As we have seen, public officers are so called because they perform their duties in the name of the people. In like manner the Church has public officers who perform their duties in her name and by her authority. Now we find that nations and States and cities have buildings in which the public officials fulfill their public duties. Such buildings are, for instance, the Capitol at Washington, where the National Congress meets, the various court houses, city halls, post offices and schools. Those buildings are called public buildings because they belong to the people and are used for the benefit of the people. In like manner we find the Church has her public buildings also. Those buildings are devoted to the carrying out of her Liturgy or worship. Just as the civil public buildings are given over exclusively to public uses, so the Church buildings are given over exclusively to the service of God.
The supreme act of worship among Catholics is the Sacrifice of the Mass. In this Sacrifice our Lord offers Himself mystically to His heavenly Father. Hence the building in which this offering takes place was called the Lord's House, just as the offering itself was called the Lord's Supper. Moreover, as the Sacrifice is offered to acknowledge God to be the Lord of all, this name had a further reason in that the building was devoted to this form of the Lord's service. Now, in the Greek language, "of the Lord," or "belonging to the Lord," is "Kyriake". This word was borrowed by the German tribes, and appears as "Kirche," which is in the Scotch dialect "Kirk." In English the term has been softened to "Church," which corresponds to "Kyriake," and means the Lord's House. In Latin the expression for "belonging to the Lord" is "Dominicum." It never received the same extensive use as its Greek counterpart. It is found chiefly in Ireland, where it was brought by Saint Patrick. Names of places beginning with "Donnough" are derived from "Dominicum." Thus Donnoughpatrick means simply the Church of Saint Patrick.
Among the Greek and Latin speaking peoples the common word for church was "ecclesia," from which come our terms "ecclesiastic" and "ecclesiastical." This is the word used by our Lord Himself, and in our English Bibles it is translated "Church." It meant originally "called out" or "summoned." In the old Greek towns the government was in the hands of the citizens. As they did not use the representative system, by which a large number of citizens is represented by one man, it was necessary whenever any matter of importance was to be discussed to summon the whole body of citizens to a town meeting. This summons was delivered by a town-crier, who "called" all to the assembly. Hence the citizens were said to be "called out," and the gathering was named the "Ekklesia," for "ek" is the Greek for "out," and "klesia" comes from a verb "kaleo," which is the same as our word "call." As the Latins used the letter "c" instead of "k," the Latin form is "Ecclesia." In the New Testament the word is applied to that assembly which Christ had "called" out of the world to follow Him. We find it used in various senses. Thus in the Epistles or Letters of Saint Paul it refers sometimes to the members of the Christian religion in a certain house, sometimes to the organized body in a particular city, sometimes to the bodies of Christians in various nations.
"Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes, a brother to the Church (Ecclesia) of God that is at Corinth, to them are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and ours: Grace unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." (The Address of the First Letter to the Corinthians)
"And I commend to you Phebe, our sister, who is in the service of the Church that is in Cenchre, that you receive her in the Lord as becometh saints; and that you assist her in whatsoever business she shall have need of you, for she also hath assisted many, and even myself.
"Salute Prisca and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my sake laid down their own necks, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the Churches of the Gentiles.
"And salute the Church which is in their house." (Close of the Letter to the Romans)
By our Lord it is used for the society or organization which He came on earth to found.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven, and I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16)
It is a very common use of speech to put the name of the container for the thing contained; thus we say "the kettle boils," meaning thereby the water in the kettle. The contrary use of putting the thing contained for the container also occurs. Thus originally "school" meant "leisure"; then it meant those who had "leisure for study"; then it meant the "building" where they studied. In like manner, "college" signified a "corporation," then a "teaching corporation," then the "edifice" in which it taught. Hence we discover at a very early date that the word "ecclesia" was applied to the building in which the assembly was gathered. In the Middle Ages the term spread through the West, and is the common word for church in French, Italian, Irish, Spanish, etc. not, of course, in its Latin form, but in forms derived from the Latin. Among the Teutonic peoples, however, that is, among the Germans, English, Dutch, "Ecclesia" never took root, "Church" being preferred instead. In English, for example, we have only a few derivations therefrom, as "Ecclesiastic," "Ecclesiastical," etc.
For the purpose of government the territory of the Church is divided into dioceses. The word "diocese" originally meant "house keeping," and afterwards was used for "government" and for the territory "governed." It, therefore, corresponds sometimes to our county, sometimes to our State. Over each diocese a bishop is set, and he lives in the chief city or metropolis. In the chief church of that city is the bishop's chair, which he occupies when presiding at the Liturgy. Now "chair" has come to us through the French. It has been much worn down in its travels, for it was originally in Greek and Latin "Cathedra." We have borrowed it also directly in the form "Cathedral," which means the church which contains the Bishop's chair. In the Middle Ages many of these Cathedral churches were served by monks, who inhabited a "monastery" near by. Hence the Cathedral was often called a "minster." This usage still obtains in England, where we have, for instance, York Minster, as a common name for the great Cathedral of that city. The name "Temple" was given to places for public worship among the heathen. This term has been applied to Catholic churches, but it has never been naturalized among the people. They kept it either to distinguish pagan shrines or the great house of worship built by Solomon in Jerusalem. It is significant, how ever, that the Irish are an exception to this statement, as they use the word frequently for a Christian church. The many names of places beginning with this word show how commonly it was employed. We must not confound, however, the word "Temple," which occurs sometimes in Ireland, and also in England and France, with the word "Temple" equivalent to church. In the year 1118 seven French Knights formed themselves into a religious community for the purpose of combating the Mohammedans, from whom the Crusaders had rescued Jerusalem in 1099. Baldwin II, king of that city, gave them for a residence his own palace, situated on the site of the Temple of Solomon. Hence they were called the Templars, and, as they afterwards founded houses all over Europe, these houses were called Temples. Thus we have the Temple in Fleet street, London, and Le Temple, in Paris, used as the prison for Louis XVI and his family during the French Revolution.
- taken from The Mass, by Father Peter Christopher Yorke