Posted on 05/17/2021 9:09:54 PM PDT by MurphsLaw
The Church Is Still the Mystical Body of Christ
LOUISE MERRIE
It is unfortunately common to hear Catholics criticizing the Catholic Church without realizing what the Church really is. The Church is not an institution like a nonprofit organization. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. This teaching on the Church was first revealed to St. Paul at the time of his conversion when Jesus asked St. Paul (then called Saul) why he was persecuting Him. At that time, St. Paul had been persecuting the Church. His encounter with Jesus led him to understand that the Church is Jesus’ Mystical Body.
I first learned that the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ by reading The Divine Romance by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. In a chapter called “The Divine Equation,” he wrote, “The Church, then, in the language of Sacred Scripture is the body of Christ, not the physical one like to the one that was born in Bethlehem and was crucified in Jerusalem, but rather a mystical one in which He continues to live and to act and to think (though in another sense than he did in Judea and Galilee)… As His incarnation was made up of a visible and an invisible element, a human and a divine: so, too, His continued Incarnation in His Church is made up of two elements, one human and the other divine. The human element in it is poor, weak humanity, and the divine element is the life of God. …He is doing with this new body three things, as He did three things with his physical body: with it He Teaches, He Governs, and He sanctifies.” Archbishop Sheen later wrote an entire book on this subject, which I recommend, called The Mystical Body of Christ.
In the encyclical On the Mystical Body of Christ (Mystici Corporis Christi), Pope Pius XII explained why the term “mystical” is used: “There are several reasons why it should be used; for by it we may distinguish the Body of the Church, which is a Society whose Head and Ruler is Christ, from His physical Body, which, born of the Virgin Mother of God, now sits at the right hand of the Father and is hidden under the Eucharistic veils; and, that which is of greater importance in the view of modern errors, this name enables us to distinguish it from any other body, whether in the physical or in the moral order.” (60)
The Second Vatican Council expanded on the teaching of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium. (7) “By communicating His Spirit, Christ made His brothers, called together from all nations, mystically the components of His own Body. In that Body the life of Christ is poured into the believers who, through the sacraments, are united in a hidden and real way to Christ who suffered and was glorified.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church also emphasizes that the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. “The Church is the Body of Christ. Through the Spirit and his actions in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist, Christ, who once was dead and is now risen, establishes the community of believers as his own Body.”
The Church teaches that receiving the Eucharist unites us to Jesus and to one another. The Mystical Body includes all the members on earth in every country and of every vocation; all the members in Heaven; and all the souls in purgatory. We are all part of the Church and united to one another. “Giving the body unity through Himself and through His power and inner joining of the members, this same Spirit produces and urges love among the believers. From all this it follows that if one member endures anything, all the members co-endure it, and if one member is honored, all the members together rejoice.” Lumen Gentium (7). This is why we must pray for and assist the members of the Church who are persecuted, who are sick, who are poor, who don’t understand the Church’s teachings, and any members who are in any need. This is also why we feel such joy when other members experience something good, such as being made a canonized saint, giving birth to a new baby, joining a religious order, or founding an apostolate.
There can be a misunderstanding among some Catholics, when they think that the only important roles in the Church are limited to those of bishops, priests, and deacons, ignoring the unique gifts they have been given as laity. St. Paul addressed this in discussing the different roles in the Church. In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul wrote: “For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them: if prophecy, in proportion to the faith; if ministry, in ministering; if one is a teacher, in teaching; if one exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes, in generosity; if one is over others, with diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:4 – 8). The lives of the saints show the great variety of ways in which Catholics have exercised the gifts that God gave them. Think of St. Gianna Molla, a wife, mother, and doctor; St. Louis and St. Zelie Martin, a married couple with children (including St. Therese of Lisieux) and business owners; and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a single university student who helped the poor and the sick and worked to oppose fascism. Each of the saints is different. They came from different countries, they had different vocations, they were given different gifts from God, and they served God and the Church in different ways. What they had in common is that they all lived lives of love: love of God and love of neighbor. They remained faithful Catholics in the Mystical Body of Christ and persevered in the Faith until they died. Reading about the saints, blesseds and other faithful Catholic witnesses can inspire us to use the gifts and talents God gave us to serve Him.
