Our understanding of Church affects our overall understanding of Christ, and all our theology that stems from this understanding, for indeed the Church is the body of Christ.
Understanding the Church – January 2nd, 2019
Ecclesiology is the Theology of our faith concerning the Church. As we believe that the Church is the body of Christ (and the vehicle of Holy Revelation), the understanding of Christ goes hand in hand with our understanding of the Church. Likewise, an improper view, treatment, and understanding of the Church can affect our beliefs and understanding of Christ. This is a malady of the Christian faith I believe we witness today across the Protestant milieu.
The Church is a divine-human organism, meaning that it is both equally and fully human and divine. Within the Church is contained the fullness of God, and the fullness of man, “but also in the frailty and brokenness and insufficiencies of man, and in that sense the Church is already at home and still becoming.” (1) It is within the Church that man encounters God, both spiritually and physically through her sacraments. It is through man’s participation with the divine nature of Christ, and the sacramental life and rhythm of the Church. that man is healed of his infirmities and becomes that which he was created to be. (1) It is within the Church that man encounters God, both spiritually and physically through her sacraments. It is through man’s participation with the divine nature of Christ, and the sacramental life and rhythm of the Church. that man is healed of his infirmities and becomes that which he was created to be.
We are summoned into this Church by Christ through the grace of God into an eschatological path of asceticism and denial of self. It is within the Church that the disciples of Christ are “ingodded” through the sacramental life of the Church, wherein we attain a better understanding into the fullness of Christ, his teachings, the Law of the Spirit of Life, and the Love of God. It is within the sacraments of the Church, more importantly the Divine mystery of our faith, that the Catholicity of the Church is fully expressed. For, the Church is the bride of Christ, a mystical union of the divine and the human, of Christ and his followers, united to Him in faith and participation in His divine will (for those who love him obey His commandments), as well as a partaking and participation with His body and blood, the spiritual food and medicine for our souls, for indeed whoever eats of His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, and will be raised up in the last day.(2) By this partaking and participation, the Church is a theanthropic (divine-human) communion of Jesus Christ with his people.
By this partaking and participation, the Church is a theanthropic (divine-human) communion of Jesus Christ with his people.
Why is there a tendency to force an ecclesiological Nestorianism upon the Church, with an overemphasis on the “invisible Church,” or the “spiritual nature” of the Church, by which all are supposedly in unity; yet, there is a rejection of the physical and manifest aspects – the human parts and expressions of the Church, and the teaching and understanding of her faith – in which there is great disunity? The overarching view is that we are united in spirit, a part of the invisible Church, but ignore the disunity and disagreements in theology, teaching, and overall praxis of faith as though it did not matter. This flies in the face of what Paul spoke to in first Corinthians, when he urged them all to be of one mind, and one accord.
An improper understanding and treatment of the Church will lead to an improper understanding and treatment of Christ, for the Church is the body of Christ, and it is through the Church by which we come to Him, and our understanding of Him.
*
1 Metropolitan Anthony Bloom. God and Man. (Crestwood, New York: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997),
2 Ibid.