Friday, July 27, 2007

Church in the Now

When I was in the seminary a friend of mine joked about Protestant congregations in general as the Church of the Here and Now. He was makeing a joke about the often elastic beliefs of many Protestant groups.
I was just remembering today that when I was in Georgia I saw a sign for a church called the "Church in the Now" and it made me chuckle. I don't know what separates them from other Protestant groups, but I would guess protest to someone's doctrine or that they are non-denominational (which is also a protest and ironically another denomination).
A wise man builds his house on a rock (Petros)...
The Catholic Church is the only church that is all the things that every Christian professes, in the Nicean Creed, that Christ's Church should be. It is ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC. I'm not saying that we're the only holy church out there, but we are in a very limited group of apostolic churches and we alone can lay claim to oneness. The word catholic (with a little "c") means universal and sadly not all churches meet even that criteria.
Just as Rome is the Eternal City, the Catholic Church is the Eternal Church. The doctrines of Holy Mother Church, just like her Holy Spouse Jesus, are the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is no need or even desire to be in the here and now.