An accusation frequently levelled at the Roman Catholic Church prior to Vatican II denounced the Church as "triumphalist". This trait is defined as the belief or attitude that a practice, creed, belief, or way of life is superior to and victorious over all others. If one is truthful, other Christian bodies have taken a triumphalist shine to themselves (many humourous memes and diagrams have been composed illustrating this point).
From a surface glance, such an attitude is understandable; after all, the Church is the Body of Christ, the same Christ who fulfilled all the Scriptures, the same Christ who is victor over Sin and Death. Since we are His Body, we share His triumph.
The problem is that is hubris, plain and simple. Christians, we are supposed to eschew hubris.
St. Paul today in the Epistle reading for Mass (1 Cor 12.12-31a) spends a lot of ink telling the Corinthian Church to get over themselves. Not only does he point out that they have many functions within their own body, they themselves are part of a larger body of believers, and they all possess differing gifts, and that even the lowliest are critical for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. So individual elevation is out of the question...but then so is our elevation as a group. Why? Because it is not us who are the summit of creation, the pinnacle of the story of salvation, the redemption of all that is broken.
That distinction belongs to Our Lord Jesus Christ, and to Him only.
In the Gospel reading today (Lk. 4.14-21) Our Lord has gone home to Nazareth, where He grew to adulthood. There he opened the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah to where we would recognize chapter 61, read from it, then said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Lk. 4.21) No, it was not fulfilled in the Law and the Assembly of the House of Israel. No, it was not fulfilled in the Church. It was fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, the Anointed of God. We just spread the message. Any triumph, any victory, any superiority is His and His alone. He does not need our help to glorify Him, His Message, the Father, any of that. He is more than capable of that Himself. No, it is our place to broadcast His message. Not for our own ends. Not to gather a huge socio-political movement. But to proclaim His message:
"...He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour." (Lk. 4.18-19)
Forget about any superiority of the group or the message, let's just proclaim it and let it take care of its own merits. They are self evident.
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