Talking about the Body of Christ can be like watching a mind-bending movie. Take the movie Inception for example: It’s about living in a dream within a dream within a dream. For Christians, the “inception” (so to speak) means living as a Body of Christ within the Body of Christ of the Body of Christ. However, unlike a mind-bending movie, Christians have Scripture and Tradition to explain the layers of the body of Christ. To use the already overused term, “unpack,” here is a way to, well, unpack the Body of Christ:
These layers of connection begin with God forming a covenantal relationship with the Hebrews / Israelites, also known as the People of God. Then, through Jesus Christ and his ministry, the People of God are called the Body of Christ. This transformation from People of God to Body of Christ not only represents Christ fulfilling the covenants made with the People of God, but it also weds the Church and its believers to Jesus Christ. This marriage calls Christ’s followers to have an ongoing, communal relationship with God and with each other. Paul is mostly to credit for this imagery, which he uses in a pastoral way to deal with division among Christians in Corinth (McBrien 51, 52).
But the unpacking does not stop there: The Body of Christ has other meanings in Paul’s confirmed and pseudonymous letters: In 1 Corinthians 12:13, Christians are one “body” through their baptism by one Spirit. In Ephesians 5:23, the universal Church is the Body of Christ. And Colossians 3:15 describes the Church as one body where the Holy Spirit dwells (McBrien 52, 53).
Yet there is one more layer to unpack: the Body of Christ’s relationship to sacraments. Much of this involves the early Christian’s liturgical practices — especially the Eucharist’s role in them. It started with viewing Christians as visible members of the Body of Christ. This also means that early Christians were a community. Within this community, as Paul explains to the Corinthians, Jesus is both the founder of it and in the community itself (Tkacik 43). Therefore, when partaking in the Eucharist as a communal meal, Christians are not only a community within the Body of Christ, but also become one with become one Body *with* Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16-17; McBrien 52).
As the old saying goes: clear as mud? Or at least clearer than Inception?
Works Cited
McBrien, Richard P. The Church. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008.
Tkacik, Michael J., and Thomas M. McGonigle, O.P. Pneumatic Correctives: What is the Spirit Saying to the Church of the 21st Century? Lanham: University Press of America, 2007.