By: Unknown Centurion
The modern Church has abandoned her missionary mission. She almost completely disregards or disobeys the final command and commission of Christ to go forth to all the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:19,20). The Church was to be, and for a long time was, an incredible, effective vehicle established by Jesus to renew the face of the earth, which was in need of renewal since the Fall. Before the Fall, when God created Adam and Eve, He similarly commanded and commissioned our first parents to “fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). In our fallen condition, when man began to cover the earth, we remained under the dominion of the prince of the world. Jesus died for the Church (Ephesians 5:25), so that His Kingdom conceived on Calvary, could overcome the kingdom of the world and its Prince. To do so, His followers had to accept their commission to go forth to make disciples, to baptize, to teach, and to convert the world for Christ, restoring right order to creation and communion with our Creator. Yet rather than taking the fight to the gates of hell, the Church today has retreated into the specious safety of their gated community, an increasingly insignificant island in the ever-expanding ocean of secularism.
The Hebraic faith from which our faith flows did not have such a great commission. In fact, there were certain safeguards put in place, including circumcision and prohibitions against intermarriage, to protect it from paganism, which made it difficult to gain gentile converts. God’s plan was to bring salvation to the world through a descendant of Abraham, the Messiah, through whom the whole world would be blessed (Genesis 22:18). And this is exactly as it unfolded, though it did require dual divine revelations to the first Pope and a Roman centurion (see Acts 10) to ensure the expansionist spirit of this new faith, rather than remaining an isolated, insular Judaism 2.0. And this divine-human institution did exactly what she was commissioned to do, bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth, making mistakes as an organization led by and filled with sinful people inevitably do.
In modern and post-modern times, she has grown rich, comfortable, and puffed up with pride, at the same time she has hemorrhaged millions of souls, essentially abandoned her primary mission, and all but lost her moral authority. She has greatly decreased at the time the powers of darkness have exponentially increased, due in part to hundreds of self-inflicted wounds, with her opening the windows to the world at a time when the evil spirit of the age, an antichristian spirit of chaos, immorality, and revolution were spreading across the western world, being chief among them. Add to this the fact that the ark of salvation is no longer led by a majority of masculine, militant, missionaries, but by mostly mediocre, milquetoast, middle-managers, pusillanimous, pampered princes, hidden, homosexual hypocrites, and outright evil enemies of God. If not for the promise of Jesus that the gates of hell will not prevail against her, would the Church on their watch cease to exist?
Gated communities are not bad; they just have elected to erect a clear wall of separation between those within and those outside of its gates. Regardless of the intent, gated communities greatly limit the number, frequency, and depth of encounters with those in the ungated world. We see such a mindset by some bishops and priests who maintain a clear impenetrable distinction, an uncrossable chasm if you will, between the elite clerical class within, and the great unwashed without. Perhaps nothing was as emblematic of this gated community mindset as the lock-step decision to lock our churches in response to a virus, without being creative and without challenging the unconstitutional edicts which allowed casinos, liquor stores, drug dispensaries, and abortion clinics to remain open. Compare this safety above all approach to the missionary church of nearly two millennia which continued to celebrate Masses and serve the poor and sick during far deadlier plagues and pandemics, led by courageous, selfless priests and nuns like St. Roch, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Damien of Molokai, and St. Marianne Cope. In these last few years when the Church should have been a fully functioning, forward field hospital, she opted to act as an exclusive nursing home, where none could enter, and maintains a hopeless, hospice mentality, that the once youthful, resplendent Church will never recover. Some of the same shepherds who barred the gates to the fold seem all too content to let the 80 out of a hundred who are lost and wounded remain outside its gates, completely contrary to the command of the Good Shepherd to go out from the gates to gather even the one.
Remember, Jesus’ promise in Matthew 16 seemed to project an outward-focused Church pressing in on the gates of hell, not the navel-gazing NGO she has become, where the gates of hell are ever advancing, and in the process reclaiming huge swaths of land and souls for Satan. How far would the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church have spread with the current, cowardly, gated community approach of today – a Church whose primary purpose is no longer to convert, or reconvert the world, but to merely perpetuate its existence and preserve its shrinking wealth, property, and market share? A worldly, untransparent, bureaucracy too bloated to go on a mission, and too complacent to do what needs to be done is no threat to or match for her many enemies. A Church in retreat, which refuses to oppose evil, but gladly tolerates it or faintheartedly flees from it, with her shepherds sheepishly hiding behind her protective gates, has lost its way. An institution which has become a self-imposed prison of ineptitude, impotence, and irrelevance is unattractive to almost everyone. Unless and until the Church regains her apostolic footing and reclaims her indomitable expansionist spirit, with the courage, zeal, perseverance, and selfless, sacrificial swagger of the Early Church, we can expect a smaller, more divided, inconsequential institution surrounded on all sides by the spirit of the world, its Prince, his visible and invisible allies and innumerable ignorant, apathetic bystanders.
