Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus II (Pars Altera): Demonstratio Catholica

The supernatural character of the Church is already evident from those things which we have thus far discussed concerning its origin and end. For that society is supernatural in its character whose not only origin, but also end, and consequently means, are supernatural. But, from what has been said, both the origin and the end of the Church of Christ are supernatural: the origin, because Christ, the Son of God, instituted it; the end, because he instituted it to preserve and dispense the supernatural religion and to work the supernatural salvation of men. Especially, however, the supernatural character of the Church shines forth from its essential relation to Christ. For the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, whose head, namely, is Christ, and whose members are the faithful. This principal thesis is now to be proved, so that afterwards the special corollaries may be deduced from it. And indeed we shall be more ample and more diligent in treating this supernatural character of the Church, since it is of the greatest importance not only for apologetics, but for the whole of theology and the entire Christian life.

The Church is called neither the physical body of Christ nor the moral, but the mystical. It is not called the physical body of Christ; for the physical body of Christ, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary, having suffered on the cross and risen from the sepulcher, consists of flesh and bones, like the bodies of other men. Yet neither is the Church called the merely moral body of Christ, because Christ is the head of the Church not only in that sense in which the presidents of other societies are the head of a moral body. Rather, Christ in a manner full of mysteries exercises upon the Church the same organic-supernatural power which a natural human head exercises upon the human organism. Hence the Church is the mystical body of Christ, whose head is Christ, and whose members are the faithful. The thesis is established:

1. From Sacred Scripture. Passing over those words by which both Christ and the apostles, speaking of the Church, almost always implicitly declare our thesis, we note the explicit doctrine of St. Paul, enunciated thus:

1 Cor 6, 13. 15. 17: "The body ... for the Lord, and the Lord for the body ... Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? ... But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." Author's rendering: Our body to Christ the head, but Christ the head to our body. Therefore not only our soul, but also our bodies are inserted into Christ as members. But if we adhere to Christ the head as His own members, we are also of one spirit, or life, with Christ.

1 Cor 12, 12-14. 20. 27: "For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body: so also is Christ [namely, the mystical Christ]. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free: and we have all been made to drink of one Spirit. For the body also is not one member, but many ... Many members indeed, but one body ... But you are the body of Christ, and members of member." Author's rendering: As the human body, so also Christ, i. e. the mystical Christ, or the Church. Many members constitute one human body, because they are informed by the same spirit. So also the individual faithful are individual members of Christ, but taken together they constitute one body of Christ, because they are imbued with the same Holy Spirit.¹

Eph 4, 11-13, 15-16: "And He Himself [Christ] gave some indeed apostles, some prophets, others evangelists, others pastors and teachers ... unto the building up of the body of Christ: until we all meet into a perfect man, into the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ ... Let us grow in Him in all things, who is the head, Christ: from whom the whole body, compacted and joined together through every joint of supply, according to the working in the measure of each single member, makes increase of the body unto the building up of itself in charity." That is: Christ instituted various offices and functions, that the Church, which is the body of Christ, might be built up and become more and more like the perfect man, Christ. Let us therefore grow according to the exemplar of the head and by the power of union with Christ the head, who joins and gathers together the whole body, and who, through, as it were, joints or channels, supplies ("through every joint of supply") power suited to the individual members ("according to the working in the measure of each single member"), in such a way that the whole body of the Lord is increased in charity.

Col 1, 18. 24: "And He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead: that in all things He may hold the primacy ... Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church."

2. From the holy fathers innumerable testimonies could be adduced, from which we select these few (others to be added in the corollaries): St. Ignatius: "Through the cross Christ in His passion invites you, who are His members. The head, therefore, cannot be born separately without the members, God promising union, who Himself is union."² St. Irenaeus calls the Church "the great and glorious body of Christ"³ St. Gregory of Nazianzus: "For we are all one body in Christ, but individually members of Christ and of one another. For some rule and preside: others obey and are governed. And although the action of both is not the same, since to command and to be ruled by command are not the same thing, nevertheless both are made one in the one Christ, built and compacted by the same Spirit."⁴ St. Augustine: "The whole Christ is head and body. The head is the savior of the body, who has already ascended into heaven; the body, however, is the Church, which labors on earth. But unless this body adhered to its head by the bond of charity, so that one might be made from head and body, He would not, rebuking a certain persecutor from heaven, say: 'Saule, Saule, why do you persecute me' (Act 9, 4) ... What, my members? The head cried out on behalf of the members, and the members transfigured the head in themselves,"⁵ St. Gregory the Great: "For the whole holy universal Church is one body, constituted under Christ Jesus, namely, its head."⁶ St. John Chrysostom: "He unites us through many examples. But observe: He is the head, we are the body; between head and body there can be no interval; He is the foundation, we the building; He the vine, we the branches; He the bridegroom, we the bride; He the shepherd, we the sheep; He the way, we those who walk; again we the temple, He the inhabitant; He the firstborn, we the brothers; He the heir, we the coheirs; He the life, we the living; He the resurrection, we the rising; He the light, we the enlightened. All these things manifest unity, and do not allow anything empty to lie between, not even the least."⁷

