Who do we think we are?

Have you ever noticed that if you go to Mass in a different or strange place or even if you have just visited a Catholic Church in such a place, you still have a sense of it being ‘yours’?

There are always familiar things in such Churches, even though they may reflect a different culture or be in a different architectural or artistic style.  There is always an altar, a crucifix, a place where the congregation gathers, a lectern, an image of Our Lady.  And if we happen to be there for Mass, there is always some familiarity despite there being a different language and perhaps different ritual practices. 

Such things are signs of who we are.  They are witnesses to one of the characteristics of our faith, which is about unity and universality.  We are a People who belong to almost all the nations of the earth, and yet we claim unity with each other despite the many differences that exist between the multitude of nations and cultures which make up humanity. 

There are tensions between this unity and universality; there is a constant need to keep our balance.  We are all united around the Lord Jesus and are united by him, and so the importance of those things he has given us as our means to keeping contact with him – in particular the gospels, the Eucharist, the community of faith itself and prayer (see Acts of the Apostles 2:42).  Wherever we find the Church, we should find those four things and they are reflected in our Church buildings themselves however grand or however simple they may be.  But there always are different ways of seeing things and doing things within such a worldwide communion and these differences must be respected.

This is a unity which seeks to bring humankind together, to reconcile human beings to each other and this means taking into account the ways human beings think and live in all the cultures and societies of humankind. 

St Paul kept insisting on this.  In his case, it was his insistence that the gospel could not be confined within Judaism but belonged to all the people of the earth, and so he set out on his extraordinary missionary journeys.

The Church is one; it is a communion of communions scattered around the world; and at the same time, it is universal (Catholic).  By its own very nature, it seeks to plant itself among all the nations and cultures of humankind. 

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin

Published: 16 August 2024