This last weekend’s readings allow us to reflect on what the Church is. Especially in this month of June, a whole month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of our Lord, I like to say that He is the King of hearts. This was something the Temple priests and the scribes of His day – the religious leaders of the people – could not manage: they could command people from the judgement seat of Moses, and the Jews would obey them religiously, but they could not command the love of the people, nor could they be necessarily loved by them. It was something the Roman authority of His day could not manage either: the procurator Pontius Pilate could command a tax collection and a respect for the emperor in distant Rome, but he had to be protected by the army and supported by the corrupt local kings of the Herod dynasty. And the priests hated Christ for His popularity and contrived the fatal accusations against him for envy. And then the Roman procurator asked Him if He was a king. ‘My kingdom is not as a kingdom of this world,’ He replied, ‘or I would have an army around me to protect me, as you Pontius do.’
No – His kingdom is at least in part living in this world, but not of this world, for He rules the hearts of the men and women whom He calls His children, and they love Him as few human rulers could claim their subjects love them. In our first reading this weekend, the prophet Ezekiel (six hundred years before Christ) uses parables to describe this kingdom of love – the Church – that He sees in vision, in the distant future.
“And here is a message from the Lord God: ‘Pith of the tall cedar I will take and set it firm, young branch from its crest of branches I will snap off, and plant it on a mountain that stands high above the rest. High in the hill-country of Israel I will plant it, and there it shall grow into a great cedar-tree; no bird on the wing but shall find rest under its shade, nestle among its branches; till all the forest learns its lesson, that I, the Lord, bring high tree low, raise low tree high, wither the burgeoning trunk, give life to the barren. What the Lord promises, the Lord fulfils.'”
Prophecy of Ezekiel, 17: 22-24 [link]
The Church is not a human-created society; as the prophet says, she was taken from atop a cedar. This could refer to the Aramaic tribe that Abraham came from, but it could be from everywhere, any tree, for the point is that God sovereignly chooses any tribe He likes. But however it may be, the branch is planted upon the high mountain of Israel – and so is Jewish in its foundation – and becomes a shelter not just for Jewish birds, but for birds from every tribe of mankind. Although her foundations are Jewish, the men and women who crowd around the throne of Christ are of every kind. And, the Holy One adds, every community of men and women will know that it is He who builds some trees and ruins others, chooses some communities for life and others for death, as He pleases. Shall we grumble if He chooses first the Hebrew nation for His own, in order through the Jewish Church He may later permit people every tribe to shelter under her branches?
Now let’s have a look at the other parables, our Lord’s own from the gospel reading. We claim to know the science of vegetable growth in our days – we know how plants grow, we have time-lapse videos to demonstrate how a plant emerges from a seed. But there is still a mystery there, for why should any one seed grow this way rather than that? Why should a plant emerge from a seed at all? Just as 2000 years ago, we still only know by human science that if we establish the right conditions, a seed will produce a shoot, then a ear, and then the full grain, which we need for our sustenance. Why this should be is beside the point, and the farmer simply gets to work at the harvest to bring produce.
“And He said to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like this; it is as if a man should sow a crop in his land, and then go to sleep and wake again, night after night, day after day, while the crop sprouts and grows, without any knowledge of his. So, of its own accord, the ground yields increase, first the blade, then the ear, then the perfect grain in the ear; and when the fruit appears, then it is time for him to put in the sickle, because now the harvest is ripe.'”
Gospel of S. Mark, 4: 26-29 [link]
And, similarly, the Church is an absolute mystery, not something to be understood certainly by professors of the social studies who see her as a mere human community, nor even by the most erudite theologian, for our theologians themselves would admit that they can learn only so much about the deepest mysteries. And the life that flows through the Church is not of this world, and her sacramental system (and especially Holy Communion), while either glorified by Catholics or mocked by others, simply works. So, for generations, the priests have thrown seed, and have lost no time when the crop is ready at harvest. How it works is not as significant as the beautiful souls that arrive as a result. The second parable of our Lord speaks of how a large mustard tree comes from a tiny seed.
“And He said, ‘What likeness can we find for the kingdom of God? To what image are we to compare it? To a grain of mustard seed; when this is sown in the earth, no seed on earth is so little; but, once sown, it shoots up and grows taller than any garden herb, putting out great branches, so that all the birds can come and settle under its shade.”
Gospel of S. Mark, 4: 30-32 [link]
Similarly, a whispered story of Christ, or a hastily narrated anecdote from the Life of a Saint, can act as a mustard seed, and before you know it there is a local Catholic community, with a parish hall and perhaps a school. Again, as with Ezekiel’s parable, every kind of bird arrives for shelter. And so, let’s see what S. Paul has to tell us in our second reading today, and relate it to this image of the Church, this community of love. Remember that the Jewish word ‘heart’ refers less to a biological pumping mechanism as to who we are, each one of us, and that the King of hearts calls all truly free hearts irresistibly to Himself. What I mean by ‘truly free hearts’ is hearts that are utterly detached from the things of this world. This detachment Paul calls being ‘at home with the Lord,’ and the attachment to the things of this world he calls ‘at home in the body.’ Paul calls our existence in this world an exile, because it is distant from our true home, which is nearness to the Sacred Heart – what we call ‘heaven.’ But here in exile, or there at home and in glory, the Apostle says that we are intent upon pleasing Him Whom our hearts love, to Whom be glory and praise forever.
“We take heart, then, continually, since we recognise that our spirits are exiled from the Lord’s presence so long as they are at home in the body, with faith, instead of a clear view, to guide our steps. We take heart, I say, and have a mind rather to be exiled from the body, and at home with the Lord; to that end, at home or in exile, our ambition is to win his favour.”
Second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 5: [link]
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