People of God:
Four Models of Church

Introduction

In one story about St. Joan of Arc's first trial, there is a courtroom scene in which she stands before a judge who asks, "What is the Catholic Church, anyway?" Joan of Arc responds, "My lord, it is really quite simple. The Church is Christ and Christ is the Church." This story portrays quite well our basic theological understanding of the Catholic Church. [1] It is an explanation that lends itself to various symbols and models in Scripture and Tradition.

The Church is often referred to as "The Body of Christ," "The Mystical Body," "The Bride of Christ," and so on. The Bible itself contains ninety-five images and symbols that refer to the entity that we call Church. [2] The Catholic Church might appear to be a worldwide set of spires, worship sites, places of pilgrimage. A fuller understanding of Church, however, offers much more. Take, for instance, God's desire for fashioning a living people.

God commissioned Abram to "fashion me a people" (see Genesis 12:2; 15:5; Deuteronomy 7:6). In the New Testament, the concept "people of God" appears in many places, for example the First Letter of Peter: "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people" (1 Peter 2:10, quoting Hosea 1:9).

Our image as God's people is both awesome and confusing. It has ramifications and it poses questions. The following questions are facets of the Church that we can explore:

• Does being Church imply that we are Godlike—possibly a sacrament?
  
• Does the privilege of being Church include personal responsibility, even
  to the extent of heralding the Good News?
  
• Are we obligated to become servants, even in the likeness of Jesus?
  
• What bearing does our notion of Church have on our understanding of community?
  

We are the Church! Yet, we constantly need to develop a deeper appreciation and understanding of who we are as the Church. Viewed in this way, we are always becoming the Church. Our growth as the people of God is similar to our growth in our families—life-giving, sometimes life-altering, but never quite finished!