QUESTION: The Church is seen as an institution but the real call of the Church is to be the sacrament of Christ. Why does it fail? – Fr Thomas John

ANSWER: Jacob Parappally MSFS

The institutional visibility of the Church is its burden and its grace. It is a burden and even a curse when it is seen by those who do not belong to it or the so called outsiders of the Church as a threatening institution. Both as a well-structured organization and with the huge infra-structure facilities it appears to the outsiders as a power that seems to threaten their multiple identities. Sometimes the arrogant and triumphalist behaviour of some who run the various institutions of the Church whether schools, colleges, health-care facilities, social work organizations, is an anti-witness to Christ and his Church.
Church’s institutional visibility is also its grace. The institutions of the Church are the means to manifest the compassionate face of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Without its institutions the Church would not have been able render self-emptying service to millions of needy people who were looking for support and assistance in their struggles to live a dignified human life. Thousands of religious, priests and lay people render service to their fellow-human beings through various institutions established through the efforts of the Church.
The tension between the institutional dimension of the Church and its charismatic or spiritual dimension was always there in the history of the Church. The liberating mission of the Church to proclaim the life-transforming revelation of Jesus Christ was sometimes perverted by certain persons for their private interests and thus harmed the cause of the Church its God-given mission.

Tension between Authority and Power
The failure of the Church to be an effective sacrament of Christ has its root cause in substituting authority with power to dominate and control. The term ecclesiastical authority refers to a divinely called person to the leadership roles in the Church by being a servant of the People of God or the one entrusted with the ministry of serving the community of the believers to fulfil their mission. It is an unambiguous expression of actualizing the servant-leadership of Jesus Christ, who is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Though the entire community of the people of God is the Church, the Body of Christ, the visibility of the Church, both for the insiders and for the outsiders, is seen in the life and leadership style of those in the hierarchy. When those in hierarchy have a false notion of their leadership as the exercise of power like that of the secular leadership in the society and not as an animation of the community all evils connected with the exercise of power affect the credibility of the Church as the sacrament of Christ. The danger of falling into the ways of the world in the exercise of power by his disciples was already foreseen by Jesus during his earthly life and he warned them that they should not lord it over the people like the Gentiles. He told them “It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28).
In the Church there is no hierarchy of power but only a hierarchy of self-emptying service. The failure of the Church to be a credible witness of Christ and his Kingdom is because of its failure to distinguish between power and authority. Either those who hold offices in the Church know the difference between the two and choose to exercise power instead of authority because it satisfies their “will to power” and boosts their false ego or they falsely identify authority with power and justify themselves thinking that dominating and controlling people is the way to exercise their leadership.
Often the terms power and authority are used interchangeably as if they mean the same. Even in the Scripture translations they are used in this manner. The Greek word for authority is exousia which literally means from essence . The essence of a person is his or her core-identity. When one does something or say something that flows from his or her core-identity or from the essence of the person then it is authentic. Such persons speak with authority and work with authority. The essence of a disciple of Christ is being Christ in one’s own way or having Jesus as the beginning and end of one’s life or the Alpha and the Omega of one’s life. Such a person is a person of authority and such person’s authority flows not only from his or her essence but also from his or her intimacy with Jesus. Unlike the Pharisees and the scribes Jesus spoke with authority because of his intimacy with his Father whom he called Abba. The authority of every Christian disciple has its source in one’s intimacy with Jesus. The authority of those who lead or the hierarchy can have its source in their personal union with Jesus. Only such authentic authority can give a credible witness to Christ.
The source of power is hereditary, election or appointment. It’s source is external. Its purpose is to dominate, control and to enslave. The exercise of power may benefit a few who are close to the powers that be and some others may have some fringe benefits. But above all it benefits those who wield power. It boosts their false ego which gets bloated up when one realizes that one’s commands are obeyed and everything gets done when an order is given. Implicit in any of its exercise, power is a threat to those who are under that power that they would have to pay heavily if the will of the powers that be are not followed. Power enslaves, authority liberates. Power is self-centred but authority is other-centred. The Church can be a sacrament of Christ only when it lives and exercises that authority that comes from Christ and it fails when it exercises power to dominate and control others like the powers of this world.

Witness and Anti-Witness to Christ
Church is not an assembly of angels but a sociological organization or a community of humans united in their Christian faith. Until the Middle Ages it was also believed that the Church was the real Body of Christ and the sacrament of the real presence of Christ. Later, the Church was considered the mystical Body of Christ and the Eucharistic Body as the real presence of Christ. Since the Church is also a sociological organization besides being the mystery of communion having its source and model in the Absolute Communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, ally types of corruption abuse of power in the world can enter into the structure and administration of the Church. Though the promise of the Lord, “ I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18), in the Church the “institutional arteries” of the Church can become hardened and work as an anti-witness to Christ.
The disciples who followed Jesus and formed a community after they had experienced him the risen Lord lived as a counter-cultural community or a contrast community challenging the world around them. This community which lived the values of self-emptying love, justice, equality, fellowship, reconciliation etc. evolved into the Church which suffered persecution till the 4th century when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire. When the contrast community witnessed to the resurrection of Jesus and to the resurrection of the entire humanity to its God-given image through him, it was a true sacrament of Christ. When the worldly values and structures enter into this witnessing community, when its leaders adopt the life-style of the secular rulers, when they abandon their authority to animate their communities and believe that they have power to dominate and control those under them with threats and punishments, when corrupt means are used to secure sacred positions as the politicians do and sometimes even worse than them, the Church not only fails to be the sacrament of Christ but also become an anti-witness to Christ. Although a large majority of the members of the Church and those in the ministry of leadership lead an inspiring Christian life, the corrupt life of a minority of the members and leaders of the Church disfigure the face of Christ.

Conversion to Christ
The only way open to the Church to regain its vigour and passion to proclaim Jesus and his values that are necessary for the very survival of our planet is to return to its vocation to be a credible witness to Christ. The Church needs to realize that when any member suffers it affects the entire Church and when any member is corrupt it affects everyone in the Church. The intensity and the widespread scandalous consequences of the corrupt and sinful practices, especially of those who hold offices in the Church and its institutions, do more harm to the life and mission of the Church than the enemies of the Church. The only means to overcome such “hardening of the institutional arteries” of the Church is a collective conversion of the entire Church to Christ and conversion of every individual member of the Church.
The Church needs to shed its collective false ego that it is a mighty institution with a well-knit organizational structure with canon laws and a hierarchy with legislative, judicial and executive powers concentrated in each bishop, with well-established institutions for various ministries and enormous collective wealth and tremendous political influence in the world. Such a powerful institution as the Church seem to contradict Jesus whom it is called to witness for whom there was no decent place to be born, no place to lay his head when he went about preaching and healing, was denied a fair trial and was crucified between two criminals and was buried in a borrowed tomb. The Church needs to regain its authority by living a more Christ-centred life with self-emptying attitude and prophetic courage challenging those systems and structures that divide, oppress and enslave people and destroy nature. The Church becomes true sacrament of Christ only when the face of Christ is seen especially in the life of its leaders. Institutions hide more than they reveal. Church as an institution often hides Christ and reveals mostly a distorted image of Christ. When the Christian community lives as true disciples of Christ, the image of the Risen Christ will be made manifest through them!