On a Sunday morning several years ago, I was approached by an individual who had moved to Florida recently. The individual asked, “Where’s the candle?”  I responded by asking, “Are you referring to the Altar candles?  Or maybe, the votive candles?  How about the Paschal candle?”  The recent arrival seemed overwhelmed and said, “My priest back home told me to look for the candle in church because that was proof that the church was a Catholic church.”   

The candle being referenced was the Sanctuary Lamp, but the presence of a Sancturary Lamp in a church is a poor measure of catholicity.  Some protestant churches and all the schismatic churches keep Sanctuary Lamps in their church buildings; none of them are Roman Catholic. 

I was tempted to reply to the recent arrival that if a candle was proof of catholicity, then the candle shop at the mall must be the Vatican.  Instead, I explained that a parish is Roman Catholic when it is in communion with the local Roman Catholic Bishop, a Bishop is Roman Catholic when he is in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, and all of this can be determined by reading the local diocese’s website.  Of all the characteristic aspects of Roman Catholic dioceses and parishes, this criterion alone is determinative of catholicity.  My explanation did nothing to aid the recent arrival’s understanding of the Catholic Church. 

There have always been those who struggle to understand what it means to be Catholic.  If one pays attention to print or broadcast news, for example, one is confronted with a choice of numerous criteria for measuring catholicity. 

Some news reports define the Roman Catholic Church as adhering to a static ethics derived from European feudalism; others define the Church as aspiring to a constantly evolving liberal and liberating ethics.  It is very common in the United States to associate the Roman Catholic Church with conservative American politics but in other countries, it is equally common to associate the Church with progressive politics.  As the Catholic Church has always embraced diverse beliefs and practices, the caricatures of Roman Catholicism one sees in the news are very close to measuring catholicity on the basis of the presence or absence of a candle.  Fortunately, today’s Scripture readings provide faithful and reliable guidance on this topic. 

In the first reading, Isaiah tells a parable that likens the People of Israel to a vineyard planted and tended by God.  Sadly, the vineyard failed to produce fruit, that is to say, the People failed to remain faithful to God.  Because of the People’s faithless ways, they had become like barren, worthless farmland. 

In the Gospel reading, Jesus reinterpreted Isaiah’s parable to refer to the religious leadership of his time.  The religious leaders in Jerusalem had been given every possible advantage.  They enjoyed peace and prosperity.  They were schooled in the Scriptures and the Law of the Covenant.  The Temple was intact and provided daily worship services.  The religious leadership’s response to having received these blessings from God, however, was to fall into faithlessness and teach others to do the same. 

The Scriptures say that God expects God’s People to use wisely and faithfully the blessings God bestows on them.  Today’s readings describe this task of faithful living as “bearing fruit” in the way that an agricultural crop bears fruit.  One might ask about the nature of this “fruit”?  Is it judgmental morality?  Or lenient morality?  Is it retrograde worship?  Or innovative worship? 

The parables specify the nature of the “crop” that God’s People are expected to produce for God.  In the two parables, the landowner planted grape vines with the intention of harvesting grapes to be made into wine.  In the Scriptures, wine is used often as a metaphor for life and joy; along with grain and olive oil, wine was considered to be one of the blessings granted by God to those who live faithfully.  The “fruit” or “crop” that God expects from God’s People is faithful membership in the community of the redeemed.  God’s People are to be one People serving One God. 

Roman Catholicism has always held that the single characteristic of the Church that cannot be abandoned or replaced is unity among its members.  Ecclesial unity, then, has always been and will always remain the single, indispensable element of membership in the Catholic Church as well as the single criterion for proving catholicity. 

This explanation above is as confusing for those who struggle to understand the nature of the Roman Catholic Church as it was for the Sunday morning pilgrim in search of a candle.  What, then, should a person do who is dismayed by the presence of a restrictive ethics in the Catholic Church?  Or an indulgent ethics?  What should a person do if worship in the Catholic Church seems antiquated and hidebound?  Or if worship appears trendy and voguish?  How should someone react to a Catholic Hierarchy which turns its back on secular society?  Or seems overeager to accommodate the Gospel message to contemporary fads? 

The appropriate response is the same for all the conditions above, and more.  The appropriate response is to maintain and strengthen Church unity, and the easiest way to accomplish that goal is to follow Jesus’ command to forgive others on an habitual basis. (Mt. 18:21-35) 

Regardless of one’s theological, moral, political, or personal perspectives, one can choose at random any complaint about the Church or any problem facing the Church.  In every case, the element that will resolve the issue or problem is ecclesial unity; this is true for the simple reason that, when we live together in faith, we are barraged by one another’s idiosyncrasies and are provided, thereby, with endless opportunities to show to others the mercy God has shown to us.  A church composed entirely of like-minded individuals will never have the capacity to be Roman Catholic because it won’t allow itself to be as equanimous as God, who calls all people to membership in the community of the saved. 

As the community of those baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, it is our daily work, and the defining aspect of our identity, to bear the fruit that gives glory to God, the fruit of communion with God and one another.