Summa de Ecclesia

The most blessed Augustine, speaking of this marvelous and excellent dignity of the mystical body with Christ its head, is read to have used on multiplied occasions this proposition, that the body of the Church with Christ the head is one and the same Christ: wherefore let us touch upon how this is to be taken. For the same blessed Aug. says on the sermon on John 27: Unity compacts us, and are joined to him in so great a unity that he and we are one whole Christ. Likewise the Apostle openly posits this proposition at 1 Cor. 12, where he says thus: For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ; where the Gloss says: All the faithful are Christ, that I may not say the body of Christ, for they themselves are Christ, both the lesser and the greater; head and body is called Christ on account of the inseparable unity of head and members; thus the Gloss. Likewise Aug., treating this word on Psalm 142, says: The Apostle does not say, so also of Christ, but the body is one, the members many, so also is Christ: therefore the whole is Christ, and because the whole is Christ, therefore the head cries from heaven: Saul, he says, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Hold this fast and commend it to all memory as sons of ecclesiastical learning, and in the charity of faith acknowledge Christ head and body, and the same Christ the only-begotten Word of God equal to the Father, and let it be seen thence by how great a grace you pertain to God, that he who is one with the Father willed to be one with us, he saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. For the seed of Abraham is Christ, nor can the most open apostolic words be contradicted, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Likewise the same Aug. on the same psalm speaks to our point thus: For having put on Christ, we are Christ with our head, for we are the seed of Abraham; thus he. And the same Aug. in Homily 59 on the words of the Lord, treating that word of John 3, No man hath ascended into heaven, says thus: How is he alone, or is he alone for this reason, that Christ is one with all his members as head with its body? What is it: No one hath ascended but he that descended, except that no one ascends but he that is made one with him, and as a member compacted into his body who descended? And below: This whole therefore, that is, head and body, is one Christ. And below: Just as he is one with us, that is, with his body — Christ is one; so the wicked enemy with all the wicked over whom he is head, as it were with a certain body of his, is one — the devil; thus Aug. And like things he recalls in many other places, which for brevity we pass over. For the understanding, moreover, of this proposition so often repeated by Aug., according to the smallness of our wit, saving always better judgment, we have deemed it to be considered that this name Christ is a common name, but proper to none. Whence Aug. on the Canonical Epistle of John says thus: Jesus is the proper name of the Savior, as Moses was called by his proper name, as Elias. But Christ is a name of a sacrament, as priests. Likewise Isidore in book 7 of the Etymologies, ch. 2, says: Christ is named from chrism, and consequently: Christ is not the proper name of the Savior but a common appellation of power, for when he is called Christ it is the common name of dignity, when he is called Christ Jesus it is the proper word for the Savior. Second, there comes to be noted what blessed Aug. in a certain sermon against the Arians says, that Christ, as far as we can gather through the holy pages, is named in three ways. The first manner is according to divinity, equal and coeternal with the Father before the assumption of flesh, to which pertains that word of John, In the beginning was the Word, etc. The other manner is with flesh assumed, for the same God who is man and the same man who is God, according to a certain propriety of his excellence by which, not coequal with other men, he is read and understood to be mediator and head of the Church, as the same Scripture proclaims him when it says, The Word was made flesh, etc. The third manner is when the whole Christ is in the fullness of the Church, that is, head and body according to the fullness of a certain perfect man, in which man we are severally members, which is preached to believers and offered as knowable to the prudent, as he says in Isaiah where he says: As a bridegroom he bound a mitre upon me, and as a bride adorned me with ornament. He calls the same one bridegroom according to the head, and bride according to the body; two they seem, and one he is; thus Aug. Following him, the ancient doctors distinguish this name Christ as said in two ways, to use the words of the lord Altissiodorensis in his treatise on Christ the head, in the Summa, on that word of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 12, You are members of a member, that at times the son of the blessed Virgin is meant, but at times the whole Christ, namely head with members, of whom Aug. himself in Homily 49 on the words of the Lord says thus: Since therefore he is head and the Church is his body, the whole Christ is head and body. Likewise both Albert the Great and St. Thomas in Book IV of the Sentences, about distinction 13, distinguish concerning the mystical body, that at times the members only are meant, at times the members with the head itself. And about distinction 49 St. Thomas makes the same distinction concerning the Church, saying that the name Church is taken in two ways: for at times it names only the body which is joined to Christ as to a head, at times it names members and head conjoined. With these noted, the understanding of this saying seems plain, that Christ and his body which is the Church are one Christ, since, as Christ is interpreted anointed, for chrisma in Greek is called unction in Latin, and Christ the head and his body which is the Church, according to the understanding assigned above in the chapters immediately preceding, are one man, one person, one mystical body, in which, as one spirit, namely the Holy, is understood to be, so one unction is understood to flow down from the head into the whole body, according to that word of the psalm: Like the ointment on the head, that went down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron, which went down upon the skirt of his garment, as the dew of Hermon that descendeth upon Mount Sion. Most openly appears the understanding of the aforesaid proposition, that Christ the head and the Church his body are one Christ, that is, are one mystical person, anointed or suffused with the one unity of the Holy Spirit. Whence Augustine on that word of Psalm 131, Like the ointment on the head, etc., says thus: The ointment is on his head, because the whole Christ is with the Church, but the ointment comes from the head; and the Gloss on Psalm 103, treating that word, That he might make his face cheerful with oil, says thus: he here speaks of grace, which was more excellently in Christ, because he was more excellently anointed. Whence also he is called Christ, that is, anointed. Behold the whole Christ anointed in himself and in his members, from whom the rest receive; thus the Gloss. From all which may easily be seen the understanding of that proposition which blessed Aug. so frequently recalls in his books, namely that all the faithful with Christ the head are one Christ. For since, as Damascene witnesses, number is number, that is, of division, plainly in that in which among any there is no division, number cannot be posited. And since all the faithful with Christ are one mystical person, quickened by one spirit in number, namely the Holy Spirit, and anointed with one chrism, it appears that the faithful themselves with Christ are one Christ, whence Aug. on Psalm 127 most openly confirms this, saying: For many are Christians, and one is Christ, for Christians themselves with their head which ascended into heaven are one Christ, not that he is one and we many, but we who are many are one in him; therefore one man is Christ, head and body; thus Aug.

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