Does “Where two or three gather” make the Church?
What is the Church?
Before I address what the Church is, I really love what the Catechism of the Catholic Church begins with. In the opening paragraph, we are told of God’s mercy and love to save us all to be unified in His family, the Church!
“God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. - CCC 1”
Growing up in the South and having many evangelical friends, I’ve heard them quote the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 18:20) to describe the church as 2 to 3 gathered in Jesus’s name and that it’s not necessary to go to a building to worship God. I was an evangelical once myself, so I understand this logic, but as I have studied the Early Church and come back to Catholicism, I’ve learned to realize this is an incorrect belief of what the Church is. In this article, I will briefly attempt to give an explanation of what the Church is.
I’ll save the topic of what Worship is for another article, but for now, I want to address what the Church is and the role of the Church. The Church was founded by Jesus Christ on the Rock that is Peter (Matt 16:13-19). Jesus speaks of the Church here in Matthew when He tells Simon that you are Peter (Rock), and on this rock, He will build His Church.
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” - Matthew 16:18-19
We can see from this passage that the Church is a hierarchical structure if Jesus chose Peter to be the leader (Pope) of His Church and gave Peter the authority to make binding decisions on the people of God (Church). Essentially, the Church is the People of God according to “Lumen Gentium,” but under the authority of the Apostles and their successors, with Peter and his successors having Primacy as the Pope. I’ve wrote a previous article called “The Case for Peter as the First Pope” for more info on that topic.
The Church is described by St. Paul as the Bulwark and Pillar of Truth in 1st Timothy (1st Tim 3:15). This verse shows the Church is the foundation of Truth, and it must proclaim and defend the truth. The Bible never says Scripture alone or your group of friends are the pillar of Truth, but that the Church of the Living God is. The Church that has Apostolic Succession and the Hierarchal order of Bishops, Priest and Deacons according to the Bible (See 1st Timothy). If your church or ecclesial community does not have these offices then it’s not Biblical or Traditional unfortunately. We even see that Bishops are to care for the Church. “for if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for God’s Church? - 1 Timothy 3:5”
Throughout almost 2000 years of Christian history, it was the Church that, through the Holy Spirit, gave us the canon of Scripture and how to interpret it, that defended and defined the Trinity, and declared the necessary doctrines to follow as Christians. When moral questions arise, it is the Church that is looked to provide a statement of Truth for all Christians to follow, as the Church is the Bulwark and Pillar of Truth.
The Nicene Creed states that all Christians have accepted since 325 A.D. that as baptized Christians we “believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” This statement sounds more than people gathering with no structure. One of the reasons I came back to Catholicism was because I wholeheartedly came to believe the Catholic Church to have these four marks more than just the Catholic part, but the One, Holy, and Apostolic. In Acts 2, we are told to follow the Apostles' teachings. “And they held steadfastly to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers." - Acts 2:42
Ask yourself if you are in this Church. Do you see the four marks needed for the Church that’s described here? The early Christians were martyred for these beliefs; that is how essential it is that they would be willing to give their lives for this belief. As Christians, if able to go back in time to the beginning of the Church, would we be in line with their beliefs? This is a question all of us should ask ourselves. It would do us a great disservice to dismiss 2,000 years' worth of knowledge from people who were so close to the original source and spoke the original biblical languages. We study history in everything else; then why not in the most important thing in our lives… our faith?
In conclusion, the statement that the Church is where 2 to 3 are gathered is not what the Bible nor tradition says the Church is. The Church is a Mystery or a Sacrament given to us by Christ to nourish us and dispense His Grace through His sacraments to reconcile the World to the Father! The Church is more than just a building as well, but it is the Ark that saves us from drowning in the waters of Sin. There is so much that could be said about the Church, and I hope to address this topic more in the future. Below I will give a few Early Church Father quotes about the Church.
“Again we write, again keeping to the apostolic traditions, we remind each other when we come together for prayer; and keeping the feast in common, with one mouth we truly give thanks to the Lord. Thus giving thanks unto him, and being followers of the saints, "we shall make our praise in the Lord all the day," as the Psalmist says. So, when we rightly keep the feast, we shall be counted worthy of the joy that is in heaven [Festal Letters 2:7 (A.D.330)]. But you are blessed, who by faith are in the Church, dwell upon the foundations of the faith, and have full satisfaction, even the highest degree of faith that remains among you unshaken. For it has come down to you from apostolic Tradition, and frequently accursed envy has wished to unsettle it, but has not been able ibid., 29].” - St. Athanasius of Alexandria
“Just as Peter’s faith in Christ endures, so does Christ’s foundation upon Peter.” - St. Leo the Great, pope (400-461 A.D.)”
“The Church is called Catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which ought to be brought to men’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with the realities of heaven or the things of earth.” - St. Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop (315-387 A.D.)”
“I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.” - St. Augustine
Further study resources:
“The Church We Believe In: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.” By Francis A. Sullivan S.J
“The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church.” By Jimmy Akin