But regardless of what we might expect, or project based upon the current conditions on the ground, God is in charge of His Church. He can, and seems to be, waking up and raising up many men and women who have not bent the knee to the Baals of the times. The more the Enemy overplays his hand, and drives the culture in a decidedly diabolical direction, the more people will finally stand up and say to Satan, repeating his words, “Non Serviam”. The first step to prevent the fall of a civilization is for just enough men to stand firm and refuse to go over the cliff with all the lemmings indoctrinated with all of the insanity, immorality, and irrational innovations of the era. Yes, we can try to save them, but we must hold the line, and can’t go over the edge with them. But for things to get this bad, it’s not just the Church leaders who have abdicated their prime directive, we have too. The Great Commission was both a collective command for the Church to be carried out by her leaders, and an individual call for each of us to accept or reject. For God to come to our aid, as He seems to want to do, enough of us have to stand up and refuse to just sit back and accept it and pray for His assistance.
In a society of all-encompassing sin, we can expect God’s all-encompassing grace to abound and overcome (Romans 5:20). Though things are definitely dark, the Holy Spirit seems to be ushering in a new, organic, dawn for the Church, not the contrived, stillborn “springtime” stifled by the spirit of the age a few generations ago. This is beginning to seem to be a time of saints, prophets, martyrs, and mystics – holy, joyful, zealous clerical, religious, and lay men and women of faith and courage who are conformed to Christ by virtue of their worthy reception of and time spent with our Eucharistic Lord. Jesus is there every day, at Mass and in every tabernacle, awaiting those who come to Him so that, over time, He might shower them with immeasurable graces and incomprehensible power, so that through them, He might again renew the earth in great need of renewal.
Those who accept His invitation and invite Him to take control of their lives will be the great saints which the times demand, making up for what is lacking at the higher levels of a Church which has essentially lost its will to go forth and fight. The more frequently men and women reverently adore and worthily receive Him, for themselves and on behalf of and in reparation for others, the greater the efficacy, the exponential effect and supernatural ramifications of which we will not know until the particular judgment. This Church at the crossroads will likely be a tale of two churches – one unfaithful, insular, immobile, institution content to cowardly remain within the self-perceived safety of its gated community (whose gates are actually the gates of hell which encircle it), and one faithful, dynamic, church on a mission led by bishops, priests, religious and the laity who are fully aware of the times in which we live, approaching them with a sense of urgency, yet acknowledging both our personal powerlessness and the need for divine assistance, and employing all of the Church’s supernatural weapons in order to prevail.
9 thoughts on “Jesus Established a Church Not a Gated Community”
Thanks Don.
True the Church is a sheepfold of sorts, but when 84 of the 100 sheep are outside the fold, it might be time for the shepherds and hired hands to do something new, going outward from the comfort and safety of their pen for the sake of the vast majority of sheep who remain in eternal peril.
But the Church was also given a universal mission and a great commission from Christ Himself to go to the ends of the earth making disciples. Actually, a Roman centurion played a part in this seismic shift from a navel-gazing to an outward-looking approach. By virtue of dual, related visions to a Roman centurion and a Roman Pontiff (see Acts 10), Christianity departed from the insular approach of the Hebraic faith and charted an expansionist trajectory more in line with the Roman ethos. God desired that the Christian faith make a clean break from the Hebraic faith (where it was initially seen as a Jewish sect) which by the First Century had devolved into Pharisaical Judaism and a corrupt, usurped priesthood. With the fulfillment of the Old Covenant by the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, Christianity would carry His mantle into the world with a universal mission to convert the world. Israel and its religion had a different, more insular mindset and a more myopic mission. This is likely why a centurion named Cornelius was chosen to serve as an unwitting fulcrum between the two faiths, ensuring that the path of Christianity more closely resembled the expansionist spirit of Rome than the isolationist ideology of Israel. This course made a quantum leap following another vision to another military man of Rome, named Constantine, who conquered in the sign of Christ. Following that victory and for more than a millennium, the world literally was the Church’s gated community.
The Church intended to be a “gated community”? Yes and no.
John 10 contains parables that liken the kingdom of God to a sheepfold. Christ is the Shepherd, and the sheep hear his voice. He is also the door (or gate) of the sheepfold, and only through him can one enter God’s kingdom. It is a great mistake to follow any other shepherd or try to enter heaven by any other gate.
A “Sheepfold” is a secure walled enclosure in which sheep are penned when not out to pasture in care of the shepherd. A single narrow opening was provided for entry and exit. If there was no secure door or gate, a keeper would guard the entrance or at night sleep across it.
The purpose of the sheepfold was to keep the flock together, keep out wolves or dogs, and to make it difficult for thieves or vandals to steal or harm the sheep. A flock of sheep is a very valuable but vulnerable asset. A good shepherd knows and loves his sheep and guards them with his life against all predators. He keeps his flock together and fetches back any sheep that stray. A sheepfold was necessary for the protection of the flock.
Peace to you.
