What do you think of when you hear the word "Church"?

You might have thought of a building or the pope and the bishops. Perhaps you thought of your group or the Mass.

The word Church has many different meanings. For Catholics, however, Church is more than a building, or a group of people, or a liturgy.

The truth is expressed at the beginning of Mass: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” It is here that our unity as Christians lies. For the Church is people: People united, not by something, not a building, or a hierarchy, or a group but by someone.

The Second Vatican Council points out that the Church shines forth as “a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #4). The Church is the community of all those who have been drawn into the life of God. The Church is the continuing presence of Christ leading people to the vision of God. The Church is a people with one “soul”–the Holy Spirit dwelling in their hearts.

The final sentence in the Nicene Creed is: “I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, Amen.”

By this confession, we are saying that in baptism, our sinful self, dies and we start to live a new life of union with Jesus. For those baptized as infants, baptism removed the power sin had over us and gave us the strength to overcome sin by the grace of Jesus. Adults who are baptized (like the candidates for baptism at this Easter Vigil) have their personal sins wiped away as well.

Another article of faith we Catholics profess in the Nicene Creed is: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic church.”

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the love eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is the reason we are alive, the cause of all that is good in the world. To locate the Holy Spirit, we need only look for that which is good, true, beautiful, and honorable in creation, in ourselves, and in others.

Another article of faith that we Catholics profess as expressed in the words of the Nicene Creed is that Jesus “rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”

During the profession of faith, we declare that Jesus came down from heaven “And by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.”This belief of ours is rooted in the scripture. It came from the annunciation when Angel Gabriel told Mary that she would have a son (See Luke 1:3038). We believe that Jesus is truly human because he has a real human nature formed in the womb of his mother Mary, including a human body and human soul. We believe he is truly God because he has also a divine nature. Jesus has no earthly father but was miraculously conceived by God’s power. This is what we profess when we call Mary the Mother of God.

At every Sunday Mass, we publicly profess our faith as expressed in the words of the Nicene Creed. We declare “I believe in One God, the Father Almighty…” The most essential knowledge is acquired not through science or senses but only by faith. For example, we cannot prove we are loved. Yet the mere instant required to say, “I believe I am loved” will radically change our lives. So, it is with faith in God. We cannot put God under a microscope. As with love, the heart is our proof. There is a deep hunger within each of us, a space that only God can fill.

This Sunday, Jesus continues his challenging Sermon on the Mount. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back." Words like these are challenging! Many of us have grown up in a culture of independence and retaliation against those who harm us. Today's Gospel reminds us that the way of the world is not necessarily the way of the disciple.

What an audience Jesus has in today's Gospel! "A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem and thecoastal region of Tyre and Sidon." Disciples, pagans, and devout Jews gathered together to hear Jesus speak in the Sermon on the Mount. All of these peoplehad something in common. God was someone to be bargained with, and if God liked you, you were rewarded with good fortune.

The Mass in its current form has taken shape over the course of 2,000 years. Over time, traditions, structures, and prayers have been put into place.There are certain rubrics for the Mass that are normative wherever you go. This means you could attend Mass in Malawi or Thailand or Italy and stillwatch the same basic liturgy unfold, even if you don't understand the language. There may be some cultural differences from place to place, things that aren't specifically listed. For example, in the United States, most people go up for Communion in a nice neat line. In Europe, everyone gets up around the same time. It's a bit of a free for all!

In the mind of many people, life issues are the defining social, political and theological issues of the twenty-first century. Hunger, homelessness, health care, gay rights, economic justice, abortion, and euthanasia are debated and discussed from all angles and perspectives.

Do you have enough? Many of us come from a nation of material abundance. We have all the things we could possibly need not only to survive but to thrive - food, shelter, mental ability, income, access to medical care. Most people in human history lived with far less than we. So why are we so dissatisfied? Some Christians can be drawn to the "prosperity Gospel." This is the idea that following God will bring us material abundance in this life.

Today's Gospel is one of tension and contradiction. We enter the scene at the local synagogue. It is near the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry, and he has returned home to Nazareth for a short while. There, in the midst of the men who watched him grow up and who played with him as a boy in the dusty streets, Jesus proclaims that he is the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah. The response is understandably mixed. "All spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, 'Isn't this the son of Joseph?'"

Start on a personal level! How did you and your neighbor become friends? How did you begin to discuss such a personal topic as faith? Communication, spending time together and getting to know each other are essential to forming the bonds of a relationship.