Pope Pius XII addressed the scandal caused by unfaithful and immoral Catholics. “For…Christ did not wish to exclude sinners from His Church; hence if some of her members are suffering from spiritual maladies, that is no reason why we should lessen our love for the Church, but rather a reason why we should increase our devotion to her members.” (66). Yes, through the centuries, there have been Catholics who committed terrible sins or who have taught things contrary to the doctrines of the Church. But the actions of these people are their own actions; their sins are harmful to the Church, but they do not truly represent the Church. We need to stay focused on Jesus. He will never abandon His Church. He is constantly with her and guiding her. We need to pray for the repentance and conversion of the people within the Church who have committed terrible sins because God created them and wants everyone to be saved. We need to examine our own conscience as well, and repent of our sins, and continually strive to be holy so that we may be worthy members of Jesus’ Church. We need to also continually engage in evangelization of the people outside the Church, so they may become part of the Mystical Body of Christ.
Pope Pius XII wrote about Jesus’ guidance and protection of His Church. “By this interior guidance He, the ‘Shepherd and Bishop of our souls,’ not only watches over individuals but exercises His providence over the universal Church…” (39). Pope Pius XII explained that when the Church is in danger, Jesus will save her Himself or through the intercession of the angels, the Blessed Mother, or the saints. Therefore, there is no need for Catholics to be afraid of what will happen to the Church. Jesus is always with the Church and her members. Jesus is acting in His Church today and guiding her.
In his encyclical, Pope Pius XII exhorted Catholics to love the Church. He wrote, “In order that such a solid and undivided love may abide and increase in our souls day by day, we must accustom ourselves to see Christ Himself in the Church.” (93) Knowing what it means to be part of the Church can make us very grateful to God for the gift of faith and membership in the Mystical Body, and for helping us to remain in the Church. It is through the Church that we develop a closer relationship with Jesus.
VC II expanded all types of heresies, including those in Lumen Gentium:
The Problem in Lumen Gentium 16
Schneider pointed first to a phrase in Lumen Gentium that incorrectly erases an important distinction between Christian and Muslim worship of God. In the sentence, “In the first place amongst these there are the Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind”, the bishop took strong issue with the phrase “with us,” “nobiscum” in Latin.
“This is wrong,” Schneider said firmly.
He explained that Lumen Gentium 16 errs in suggesting that Christians and Muslims participate together in the same act of adoration. It errs because Muslims worship on a natural level, at the same level of anyone who adores God with the “natural light of reason,” whereas Christians adore God on a supernatural level as His adopted children “in the truth of Christ and in the Holy Spirit.”
“This is a substantial difference,” Schneider observed. He explained that the use of the phrase “with us” represents a relativization of the act of adoration of God and also of Christians’ “sonship.”
Bishop Schneider lists problems in Vatican II documents that lead to ‘relativism’
That is an awful lot to read, from a church that did not want its followers reading the bible.
(How else would we have ‘the chain bible’?)
“from a church that did not want its followers reading the bible”
__________
What you are seeing is lay Catholics reasserting the social kingship of the Church. In so doing it is intellectual overleaping in seemingly one bound all the so-called progress made over half a millenium by the Protestant Reformation. Snark like what you are offering no longer cuts any ice, if it ever did.
The social kingship of Christ, that is. “The Church (or Church Militant) representing the mystical body of Christ on earth.
Sheesh...one typo...oh well...let the fireworks begin!
