The "Mystical" Body of Christ? | Mysticism, Word by Word

[00:00:00]Peace be with you and with your spirit.

[00:00:02]Welcome to another episode of St. Anony's Tongue. I am your host W. Tyler Allen. Today we're going to talk about a phrase that you've probably heard before. You've probably heard it a lot, but chances are you haven't really stopped to think about the phrase. And the phrase is the mystical body of Christ. Often when we use that wording, we're referring to the church. We're saying we are the church. We represent Jesus on earth. We are his hands and feet in the world. And all of that is true. Sure. But why do we call it the mystical body of Christ?

[00:00:39]Cuz we're not calling it the symbolic body of Christ or the metaphorical body of Christ. No, we call it the mystical body of Christ. So that implies that something real and mysterious is happening between Christ and his people.

[00:00:54]Some kind of union.

[00:00:56]So that's what we're discussing today, that word mystical within the phrase the mystical body of Christ. And here in this series, what we do is we casually explore Catholic mystical theology through certain vocabulary words, many of which you've heard throughout your time being a Catholic, but chances are you haven't really stopped to think about them. And I find this to be a really fun and laid-back way to explore Catholic mysticism because there are tons of beautiful words that are full of spiritual fruits and really convey that our faith is not just knowing everything perfectly and getting into heaven or doing everything perfectly and getting into heaven, but the goal of our faith is this union that the mystics of our faith talk about.

[00:01:41]in today's phrase is one that has the word mystic right in there, the mystical body of Christ. So, let's talk about it.

[00:01:52]So, very briefly, let's just do a definition of the standard phrase mystical body of Christ. Let's just do a historic overview, a scriptural overview very quickly and then let's linger on that word mystical.

[00:02:06]So the phrase mystical body of Christ, this would come later, but it's found all throughout scripture and you're probably familiar with this, but it's largely from the writings of St. Paul.

[00:02:17]He often and repeatedly describes the church as a natural body. Christ is the head. We are the members and through the Holy Spirit, many different people become one living body. In first Corinthians, Paul says, "You are Christ's body and individually parts of it.

[00:02:36]Now, you've probably heard that for that quote a lot. But read what he's not saying. St. Paul does not say you are like Christ's body or you are similar to his body. You're a symbolic representation. No, he says you are Christ's body.

[00:02:55]And then he says something similar in Romans. He says, "Though we are many, we are one body in Christ." And strangely we are not only joined to Christ but we become parts of one another.

[00:03:07]And I think this is seen very clearly again with Paul because when Christ appears to Saul then he says Saul Saul why are you persecuting me? At the time Saul is persecuting Christians and Jesus does not say why are you persecuting my people my Christians my followers my friends. No, he says, "Why are you persecuting me?" So that right there tells us that Christ in identifies himself with his people so completely that to wound one Christian is to wound him.

[00:03:44]In the early church, it took this language very seriously. Over time, it began using the phrasing mystical body of Christ. The catechism talks about it as well. By giving us his spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his body those he gathers together.

[00:04:00]So what this means it it's not just saying that Christians should cooperate. It's not just a poetic rendering of unity among amongst Christians. What this is saying is that through the Holy Spirit, through baptism, through grace, through the eukarist, Christ joins his people to himself and to one another as one living body.

[00:04:25]But now, let's talk about how this gets mystical. Because union with Christ, it's never meant to stay private. It draws us into union with everyone who belongs to his body. Let's talk about that now.

[00:04:42]So now let's talk about that word mystical. So we've defined mysticism quite often in this podcast and we actually just did an entire episode where we define the word mysticism because many people think of mysticism and they think of these grandiose encounters. But mysticism is something much more downto-earth. Mysticism is defined as this. This is our working definition. Mysticism is a transformative awareness of God's presence in our lives that increases our love of God and our love of neighbor.

[00:05:15]That's a bit of a mouthful though. So, let's just focus on that word transformative because mysticism is not just becoming more aware of God. Mysticism is becoming changed by the God that we encounter. St. Paul again, he talks about this. He says as we gaze upon the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. So in other words, the goal of the Christian life is not just knowing a lot of facts about Jesus.

[00:05:48]The goal of the Christian life is to be conformed to Christ, to reflect him to the world, to reveal him, to allow his love, his mercy, his humility, his self-giving life to become visible through our own lives.

[00:06:05]And as Catholics, we believe that this transformation is not just symbolic.

[00:06:12]are Eastern Christians including Eastern Catholics. They would call this process of becoming more conformed to the image of Christ as theosis. In the west, Roman Catholics, we do use this term, but we also use the term deification.

[00:06:28]But this is a reminder that our faith isn't just I accept Jesus as my savior straight to heaven. Our faith is about that slow transformation, that slow confirmation to the image of Christ.

[00:06:45]And this reveals itself in many facets.

[00:06:50]First through the sacraments.

[00:06:53]Through baptism, we are joined to Christ's body.

[00:06:57]And then through the eukarist, the union with Christ that we have through baptism, it's renewed. It's strengthened and it's deepened. We call the eukarist communion because we are becoming more unified to Christ in that moment. And through prayer, we are becoming more receptive to his presence. That is why when you read the mystics talking about prayer, prayer is not just a a checklist or it's not just a way to get God to give you what you want. When we talk about the mystics when they discuss contemplative prayer is becoming receptive to his presence which also transforms us. And then there is the way we are transformed that many people overlook but it's acts of charity.

