29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Isaiah 53:10-11; Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45

An Experience of the Universal Church

I’ve shared with you before that I first felt that explicit call to priesthood when I was 14 years old. I was there at Camp WaJaTo on a youth retreat, Totus Tuus. And as you know, I really fought against that call; all during high school I fought it. And so, I made a deal with God. I told him, “Look, how about this: I’ll teach Totus Tuus”—you now how we have the team come every summer for a week? I told God that I would teach on one of those teams, travel around to different parishes all summer—I said, “Look: I’ll teach Totus Tuus, I’ll serve you for a summer. And then you can get off my case and let me live my life.”

So, the summer after I graduated from high school, I worked as a Totus Tuus missionary, going around the entire Diocese of Wichita, teaching at parishes all over: Coffeyville, Parsons, Mulvane, Wichita, Colwich—all over the Diocese. And this was a crucial time for me. Because in the middle of the summer after serving in parishes all across our diocese, my heart was changed. After meeting Catholics in all of the different parishes across the Diocese, serving them and their kids, I could really begin to see myself as a priest. I discovered that being a priest, and in particular being a priest in this Diocese—I discovered how amazing it really could be. But it took seeing it to discover that.

Then, when I went to seminary, I first went to Conception Seminary College, which is in northwest Missouri. Then I went to Mount Saint Mary’s, which is in Maryland. And then I spent my last three years at Mundelein in Chicago. As part of that, I also spent a week in Mexico, in Michoacán, and a semester in Israel and Palestine.

And here’s the thing: what that all of these experiences gave me—and I’m just so incredibly grateful for them—all of these experiences, they gave me a concrete experience of the universality of the Church, what the catholicity of the Church looks like. Everywhere I went, even though things looked a little different, or there was a different language—everywhere I went in this Diocese and across the world, I experienced a people that all shared the same faith, the exact same profession of faith; I experienced a people that shared the same sacraments and prayers that I did: I could go to confession, receive the Eucharist everywhere; and I experienced a people that were all part of one local church, a diocese, guided by a bishop, but also united to Rome and the Pope (everywhere I went, they had a picture of Pope Francis too). Everywhere I went, all peoples, not matter their language or race or nationality—all people were welcome in this one Church. This was the Catholic Church on full display.

We’ve been talking about The Church for a few weeks now, again, trying to dig into what it means when we stand up every Sunday and say, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” And we’ve talked about how the Church is one, just one thing; The Church is the one people living in a covenantal relationship with God, the one body, the one bride of Christ. And like we’ve said, very, very importantly is that this looks like something, it is a visible something. And we don’t have to invent it, and we don’t get to invent it. It is given to us. That’s why we talked last week, then, about needing to ask ourselves: Do I follow my own idea of “the Church,” Jesus, faith and truth and the Bible, OR do I entrust myself to the Church, the one, apostolic Church, the Church led by the successors to the Apostles? Since the beginning, people believed that Jesus continues to guide and shepherd his Church through those he appointed shepherds, namely, the Bishops and the Pope. But do we believe that? And do we live that? That was our question last week.

Today, then, we want to focus on one more element. The Church is one, it is apostolic, and it is also catholic. And just like the oneness and apostolicity of the Church are things to embrace and love and cherish, our catholicity, the catholic nature of the Church is something to embrace.

Catholic: More Than a Brand

So, just what does “catholic” mean? Because again, what comes to mind for most people when you talk about “catholic”? Catholic is just a brand, right? Right! You have Methodists, Baptists, Evangelicals, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Pentecostals—oh yeah, and there are Catholics. Right? Ok. But is that all “catholic” is, a brand? 

Well first, what does it mean? “Catholic” is just our anglicized transliteration of the Greek word kataholos—kataholos, which it just two Greek words smushed together: kata “according to” and holos “the whole”—“according to the whole,” or sometimes people translate it as “universal.” The Church is kataholos, according to the whole. Ok. So, “according to the whole” of what? Why use this word? Well, it’s “according to the whole” of the faith: to the fullness of the faith; the fullness of the means of salvation; the fullness, the whole of what Jesus gave to the Church. But also, it is universal because it is for the whole of humanity, everyone.

But just think historically. The followers of Jesus called themselves a few different things early on. They were called followers of “the Way”—we read this many times in the book of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). Very early on, they also began to be called Christians (Acts 11:26). But the Church itself—the Church, the people of God, the earliest followers of Jesus—they themselves began to describe the Church itself as catholic. We read this in Acts 9:31, the ekklesia kataholos.

But what’s more—again, historically, but very, very importantly—they started using this word kataholos to describe the original Church, the one, apostolic Church begun by Jesus. Why? Because very early on, they needed to distinguish themselves from other groups that had broken off and started their own thing. In particular, some groups didn’t believe that Jesus was fully God, some didn’t believe he was fully man; they believed strange things about salvation or the Trinity. Other groups didn’t believe that the Eucharist was the body and blood of Jesus, just a symbol of him. Others didn’t recognize the authority of the apostles and their successors. And so the original Church, the OG’s, the one people of God began to describe the Church as kataholos: those who believed and practiced the faith “according to the whole” of what was being handed on by the apostles and their successors. This is very important for us to recognize: in the very first generation of the Church, people began to follow their own ideas, their own interpretations. Instead of following the authority of the apostles, they did their own thing.

