Lesson 13 JESUS AND THE CHURCH. 1.

The church can be known as the Church of God, Church of Jesus or the Church of the Holy Spirit. However, as a reality that emerged from the Christ event the church is by and large known as the church of Christ and its members Christians. The Christ event never ends. Christs salvific presence and operation continues till the end of the world. In that sense the church is the continuation of Jesus in the world. Jesus praises is eternally present in the world: now (ippozhum) always (eppozhum) and forever (ennekum) through the church. God wants every man who comes into this world to find his destiny by the life in the church. Who founded the church? The answer is invariably Jesus. When and how did the church start? Answers vary. 1. At the last supper when Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the Priesthood. 2. As Jesus sent his disciples on the world mission, commissioning them to go to the whole world. 3. Some of the Oriental Fathers strongly defended that the church emerged from the pierced side of Jesus from where water and blood, symbols of the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist gushed out. 4. The classically held view is that the genesis of the church was on the day of Pentecost. In all these views the central figure related to the origin of the church is none other than Jesus himself. The church emerged from the person, mission and teachings of Jesus. 3. The church, though a human institution, was elevated to the divine sphere. This was already stated in the creedal formula of the Council of Nicea, where the mystery of the church is made immediately follow from the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Notice the sequence in the formula: Jeevanum vishudhiyumulla eka roohayilyum catholikavum, slaheekavum, ekavum, vishdhavum aya eka sabhayilum njangal vishwasikkunnu papamochanatinulla mamodesa onnu matrame ollu enu njangal ettu paranju. This sequence further clearly states that the church reaches out to the world through the sacraments which Jesus has instituted and entrusted to the church. For man sacraments are the means to touch God. The inter-relationship between God- Church and the sacraments is beautifully expressed in the hymn vinnullakin arajan than mishiha than manavati bhagam cheythekeedum kahenenmarakalum unde (Easter night prayer, first Kauma). The reference to the church as the bhagyangal poornamatham parudeesa is taken from St. Ephraim. The original state of bliss that man lost in paradise by sin is sought to be regained by the sacraments. The love of God and devotion to Christ is expressed by man in his day to day life by his life in the church lived by means of the sacraments.

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The church is not an invisible, non-descript spiritual reality of the redeemed (as Luther would hold) but a visible, human reality recognizable by its external qualities. The church is ONE, though divided (more about the oneness of the church see below in No. 5). The church is HOLY, though sinful. The churches only ministry is hierarchical leading sinners to holiness (the word meaning of hierarchical; hiere = holiness, arche = leadership). The churchs only ministry is to prepare a people acceptable to God (Lk 1/17). The holiness of the church flows from God who is holy (Holy are you o God Trisagion) and from Jesus Christ who is the holy one of God. The church is CATHOLIC, though one. The churchs original mandate is go to the whole world. Catholicity is not a geographical comprehensiveness alone but the ability to be at home with every race, culture, language, spirituality, tradition and rite. It involves the readiness to accept every aspect of revelation, not bracketing any demand that revelation makes that is inconvenient to individuals or groups (e.g., sola scriptula of Protestants). The church is APOSTOLIC, though human. The church has not spontaneously sprouted from some human needs, like royal or military leadership in ancient societies. Church is a God given gift to humanity just as Jesus himself was. Its human structures were based on Peter as its foundation, on the apostles as its pillars, and Paul as its architect (adistanam shemavon, shilpiyadam Paulose). The first foundational catechesis on the day of Pentecost was apostolic as it was given by Peter the head of the Apostolic College. Later, the admission of Gentiles that was initiated by Peter in the conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10) widely practiced by Paul, finally ratified in the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem by Peter, James, Paul was the supreme model of practice of apostolicity as exercised in the apostolic period. This apostolic quality of the church is sustained in the church by the symbolism of the imposition of hands. The Church is ONE, though Catholic. Unity and Catholicity are mutually inclusive. One demands the other. Unity does not demand uniformity in every aspect of the churchs life. By incarnating in one particular place, the church becomes, a local-individual sui juris church (CCEO No. 28). The legitimacy of the existence of a local church is to be explained by virtue of the philosophy of one and the many. E.g., humanity, human nature is one, but it exists in millions of individuals with different faces. What existed in Pauls times were only local churches, as church in Corinth, Philippi etc., which all later got integrated into one universal church of Jesus Christ. An individual church is a full church, but it does not exhaust the fullness of the church of Jesus Christ. Only the Koinonia Communion of all the existing and future individual and local churches that would manifest the mystery of the church of Jesus Christ in its fullness. I belong to the Malankara Catholic Church. By fully belonging to it, at the same time I belong fully to the church of Jesus Christ.

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