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Which of the statements below best describes, in your view, the real Church?

•  Church is a place you go to for special celebrations, like when you need to pray, have a baptism or get married.

•  Church is God's house, where you go to pay God homage and reverence, like at Mass and exposition of the most Blessed Sacrament.

•  Church is wherever people who believe in Jesus Christ come together to celebrate their identity as His Body, mainly through the Holy Eucharist.

•  Church is all of the above.

•  Church is none of the above.

Actually, from the Church's own tradition and practice, all five of the above are partly correct. So, there is no completely right or wrong answer.

Certainly, a church is a place we go to for many reasons: sacraments, prayer, being with family for weddings, baptisms and funerals.

For many of us, it can be difficult to think of "Church" without somehow conjuring up memories of our favorite church: the place we went to on Sunday with our family, or may even still go to.

Immigrants who come to our country often look back to their village church as the model of what any church should be. Many of the churches in our cities reflect the architecture and style of the collective memories of distinct nationalities who wanted to capture the "feel" of their hometown churches they left behind.

It is more than just "Church" that they are remembering, but all of the memories that the homeland conjures up, where the connection between faith and family were very real.

Some of our old, traditional churches are indeed very beautiful, and it is always a great heartache when resources no longer are available to sustain them. For socio-cultural, aesthetic and historical reasons alone, it often seems such a tragedy to have to abandon them, even when the original founders are long gone.

Yet the Church is more than a beautiful place, whether old or new. It is also the Lord's special dwelling, a sacred space where due reverence to God's holiness is given. It is indeed a fitting venue to gather for worship, but it is more than just an assembly hall or a gathering arena.

Church walls embrace the strains of music and the aroma of incense, the shimmering streams of sunlight and the flicker of candlelight. Mystery and awe can reduce the beholder to reverence and calm and even a stillness that quiets mind and soul alike, but never reduces to complete silence. The presence of God invites a response of gratitude and praise.

The heart and soul of the Church is the presence of our host: the living Christ, who is always in our midst when two or three are gathered in His name. The Church exists wherever and whenever people of faith come together, whether within the confines of a church building or not.

In that sense, we might say that the Church is not so much a place that people come to as a way of being who we are. If we are truly the mystical Body of Christ -- and that is what "Church" means, in its most fundamental way of being -- then the Church is really a crystal cathedral, not a stone fortress, where the walls are transparent and our hearts go out to neighbors, since the Spirit of God cannot be locked in a chest or mummified in a museum.

Yes, the Church is all of the above -- and more. Yet, it is none of the above completely or exclusively. No description or experience of it can completely exhaust the meaning of the mystery. We are always on the way of getting there and we are always more than what we seem to be at any point in time, for Jesus is always with us, within us and around us.

Church is, therefore, not just where we go, but what and who we are. This is the real Church: Jesus as our Head, and we, joined in the Eucharist with the angels and saints in heaven, united as members of His Body -- in every age and in every place.[[In-content Ad]]

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