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Dear Guest C, You are spot on. As for: “Yet rather than taking the fight to the gates of hell, the Church today has retreated into the specious safety of their gated community, an increasingly insignificant island in the ever-expanding ocean of secularism.” – Many demonically-inclined in the church have chosen to do a deal with the devil and to throw open the gate to the world and to the demons. Most of us- feeling helpless to directly engage those who have taken over earthly power in Jesus’s church – need to realize that the demons gnash their teeth when anyone does a voluntary, selfless act of love towards another human being – and the act and its effects cannot be nullified by any devil or any of their earthly minions – ordained and lay. Thank you. Guy, Texas
The analogy of a gated community, especially when paired with the “wall of separation” idea is telling. The “separation of church and state” is often used by modern secularists to justify ousting any semblance of religion from the public square. This idea is, of course, never mentioned in the constitutional and is a total misinterpretation of religious liberty in the US. What’s interesting though, is that originally (ie in Dante) the Church wanted some distinction from the state to gain more authentic freedom for the Church to carry out her mission. Then, post-Enlightenment, the separation of church and state idea arose in attempts to destroy the power of the Catholic Church. And now, as the author points out, it is the Church wanting separation of from the state but not to protect her freedom to live out her mission. Instead, the bishops and leaders in the Church want this separation to live comfortably, without conflict, while the rest of the world goes up in flames. This leaves the faithful at a huge disadvantage because governments then can violate the religious rights of Catholics with impunity since the Church leaders largely do not deem it worthy to stand up to the abortion or LGBT movements in the US. So Catholics have to fall back on negative constitutional protections rather than argue for robust positive freedoms or values like the sanctity of life or the good of conjugal marriage. The leaders have shown that these social/moral issues no longer matter to the Church institutions by failing to fight for the good. And so secular leaders have taken advantage of this apathy and gone on the offensive. Individual Catholics can fight these unjust laws, but it is much more difficult to prove a sincerely-held religious belief when a bishop fails to come out and boldly state the truth or, worse, states the opposite.
Tom, couldn’t agree more. We can’t just sit back and blame our bishops for the state of the Church and the world. That’s God’s job. Plus we can’t control them, so we better start getting our own houses in order and move out from there. Realizing that our faith is not dependent on them is actually freeing and may eventually unleash the latent power of the Church.
Aspertame, while no analogy is perfect, the reference to the Church as gated community is one of orientation and outreach (or lack thereof) to those who have abandoned her or feel as if they were driven out. Being secular and insular are not mutually exclusive. True she is worldly, but she at this point has not been so completely profaned that she is indistinguishable from the other non-divine organizations of the outside world. Additionally, not many of her leaders are acting as apostate apostles spreading the new age, new world gospel to the ends of the earth. She since the sixties has seemed more steered by the spirit of the age than the Holy Spirit, but her self-reverential, self-preservation approach and her lack of missionary zeal makes her the religious equivalent of a gated community, who believes the adoption of worldly wokeness just might her relevant and safe. Yes, there are enemies within and the Church has swallowed some of the secular lies of the day, but not all, and not everywhere. Yet in the Western World, where is the Church on the march, working to regather what has been lost? Those cowardly bishops who play it safe, preserving their worldly treasures, waning power, and perceived prestige, are essentially within gates, whether they were erected by the world, the devil, or they themselves.
Mikey,
Though having someone gaze at your navel is no doubt unpleasant and likely embarrassing, it’s not as embarrassing as your aunt making that raspberry sound by blowing air on your belly button, especially if you’re in college.
“it’s not just the Church leaders who have abdicated their prime directive, we have too.”
As keen observers of the Church’s dilapidated state – we are effectively on “inquiry notice” that we can no longer blindly follow Church leaders. If we choose to do so, or choose to do nothing, it is on us.
“In a society of all-encompassing sin, we can expect God’s all-encompassing grace to abound and overcome (Romans 5:20).”
I wholeheartedly agree. We are not left in this quandary weaponless. We just need to ask the Holy Spirit for the weapons and employ them as He instructs. No need to conceal carry, either. We live in open carry times.
I like the call to missionary action to bring the Church back into a place of moral authority for the world. With respect to missionary action, I think the gated community analogy follows; the Church, and those in the Church, must live out a missionary zeal that calls us to proclaim the true faith and introduce others to the love that only Christ can offer. However, in relation to some bishops that seem to be apathetic to the faith, I think the gated community analogy breaks down. Rather than build a gated community, I think some bishops have adopted any and all “virtues” (diversity, inclusion, etc.) the majority opinion has adopted to pander to the secular world. Rather than guide their flock by taking a controversial position like leaving the churches open during the pandemic, the Church at large folded and cut off the flocks from the sacraments, which surely resulted in massive amounts of spiritual deaths (the death we are instructed to truly fear). This was surely a tough decision for many bishops to make, but I believe many were primarily motivated by the desire to appear reasonable to the secular world. They are surely not bound by any gates, but simply afraid to proclaim the truth to those they are surrounded by since doing so could be personally detrimental. God surely has a plan, though, and will guide His Church through even the worst situation we could imagine.
I agree, mostly because I don’t want someone to gaze into my naval.