My Personal experience of the Church
Reflecting on the notion of “the Church” today brings back to my mind the memories of my childhood and growth all through my teenage years and adulthood. In my contact with “the Church” and my being part of it have shaped both my life and my understanding of this complex reality called “the Church”. It is therefore right to ask the question: What does the Church personally mean to me and what are my personal experiences of it? It is even right to ask what has become the Church today? Well, the church as building is closed, but now it is open at home for every faithful. Isn’t this experience a wakeup-call to review our understanding of the Church?
Church for this “meanwhile”: Then and Now
During my childhood and teenage years, I joined the holy mass every Sunday with my parents and siblings at the substation of our parish which is closer to our house than the parish church. I could see that the Sunday mass was very important not only because all my family members were going but also because even neighbors and many other people used to attend. Moreover, going to the same church made us accept each other and see others who joined a different church or who did not belong to any church at all, as different. Our church chapel is a beautiful building very different from our normal houses for living. Our parish church has big cross in front or a doom that keeps it very obvious and outstanding. In my context, many churches are usually separated from the village and most of the time set on hilltops that we can easily relate them to the palmist words: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord/and who shall stand in his Holy place?” (Psalm 24). As we go there on Sunday, we dress properly and once inside we keep quiet and practice gestures of reverence to God. That is what shaped my first understanding of the Church. As a place, I understood that “the Church” was that beautiful Chapel where we venerably gathered to pray and praise God.
Similarly, as I grew up, I started attending catechism and other parish activities aside from the Holy Mass. My catechists and other prayer leaders frequently made reference to the biblical passage “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them”. (Matt.18:20) This made sense for every time we are very few in number or due to the lack of a proper room, we would have our gathering just under a big tree or outside in an open area. Those words of Jesus transformed into prayer, brought to my knowledge a new understanding of “the Church”. It understood that despite the place being different from our beautiful parish church or the substation church, there was still “the Church”. The Church is therefore more than the building; it is the people gathering in the name of Jesus. Now, relating this experience to the lockdown situation, it is fitting to say: We are the Church.
Why do I go to church and what do I do there? This question brings the matter to another level. Aside from praying or worshipping God which is the main purpose of the Church, there is also the spiritual formation, human growth formation, catechesis, the administration of sacraments and the care for the needy. Thus, “the Church” appears here as an organized institution, with a hierarchy of ministers, priests, and the faithful who are members of the institution. Here comes in handy the Words of Jesus “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) which make the Church outstanding and different from other worldly institutions. Being Church is now likened to leaving behind our regular occupations, our routines, our labors and burdens in order to come to the Lord; to rest with Him and enjoy his presence. If we are to go deep into this point of view, going to God is not limited to attending mass, prayer and catechetical activities. Instead, it means that we make the decisive choice in our life to respond to his call, to be part of those who love God and, therefore, gather to worship “in truth and spirit” and to serve Him selflessly. The Church is present and alive in its mission of service to the poor and the needy. Many parishioners and Church originations are the front liners as they provide for food and various helps during this coronavirus outbreak.
The church is becoming really a “Domestic Church”
Belonging to the Church, becoming its member, or its servant gives another view of it. First, the fact that we start calling it “our Church”, “my Church” is something that shows my full belonging to the Church and, to some extent, defines me and gives me a new identity. Secondly, my new relationship with others and with God because I belong to the Church, is expressed in different ways. One way that has positively marked the common belonging to the Church is considering it as a family. The Church indeed is the family of God. The Scripture says that: God has “predestined us for adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ" (Eph 1:5). This takes root and effectiveness in our biological family which is in fact called “the domestic church”. It means that the bond that would unite us all as members of one Church is the bond of brotherhood where we call God “Our Father”, the Church “Our Mother”, and the members of the Church become brothers and sisters in Christ. The Church as family of God is embodied in our biological families which are now the domestic Church. As we build a domestic Church at home, love is being nurtured there and hopefully, as we bear with one another during this time, it is the same love that is growing which will be spread in the society.
This expression of the Church as family is well stressed by the second Council of Vatican which Pope Francis refers to in saying that God’s plan for humanity “ is to make of all of us the one family of his children, in which each will feel close and loved by Him,… that each may feel the warmth of being the family of God”. Here the Holy Father makes it clear that God, the father of this supernatural family is its founder. “The Church was born from the desire of God to call all people, to communion with Him, to his friendship, and indeed to participate as his sons of his own divine life”. As the Family of God, the Church grows mainly and especially during these days in the Domestic Church.