[00:07:42]When we perform acts of charity we begin to learn to love with the love that we have received.

[00:07:50]St. Paul can even say in this moment, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

[00:07:57]And of course when Paul says this, he does not mean that he has disappeared or he stopped becoming Paul. He means that the life of Christ has become so active within him that Christ's own love is beginning to take flesh through his life.

[00:08:15]So the goal of our faith is that transformation, that awareness of God in our life. Yes. But it transforms us. The sacraments, prayer, acts of charity that furthers that deification, that theosis, that sanctification, that confirmation to the image of Christ.

[00:08:35]So we don't just earn our place in Christ's body by doing good things though, but we are transformed by grace.

[00:08:44]And when we do, we begin to live more visibly as his members. When St. Paul talks about the mystical body of Christ, in a nutshell, what he is saying is through grace, through union, through encounter, our hands begin to resemble the head. Our hands begin to resemble Christ.

[00:09:06]When we perform acts of charity with our hands, we become Christ hands on earth.

[00:09:13]When we love selflessly like Christ did, we become the love of Christ on earth.

[00:09:20]His tenderness appears through our tenderness. His care for the wounded becomes visible through the way we care for them.

[00:09:28]Paul says that the whole body grows toward Christ and builds itself up in love. So when we say that we become the hands and feet of Christ here on earth, this is not just a cute metaphor. We are saying that Christ has chosen to continue to make his love tangible through the members of his body. We are already his members. We are already in the mystical body. But through transformation, through prayer, through the sacraments, through love, we begin to look like what we are, which is what?

[00:10:04]The body of Christ.

[00:10:06]St. Augustine said something similar about the Eucharist that I really enjoy.

[00:10:10]Be what you see and receive what you are. In other words, receive the body of Christ become the body of Christ. Let the hidden life of Christ within us become visible in the love that moves between us.

[00:10:27]So, does this mean that Christ is only present in those within the mystical body? Does this mean he's only present within Christians and Catholics so on and so forth? And the answer is no.

[00:10:42]Because we also have to discuss the other place in which Christ says that he can be encountered. And I'm talking about Matthew 25 of course when Jesus says that he is hidden in the wounded.

[00:10:56]Jesus says that when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the prisoner, we are not doing just something kind for another person. He says, "Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." So here we are reminded that Christ also identifies with the forgotten, those in the gutters.

[00:11:22]He's mysteriously present in the body who is hungry, lonely, imprisoned, sick or forgotten. And this is very important. This means the suffering of another person can never be completely separate from us.

[00:11:37]St. Paul says, "If one part suffers, then all the parts suffer with it." So therefore, we are the mystical body of Christ. Yes.

[00:11:46]But guess who else is? The forgotten, the wounded, the suffering. They too are within our own body. They too are our brothers within our own body. So when they suffer, we suffer.

[00:11:59]And we must remember that the wounded people, the forgotten people, they're not interruptions to our spiritual lives.

[00:12:08]The sick, the hungry, the prisoner.

[00:12:14]These are places. These are people in which Christ is waiting to be encountered through.

[00:12:23]And I think this is so important because when I talk about mysticism, I often get people asking, "Wait, I thought mysticism was just the stigmata and interlocations and all of this." And that's that's part of it, sure, but that's tangential.

[00:12:40]Mysticism does not pull us out of the world. Christ himself incarnated in mysticism is revealing mirroring. We must too go out into the world. So mysticism it does not pull us away from the suffering world. It teaches us to recognize the people in the body who are wounded.

[00:13:02]And this idea of finding God in the gutters, finding God in the low places, that is the topic of issue four of my Catholic zen, the margins. The issue is called God in the gutter. Uh a lot of great essays on the mysticism of service, the mysticism of acts of mercy. Also numerous saint profiles. We talk about Dorothy Day to what? John of God, uh, Dolce of the Poor, um, Damian of Makai, a lot of great saints in here. I hope you check out this issue. Um, the reaction to my Zen has been overwhelming. Thank you all who have subscribed to it or have bought individual issues. If you want to support my work and learn more about how God can be found in the low places, check out my latest issue of the margins. God bless.

[00:13:52]So in conclusion, the mystical body of Christ is not merely a poetic way of saying that Christians should stick together. It means that Christ has joined us to himself and through him he has joined us to one another. His life moves through the whole body. His grace transforms us. His love is meant to become visible through us. And his wounds, they still appear in the people that the world overlooks.

[00:14:21]That is why Catholic mysticism can never remain private.

[00:14:25]We can never say that we are becoming more united to Christ while becoming less concerned with the people around us. The closer we move toward the head of the body which is Christ, the more deeply we become connected to the rest of the body. So prayer should make us become more merciful. The Eucharist should make us more aware of the hungry.

[00:14:47]Union with Christ should make the suffering of other people harder to ignore.

[00:14:53]Because the mysticism is not only happening somewhere deep inside of your soul. It's happening between us. Every time grace passes from one member of the body to another. Every time someone is fed, carried, forgiven, welcomed or remembered.

[00:15:09]Every time the hidden Christ within us recognizes the hidden Christ before us.

[00:15:15]The mystical body of Christ means that we are never alone.

[00:15:19]But it also means no one else's wound is entirely someone else's problem. Christ is within us. Christ is between us and Christ is still waiting to be found in the gutters.