De Ecclesia Christi

« Looking at redemption as the principle and source, the Church of Jesus Christ, in the purpose, will, and work of the Redeemer, is the world supernaturally transformed through divine doctrine, law, and grace; but the price of the redemption of the world and of the purchase of the Church is the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. »

I. If, supposing the fall of the human race, we think of it without Christ the Redeemer, whom God in most free mercy sent into the world, what, I ask, from the principles of faith and from the very history of peoples, who, after he came, did not receive him, would be conceived to be the state of the whole human race; what « earthly city » without the « heavenly city »? Faith, and consequently by the light of faith history itself, presents to us the whole race in its first progenitor, as in the natural root and origin of the whole stock: infected with sin, stripped of all the gifts of grace, fallen from its supernatural end, still unable to tend towards this end; in the rational mind indeed, but in the darkness of ignorance, without supernatural light; in the free will, but weak, without the powers of grace; « the whole world lying in wickedness » and « in the wisdom of the flesh, which is an enemy to God, is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be »; the sons of Adam « sold under sin, under the law, in the members rebelling against the law of the mind, and captive in the law of sin »; « by nature children of wrath »; in short, the whole unhappy progeny in the servitude of ignorance and of errors, of concupiscence and depravity, of sin and damnation.

Now the Son of God, made man from this very race of Adam, came into this world, « the way, the truth, and the life », so that he might enlighten the world itself with his truth, order it into the way of salvation by his law, and sanctify it by the life of his grace. « For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son… that the world might be saved through him » Jn III. 17; « in this the charity of God was manifested in us, because God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him… because the Father sent his Son as the Saviour of the world » 1 Jn IV. 9, 14. Cf. Jn VI. 33; XII. 31, 47. This salvation of the world is accomplished, in its very effect, first negatively, so that men cease to be the world of « darkness », the world « placed in wickedness », the « condemned world » (Eph. VI. 12; 1 Jn VI. 19; 1 Cor. XI. 32): « you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world » Jn XV. 19. Then positively: the Word made flesh, enlightening against ignorance and error by the teaching of external and internal doctrine (« the light of the world »); against concupiscence and infirmity, ordering by the rule of law and strengthening by grace (« my yoke is sweet »); against sin and damnation, justifying and perfecting by the priesthood of sanctification (« for by one oblation he has perfected for ever those who are sanctified… a great priest over the house of God »). He unites all of them with himself and in himself, the elect taken out of the world by faith, hope, and charity, by doctrine, law, and divine worship, joining them to one another; and by this external and internal, visible and invisible union, transforming the world through himself and in himself, « in the dispensation of the fullness of times, restoring all things which are in heaven and which are on earth », he constitutes the kingdom of God on earth, « the holy city Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God » (Apoc. XXI), which is the Church. Now this Church of Jesus Christ, just as it is the world saved by Christ, universal in space, « to the ends of the earth », so it is the fullness of time and universal in time, « until the consummation of the age ». And therefore there is perpetually in it, as the inner and invisible form of the gifts of grace, so also the outer and visible form, in the supernatural teaching, rule, and priesthood, which, having in Christ its own principle and end, is derived perpetually from Christ into the Church. « If anyone therefore is in Christ, a new creature¹; the old things have passed away: behold, all things are made new. But all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; for indeed God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself…… and placed in us the word of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were exhorting through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God » 2 Cor. V. 17–20. « Therefore the whole world is the Church, and the whole world hates the Church. The world therefore hates the world: the enemy hates the reconciled, the condemned the saved, the defiled the cleansed. But this world, which God reconciles to himself in Christ… has been chosen out of the enemy world, the condemned, the defiled…… the world of perdition which hates the world of reconciliation » Aug., tract. 87 on John, nn. 2–4. In this same sense Origen also calls the Church the world enlightened by Christ: « Let the Church therefore be called the world, when she is enlightened by Christ » Origen, on John, tom. 6, T. IV, p. 158.

