Embedded Files
Quinn Sullivan (Theology and Religious Studies, 2026)
Christ prophesied to the crowd “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32 RSV-CE). This “lifting up” is a prophecy of the Crucifixion but can also be seen as pointing towards the Ascension, where he is once again “lifted up,” only this time into Heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. From there Christ continues drawing all people back to himself, now through his Church. This Church is called the “Mystical Body” because of Christ’s permeation throughout all who are called into the fold. In addition, as Jean Corbon points out, the Church also has a virginal birth, brought about by the power of the third Person of the Trinity: “On this Pentecost morning the Holy Spirit has just brought forth virginally the body of Christ that is made up of men.”1 In both instances there is a unity achieved between the Divine and human natures.
The Church is also called the Bride of Christ because marriage itself mirrors the relationship between God and His people. Just as in marriage, two become one flesh, so Christ and his Church are one as well. Although the bonds of marriage between mere humans dissolve with death, the unity between the Church and Christ is unending. So it is appropriate that the Church is referred to as both body and bride. In this unity, God wishes to communicate himself to us in a manner that the human intellect can properly receive. In communicating himself to the Church, both through the Incarnation and at Pentecost, he does so with the intention that men may resemble him, Creator and Sanctifier, more and more so long as they cooperate with these channels of grace.
"He does so as not to give the false idea that his kingdom is a worldly one, instead choosing to work through men he had called to himself."
This “drawing” of all things to himself is the work he does continuously. Corbon states that “The Lord has not gone away to rest from his redemptive toil; his ‘work’ (Jn 5:17) continues, but now at the Father’s side” Christ’s work does not stop at the Crucifixion nor even the Ascension.2 In both cases, the world had not yet received the fullness of revelation. After the Resurrection, Christ prepares the Apostles to continue his work and ascends to the Father. He does so as not to give the false idea that his kingdom is a worldly one, instead choosing to work through men he had called to himself. Again, because of this the Church is aptly called the Mystical Body of Christ because it continues his own ministry on earth, and because it is not the men alone who constitute the Church doing the work but Christ himself who works through them.
The symbolism of the wellspring and the Church as the body are intertwined because both illustrate that there is life wherever there is a connection to the source. The waters of a spring nurture life wherever they flow, and give life to anyone who gathers its waters. Likewise each member of a body “is nonetheless alive only because it is connected with the body.”3 A body part only has life in it when it is connected to the whole. The body gives each part its life and if one part of the body is cut off, it loses both life and function. With the Church, Christ’s own life “permeates his whole Body and nourishes and sustains each member according to the place they occupy in the body.”4
The image of the spring continues: “The body of Christ from which the liturgy spreads out into the world has existence prior to the members who unite themselves to it.”5 The Church has existence prior to her members because it is of Christ’s making, and therefore the liturgy which comes from the Church is not made by the members. As Corbon says “People do not invent the liturgy and therefore do not invent the Church.”6 Both the Church and the liturgy is entirely Christ’s own and the work done in the liturgy is done by Christ. Joseph Ratzinger repeats this idea as well: “Into his body [Christ] incorporates men.”7 It is through the sacraments that men become incorporated into this Mystical Body.
That the sacraments are Christ’s own doing is no idea of Corbon or Ratzinger, but is instead the constant teaching of the Church, expressed in the phrase “Ex Opere Operato.” This may present a challenge for those who do not fully grasp the nature of sacramental efficacy. They may ask: “I see and hear the minister say the words and confer the sacraments, how is it Christ working and not the minister?” Or, for someone who is particularly indignant: “why should I confess to a Priest? He’s no better than me, if anything he’s worse!” We can best answer these questions by employing St. Thomas’s wisdom, though simplifying his technical language where necessary.
Firstly we must keep in mind what Ratzinger says about liturgy, that “it is the tabernacle that no human hands have made.”8 No human hands have made the sacraments, for they are entirely God’s own work. This is because “the sanctification of man is in the power of God Who sanctifies, it is not for man to decide what things should be used for his sanctification.”9 Sanctification is simply not within mankind’s power. It is far beyond man and is a power that belongs to God alone. Because of this, the methods of sanctification as well as the symbols and formulas they use are determined purely by Divine Institution. Since it is God who sanctifies via use of the sacraments, one may ask, what the role of the minister is. Again we can turn to St. Thomas, who says that “a minister is of the nature of an instrument.”10 God is the principle cause of the sacramental effect, but he chooses to confer the sacraments through the minister who acts as an instrument. The sacraments are conferred this way because men discover the unknown by means of what is known,11 so man gains knowledge of the invisible by means of the visible. Corbon is in agreement with this, when discussing Pentecost he says that the descent of the Holy Spirit makes the Church the “visible, present, accessible fountainhead given to men in order that they may be able to see, hear, and touch the Word of life.”12
Here can be seen where certain problems begin with respect to the conferral of the sacraments today. According to St. Thomas, a minister can confer the sacraments even if there are certain imperfections in the way the words are said. It is reassuring that so long as an omission or addition in the formula “does not destroy the essential sense of the words,”13 the sacrament is conferred. This is because God understands human weakness. However, it is no mere mistake when ministers or laymen take it upon themselves to make “creative” additions to the liturgy, often with no approval from a superior. As the Church herself commands: “Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.”14 This seems to be the constant teaching of the Church, that in order to worship correctly man must worship the way God asks him to. Once again this is because mankind is unable to sanctify himself, but it is God who sanctifies.
Even bearing certain abuses in mind, one can always be thankful that God provides. With the liturgy that is exactly what he does. As stated before, the liturgy is the continuous “drawing” of man back to God himself. This “drawing” is symbolized by a spring whose source begins from the Crucifixion and its endless merits which then spreads throughout the world, giving life wherever it goes and to whomever drinks its waters. With the sacraments of initiation, baptism and confirmation, Christ brings humanity into his body. With the Eucharist, Christ gives them his own body to consume and make part of themselves. With Christ himself being the fullness of revelation, we can conclude that God wishes to invite mankind back into the inner life of the blessed Trinity.
"This 'drawing' is symbolized by a spring whose source begins from the Crucifixion and its endless merits which then spreads throughout the world, giving life wherever it goes and to whomever drinks its waters."
This invitation, calling or drawing, is all part of the grand return, or reunion of the creature with the Creator. Ratzinger observes that “God’s free act of creation, is indeed, ordered towards the reditus”15 From the moment creatures begin their existence, also known as the ‘going out’ or exitus in this grand cycle, they are ordered back towards their origin. However, just because of the fall, or even in spite of the fall, God does not wish to destroy what he has made, but seeks to make it whole. “This reditus is a ‘return,’ but it does not abolish creation; rather, it bestows its full and final perfection.”16 God’s presence within something does not annihilate it, but further perfects it. He, as Creator, makes something more of what it is instead of less.
Corbon elaborates on this idea but in a more mystical sense. He says of the Ascension that it is “the reflux of the river of life to its fountainhead.”17 He also says it is “the return of the Word to the heart of the Father” and the “return of the Son—and all others in him—to the Father’s house.”18 This “reflux” and the creature’s own “return” are connected because men are called to imitate Christ in his life and death. Christ’s own bodily resurrection looks forward to the general resurrection of the body when he will bring men back into the Father’s dwelling place. Mankind is sent out when they are created and from the beginning of their existence they are called to return. This grand re-union also makes its appearance once again in the symbol of marriage. As Corbon states, heaven “is the feast, the banquet, even the marriage of the beloved and his bride.”19 Once again the Church is both body and bride of Christ, a union of the divine and human natures reflective of the Person of Christ. He, as one unified Person, represents as a microcosm the whole of reality, in relationship with the Father, the relationship between his natures, and his own relationship with the Church.
End Notes
1 Corbon, Jean, and Matthew J. O'Connell. The Wellspring of Worship, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), 73.
2 Corbon. The Wellspring of Worship, 61.
3 Corbon. The Wellspring of Worship, 74.
4 Pius XII. "Mystici Corporis Christi." The Holy See. Accessed October 7, 2024. https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061943_mystici-corporis-christi.html, 55.
5 Corbon, The Wellspring of Worship, 75.
6 Corbon. The Wellspring of Worship, 75.
7 Ratzinger, Joseph, Rober Sarah, and Romano Guardini. The Spirit of the Liturgy -- Commemorative Edition, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2020), 57.
8 Ratzinger, Sarah, and Guardini. The Spirit of the Liturgy, 57.
9 St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, (Westminster, Md: Christian Classics, 1981), 2342.
10 St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, 2361.
11 St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, 2340.
12 Corbon. The Wellspring of Worship, 74.
13 St. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, 2345.
14 "Sacrosanctum Concilium." The Holy See. Accessed October 7, 2024. http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html., 22.
15 Ratzinger, Sarah, and Guardini. The Spirit of the Liturgy, 46.
16 Ratzinger, Sarah, and Guardini. The Spirit of the Liturgy, 47.
17 Corbon. The Wellspring of Worship, 67.
18 Corbon. The Wellspring of Worship, 67.
19 Corbon. The Wellspring of Worship, 67.
Report abuse