February 28 - The body on her
- Gary Fritsch
- Feb 27
- 2 min read
In the Church's teaching on well, herself, she calls herself both the body of Christ and the Bride of Christ. She can't really be both, can she?
I think that the answer lies in today's Gospel. Speaking in answer to a question about marriage, Jesus quotes Genesis and says: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
So, if I am following, Christ leaves his father and is joined with His bride (the Church), and they become one flesh. So at that point, the Church is both bride and the Body of Christ.
I know that can seem like just metaphor laid upon metaphor, but these are the metaphors spoken by the Word Incarnate to describe the marriage relationship and lays the groundwork for St. Paul to speak of the Church as the bride of Christ in Ephesians. In all of His teaching, Jesus uses worldly imagery to teach us about spiritual truths. We know about laws of nature, and we also know that we have a soul, which is connected to the spiritual realm. It is precisely this soul, the ability to discern and choose and love - that makes us human. There are laws of spiritual nature as well, and this is what Jesus teaches us, and in the sacraments, He promises that a spiritual reality takes place when the physical sacramental signs are employed.
The Church is one big sacrament. A sacrament is defined as a visible sign instituted by Christ to confer an invisible grace. The Church is instituted by Christ to be a visible sign and confer through sacraments and other means - invisible grace. The body of Christ is the way through which the world comes to know of Jesus' forgiving heart, sacrificial love, and saving grace. We individually bear the responsibility to bring these elements to life for the people that we love and would desire to save. If we do this with even moderate success, people might look at the Church and say 'look at the body on her.'
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