Summa de Ecclesia

But it is to be noted that not only in the sayings of Aug. and of the ordinary Gloss of the Bible is found this proposition, that Christ and his body which is the Church are one Christ, but there is also had this copulative, that Christ the head is Christ, and his body, indeed that any member of his is Christ. Of the first proposition we cited above in the preceding chapter many testimonies, and declared what its true understanding was. Of the second proposition expressed copulatively the same remains now to be observed. We shall therefore first cite the testimonies which attest it; second, we shall declare how it is to be taken. Concerning the first, first of all is the ordinary Gloss upon that word of 1 Cor. 12, And all the members whereas they are many are one body, so also is Christ, which says as we cited above: All the faithful are Christ, that I may not say the body of Christ, for they themselves are Christ, both the greater and the lesser, head and body is called Christ on account of the unspeakable unity of head and members; thus the Gloss. Besides, blessed Aug. posits the same proposition in many places, whence on John in Homily 27 he says thus: Let us rejoice and give thanks, that not only are we made Christians, but Christ; understand, brethren, the grace of God upon you, admire the head, rejoice, we are made Christ. For if he is head and we members, the whole man is he and we. Likewise the same Aug. on Psalm 122, namely Unto thee have I lifted up mine eyes, treating that word of John 3, No man hath ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven, says thus: As if he seemed to have said of himself alone; therefore the rest remained; because he alone ascends who alone descends; what ought the rest to do, united to his body, that there may be one Christ who ascends and descends? The head descends, ascends clothed with the body, the Church which he presented to himself without spot and without wrinkle. Therefore he alone ascends, but also we when we are with him, and in him are his members, and with us he alone is, and therefore one and always one; unity compacts us to one, and to him alone; with him they did not ascend who would not be one with him. And below: Let this singer therefore ascend, but in each one of us this man shall sing, and let each one be this man, when you say it severally, because you are one in Christ, one man says it; thus Aug. Likewise the same Aug., treating that word of John 17, For them I sanctify myself, says thus, as posited in the ordinary Gloss: For them I sanctify myself, that is, I profit them, because also them who are myself, since head and body are one Christ, I sanctify in myself. For the rest, blessed Gregory in the Moralia, treating the aforesaid word of the Gospel, John 3, No man hath ascended into heaven, etc., as posited in the Gloss, says thus: For since we are now made one in him, whence he alone came in himself, thither he alone returns even in us, and he who is always in heaven daily ascends to heaven also in those who are in heaven, because he who in divinity abides above all things daily draws himself to the heavens by the compacture of his humanity; thus Gregory. Besides, the same Gregory attests this proposition quite openly through the like which, speaking of the body of the wicked and the devil its head in book 13 of the Moralia, ch. 10, he says thus: So indeed are the devil and all the wicked one body, that often by the name of the head the body is reckoned, and by the name of the body the head is called. For by the name of the head the body is reckoned when of the perverse man it is said, one of you is a devil; and again by the name of the body the head is called when of that apostate angel it is said, an enemy, a man, hath done this; thus Gregory. Concerning the second point, in which we said we would unfold with what understanding such authorities and propositions are to be taken which seem to sound as though the very body of Christ which is the Church, or any member of the same body, were Christ, it is to be noted that such propositions are not so to be taken as though the mystical body of Christ or any member of it were Christ himself who is head of that body. Whence in the human body, after whose likeness the Apostle speaks of the body of the Church, neither the body itself nor any member of it is called the head itself, for there ever remains a distinct difference between the head and the rest of the body, and any other members whatsoever, both in superiority of dignity and in amplitude of perfection and in supposition of power, as was said above. Wherefore blessed Aug., treating that word of the Apostle at Eph. 5, They shall be two in one flesh, says thus: He refers two to distance of majesty, plainly two, for we are not the Word, for we were not in the beginning with God, for we are not he through whom all things were made, we came unto flesh, and there is Christ and there are we. When therefore it