We should love the Church whom we consider as “mother” and we enjoy the privilege of being her children! We enjoy in this Church the fruits of the “redemptive” work of our Lord Jesus Christ and we believe that we are also engaged and share in the “redemptive mission” entrusted to her by Our Lord.
Our ministries and apostolate of different kinds are all carried on in the name of the Church and as part of sharing in the ongoing mission entrusted to the Church –sacramental life presided over by the ordained ministers, called as institutional gifts of the Spirit, involvement in the fields of education, health care, socio-economic development, media apostolate, etc. Our formal membership in the Church by virtue of our “Baptism” has two dimensions:
1) we are brought into a community of believers who share in one common faith and celebrate that faith as a community;
2) we are members in the “institutional” Church and as an institution, the Church evolved over the past twenty centuries into what it is today – a hierarchical and pyramidal structure governed by laws, traditions and practices. Both these dimensions are inseparable and are like two sides of a coin!
The Church has the mission of upholding faith and morals. Therefore, as individual members in the community and with the given state of life in the hierarchical setup, we have to manifest our love and our sense of belonging to the Church. But, how do we manifest our love for the Church in (and through) our life, and in the ministries and apostolate we are involved?
Appreciation and gratitude for what the Church provides:
We should show our love for the Church by appreciating and acknowledging the invaluable gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and how that salvation is at work in our day-to-day life. We greatly value what we received and the sustenance we continue to receive the effects and fruits of salvation through our living membership in the Church. This sustenance is continually received through the sacramental life in the Church, more particularly through the celebration of the Holy Eucharistic sacrifice and through the breaking of the living Word of God.
It is the holy mother Church who from the first generation of the Apostolic Church to our present times keeps taking all the necessary care to sustain the life of the faithful. We must recognize this contribution of the holy mother Church to assist and accompany the “pilgrim People of God” that we are. Speaking of God’s love St. Paul says, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5: 8). Similarly, St John, the Apostle said, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John: 4:10).
It is this unconditional love that is constantly proclaimed and celebrated in the Church for the sustenance of the salvific grace received by the baptized members. This is also an ongoing and continuous invitation that God extends through the Church to those who have not yet received the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. By one’s regular attendance and active participation in the sacramental life, the members in the Community of believers bear testimony to their living membership in the Church
It is also a testimony of their appreciation of how God is providing in and through the Church the necessary sustenance of their life in Christ, the saviour. Here, the ordained ministers who are called to celebrate the sacraments and proclaim the Word of God, have to exercise their ministry according to (and with) the mind of the Church for the benefit of sustaining and enhancing the effects and fruits of the salvation in the life of the faithful entrusted to their care.
As the faithful manifest their love for the Church, the ordained ministers should manifest their love for God and His Church by being at the service of the Community that is entrusted and giving pastoral care with love and commitment! One should believe that while one is selflessly engaged in the ministry, one should believe that “God will provide” everything that is needed for one’s life and ministry! The institutional gifts of the Holy Spirit, ‘gift of ordination’ to priesthood, is to be understood and lived with love for the Church by being at the service of the Community!
Tomorrow: Recognize, Respect and gives space for the manifold gifts of the Spirit