The Mystical Body is Christ's prolonged Self. Saint Paul came to understand this truth. Perhaps no one has ever lived who hated Christ more than Saul.[Saint Paul] The early members of Christ's Mystical Body prayed that God would send someone to refute Saul. God heard their prayer; He sent Paul to answer Saul. One day this persecutor breathing hatred set out for Damascus to seize the members of Christ's Mystical Body there and bring them back to Jerusalem. The time was only a few years after the Ascension of Our Divine Saviour and Our Lord was now glorified in Heaven. Suddenly a great light shone about Saul and he fell to the ground. Aroused by a Voice like a bursting sea he heard:

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? - Acts 9:4 -

Nothingness dared to ask the name of Omnipotence:

Tell me, Lord, who are you?

And the Voice answered:

I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. - Acts 9:5 -

How could Saul be persecuting Our Lord Who was glorified in Heaven? Why should the Voice from Heaven say: "Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute Me?"

If someone stepped on the foot would not the head complain because it is part of the body? Our Lord was now saying that in striking His Body, Paul was striking Him. When the Body of Christ was persecuted it was Christ the Invisible Head Who arose to speak and to protest. The Mystical Body of Christ, therefore, no more stands between Christ and an individual than His physical Body stood between Magdalen and His forgiveness or His hand stood between the little children and His blessing. It was through His human Body that He came to men in His individual life; it is through His Mystical Body or His Church that He comes to men in His mystical corporate life.

Christ is living now! He is teaching now, governing now, sanctifying now - as He did in Judea and Galilee. His Mystical Body or the Church existed throughout the Roman Empire before a single one of the Gospels had been written. It was the New Testament that came out of the Church, not the Church which came out of the New Testament. This Body had the four distinctive marks of life; it had unity because vivified by one Soul, one Spirit, the gift of Pentecost. As unity in doctrine and authority is the centripetal force which keeps the life of the Church one, catholicity is the centrifugal force which enables her to expand and absorb redeemed humanity without distinction of race or colour.

The third note of the Church is holiness which means that it endures on condition that it keep itself healthy, pure and free from the disease of heresy and schism. This holiness is not in each member but rather in the whole Church. And because the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church it can be the Divine instrument for the sanctification of souls. The sunlight is not polluted because its rays pass through a dirty window; neither do the sacraments lose their power to sanctify because the human instruments of those sacraments may be stained.

Finally there is the work of apostolic. In biology, Omne vivum ex vivo or "All life comes from life". So too the Mystical Body of Christ is apostolic because historically it took its roots in Christ and not from a man separated by centuries from Him. That is why the infant Church met to choose a successor of Judas who had to be a witness of the Resurrection and a companion of the Apostles.

One of those who bore us company all the while we had the Lord Jesus with us coming and going from John's ministry of baptism until the day when he was taken up from us - one of those must now join us as witness to his resurrection. - Acts 1:21-22 -

Thus the Christ Who "emptied" Himself in the Incarnation now had His "fullness" on Pentecost. The kenosis or humiliation is one facet of His Being; the pleroma or His continued life in His Bride, Spouse, Mystical Body or Church is the other. As the emptying of the light and heat of the sun cries out for the filling of the earth with its radiant energy so the downward course of His love finds its completion in what Saint Paul calls His "fullness" - the Church.

Many think they would have believed in Him if they had...................

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -