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This will be my last post for a few weeks as I am on holiday from Monday



The twenty first Sunday of the Year
I remember when I was going to Rome in May one of the things that struck me more than anything is the magnificence of the Vatican especially the Church of St Peter. I was struck by its beauty and grandeur. As I wondered around the Church I began to get the idea that I belonged to a Church that was way bigger than the Church we have here in Bognor. We profess in the creed that we belong to the “One Holy Catholic Church”:  A Church that is not a democracy, and has Benedict at his head as the Chief shepherd of the Church here on earth.  It is a church that has stead the test of time and has gone through many different changes and has tried to answer the question “Who do people say the son of Man is?”   And because the Church is made up of broken individuals it has got it wrong sometimes both in it treatment of people and groups. The abuse of power has been something that both those individuals and the Church have to deal with.

And, then what happens is that people either leave the Church and get angry without really looking at the wider picture. The classic statement is “I used to come to Church but I got angry with. . .” and then go into some sort of hurrah about what they feel is exactly wrong with the Church.
And this is not just with the wider Church but also with the local Church. I think that we are all guilty as charged. I myself find saying exactly this “The thing 
that’s wrong with the Church is …”

But, this is a wrong attitude because the Church is us. We are the Church just as much as those who make the decisions in Rome. And together with the Church we are asking ourselves the question that Jesus asked his disciples almost two thousand years ago. “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
In one sense it is an impossible question to answer because we are always answering that question all the time for ourselves. Every day we need to ask this question who is Jesus for us? How does he affect my decision making?  How does my relationship with Jesus affect me as I journey thorough life?

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