Behold the Church

"Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold, your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his home."     -John 19:25-27

Often when people think of the beginning of our Church, they look to Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came to Jesus' followers and emboldened them to go forth from the room they cowered in and preach to all the nations. The small nucleus of faithful that had followed Jesus received the inspiration to do something with the good news that filled them with joy. They shared it with the people, and many were constantly added to their number.

I have no problem with this wondrous event marking the beginning of our Church, but what if we look earlier? Let's consider a perspective of the history of our God and His action in our world.

The span of our salvation history is often considered in three "eras":

(1) the Law and the Prophets - the time of the Jews as God's Chosen People and revelation chiefly through prophets

(2) the life and ministry of Jesus - the time when God became man and was with us in human form, walking and living among us

(3) the Church - the time when we pray and worship and live together as a community founded on Christ and looking forward to the time of fullness when our Lord will perfect our work on building the Kingdom in His eternal glory and our life with Him

This is a nice way to think of the evolution and progression of how God has intervened in human history, active in our lives and our world. The thing that separates the time of the Church from the time of Jesus' life is not that Jesus is no longer with us; it's that Jesus is with us through the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit within us and guiding our Church rather than physically walking among us as in His human life.

So, what if we look to the foot of Jesus' cross for the beginning of our Church? There is a potential pitfall as well as an inspiration in going to this moment. The hang-up is that is comes within the life of Jesus, the era preceding the Church, so it blurs the line a bit. But maybe that's just right.

The last thing Jesus did in His life, during those last hours when He was tortured and beaten then affixed to a cross, was commend His mother and His best friend to one another. He made sure to express His love for two of the dearest people to Him by matching them to each other, by telling them to continue sharing the love they had come to know in Christ with one another. It is in this beautiful reality that we can see the beginning of our Church.

Christ left us with the Eucharist, with His Passion and Resurrection, and Peter (the first pope) and the apostles (first bishops) to give us the foundation for His Church, for the way that His love would be known and shared through communities of prayer and worship where people could know the love of Christ through communion with Him and with one another. Where did/does this love come from? Jesus Christ - from His life, ministry, Passion, death, and Resurrection.

He gave us the perfect example. And in His last interpersonal action, before He died on the cross to offer salvation to all people, He looked to His most dearly beloved and told them to share their love with one another. And John took her into His home. And there and then, that might have been when our Church was born.

So as we gather as the communities of Christ, together within His Body as one community, let us remember that crucial moment of love shared, when the love of Christ came from Jesus Himself but was first shared between two believers whose love would be the foundation for the Love that pervades our Church.