Church; People, Buildings or what?

We hear the word church all so often, it rolls off the tongue with little thought to the true meaning, especially within the ‘church’ setting’. I have always had it in mind that church with a capital ‘C’ is the people, the worshiping community, those that follow Christ and share the Gospel.

Church with a small ‘c’ is the building, the place the Church (the people) come to meet to share in prayer and praise. In the Acts of the Apostles and also in many of the letters in the New Testament we read about people meeting in each other’s homes. Well it is likely that those who were Roman would have had much more space than most have in our humble homes to accommodate large numbers, if large numbers did actually come together. But over the centuries as the Christian faith grew and the need for larger spaces became inevitable, church buildings were erected, like the synagogues of the Jewish people, for people to meet and worship together.

Now as time passed some of these structures have become extremely elaborate and adorned in great wealth; not quite the Christian message, and certainly not the humble path the wondering Jewish teacher named Jesus had in mind I am sure, particularly in a world where so many are starving to death. Of course today we have inherited these buildings and in many cases have to try and maintain them with little finance coming in.

So we have to ask, what is the priority the building or the people? The church; or the Church? Do these often ancient and beautiful buildings serve the purpose for which they were once built? Or are they now relics of an age when the rich were truly masters of the poor and demonstrated their wealth in these great monuments that they hoped would become their lasting marks upon the world. Is it time that we followed in the steps of St Francis of Assisi and turned away from worldly wealth and turned to heavenly wealth? Maybe Pope Francis himself has seen this mismatch in the failure of the church as a worldwide body to serve and look after the poor, because it has become so heavily laden by the weight of the worldly good it possesses.

As a Priest my Church is the next person I meet in sisterly and brotherly love and friendship, it is the person who I will kneel by because they need my prayers; it is the person homeless and just needs me to buy them a warm drink and a sandwich.