Christ’s Mystical Body
Fr. Dwight Campbell
01/26/2025
Homily 3rd Sunday Yr C: Christ’s Mystical Body: What It Means for Us
In 538 B.C. the Persians had defeated the Babylonians, and their great King, Cyrus, freed the Jews from their 70 year captivity.
The historical setting for our first reading is 5th c. B.C., after the Jews had returned to Jerusalem.
The priest, Ezra, opens the scroll and reads the Law of Moses to all the people – the first 5 books of the Bible – and interprets it for them; then all the people prostrate themselves with their faces to the ground out of reverence for God’s holy word. In fact, this Sunday we honor the word of God in Scripture.
We can compare this event with today’s gospel from St. Luke: Jesus has just begun his public ministry and he returns to Nazareth, where he grew up, and enters the synagogue.
Like Ezra, Jesus was handed a scroll – a from the prophet Isaiah; and he reads these verses: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind.”
Like Ezra, Jesus interprets these words, and tells the people listening, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” – in other words, “I am the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, of whom the Prophet Isaiah spoke.”
Jesus came to bring the good news of salvation to all peoples of all nations, and to free us from our slavery to sin and the devil. He is the true light that came into the world, to enlighten our minds with the promise of the truth about God and His plan of salvation for us.
Part of that plan of salvation includes the Church. Jesus founded the Church on Peter and the Apostles to be the vehicle, or means, of salvation for all.
On the one hand, Jesus instituted the Church as a visible hierarchy, like a pyramid:
At the top is Peter, the first Pope, and his successors in office, to whom He gave supreme authority as the visible Head – and Vicar, or personal representative – of Christ on earth.
Beneath the Pope are the bishops, who are successors to the Apostles.
To both the Pope and bishops, Jesus gave power/authority to teach, to govern, and finally, to sanctify the faithful through the administration of the Sacraments.
On the other hand, the Catholic Church is also an invisible reality; it is Christ’s Mystical Body, with Jesus as the invisible Head, who reigns in Heaven; and all of us, the baptized, as the members, or parts, of Christ’s Body.
The teaching about the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ comes from St. Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles.
How did St. Paul come up with the idea of the Church as the Body of Christ?
I believe it was at his conversion, on the road to Damascus to arrest Christians, when Jesus Christ knocked him down and spoke these words to him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Paul answered, “Who are you Lord?”, and Jesus answered: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”
By persecuting Christians, Saul – who later became Paul – was in reality persecuting Jesus Himself.
By the way, yesterday, Jan. 25, was the feast day of St. Paul’s conversion.
In our second reading today, St. Paul, in First Epistle to the Corinthians, describes the operations of the members of Christ’s Body, the Church.
“You are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it,” he says.
He then stresses that all of us perform different functions within the Church, the Body of Christ, and that all these different parts are important and must work together for the building up of the Body/the Church to function correctly.
For example, the ear cannot say “Because I am not the eye, I do not belong to the body”; and the eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.”
No, all the members or parts of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, must work together. As St. Paul says, “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”
What is most important to realize, however, is that all of us – every single member of Christ’s Body, the Church – must strive to be like Jesus, our Head; to conform ourselves more and more into His image and likeness.
For example, Jesus tells us, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart”; He exhorts us, “Take up your cross and follow me”; and He reminds us, “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Transformation into Christ is our chief goal as Christians, as followers of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
Another way of saying this: We are all called to holiness, to be saints, and Jesus is our supreme Model. The big Q: How do we accomplish this holy task?
First, the Eucharist: We receive Jesus, His Body and Blood, in order that we might become like Him Whom we have received. With every Holy Communion we should strive to become more and more like Jesus!
Also, based on the insights of great saints & mystics throughout the ages, the Church teaches that a most effective way to become transformed into Jesus – to think and act as He did – is to go to His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This only makes sense, because Mary formed Jesus, the Head of the Body, in her womb; therefore as our spiritual Mother, she forms us, who are members of Christ’s Body.
Just listen the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting the words of the Second Vatican Council: “Jesus is Mary’s only Son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed He came to save: ‘The Son whom she brought forth is He whom God placed as the firstborn among many brethren, that is, the faithful, in whose generation and formation she cooperates with a mother’s love’” (CCC 501).
Yes, a mother conceives and gives birth to her children, and forms their character, their minds and hearts. This is precisely what Mary does for us, her spiritual children.
At the foot of the Cross, the Blessed Virgin Mary, by suffering with her Son Jesus in redeeming the human race, conceived all of us spiritually, in her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.
Hear the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: In describing Mary’s “role in relation to the Church and to all humanity,” the Catechism teaches:
“In a wholly singular way, Mary cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace” (CCC 968); “Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix” (CCC 969).
And here I’m going to quote from the words of Jesus Himself, spoken to the great Mexican mystic, Bl. Concepción Cabrera de Armida – known as “Conchita,” who was a simple housewife and mother nine children:
“At the foot of the Cross Mary saw the Church being born and in St. John [the Apostle] she accepted into her Heart all humanity as its Mother.
“With the martyrdom of solitude she obtained, in union with My merits, all the graces for her children who had just been born in her Heart on Calvary.”
If we want to become more like Jesus, we must go to Mary.
If we desire to be transformed more and more into the image of her Son, we must go to His Mother – our spiritual Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
If we long to be the saints that God created us to be, and conform our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we must consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and thereby enter into His Heart, through hers.