Beyond the pale

"... those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces." Matthew 11.8

The Pale was a strip of land along the east coast of Ireland around Dublin, denoting the territory controlled by England during the Middle Ages. Everything and everyone outside were considered beyond the pale. Simon Weil thought of herself in similar terms in relation to the Catholic Church, as she explained to a friend in a letter from Casablanca in 1942. Following on from the spiritual autobiography which she sent to the Reverend Father Perrin, Weil issued a statement of her intellectual vocation, which she saw in Christian terms as her calling to serve outside of the Church. Her reasons are suggested rather than described but they seem to amount to a desire for impartiality which, she argues, would be impossible were she to submit to baptism and avail herself of the privileges of church membership.

Did this amount to arrogance or humility or obedience? No doubt we should not judge. But can it really be the case that the Church of Jesus Christ cannot contain the whole community of faith? Are there some who really are called to witness beyond its reach? There are two churches which are alive and active in the world today: the visible church and the invisible church. The visible church operates where it is able, openly and freely, in its various traditions and denominations. The invisible church exists in hostile circumstances, where it is difficult and dangerous to declare one's faith openly. Both belong to Jesus because both confess him as Lord and Saviour.

There is a third church, which is also consistent with the other two: this is the Communion of Saints, which includes all who have gone before us into glory and with whom we will one day be united in the New Creation. Whether there is room for believers to operate outside these manifestations of Christ's true church - visible, invisible and eternal - is tested by the conviction that Jesus' victory being complete, his authority runs throughout creation. Though, until he returns to secure his inheritance, bringing heaven to earth in that New Creation, we continue to contend with residual evil. There are various ways of doing that and we all have our part to play. Rather than judging others, what is God asking of us?