“I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, …” (Matt 12:6-7)
Each person has their own mental or spiritual image of what Church is. For many, it is the Church of their past. For others it is what Church “ought” to be. Either way, it is personal.
In a book titled, “Models of the Church,” by Avery Cardinal Dulles he writes:
“Christians cannot agree about the measure of progress or decline because they have radically different visions of the Church. They are not agreed about what the Church really is.”
He defines five models that people typically set as their “personal” Church.
Each bring their own favorite set of images, its own rhetoric, its own values, certitudes, commitments, and priorities. It even brings with it a particular set of preferred problems:
- The Church as Institution,
- The Church as Mystical Communion (People of God),
- The Church as Sacrament,
- The Church as Herald,
- The Church as Servant, or Healer
Another visage which (I believe) gets too little attention is the family unit: where we first learn who God is and prayerfully seek His will for us. In this sense, Vatican II considers the family as a “domestic” church. (LG 11).
Interestingly, the bible (RSV2CE) shows 353 occurrences of the word “temple” and 109 occurrences of the word “church” mostly referencing a physical building where we encounter the Holy. Once Jesus is raised, the locale where we encounter God changes:
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
Now to the fig tree…
Check out Monday and Tuesday
In the Synoptic account of Jesus’ last week, before he enters the temple, he finds and curses a fig tree, a prophetic symbol of God’s judgment on that temple that was bearing no fruit.
The significance of this scripture for us today, is that it points us to reflect upon our own selves, our families, religious institutions, social groups and to the extent in which we serve interests that would earn Jesus’ outrageous rebuke.
I find the chart offers a wonderful scriptural map to “Walk with Jesus, a bit more closely, during Holy Week.
My plan is to read, meditate, contemplate, and journal each day with the prescribed scripture passages. It will be my prayer and search for “fruitfulness,” or lack thereof.
I’ll close with a beautiful reflection from Frank Ostaseski which speaks to a grace that is modeled for us by Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection:
Suppose we stopped compartmentalizing death, cutting it off from life. Imagine if we regarded dying as a final stage of growth that held an unprecedented opportunity for transformation. Could we turn toward death like a master teacher and ask, “How, then, shall I live?” . . .
ps. Feel free to comment, or share your “Walk with Jesus,” during Holy Week.