Rather, effectually remembering the Lord's atonement means recognizing and showing its effects, whereby "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew [kataggellō=preach/declare] the Lord’s death till he come," (1 Corinthians 11:26) being that of showing unity with Christ and each other who were purchased with His sinless shed blood, (Acts 20:28) by taking part in this communal meal as "one bread," like as pagans have fellowship with demons in their dedicatory feasts - which Christians are admonished not to do. (1 Corinthians 10:17-20)
Nowhere in Acts thru Revelation, by which we see how the NT church understood the gospels, are souls born of the Spirit and thus baptized into the body of Christ, (2 Co. 12:13) by taking part in the Lord's supper, nor told to do so in order to be born of the Spirit, nor contrary to the Catholic contrivance of the Lord's supper, is the Lord's supper described as spiritual food, and the means of obtaining spiritual life in oneself. Instead, and consistent with the metaphorical use of eating and drinking, the word of God is what is called spiritual "milk," (1Co. 3:22; 1Pt. 1:22) and "meat," (Heb. 5:12-14) what is said to "nourish" the souls of believers, and believing it is how the lost obtain life in themselves. (1 Timothy 4:6; Acts 15:7-9; cf. Psalms 19:7) Thus the primary active function of pastors is preaching. . (2Tim. 4:2) For it is believing the gospel of grace with effectual penitent faith that one is regenerated, which is shown in baptism, (Acts 10:43-47; 15:7-9) Meanwhile Lumen Gentium 16 of Vatican 2 (by competing clerics) says, "there are many who honor Sacred Scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and a pattern of life, and who show a sincere zeal. They lovingly believe in God the Father Almighty and in Christ, the Son of God and Saviour. (Cf. Jn. 16:13) They are consecrated by baptism, in which they are united with Christ."
"The Mystical Body includes all the members on earth in every country and of every vocation; all the members in Heaven; "
Except that Dominus Iesus states that Protestant "ecclesial communities...are not Churches in the proper sense."
"and all the souls in purgatory."
Which simply does not exist, and even EOs state,
The Orthodox Church does not believe in purgatory (a place of purging), that is, the inter-mediate state after death in which the souls of the saved (those who have not received temporal punishment for their sins) are purified of all taint preparatory to entering into Heaven, where every soul is perfect and fit to see God.
Also, the Orthodox Church does not believe in indulgences as remissions from purgatoral punishment. Both purgatory and indulgences are inter-corrolated theories, unwitnessed in the Bible or in the Ancient Church, and when they were enforced and applied they brought about evil practices at the expense of the prevailing Truths of the Church. If Almighty God in His merciful loving-kindness changes the dreadful situation of the sinner, it is unknown to the Church of Christ. The Church lived for fifteen hundred years without such a theory. — http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7076
The Orthodox Church opposes the Roman doctrines of universal papal jurisdiction, papal infallibility, purgatory, and the Immaculate Conception precisely because they are untraditional." - Orthodox apologist and author Clark Carlton: THE WAY: What Every Protestant Should Know About the Orthodox Church, 1997, p 135.
Meaning that the term "Protestant" is so watered down as to be meaningless, as it includes multitudes who reject the authority and basic literal nature of Scripture, while those who most strongly esteem Scripture as the accurate and wholly inspired word of God, with its basic literal hermeneutic have long testified to being far more conservative and unified in polled core beliefs and values than overall those whom Rome counts as members in life and in death.
And while there are divisions, yet Catholicism itself exists in such, as manifest even on their thread with those who reject parts of V2 and Francis as pope.
A web site popular among “RadTrad” RCs who reject Vatican Two is https://novusordowatch.org with some detail, while we have a more charitable description by a novus ordo priest:
It is certainly possible to discern three tribes within American Catholicism. However, using the Jewish terminology is confusing. “Orthodox,” “Conservative,” and “Reform” do not translate well into American Catholicism. Clearer titles for the three tribes might be “Traditionalist” which correlates with the Jewish “Orthodox.” “Magisterial” because “conservative” Catholics adhere to papal teachings and the magisterium, while “Progressive” reflects the “Reformed” group in Judaism....
Broadly speaking, “Traditionalists” adhere to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, the Baltimore Catechism, and Church teachings from before the Second Vatican Council...
