44 — THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

Presence of God. — Holy Spirit, grant me “the abundance of full understanding to know the mystery of Christ Jesus” (Col. 2, 2).

Meditation

1 — “I am the vine and you are the branches” (Jn. 15, 5). On these words of Jesus, which indicate our union with Him, is founded the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ. Only the comparison has changed: instead of one vine, one speaks of one body of which Jesus is the head and we are the members. It is St. Paul’s brilliant comparison that repeats in another form what Jesus had already said. “As the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, form one body: so also Christ... You are Christ’s body and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12, 12 and 27). The identity of thought is evident: as the branches form one thing with the stock from which they are born and live by the same sap, as the members of the human body form one body and live one life, so we, incorporated into Christ, form with Him one body and live by His life: behold the Mystical Body of Christ “which—as St. Paul teaches—is the Church” (Col. 1, 24).

Of this Body Christ is the Head: “Christ is Head of the Church, He the Savior of her body” (Eph. 5, 23); He was constituted by the Father “supreme Head of the Church, which is the body... and His complement” (ibid., 1, 22). One body, one life, and life flows from the Head to the individual members: “Jesus Christ causes the Church to live by His own higher life, permeating with His divine virtue her whole body and nourishing and sustaining the individual members... as the vine nourishes and makes fruitful the branches united to it” (Myst. Corp.).

Here it is affirmed again how every Christian lives in Christ and by the life of Christ.

2 — Our union with Christ, Head of the Mystical Body, is certainly not to be understood in the identical sense of the union existing among the various members of a physical body: in fact, although incorporated into Him, each of us maintains “entirely his own personality” (Myst. Corp.); but it must not be understood either as a simple moral union which exists, for example, among members of the same society. No, it is something much deeper; it is a mysterious union, and in this sense is called mystical, but real and vital. A union that comes from there being present in all parts of the body of the Church “an internal principle that exists and acts vigorously in the whole structure and in its individual parts, and is of such excellence as to surpass by itself immensely all bonds of unity... It is not something of natural order, but supernatural, indeed in itself infinite and uncreated, namely the divine Spirit who, as the Angelic Doctor says, one and numerically identical, fills and unites the whole Church” (ibid.).

The Holy Spirit, “soul of the Church” (ibid.), is the bond that intimately and really unites and vivifies all the members of Christ, diffusing in them grace and charity. He was “communicated to the Church with most abundant outpouring, so that her individual members day by day become ever more like the Redeemer” (ibid.). It is, therefore, not a symbolic, metaphorical union, but a real union, a reality that surpasses all others “as grace surpasses nature and as immortal things transcend perishable things” (ibid.). A reality so great that it embraces not only the Christian’s earthly life but, preserved by him, remains for all eternity as the sole source of his beatitude, since “grace is the seed of glory.”

We are members of Christ: this is our greatness, our glory, which infinitely surpasses every earthly dignity and greatness.

Colloquy

“O beloved Spouse and loving Word, in a manner known to You and understood only by Yourself, You generate the body of the Holy Church... With Your Blood You form for Yourself a body well ordered, well composed, of which body You are the head, in whose beauty the Angels delight, the Archangels admire, the Seraphim fall in love, and all heavenly spirits marvel, and by which also all those blessed souls of the heavenly homeland are nourished. And the Most Holy Trinity delights in it in a way not understood by us” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).

Behold, Lord, before You a most poor creature: fragile and weak, inclined to evil, capable of every sin, vain creature, like the grass of the fields that today is and tomorrow is no more; miserable creature that of itself has no good and is capable of no good. And You, O God, true Son of God, image of the Father, principle and end of all things, king of the universe, Savior of the world, bend down to me, take this miserable creature and unite it so intimately to Yourself as to make it a member of Yours. And being Your member, You communicate to me Your life, You make me live Your very life. O Lord, infinite beauty and holiness, how can You bear to have as member of Yours a creature so miserable and unworthy? But not only do You bear it: You will it and You say to me: “Abide in me.”

How, O Lord, can I not accept Your invitation and Your command when You Yourself have already willed to insert me into Your Mystical Body? O Lord, if I could understand the greatness, the value of the infinite gift You offer me, if I could understand what it means to live in You and by You, as the branch lives in the vine, as the member lives in the body! What do I lack, O Lord, for my sanctification, for my life of union with You? You have given me far more than I could ever have desired.

O Lord, let me feel the profound reality of this great mystery that unites me to You so intimately. Grant that this reality dominate, illumine, and direct my whole life; that before it all the rest may vanish, that apart from it I seek and desire nothing, that the vanity of earthly things no longer attract and deceive me. Grant that I feel, living and deep, the duty and sweet necessity of being a member worthy of You, that my actions and my life may be such as to honor You, my sweetest Head.