An Apologetical Explanation of

How the Church Represents Christ

How does the Church on earth “represent” Christ?

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.  (1 Cor 12:12)

You are the body of Christ and individually members of it.  (1 Cor 12:27)

The Church represents Christ not only as the credible exponent of his life and teachings but also as a sign of his living presence, as his instrument, and as his permanent presence among his people.  “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church” (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Smyrn., 8, 2: Apostolic Fathers, II / 2, 311).  It is this singular presence that makes the Church truly catholic, or “universal.”

Christ is present among us in many ways, but he is present in a visible way in his Church.  The Church is dependent upon Christ as she received her doctrines and worship from Christ himself, “the fullness of the means of salvation” (UR 3; cf. AG 6; Eph 1:22-23).  She confesses him in her faith, speaks about him in her teachings, celebrates him in her liturgy, imitates him in her moral law, calls upon him in prayer, desires his consolation, seeks his will, and loves him with a pure spousal love.  (Cf. CCC 669-771, 1071, 1076, 2655)

Because of that dependency, the Church is rightly described as a sign of Christ.  As the Fathers of the Church taught, the Church permanently revolves around Christ as the moon revolves around the earth (cf. CCC 748).  Moreover, the Church, as his Mystical Body, represents Christ because she does not speak about him as an historical figure of the past but as a Person who is alive with us today.  The Church is thus the instrument that Christ founded on earth to make his saving action present to the world through her apostolic mission of preaching and the sacramental life.  As St. Augustine wrote:

Divine virtue and power are not manifested to our eyes in the life of Christ.  That we have not seen.  But we do see these in present things, in his Church that lives now.  The first disciples that saw Jesus did not see the Church. They saw the head and believed in the Body.  For our part, what do we see?  The Church.  What is it that we don’t see that they saw?  We don’t see Jesus in his human shape. Therefore, as they, seeing the head, believed in the Body, so we, seeing the Body, should believe in the head.  (St. Augustine, Sermo, 116: PL 38, 659-660)

The Catechism addresses this question in paragraph 830.

The contents of this page are Copyright © 2014 Rev. James Socias (of the Midwest Theological Forum). These apologetics are reproduced with written consent of said copyright holder for St Patricks Parish, Jaffrey, NH website only. Reproduction of any sort must be approved directly by said copyright holder.

To get a hardcopy of these Apologetics or the Didache Bible please visit the Midwest Theological Forum (publisher) at: http://www.theologicalforum.org