The Living Body of Christ in the World

Sisters and brothers. Today we speak about the continuing presence of Christ in the world through His gift to us, which is the Church, the very body of Christ. Christ is our head. We as his body. The Church when we go back to, either the blood and water flowing through the side of Christ or the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we call those two moments the beginning of the Church, when the disciples and we effectively were called to do our praise, worship, and carry on the life of Christ in the world, gathered as a community.

One of the great images for the Church when we speak of the Church, we use a variety of names. The perfect society, the body of Christ, one of the ones that was championed at the Second Vatican Council in the great Constitution, Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic, constitutional Church, was the pilgrim people of God that we indeed are like an extension of ancient Israel, renewed in the New Covenant of Christ.

But we’re not a people in place. We’re a people on the move, always called to ever more deeply reflect Christ’s life, Christ’s love, the teachings of Christ, of love and mercy in our world.

A wonderful expression where the Church is, God is, and where God is there, the Church is that we, indeed the Church is, animated by the Spirit of Christ. To do what? To carry on with stability. That the body of Christ stays in the world, active in our world, that there’s durability, that lasting commitment, that there's continuity with the gospel in the apostolic tradition, and, ultimately, that the Church is able then to witness.

When we speak in the Church, we say there are a number of things we could say about the Church. We can certainly say the Church is hierarchical. That's one image of the Church that we have priests and deacons and, religious, vowed and consecrated virgins in the Church today and then, our lay people, in the old days that were sort of a top-down pyramid. The image of Lumen Gentium is that the Church is all who are gathered, each with their important and critical role. In fact, there is no role in the Church more important than the role of being baptized. 

We each have different functions. Priests, we couldn't have the Eucharist without a priest.

The deacon's role as animating service in the life of the Church, the wonderful charisms the examples of endowed religious. They're all wonderful, but none is better existentially than the baptized.

All of our sacraments flow from Baptism. And so the Church is the people of God, the baptized people to give God gather together with special functions to be able to, worship and live our Faith in the world.

Hierarchical, and visible, the Church is meant to be seen, it spiritual. It's not only visible, but it is also the life that is shared between us, that connects us one to another and that is earthly, earthly, but filled with heavenly treasures and heavenly goods. A wonderful expression for our Church. 

We might think of ourselves at the Sacrament of Baptism, we say, as we baptize children, that they are indeed priest, prophet, and king. And so indeed shall you be because of your baptize the people of God, or our royal people, kingly people freed from sin, able to be, free to worship God. Priestly people capable of offering sacrifice and prayer.

And then a prophetic people, a people enabled to call our world and one another to more just and merciful ways of living. The Church, sisters and brothers, is the way Jesus and the spirit come to us to keep us together, called together, that we might continue to be that presence in the world today.

Reflection Questions:

1. How does understanding the Church as the body of Christ shape your relationship with God and others?

2. In what ways can you live out your baptismal role as priest, prophet, and king in your daily life?

3. How can the Church’s mission of love and mercy inspire your actions in the world?