Pope Francis reflects on the Church as the Body of Christ
October 22, 2014
Continuing his series of Wednesday catecheses on the Church, Pope Francis devoted his October 22 general audience to the Church as the Body of Christ.
Recalling the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, the Pope described the Church as “the masterpiece of the Spirit, which instills in each of us new life of the risen Christ and places us next to each other, to help and support each other, thus making all us one body, built in the communion and love.”
Baptism, he continued, incorporates us into this Body. “In the sacrament of Baptism, in fact, Christ makes us His, welcoming us into the heart of the mystery of the Cross, the supreme mystery of His love for us, to make us rise again with Him as new creatures,” he said.
Referring to the divisions St. Paul sought to address in Corinth, the Pontiff warned against envy and jealousy.
“And a jealous heart is a bitter heart, a heart that instead of blood seems to have vinegar,” he said. “It is a heart that is never happy, it is a heart that disrupts the community. But what should I do? Appreciate the gifts and the qualities of others in our communities, of our brothers.”
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Posted by: -
Oct. 22, 2014 4:06 PM ET USA
". . . the Church recognizes herself as the body of Christ," says the Pope. For me this sheds new light on the Eucharist. Baptism brings us into the Church. The Church is Christ's body, "the Word (God) becomes flesh," God indeed needs more than human food, human drink. And He gives Himself to us, who are now His body, so that His body can have "food indeed,. . . drink indeed, . . .and except (we do that), we have no life in (us)." Without the Eucharist, Christ's body, the Church, is dead.