1. Christ presides over the Church and provides for her. For the first prerogative and property of the head is that it preside over all the members and the whole body and be of service to them, while, as from a citadel looking out through the senses, the eyes and the ears and the imagination itself, it keeps evils from the body and likewise provides goods for it. So also Christ, the head of the Church: “Just as the soul animates and quickens our whole body, but in the head it senses both by seeing and by hearing and by tasting and by touching, whereas in the other members by touching only; and therefore all things are subject to the head for acting, while that is placed above for counselling, because the head in a certain manner sustains the person of the soul itself, which counsels the body, for there all the senses appear: so to the whole people of the saints, as to one body, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is head.”¹ And indeed in each single thing, even to the least, Christ has care of us all: “But our head intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father; some members He receives, others He scourges, others He cleanses, others He consoles, others He creates, others He calls, others He recalls, others He corrects, others He restores.”² Hence:

2. Christ imparts to the Church spiritual life and movement. From the head, which is, as it were, the seat and center of all vital powers, every power is diffused into the body, so that from the head the members have not only that whereby they are nourished, preserved, grow and act, but also that whereby they are fitted together and united among themselves for constituting one body. The same holds of the head of the Church, Christ Himself bearing witness: “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, and he who eats me, he also will live because of me.”³ The parable of the vine, which communicates to the branches all life and power and fruitfulness, splendidly illustrates this influx into the whole Church and all the faithful.⁴ In this sense also the apostle John: “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.”⁵ Similarly Paul: “But doing the truth, let us grow in Him through all things, who is the head, Christ: from whom the whole body, compacted and connected through every joint of ministration, according to the operation in the measure of each single member, makes the increase of the body.”⁶ “From whom [Christ the head] the whole body, supplied and built up through bonds and connections, grows unto the increase of God.”⁷ Whence rightly Origen: “We say from the divine Scriptures that the whole Church is the body of Christ, animated by the Son of God, and that the members of that body, as of a whole, are all those who believe; since just as the soul imparts life and movement to the body, which by its own nature cannot be moved vitally by itself: so the Word, moving and driving the whole body, that is, the Church, to those things which are needful, moves also each single member of those who belong to the Church, so that they do nothing without the Word.”⁸ Thence:

3. Christ is in a certain manner perfected and completed through the Church. For its perfection and completion the natural head needs the whole body and each and every member, that they may serve the diverse operations of the soul and commit to execution those things which are commanded by the head. So also, with the apostle teaching about Christ and the Church: “And Him He gave as head over the whole Church, which is His body and the fullness (τὸ πλήρωμα) of Him who is filled all in all.”⁹ This St. Jerome excellently expounds thus: “Just as an emperor is filled out, if his army is daily increased, and new provinces are made, and the multitude of peoples grows: so also our Lord Jesus Christ, in that all things believe in Him and come day by day to the faith, is Himself filled in all: yet in such a way that He is filled all in all, that is, that those who believe in Him may be full of all virtues, and according to the Gospel make Him to advance in age, wisdom, and grace; not only before God, but also before men.”¹⁰

4. Christ betroths the Church to Himself and loves her with the most ardent love. It belongs to the head to love and embrace the members of the body with the same love with which it loves itself. That Christ pursues the Church with this love is evident from this, that He Himself calls Himself the bridegroom, for whom the heavenly Father made the marriage feast, betrothing the Church to Himself.¹¹

Wherefore John the evangelist celebrates the Church as “the bride, the wife of the Lamb”¹² More explicitly St. Paul: “The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church: He Himself is the savior of His body ... Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the laver of water in the word of life, that He might present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she might be holy and immaculate... For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as also Christ the Church; because we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”¹³ Therefore:

5. Christ constitutes one person with the Church. Just as the bridegroom and the bride are “two in one flesh”,¹⁴ and just as head and members coalesce into one physical subject, so Christ and the Church form one juridical subject. This the apostle Paul expressly affirms: “For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, are yet one body: so also Christ”¹⁵ mystical = Church. To which St. John Chrysostom excellently: “When he ought to have said, so also the Church, for this was the consequence: this indeed he did not say, but in its place he puts Christ, raising the discourse on high and striking the hearer with greater shame. But this he wishes to signify: so also the body of Christ, which is the Church. For just as body and head are one man, so he said that the Church and Christ are one. Therefore he put Christ in place of the Church, so calling His body.”¹⁶ Other fathers also proclaim this same unity of Christ and the Church many times, e. g. St. Augustine: “One man is head and body, one man is Christ and the Church, a perfect man.”¹⁷ “There is made, then, as it were from two one person, from head and body, from bridegroom and bride.”¹⁸ “The Christians themselves with their head, which ascended into heaven, are one Christ: not that one and we many, but we many too are one in that one. One man, therefore, is Christ and the body.”¹⁹ And St. Gregory the Great: “Christ, therefore, with His whole Church, whether that which still sojourns on earth, or that which already reigns with Him in heaven, is one person.”²⁰