The Mystical Body of Christ

In God’s eternal plan all mankind was destined to be joined to Christ like branches to a vine. Once we have been grafted onto the vine that is Christ by Baptism, His life begins to flow through us like the life-giving sap that flows into a branch and makes it leaf, and bud, and flower into an image of beauty that reaches towards the sun. And, that sun is God!

    Also, in God’s eternal plan, the Church, which is all of us, can be likened to a human body. The Church is a definite and visible organization with a visible head, but it is also an invisible and spiritual entity with an invisible head and a Mystical Body. Christ is the head of the Mystical Body and we are its members, its arms, legs, eyes, millions of cells, and nerves — the whole bit.

    Now, when we speak of our human bodies we do not say, “My hand” did a certain thing. We say “I did a certain thing.” So it is, that united with the spiritual Head, which is Christ, we do not perform acts as a single member. We act in union with the entire Body and its Head. Christ’s life is in us, doing His work, the work that He Himself did when He lived on earth. Each one of us has his own particular part of Christ’s work to do and no one else can do it for us.

    A knee cannot do the work of an elbow. A tongue cannot do the work of a nose. We are each on our own, doing our Christ-work, just as our finger, our toe, our tooth is on its own in our body, but aided and acting with all the other members, and all united and directed by the head. Each is a separate unit but each is a part of the whole.

    We remember how St, Paul persecuted the Church and how Christ struck him off his horse when he was on the road to Damascus. We remember that Christ said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”[1] Note that word, “Me!” He didn’t say “why do you persecute the men and women that follow me and then fling them into jails right and left?" Why did Jesus say, “Me?” He said it because these persecuted people were members of His Church and His Church was a part of Him — to persecute any one of them was to persecute Him.

    Now, in our time, we are His Church. We are joined to His Mystical Body and we are members of His Mystical Body. We are united in Him and to Him and are nourished by His grace that is flowing through us. This is our eternal glory as responsive Christians.