is said that the body of Christ or any members of it are Christ, it is to be taken in one of four modes. In the first way thus: the body of Christ or its members are Christ, that is, with Christ they are one and whole Christ, and this is true in the manner expounded above. Whence blessed Aug., treating that word which was said above, John 17, For them I sanctify myself, when he expounded it, that is, them who are myself, then adds how this is to be taken, saying: Because head and body are one Christ. In this sense therefore is to be taken what the same Aug. says, that the sanctified faithful are Christ himself sanctifying, because the sanctified faithful themselves with Christ himself sanctifying are one and the same Christ in the manner declared above. In the second manner such propositions can be so taken: the body of Christ which is the Church, or the faithful thereof, are Christ, that is, are one with Christ by participation of the one Spirit inhabiting and quickening the whole body of the Church, who is the last perfection of that mystical body, as we said above. Whence the lord Alisiodorensis in his Summa, in the matter of the unity of the head and members of Christ, by reason of that which was often alleged from Isa. 61, As a bridegroom he bound a mitre upon me, and as a bride adorned me with ornament, in which, as Aug. says, Christ calls himself bridegroom and bride, asks whether it be true that the bridegroom is the bride, and answers thus, he says: Twofold is the form or perfection of the Church, and likewise of Christ. For there is a natural perfection of Christ and of the Church, which is humanity, and as to this perfection the bridegroom is other than the bride, namely Christ than the Church. But there is another perfection of Christ and of the Church, namely a gratuitous perfection, which is the Holy Spirit, and according to this perfection the bridegroom is the bride, because the same is the perfection of Christ and of the Church, namely the Holy Spirit, and through this unity it was said that of the multitude of believers there was one heart and one soul, and that we are all one in Christ, and on account of this unity Christ speaks at times in his own person, at times in the person of the Church, the person not changed, which is the first rule of Tychonius; thus Alisiodorensis. In the third manner it can be so taken: the faithful of Christ are Christ, that is, are one by unity of conformity and consonance of will with Christ, as that is taken, 1 Cor. 6, He who adheres to God is one spirit with him; the Gloss: we are spirit not by identity of substance, for diverse substances are the spirit of man and the Spirit of God, but because that spirit, namely of man, attains unto the perfection of the nature of truth and of his beatitude, it is the Spirit of God. This unity, moreover, which is according to affection or consonance of will, is called by blessed Bernard in book 5 of On Consideration votive unity, which, as he says, is when the soul with all vows adheres to God. In the fourth manner the aforesaid propositions can be taken as that of Matt. 11, where Christ speaking of blessed John says: He is Elias; the Gloss: in power, not in person, because namely he was like Elias in many things, as is touched upon in the same Gloss, and as both Albert and Nicholas expound in their postils, namely in austerity of life, and in solidity of constancy, in authority of doctrine, in likeness of office or ministry. In this manner a certain ancient doctor whose name we know not, in that Summa of theology which begins, Silver hath beginnings of its veins, in book 3, inquiring concerning the unity of head and body how sacred Scripture speaking of this mystical unity is to be understood, and most of all that of Isa. 61, As a bridegroom he bound a mitre upon me, and as a bride adorned me with necklaces, which speaks of bridegroom and of bride as though they were one sole person, saying thus: That this unity which is said to be between bridegroom and bride is naught but a likeness of them, and between any saint soever and the bridegroom there is this likeness; but the Holy Spirit properly makes that likeness, because unity is appropriated to him, although the whole Trinity makes that likeness; but he calls Christ bridegroom according to humanity, and it is the custom of so speaking of two like things that one be said to be the other not through essence, but through likeness, as the Lord said of John, Matt. 11, that he was Elias; thus the aforesaid doctor. In these manners therefore the aforesaid propositions are to be taken, saving nevertheless always better judgment, nor are they to be extended, but rather to be expounded piously and religiously, for not, as Aug. says in book 4 of On Christian Doctrine, ought we always imitate the holy fathers in words, because we have not graces equal to theirs, but labor must be that those who spoke in useful and salutary obscurity be rightly understood and expounded.