The Church is Christ

To a Catholic there is nothing credible in the Church apart from Christ who lives in it. If we did not believe that our Lord was God, if we said that he was only a good man, we would never believe in the Eucharist or the Trinity. If we believed that Jesus was simply a human being who perished in the dust, we would not believe in the forgiveness of sins. But we know that our Lord once taught, governed, and sanctified through a physical body which he took through his Mother, and now we know that he continues to teach and govern and sanctify in the mystical body which he took from the womb of humanity. His first body was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit; his mystical body was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  Therefore we accept every single word of his-not just what his secretaries wrote, but we receive his living words, living through the centuries. You have heard it said, “I want no church standing between me and Christ.” There is no Church standing between us and Christ. The Church is Christ, for the Church no more stands between him and us than my body stands between me and my invisible mind. The Church is what St. Augustine called the totus Christus--the whole Christ-and therefore his truth living through the ages. Thank God for your faith, your faith in the Person of Christ who is the eternal contemporary.