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In his book, "Models of the Church", Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ, described different ways of looking at the church and its role in the world. According to Cardinal Dulles, we can see the church as:
An Institution. This model looks at the church in terms of its structure, its canon law, and its hierarchy. The emphasis is on the church as a separate society that exists to sanctify its members through its own culture, its own laws, and its own leadership.
A Mystical Communion. This model emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s role of binding us to God and to each other in love. We are a people transformed through the Sacrament of Baptism and called to help one another deepen our relationship with the Lord.
A Sacrament. This model focuses on the way the church both reveals Jesus to the world and makes his presence and love a reality in the world. Both as an institution and as a mystical communion, the church becomes a powerful, visible, active symbol of God’s invisible grace.
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“For now we see in a mirror, dimly…now I know only in part.”
What I experience and what I hope for in my Church are two different entities- one the reality and the other a Catholic Christian’s dream.
What is see is an Institution- all too human with arms frailing struggling to survive.
What I hope for is divine intervention to bring about the dream of a Church that embodies all the other characteristics- imitating my Savior, Redeemer, and Sanctifier- Jesus Christ.