One very famous example of all of this is actually connected to a saint we celebrated this past week: St. Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius is a seminally important figure in the history of the Church. Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch (so very near Jerusalem) from about 70 to 107 AD. Tradition has it that—you know when Jesus “took a child a placed it in [the disciples’] midst and said, ‘Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 18:2-4)—tradition has it that this child was Ignatius. Whether that’s true or not, what is definitely true is that Ignatius was then a disciple of John the Evangelist. So he learned everything from the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” He then went on to became bishop of Antioch, a successor to the apostles. Eventually, though, he was sentenced to death by the Romans. And on his way to Rome to be martyred, Ignatius gave us some of the most important documents in the history of the Church. Ignatius wrote seven letters, to seven different churches in different towns (like St. Paul did). He wrote to the Ephesians, the Romans, the Philadelphians. And, importantly for us today, he wrote to the Smyrnaeans (what is now western Turkey.)

In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, Ignatius is warning them about these different break-off groups, these groups that deny Jesus divinity or his humanity, that deny that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, that deny that the apostles have authority. And Ignatius writes this to the Smyrnaeans (again, remember, this is from a guy that learned everything from the Apostle John, one of the twelve, the one Jesus loved the most)—Ignatius writes, “Avoid all divisions…See that you follow [your] bishop…and the priests as you would follow the apostles… Let no one do anything connected with the Church without the bishop… Wherever the bishop is, there let the people be; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 8). In the generation after Jesus himself, Ignatius writes that.

This is one example, but over and over in his letters, Ignatius hammers on three (predictable) things: that there are people who do not confess that Jesus is God, or they deny that he is fully human, or some other teaching of the Church—so don’t go along with that; he writes that there are people who deny that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus—and so don’t go along with that; and he writes that there are people who deny that they need the bishop and priests—and they’re wrong about that too. This is the “whole” faith, the catholic faith, the faith of the Catholic Church. Ignatius uses the phrase the “Catholic Church” in such a way that people know what he’s talking about. In other words, people had been using this word for a while already!

“Catholic” is more than a brand. “Catholic” describes the Church, the one Church, the apostolic Church—the Church that has all of what was given to us by Jesus Christ himself. Sure, there are other groups that have some of what Jesus wanted for his Church. Some have the Scriptures, they have Baptism, they have many of Jesus’ teachings—and that’s nice! But they do not have the whole, the fullness of the faith, the fullness of the means of salvation. Just think, if you were getting married: Would you want to know some things about the person, or as much as possible? Would you want them to share some of their life with you, or all of it? It’s the same with Jesus and his Church. Jesus wants the fullness that the Catholic Church offers for everyone.

“Cafeteria Catholics”

For us, then—where the rubber meets the road for us—I had a very concrete experience of this. I met with a person once, while I was down in Wichita, and this person was telling me, adamantly telling me, “Father, I’m Catholic. I’ve always been a Catholic and I’ll always be a Catholic. But”—there’s always a “but”—“But, there are just some things that I don’t agree with, stuff I can’t get on board with.” Have you ever met someone like this? We call them “Cafeteria Catholics”: they pick and choose what they want, like a buffet at the cafeteria. They pick and choose from those big three essential things. In other words: 1) they disagree with certain teachings of the Catholic Church; 2) they don’t practice the worship or sacramental life of the Catholic Church, they skip Mass, or they never go to Confession, they don’t get married in the Church; and 3) they disagree that the bishop or the pope have any authority. But they still call themselves “Catholic.”

And it’s funny, because it’s a contradiction on the very use of the word “catholic,” the very reason that the word began to be used in the first place! For them, “Catholic” is just another brand. But “Catholic” is not just a brand, it’s not just a certain flavor of “church,” and it’s definitely not just this one parish. “Catholic” is saying, “I am part of that one, apostolic Church that Jesus himself founded; the one Church that continues to hand on the whole of what Jesus gave us: the ‘correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession’” (Catechism 830). Go back to the question from last week: “Am I following my own idea? Or do I entrust myself to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church?” Like the Gospel reading points out today, it’s not our place to sit on Jesus’ right and left, to be in power and decide everything. Our job is to follow, to be great by being a servant.

Practicing “Catholic”

And so I want to propose a few concrete ways to take a step forward in our catholicity, and there are three of them, one for each of those three big areas Ignatius harps on. The first: I want you to think of a challenging teaching, some teaching of the Catholic Church that is challenging or that you may not agree with. And I want you to take some time this week to dig in to that question. In other words, don’t just say, “Well I don’t know if I agree with that.” Actually dig into it! Figure out why the Church teaches what it teaches. Email me and I can send you some great resources. Second, I want you to find a new way to engage in the sacramental life, the common worship of our faith. Maybe that means going to Confession for the first time in a long time. Maybe it’s going to daily Mass during the week once. Maybe it’s working on getting your marriage blessed. (We’re praying the Our Father in Latin as a way to express our common prayer and worship). Ok, and third, begin praying about the diocesan capital campaign going on and how you and your family will contribute. Like Ignatius said, “Wherever the bishop is, there let the people be.” This campaign is a concrete gesture of our union with the bishop and this diocese.

Being “Catholic” is more than a brand. It is saying, “I want the whole, all, everything Jesus offers.” And thanks be to God, here, even in a small parish in the middle of Kansas, we are given all, we are part of the whole, the one Church, the Catholic Church of Jesus Christ.