An Apologetical Explanation of the

Church as the Mystical Body of Christ

Why is the Church called the Mystical Body of Christ?

As in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.  (Rom 12:5)

Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.  (1 Cor 12:12, 27)

The Mystical Body of Christ is a scriptural image of the Church drawn from the teachings of Christ and St. Paul that illustrates her unity in Christ, her relationship to him, and the interdependence of her members.

The image of the Church as the Body of Christ is found chiefly in the Epistles of St. Paul as they describe the relationship between the Church and Christ.  St. Paul’s understanding derived from his conversion on the road to Damascus, when Christ asked him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?… I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5; emphasis added).  Christ had already completed his earthly ministry; undergone his Passion, Death, and Resurrection; and ascended into Heaven, but he identified the persecuted members of the Church on earth with his own Body.  During his public ministry Christ also expressed this intimate relationship between himself and his Church, where the two are spoken of as one Body.  (Cf. CCC 787)

The image of the Church as the Body of Christ is significant because it indicates that the Church is not simply a community of members gather around Christ but that the Church is united in him, in his Body (cf. CCC 789).  The faithful are incorporated and fortified into the Body of Christ through the Sacraments of Initiation, beginning with Baptism.  Through the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the faithful are united together in Christ’s Mystical Body; that is, brought into communion with one another through communion with Christ, their Head (cf. Col 1:17-18).  (Cf. CCC 789)

As the Mystical body of Christ, the Church extends Christ’s work of salvation throughout time.  The faithful play diverse roles in the Church just as various body parts have diverse functions (cf. LG 7).  Rather than harm the body, this serves its unity.  (Cf. CCC 776, 846, 1111)

The Holy Spirit acts in the Mystical Body of Christ by giving us grace, unifying and animating the Body, comparable to how the soul functions in the human person (cf. LG 7).  (Cf. CCC 797, 1108)

The Catechism addresses this question in paragraphs 779 and 1416.

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