“Magisterial” Catholics put loyalty to the authority of the pope and magisterial teaching first and foremost. They are happy with the principles of the Second Vatican Council, but want to “Reform the Reform.” They want to celebrate the Novus Ordo Mass with solemnity, reverence, and fine music. ..They uphold traditional Catholic teaching in faith and morals, but wish to communicate and live these truths in an up-to-date and relevant way...
The “Progressives” are vitally interested in peace and justice issues. They’re enthusiastic about serving the marginalized and working for institutional change. They are likely to embrace freer forms of worship, dabble in alternative spiritualities, and be eager to make the Catholic faith relevant and practical. Progressives believe the Church should adapt to the modern age... Maguire sums up their attitude pretty well: Progressives “don’t need the Vatican. Their conscience is their Vatican.” - Is Catholicism about to break into three? Crux Catholic Media Inc. ^ | Oct 6, 2015 | Fr. Dwight Longenecker; http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3778496/posts
And thus you have FR articles as,
Is Catholicism about to break into three?
Archbishop Viganò: We Are Witnessing Creation of a ‘New Church ’
The SSPX's Relationship with Francis: Is it Traditional? post #6
Is the Catholic Church in De Facto Schism?
The Impossibility of Judging or Deposing a True Pope...If Francis is a true Pope …
Bibles were much harder to come by before the printing press and thus there was some warrant for them to be chained, but indeed the RCC hindered the reading of the Bible in the common tongue that the laity could read. As the preface to the Douay-Rheims itself states,
Which translation we do not for all that publish, upon erroneous opinion of necessity, that the Holy Scriptures should always be in our mother tongue, or that they ought, or were ordained by God, to be read impartially by all, or...to have them turned into vulgar tongues, than to be kept and studied only in the Ecclesiastical learned languages...and no vulgar translation commonly used or employed by the multitude.. (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(Douay-Rheims_Original)/Preface)
Private interpretation means actually believing what it says!
Rather, the reason for the Catholic recourse to an uninspired incomplete collection of post-apostolic writings is because distinctive Catholic teachings are not manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed (which is Scripture, in particular Acts through Revelation, which best shows how the NT church understood the gospels). Thus support must be selectively sought from among uninspired writers, which attest to the progressive accretion of traditions of men.
Please keep in mind, it was This Church that preserved the Bible through the centuries for you- but NOT so anyone can make all the private interpretation they want.
Ah yes, the "we gave you the Bible so you must submit to us" polemical assertion, with its premise that ...the believer cannot believe in the Bible nor find in it the object of his faith until he has previously made an act of faith in the intermediary authorities..." (Catholic Encyclopedia>Tradition and Living Magisterium) "People cannot discover the contents of revelation by their unaided powers of reason and observation. They have to be told by people who have received in from on high."(Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ, "Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith, p. 72). Which in principle invalidates the NT church.
For an authoritative body of wholly inspired writings was discerned and established as being so came before there ever was a church of Rome (and which means that additional writings could also be), and thus Scripture provided the doctrinal and prophetic epistemological foundation for the NT church.
And seeing as the Scribes and Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses and were the magisterial stewards of Scripture, then according to Catholic principle then 1st century souls should have submitted to them. Instead, the church actually began in dissent from those who sat in the seat of Moses over Israel, (Mt. 23:2) who were the historical instruments and stewards of Scripture, "because that unto them were committed the oracles of God," (Rm. 3:2) to whom pertaineth" the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" (Rm. 9:4) of Divine guidance, presence and perpetuation as they believed, (Gn. 12:2,3; 17:4,7,8; Ex. 19:5; Lv. 10:11; Dt. 4:31; 17:8-13; Ps, 11:4,9; Is. 41:10, Ps. 89:33,34; Jer. 7:23)
And they followed an itinerant Preacher whom the magisterium rejected, and whom the Messiah reproved them Scripture as being supreme, (Mk. 7:2-16) and established His Truth claims upon scriptural substantiation in word and in power, as did the early church as it began upon this basis. (Mt. 22:23-45; Lk. 24:27,44; Jn. 5:36,39; Acts 2:14-35; 4:33; 5:12; 15:6-21;17:2,11; 18:28; 28:23; Rm. 15:19; 2Cor. 12:12, etc.)
