It is still Easter, and we are an ekklesia.

Above is the video of Easter Mass celebrated by Catholic Extension’s president, Father Jack Wall. Especially in this Octave of Easter, it is good to return to the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and conquering of death.

But there is another reason why I recommend this particular celebration of Easter. It is a reminder that we are an ekklesia — the Greek word used by the New Testament authors translated as “church.” But the Greek word has a layer of meaning that we might miss using our Anglo-Saxon word. (“Church” is related to the German kirche, which has its origins in the Greek kyrios, “Lord”, and means “the Lord’s house.”)

The word ekklesia comes from the verb kaleo, meaning “to call”. Christians are “called out” into an assembly of the faithful, spread out across time and space, even including those in heaven (Hebrews 12:23). The ekklesia is a local community, but it is also a communion of all those called by Christ.

The video offers a taste, I think, of the way that God sees the ekklesia. It includes the voices of people from the many places that Catholic Extension serves: the dioceses of Caguas, Puerto Rico; Tucson, Arizona; El Paso, Texas; Dodge City, Kansas; and Yakima, Washington. Toward the end of the video, it includes footage from a number of others: Rapid City, South Dakota; Savannah, Georgia; Helena, Montana; Tyler, Texas; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Monterey, California.

Father Wall notes in his homily that churches are closed across the world. Yet he notes that our experience of Easter is today perhaps closer now to those of the first women who discovered the empty tomb of Jesus. We are reminded in a powerful way that a loving God cannot let death have the final word, even now when we are so afraid of it. He reminds us that God’s love for us is a source of new hope.

Finally, the Mass ends with a call to donate to an emergency fund for the churches affected by the pandemic. Like the earliest members of the ekklesia, Christians must respond to those in profound need and, in the words of James, “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (1:22). To be called out by God means not only to pray and worship, but also to be sent on a mission to heal the world.

Masses these days may are virtual. But they may, at the same time, be profound reminders of the way we are connected in a holy communion that transcends time and location — and even death.