By DON FIER
As we began to unpack the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) on the Church as the “Body of Christ” last week, we saw that the image of the human body to describe the Church is derived principally from the Pauline epistles.
In an exhortation to the Corinthians, the apostle to the Gentiles was absolutely clear in pronouncing, “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:27). Elsewhere, he was no less explicit when he declared that Christ “is the head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:18). It is a profound analogy that “casts light on the intimate bond between Christ and his Church…[and powerfully demonstrates] the unity of all her members with each other as a result of their union with Christ” (CCC, n. 789).
That St. Paul would choose the image of the body to represent the Church is not surprising if one considers the story of his conversion. A zealous and steadfast persecutor of Christians, Saul (his name had not yet been changed to Paul) was journeying to Damascus to imprison those “belonging to the Way” (members of the early Church), breathing murderous threats against them. A bright light from Heaven flashed about him and falling to the ground, he was blinded. “He heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 9:4-5).
Pope Francis took note of this scriptural account on June 19, 2013 during the course of his 12-part Wednesday audience catechesis on the Church. The Holy Father observes, “St. Paul’s experience speaks to us of how profound the union between us Christians and Christ really is.”
Why is this true? One need only notice that our Lord did not ask, “Why do you persecute the Church,” but rather, “Why do you persecute me?” Clearly, Jesus was not identifying the Church as some ancillary temporal organization He left behind when He ascended into Heaven — He was identifying her with His very self. Just as the body is a living reality with a head and members (i.e., organs, limbs, etc.), so too can we visualize Christ and the Church.
Pope Francis describes the analogy, which St. Paul develops more fully in chapter 12 of his First Letter to the Corinthians, as follows: “The Church is not a welfare, cultural, or political association, but a living body that walks and acts in history. And this body has a head, Jesus, who guides, feeds, and supports it. . . . If one separates the head from the rest of the body, the whole person cannot survive. It is like this with the Church.” Moreover, just as the parts of the human body, though diverse and many, work together as a coordinated whole, so too in the Church the wealth of gifts and charisms distributed by the Holy Spirit “comes together to form a single living body, deeply tied to Christ.”
The Catechism now more fully develops the theme that “Christ is the Head of this Body.” Pope St. John Paul II explains that the concept of Christ as Head of the body (which is the Church) “signifies first of all the power which he possesses over the whole body” (general audience, November 27, 1991). Christ is the principle of creation and redemption, “in everything he [is] pre-eminent” (Col. 1:18), and He extends His reign over all things through the Church (cf. CCC, n. 792).
St. John Paul goes on the explain that as Head of the Church, Christ fills her with His divine life so all of her members may grow “into him who is the head…from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love” (Eph. 14:15-16).
The Vatican II fathers teach that “all the members ought to be molded in the likeness of Him, until Christ be formed in them (cf. Gal. 4:19)” (Lumen Gentium, n. 7 § 4). In practical terms, this means that we must strive to conform ourselves to resemble Him by entering into the mysteries of His life through study, prayer, and meditation.
It is through becoming intimately familiar with His life and the example He gave us that we learn how we should act as He would have acted in the daily circumstances of our state in life, how to face and accept trials and suffering as He did. In a word, each of us must have as our goal holiness, to become another Christ, so that “provided we suffer with him…we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17).
As difficult and daunting as this task may seem, we can be secure in our trust that “Christ provides for our growth…he provides in his Body, the Church, the gifts and assistance by which we help one another along the way of salvation” (CCC, n. 794). We are not alone, for as the Catechism assures us, the Church is one with Christ and forms a unity of which the saints especially are acutely aware (cf. CCC, n. 795). As St. Thomas Aquinas affirms,
“The head and members are as one [mystical] person” (Summa Theologiae III, Q. 48, art. 2, ad 1).
The union that exists between the Head and members of the Mystical Body of Christ may be seen to reflect back to the original sin of our first parents. In an unpublished manuscript entitled On Becoming One Heart and One Soul by Sr. M. Regina van den Berg, FSGM, a profound insight penned by the Carmelite martyr St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross shortly before her entry into Carmel is cited:
“Original sin and Redemption would remain wholly incomprehensible if humanity were the sum of wholly separate individuals and not a body with head and members. Only because in Adam humanity as a nature was created could his fall be the fall of all; only because Christ entered this organism as an organ can the grace of the head overflow to all the members” (p. 14; translation by Sr. M. Regina from Bildung und Entfaltung, vol. 16, p. 18).
The Spousal Theme
The Catechism closes its examination of the Church as the Body of Christ by reflecting on the spousal aspect of the relationship, a bond that is represented by bridegroom and bride. Why this imagery? It is precisely because “the unity of Christ and the Church, head and members of one Body, also implies the distinction of the two within a personal relationship” (CCC, n. 796).
Since the closest of all human bonds is the union between husband and wife, it can be seen analogically as a reflection of the perfect union that exists between Christ and His Church.
This imagery finds its origin in the Old Testament. As St. John Paul recalls, “The prophets of the Old Testament saw God as the spouse of the Chosen People” (general audience, December 11, 1991). For example, consider the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:5). Depicted as a bride, often unfaithful and idolatrous, the people of Israel are not ever forsaken by the Lord of hosts; He remains faithful.
Thus, it is “on the groundwork laid by the prophets,” continues St. John Paul, “that the New Testament presents Jesus Christ as the spouse of the new People of God” (ibid.). Christ is the bridegroom and the Church is His bride.
In the New Testament, it was John the Baptist who first presented Jesus in this light during his preaching on the banks of the Jordan. He announced Christ as the Bridegroom and willingly faded into the background with the words: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Jesus, likewise, identified Himself as the Bridegroom when questioned as to why the disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting while His disciples were not (see Mark 2:18-21).
The spousal theme is also obvious, although indirectly, in many of the parables of Jesus during His public ministry. The Church is spoken of as “a bride ‘betrothed’ to Christ the Lord so as to become but one spirit with him (cf. Matt. 22:1-14; 25:1-13; 1 Cor. 6:15-17; 2 Cor. 11:2) . . . [and] the spotless bride of the spotless Lamb (cf. Rev. 22:17; Eph. 1:4, 5:27)” (CCC, n. 796).
The spousal love of Christ for the Church is especially evident in St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians where he relates it to the sacrament which consecrates the love of man and woman by uniting them in marriage (see Eph. 5:21-33). St. John Paul explains the essential meaning of this Pauline discourse: “The spousal love of the Redeemer for his Church is reflected in Christian marriage and married love: a redemptive love, full of saving power, at work in the mystery of grace by which Christ shares new life with the members of his body” (general audience, December 18, 1991).
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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