We believe that "God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten Son...so that we should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) The Son of God took flesh, became human, while still remaining God, in the Person of Christ Jesus. This Jesus suffered for us out of God’s sacrificial love, died on the Cross and rose from the dead, his humanity now and forever being in a new and glorious state that transcends our physical lives while still retaining our human nature.
In the Easter Season, I have written about this Risen Body of Christ (See HERE). I also wrote about how it is the Risen Christ that we receive in the Eucharist (See HERE). We do not receive Jesus in the same state in which he existed on the Cross or at any other time that he lived our mortal existence on earth; instead we receive his Risen Body, his risen flesh and blood, i.e. the totality of who Jesus is in his Risen state. This reception of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist nourishes our relationship with the Risen Christ.
This relationship with the Risen Christ is a relationship with Christ and all who are united to him in Baptism, i.e. the Church. Since his Resurrection, Jesus does not exist separate from his People, the Church. He has, of course, his own body formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary and now Risen, but he has also united us to himself in a real and unbreakable union.
This truth is referred to as the Mystical Body of Christ, i.e., we are the Body of Christ and he is the Head of this Body, the Church. This "mystery" exists in what we call a sacramental manner. Sacraments in general take visible things and/or relationships and by the Holy Spirit communicate through them the life of the invisible Risen Christ to us. It is in this way that the Church may be spoken of as a "sacrament."
"As sacrament, the Church is Christ's instrument. ‘She is taken up by him also as the instrument for the salvation of all,’ ‘the universal sacrament of salvation,’ by which Christ is ‘at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery of God's love for men.’The Church ‘is the visible plan of God's love for humanity,’ because God desires ‘that the whole human race may become one People of God, form one Body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit.’" (Catechism#776)
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| Altar Mural St. Timothy in Mesa, Arizona |
So it is important for us to realize that when the Church is called the Body of Christ, we speak of a real union between those who belong to Christ and Christ himself, but we do not lose our individuality or free-will as a result of this union. This is why another image is also used to describe the Church as the Bride of Christ. In marriage, a man and woman "become one," i.e., united together in a single communion of covenant love, but they still remain who they are, a man and a woman. So with Christ and his Bride the Church.
What is relevant to our consideration here is that we are united in the Church to the Risen Christ. "The Church is the Body of Christ. Through the Spirit and his action in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist, Christ, who once was dead and is now risen, establishes the community of believers as his own Body." (Catechism#805)
This is another way of saying that the Church is called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live the Risen life of Christ now, in the manner it is possible in our mortal lives now. It is a life, above, all of the life-changing and saving sacrificial love of Christ that never ends.
Moreover, Christ gives us his Risen life, his risen self, body and blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. The Eucharist renews and strengthens our union in the Body of Christ, the Church, with the risen Christ and with one another. Thus we have this diagram to sum up what I have been describing here:
