The Risen Body of Christ and the Church

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)

 

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:

 

 

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Do We Really Live the Risen Life?

As I taught last week, we are united to the Risen Christ in our Baptism and so he gives to us his Risen life–even NOW and yet in fullness only after we physically die. He further "reinforces" or "renews" this Risen life in us by giving himself to us in the Eucharist. This gift of both Baptism and Eucharist also gives us the Holy Spirit and the Spirit empowers us to live the Risen life now: a life of transforming, sacrificial love which lasts forever.

Yet when I look at the lives of so many Christians, including my own, there  doesn’t seem to be much evidence that we are living the Risen life; our lives often seem to be like everyone else’s: like one priest observed, "Most people are just trying to make it to Friday." Why is this?

First we need to know that the transforming Risen life within us is not automatic in its effects. If that was the case, every time we received the Risen Christ in  Holy Communion, we would be automatically transformed by the gifts of his love and be like saints. But I have observed some pretty unloving behavior in people right after Communion and in myself sometimes. A picture is worth a thousand words and here’s an illustration of what I mean:

 

The fact of the matter is that God designed it so that we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in making the Risen Life real in our lives. The Risen life in us now is gift (grace) and it must be both received and lived. We have been given free will to cooperate with God’s work within or, sadly, to resist that same work.

Second, I recently attended a convocation for the priests of our Diocese. The topic was on the well-being of priests. We examined what sustains well-being and resilency in our lives as priests and what are some obstacles to this same well-being.

In the spiritual life in Christ there is a similarity to this matter of psychological well-being. There are certain actions which sustain or nourish the Risen life within us; and there are certain obstacles that work against the Risen life in us.

Also, the spiritual life of Christians includes our bodies and minds. If we neglect our bodies, our spirit suffers; if we neglect our psychological needs, our spirit also suffers. For example, if one doesn’t get enough sleep, prayer will probably be difficult in the morning and that affects one’s spiritual life.

Now, what are some of the actions which sustain and nourish the Risen life in us?

1. Put love first, i.e. the love of God and neighbor as Jesus taught. The Resurrection and love are synonymous.

"Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are ‘dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus’ and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord. Following Christ and united with him, Christians can strive to be ‘imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love’..." (Catechism#1694)

2. Learn about the meaning of the Eucharist, and attend faithfully the Sunday Mass, including receiving Holy Communion.

"The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's Passover, that is, of the work of salvation accomplished by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, a work made present by the liturgical action." (Catechism#1409)

"What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ, a flesh "given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit," preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism." (Catechism#1392)

3. Read and reflect upon the Scriptures and supplement with other Catholic spiritual reading.

"‘And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigor, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life.’ Hence ‘access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful.’" (Catechism#131)

"The Spirit manifests the risen Lord to [Christians], recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of his Death and Resurrection." (Catechism#737)

4. Pray. If our spiritual life centers upon our love for God first, then we will naturally want to communicate with the One whom we love. There are two "wings" of prayer, so to speak, the public prayer of the Church (such as at Mass) and our more private times of prayer, which must be daily.

"In prayer the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the only Son, in his glorified [i.e., Risen] humanity..." (Catechism#2673)

5. Companionship in the Church. Fellowship with other Catholics is expected of us and helps nurture our spiritual life in the Risen Christ.

"Having become a member of the Church, the person baptized belongs no longer to himself, but to him who died and rose for us. From now on, he is called to be subject to others, to serve them in the communion of the Church...Just as Baptism is the source of responsibilities and duties, the baptized person also enjoys rights within the Church: to receive the sacraments, to be nourished with the Word of God and to be sustained by the other spiritual helps of the Church." (Catechism#1269)

The Obstacles to the Risen life within us

We merely need to do the opposite of what sustains and nourishes the Risen life of Christ within us as listed above.

1. Sin. Sin is the refusal to love as God created us to love and as Jesus has commanded us: "Love one another as I have loved you." Serious sin can lead to the death of soul and so is also called mortal sin.

2. Not attending the Sunday Mass can probably lead to spiritual anemia faster than anything else.

3. Ignorance of Scripture. We deprive ourselves of great spiritual nourishment when we don’t read the Scriptures regularly. St. Jerome said, "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ."

4. Not praying daily and regularly. Any relationship that doesn’t involve regular communication does not grow and is in danger of becoming distance.

5. Not staying in contact with the Church. If we are not in good company, what influences are we exposing ourselves to instead? The Church fathers expressed a truth: "You can’t have Chrsit without his Body the Church."

 

 

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Living the Risen Life Now

In the past two entries, I wrote about the nature of a Risen body and how we receive the Risen Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is very important to remember that we receive the whole Person of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist and not separate "parts" of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Now we are united to Christ in our Baptism. We are united to the Risen Christ in our Baptism. He renews our Baptism in him every time we celebrate the Eucharist, because it is the Crucified yet Risen Christ who is present to us in the Eucharist. Every time we receive Holy Communion which is receiving the Risen Christ, we are receiving and renewing the Risen life of Jesus in ourselves.

"On the feasts of the Lord, when the faithful receive the Body of the Son, they proclaim to one another the Good News that the first fruits of life have been given, as when the angel said to Mary Magdalene, ‘Christ is risen!’ Now too are life and resurrection conferred on whoever receives Christ." (Catechism# 1391)

This Risen life is not just reserved for after our death as Christians; we also share in the risen life of Christ now, but not fully as we shall after our physical death. St. Paul writes to the Church at Colossae:

"Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3)

St. Paul is not writing at the time  to people who were physically dead! He is writing to Christians who were still living on this earth in a city of the First Century. Yet he says they have been raised up with Christ. Obviously, the Risen life begins in this life and will be completed in the next life, i.e., "the life of the world to come." This fulfillment will transform our earthly bodies to become like Christ’s Risen body. (See my entry "What Is a Risen Body" HERE)

During this past Lent I attempted to increase our parish’s knowledge of the Paschal (Passover) Mystery of Christ. The core of the Paschal Mystery is the Dying and Rising of Christ. In the above quote from St. Paul he also writes "you have died...". Again, he is writing to people still alive at that time, so this must be a spiritual death and it is. In Baptism we are spiritually (by the Holy Spirit’s agency) united to the Dying and Rising of Christ. (See Romans 6:1-11 HERE) The pattern of our life in Christ is to live the Paschal Mystery in our lives now.

Obviously the Rising part of the Paschal Mystery assumes the Dying part. The Catechism speaks of the Paschal Mystery in this way: "The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life." (Catechism#654)

In Lent, the Church particularly focuses on the Dying aspect of the Paschal Mystery; now in the Easter Season we focus on the Rising aspect of the Christian life. What does this entail?

 

We are pretty familiar with the Dying part of life and again not just physical death, but that death also. We live in a world described as having a "culture of death" (Pope St. John Paul II) In this world we know the feeling of dying present in suffering, in the burdens of sin, in egoism and selfishness, in sorrow, grief, fear, lack of forgiveness, lack of hope, and physical death itself, especially the violent deaths at the hands of others.

What would life be like if this was all there was in life? But in Christ’s Paschal Mystery we are given the hope and the power of the Resurrection to pass through the Dying to a new rising, a new life transformed by Christ. "I want to know Christ-yes, to know the power of his resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10). So Christ’s Risen life moves us (sometimes pushes us) to pass from sin’s lack of love to divine love; from egoism to self-giving; from darkness to light; from grief to peace; from fear to courage; from lack of forgiveness to forgiveness; from lack of hope to undying hope; from physical death to the Resurrection of the Dead.

The Risen life gives us the strength to pass through the sufferings of our lives, to come through them to a place of healing (total healing in the life of the world to come).

Christ’s Risen life is always working within us to bring us to the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

Furthermore, it is the Holy Spirit, also given to us in our Baptism, who is the Personal power of the Risen life within us, along with Christ who is "the Resurrection and the Life." "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11)

 

Next week I want to teach about why so many Christians don’t seem to live the Risen life, the rising part of the Paschal Mystery.

 

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