Meanwhile, as regards Catholicism, scholarly disagreements over the canonicity (proper) of certain books continued down through the centuries and right into Trent, until it provided the first "infallible" (yet faulty) indisputable canon for Catholics - after the death of Luther (whose personal opnion on the canon was not wholly followed in Protestantism)
Yet the Protestant canon is more ancient than that of Rome's, reflecting a more ancient canon held by Palestinian Jews from before the third century, and which is affirmed in Catholicism:
“the protocanonical books of the Old Testament correspond with those of the Bible of the Hebrews, and the Old Testament as received by Protestants.” “...the Hebrew Bible, which became the Old Testament of Protestantism.” (The Catholic Encyclopedia>Canon of the Old Testament) The Protestant canon of the Old Testament is the same as the Palestinian canon. (The Catholic Almanac, 1960, p. 217)
Terry L Smith: "from a church that did not want its followers reading the bible."
"Terry, this idea is mostly myth."
No, that the RCC in general did not want its followers reading the bible is documented. See here and post 8.
"People were mostly illiterate in Early Church.During Peters Time 85% population Could not read nor write ."
Still parroting the same line , despite being shown before that analysis of military records on pottery shows widespread literacy in the ancient Kingdom of Judah 2,500 years ago, and no less than Chrysostom exhorted laity to obtain and study the Scriptures, as not being meant just for the clergy.
"making Sola Scriptura a Non Starter"
Meaning you have a wrong concept of SS despite correction, and you still have not replied to a previous refutation.
"the FIRST thing those who wanted to be outside of the Church did was to start making edits and revisions to this Sacred Bible"
What? A Catholic throwing rocks at edits and revisions to this Sacred Bible? While as show, that the Protestant canon is the most ancient is even affirmed within Catholicism, which added to it, for decades her own official Bible for America (along with its required notes) has been and is a corruption which many Catholics themselves criticize.
Not necessarily, however the NT church did not begin under its alternative of the novel and unScriptural premise of ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility as per Rome, but souls discerned both men and writings of God as being so without such, but not as opposed to or without leadership.
Moreover, the very text that Catholics invoke as proscribing private interpretation does not teach that, and thus this use of it by Catholics examples the very thing that they argue against. For that "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20) is not referring to interpretation of Scripture, but that of the writing of prophecy not being the product of man's own understanding, but to the contrary, that the prophets did not know "what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." - 1 Peter 1:11) Interpret scripture by scripture.
Then why can’t y’all agree on 1 version of the bible??
Why do y’all have to have all that stuff in between the ‘recognized’ OY and NT?
—> Please keep in mind, it was This Church that preserved the Bible through the centuries for you- but NOT so anyone can make all the private interpretation they want.
…..
1. It was God that inspired and preserved His Word.
2/3 before Christmas born.
2. Believers are supposed to interpret His Word and then apply it.
Nothing prohibits interpreting it in Scripture.
—> Yes, of course God was involved in the beginning - though only until Luther pulled rank on God - and made some revisions one thousand years later that God had overlooked.
........
Actually, not remotely true. Even the Jews never accepted the Apocrypha - nor any previous council.
Luther was right on, and this has been examined and confirmed many times since.
And Luther did not take them out of the Canon - but put them together at the end. They remained there to be read - with Luther’s intro.
And it was not Luther alone.
Cardinal Cajetan, and even some of the Catholic scholars at the Council of Trent reject the apocrypha.
We rightly reject them today.
They are interesting to read, but critically, as they do not carry the authority of Scripture.
To whom are you referring?
What are you babbling about now?
I never mentioned the nutjob, Tim Gordon. I was quoting Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
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