may work as one in reuniting the church, making it prosper, and for most cases, defending them to those who attempt to ruin the Church through prayers. Fourth, it serves as a herald in a sense that it continues to proclaim the word of God to all people. The Church also continues to remind all people to deem the scriptures so important to their lives because the word of God is, first and foremost, the structure and framework of our belief. Through the scriptures, God also encourages us to live a moral life. Lastly, it is a servant. It continues to work for the transformation and betterment of the worlds, and at the same time, work for the works Jesus has already started.. The Church is always for the service and care for others especially for the poor and the marginalized.
          

            In the Status Quo, the Church faces a lot of scandals and issues that, definitely, without God’s help, will make the Church stumble down. The Church finds it quite hard to deal with it because of the quick spread of the issues through the media. I, too, was scandalized by those. And, at first, it made me ask what is happening to our Church, where, in few years, if God would only will it, I will dedicate my whole life. However, knowing the issues better made me realize that only a few or only a small part of the Church committed the grave misdemeanors and, as a matter of fact, not all of the members or leaders. We can never judge something or someone just by knowing one or two things about him or about it because it will only be a part of a whole. It will be unjust to other parts or members to get involved with things do not know and be allegedly accused with crimes they did not do, in the first place. Just because we all have one belief? Better not utter any word, I suppose. Moreover, human as we are, we are frail and part of our frailties is for us to commit mistakes. We are no Gods. Even saints committed mistakes. That is practically the paradox of life being created by a God who is perfect. It is just that our merciful Father has given them millions of chances to change, and they did change. People just have to broaden up their horizons and just face it. We all commit mistakes. We just have to help others change and never place them in a box as if there would be no chance for them to change. Who are we to judge then? Who are we to condemn others just by looking at their weaknesses and never consider what they did for others and for the many?

           Reminiscing the past is, most of the time, funny. It is really funny thinking and looking back how I ignorantly yet a little too confidently told everybody that a church is the building or the infrastructure alone. At least, now I know more than that. I learned that each one is part of it. It just sounds quite ridiculous to be part of the building, though. Moreover, church is the living work of the Holy Spirit, the giver of life. Without the Holy Spirit, Church will definitely break down in the long run.