The Church as Body of Christ/ Sacrament/ Mystical Communion
The Church as Body of Christ is characteristically a conception of Pauline theology, with numerous Scriptural references. (45) It is a strong image of such essential features of the church as Christ being the head and the dependence of each member of the church on each other. The Church as Sacrament, on the other hand, is a relatively new concept. (46) The Church is the Sacrament of Christ in the same way that Christ is the Sacrament of God. By definition, a sacrament is more than a sign of grace; it is a full sign, meaning in it is the grace which it signifies. With this model, the goal of the church is made clear: 'to purify and intensify man's response to the grace of Christ.' (47) The Church as a mystical communion speaks about the other side of the institutional church - that the Church is a not just a Gemeinschaft (society) but also a Gesellschaft (community). Such a model emphasises the vertical dimension of 'divine life disclosed in the incarnate Christ and communicated to men through his Spirit' rather than the horizontal aspect of a secular community. (48)
Although these three models are used separately, they supplement each other. Of these three ecclesiological models, it is not apparent that St Francis subscribed to one in particular. Actually, one aspect of Francis' understanding of the Church refers to a combination of these models. The great Eucharistic devotion in Francis' spirituality can be a source for ecclesiological investigation in connection with these three models. "This is even more true with postconciliar ecclesiology. Before analysing his version, these three are treated separately.
Lumen gentium points out, with the model of the Church as mystical communion, that: 'Celebrating the Eucharistic sacrifice, therefore, we are most closely united to the worshipping Church in heaven [...].'(49) Bekes proposes that before the Church celebrates the Eucharist, it is the Eucharist that makes the Church. An examination of the origins of the Eucharist, particularly that of the Passover meal being constitutive of the ecclesial community, makes clear the two aspects of the essence of the Church. There is a vertical sense: divine communion through Christ in the Spirit with the Father, and a horizontal sense: human and ecclesial communion with all those who live in divine communion. (50) This thesis combines two models together: the vertical sense emphasises the sacramentality of the Church whereas the horizontal sense highlights the communion of the Church. Compared with Hamer's concept of vertical and horizontal dimensions of communion, (51) Bekes' thesis is more transcendent and integrates the mystery of the Church better, as the following diagram represents.
DIVINE COMMUNION |
DIVINE COMMUNION |
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Human Communion (Secular) |
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Human Communion of Those who Share the Same Divine Communion |
COMMUNION MODEL |
EUCHARISTIC MODEL |
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No wonder the New Catechism states that "The Church is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. (CCC 752)' This is just another interpretation of what is said in the Vatican II documents: 'Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with him and with one another.' (52) This postconciliar ecclesiology centred on the Eucharist has the breadth of being integrative. Diagrammatically, one can draw:
Three separate ecclesiologies
Body Of Chritst |
Communion |
Sacrament |
An inegrated ecclesiology
Eucharist |
= |
Communion |
+ |
Sacrament |
Such Eucharistic ecclesiology perhaps is paradigmatic as not only the communion and the sacrament models can be integrated, but also the models of Church as Body of Christ and as the community of disciples. For instance: "The divine and human communion is the theandric unity of Christ as brought about mystically in his body, which is the Church.' (53) "The community of disciples encounters Jesus under the symbolic forms as the crucified and risen Lord, and thus as the sacrifice that reconciles sinners to God.' (54)
Now with a Eucharistic understanding of what the Church is, everything which Francis has written about the Eucharist may suitably become ecclesiological. For instance, piety towards the Eucharist in reality reflects the sacramentality part of the vertical mystery: the presence of Christ in the Church through the Eucharist.
"Therefore, kissing your (brothers') feet and with all that love of which I am capable, I implore all of you brothers to show all possible reverence and honour to the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ...
O admirable heights and sublime lowliness!
O sblime humility!
O humble sublimity!
That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under the little form of bread. (55)
And the Lord gave me such faith in churches that I would simply pray and speak in this way: 'We adore you, Lord Jesus Christ, in all Your churches throughout the world, and we bless You, for through Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.' [...] I see nothing corporally of the Most High Son of God in this world except His Most holy Body and Blood... (56)
[See,] daily He comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the altar in the hands of the priest. [...] And in this way the Lord is always with His faithful, as He Himself says: "Behold I am with you even to the end of the world." (57)
Likewise the mystical communion ('horizontal' for Bekes but 'vertical' for Hamel), finds its expression in the fraternal ideal of St Francis for his brotherhood -- as well as for the Church, humankind and finally the whole creation. One particular actualisation -- more on the human relationship level -- is the concern for showing mercy and compassion in dealing with brothers who have sinned. Such clemency waseven written into the Rule -- not so much as a legal requirement but a form of life: If [...] there should be some brother who wishes to live according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, the brothers with whom he is [living] should admonish, instruct and correct him humbly and diligently.' (58) Stretching the evangelical fraternity to a mystical communion level, Francis even asked of the Ministers, as Jesus asked of Peter on forgiveness: 'And if [the brother who has sinned and hasbeen forgiven] should sin thereafter a thousand times before your very eyes, love him more than me so that you may draw him back to the Lord.' (59)
"These quotes are not simply indicative of a medieval Eucharistic piety or a radical evangelical movement. They are representative of a sense of:
the sacramental presence of Christ in the mystery of the Church in a vertical direction; and,
agape within a fellowship in a horizontal direction. These are the two aspects of a Franciscan ecclesiology of Eucharist. As Bekes observed, the two are linked: 'the very mystery of divine redemption is made sacramentally present and constantly accomplished within the Christian community.' (60)