II. The term from which of this transformation, therefore, is the world to be sanctified; the term to which is the sanctified Church. The form itself is inner holiness in all the gifts of grace, in faith, hope, and charity, and outer holiness in teaching and doctrine, in rule and law, in priesthood and sacraments. The price, moreover, of all the transforming gifts, and therefore the price both of the redemption of the world and of the purchase of the Church, is the blood of the Son of God: namely the life and death, the satisfactions and merits of Jesus Christ, and finally Jesus Christ himself, the Son of God. Hence, just as Christ Jesus is said to have « given himself a ransom (ἀντίλυτρον) for all », because God « wills all men to be saved » 1 Tim. II. 6, and is himself said to be « the propitiation for the sins of the whole world » 1 Jn II. 2, so the Church is declared, as it were, the term to be constituted, the temple to be built and consecrated by the merits and blood of Christ: « the Church of God, which he acquired with his own blood » (διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος) Acts XX. 28; « Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her, that he might sanctify her » Eph. V. 25–27. The typical tabernacle was dedicated, and the Mosaic Church was cleansed by the typical blood of animals; the true tabernacle, the heavenly Church, is dedicated and cleansed with better victims, namely through the great priest Jesus Christ with his own blood. « Moses sprinkled the book itself (the codex of the testament) and all the people, saying: this is the blood of the testament which God has commanded to you; the tabernacle too and all the vessels of the ministry he likewise sprinkled with blood; and almost all things are cleansed with blood according to the law…… It is necessary, therefore, that the copies (ὑποδείγματα, cf. above, p. 15) be cleansed with better victims than these » Heb. IX. 19 f. For as the Apostle had said a little before, Christ is « the minister of the saints and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up and not man…… he has obtained a ministry the more excellent, as he is also the mediator of a better testament, which is established upon better promises…… through his own blood he entered once into the holy places, having found an eternal redemption » ib. VIII. 2, 6; IX. 12.

The Word made flesh, therefore, merited by his blood poured out on the cross, and by the doctrine of truth in the magisterium, by the law of salvation in the rule, by the sacraments of sanctification in the priesthood, by external gifts and internal graces, effected the transformation of the world. And this world, transformed and united with Christ by these visible and invisible gifts, is constituted, united within itself, as the « Church acquired by the blood of God ». Hence the redeeming price for the Church is the blood of Jesus Christ; the reward for the blood of Jesus Christ is the Church that was bought. « You were redeemed from your vain conduct inherited from your fathers, with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled…… so that your faith and hope might be in God; purifying your souls in obedience of charity²… Coming to him (the Lord Jesus Christ) as to a living stone… you yourselves too, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house…… a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for acquisition, that you may proclaim the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light; you who once were not a people, but now are the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy » 1 Pet. I. 18–II. 10; Eph. II. 12–22; Col. I. 20–23.

III. Hence the blood of Jesus Christ is « the blood of the eternal testament » Heb. X. 29; XIII. 20. It is so first, as poured out once in the sacrifice of the cross, when it founded the testament of the reconciliation of the world and consecrated the Church, which for that reason the holy Fathers say was taken from the side of the second Adam sleeping on the cross³. It is so then as « the blood of the new Testament » Matt. XXV. 28; Mark XIV. 24; Luke XXII. 20; 1 Cor. XI. 25, so that, offered perpetually in the Church and, by the perpetual Church, in sacrifice, and drunk in refreshment of souls⁴, it intimately joins and unites her to her spouse Jesus Christ, by visible sacrament and invisible charity: « The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (κοινωνία) of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the participation (κοινωνία) in the body of the Lord? Because the bread is one, we, the many, are one body, all who partake of the one bread » 1 Cor. X. 16. « The body of Christ cannot live except from the Spirit of Christ. Hence the Apostle Paul, expounding to us this bread, says: one bread, one body are we many. O sacrament of piety, O sign of unity, O bond of charity…… This food and drink (Christ) wills to be understood as the fellowship of his body and members, which is the holy Church, in the predestined and called and justified and glorified saints and faithful of his. For the first, predestination, has already happened; the second and third has happened, and is happening, and will happen, that is calling and justification; the fourth, indeed, is now in hope, but is future in fact, that is glorification. The sacrament of this thing, that is, of the unity of the body and blood of Christ, is prepared somewhere daily on the Lord's table, and somewhere at fixed intervals of days, and from the Lord's table it is taken by some to life, by others to destruction; but the thing itself of which it is the sacrament is for every man unto life, for no one unto destruction, whoever shall have partaken of it. » Aug., tract. 26 on John, nn. 13, 15.