Mystici Corporis Christi
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Born in Rome in 1877 and elected to the Papacy in 1939, Eugenio Pacelli, or Pope Pius XII shall always be remembered as one of our most remarkable Pontiffs. Pius XII who is often referred to as the ‘Pope of the Liturgy’ due to his strong defence of the Sacred Liturgy (most notably through his encyclical Mediator Dei, 1947) devoted much of his teachings to promulgating piety to the Blessed Virgin. Famously, in 1950, he solemnly and infallibly defined the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin as a dogma of the Catholic faith (Bull, Munificentissimus Deus).
On a more controversial level, Pius XII has infamously been branded a ‘Nazi sympathiser’ and ‘anti-Semite’. These charges are frequently unleashed by individuals who, for many reasons (e.g. Rome’s position on abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality…) bear a grudge against the Papacy. In the case of Catholics holding such views, we usually find that this is due to indoctrination at the hands of those with a liberal agenda, especially prevalent amongst the independent Catholic media, who desire to smash open the Vatican permitting the laity to take over. Some Liberal lay Catholics, I believe, will not be happy until they are saying mass themselves, for even as it is they rule, with a rod of iron, most parishes! The Papacy has been attacked throughout history and always will be, but the lies levelled at His holiness Pius XII are especially vitriolic.
It is well documented that, from the beginning of his papacy until well beyond his death in 1958, Pius XII was honoured with heartfelt warmth by Jewish leaders around the world. Albert Einstein and Israeli Prime ministers Golda Meir and Moshe Sharett famously praised him as a ‘righteous gentile’. The communist propaganda of Stalinist Russia started much of the negative sentiment with which we are so familiar today. It put huge emphasis upon denigrating the Catholic hierarchy of Central and Eastern Europe. A later generation diseased with cynicism and a need for tabloid sensationalism has further embraced these slurs dealing Pius XII a number of fictitious and callous blows. Financial greed has certainly played a large part in the publication of the pitiful and fanciful tomes produced in recent years on the subject of Pius XII’s wartime actions. When it comes to ‘bestsellers’ if it is not UFOs then it is Nazi Popes.
However, our discussion in this instance relates to Pope Pius XII’s significant encyclical published on the 29th June 1943 at St. Peter’s, in which he talks in depth of the Church as the ‘Mystici Corporis Christi’ (The mystical body of Christ).
The analogy between an institution or a society and an organism is manifest. In all institutions the constituent members are, at least notionally, united to achieve a common goal. Invariably there exist sub-groups, each performing their own specific function, much akin to the organs of the body. This notion can equally be applied to the Church. Here however, the unity between the members is not merely functional or moral, but Mystical. This concept is deeply ingrained in scripture (1) ‘Christ’, says Paul, ‘is the head of the body of the Church’ (2), one which is in unity, ‘though many we are one body in Christ’ (3).
In his encyclical, Pius XII continues this theme describing the ‘multiplicity of members’ that constitute the Church as almost anatomically bonded, ‘when one member suffers, all the other members share its pain… so in the Church the individual members do not live for themselves alone…[but] work in mutual collaboration for the common comfort and for the more perfect building up of the whole Body’ (paragraph 15 Mystici Corporis Christi). He then resumes, again working upon the bodily analogy, to expound the characteristic of ‘hierarchy’ that exists within the body of the Church by again quoting Paul, ‘As in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office…’ (4). However, even upon declaring the reality of the clerical Hierarchy, His Holiness clearly points out the importance that all members have in spreading the ‘kingdom of the divine redeemer’, ‘…fathers and mothers…those who are godparents…members of the laity who collaborate with the ecclesiastical hierarchy’ (par.17). He later stresses the importance of the Church militant specifically in that ‘the salvation of many depends’ (par.44) upon their daily petitions and voluntary penances; it goes without saying that the Holy Mass is the chief means by which the faithful can assist the Church and therefore the Supreme Pontiff ‘lest he be overwhelmed by the burden of his pastoral office’ (par.44). As we witness the focal point in our lives as Catholics, the Sacrifice on Calvary on our high altars, we the faithful are able ‘[to] offer to the Eternal Father a most acceptable victim of praise and propitiation for the needs of the whole Church’ (par.82).
Just as the human body requires the nutritive means to survive, so the Church is nourished by our Lord, when he ‘provided in a wonderful way…endowing it with the sacraments so…its members should be sustained from birth to death’ (par.18). This process by which the Mother Church clenches her young to her bosom starts with the purifying, flowing waters of baptism and ends with the ‘spiritual medicine’ (par.19) provided at the deathbed (extreme Unction).
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One of the most important messages of His Holiness’ encyclical is that in order to belong to the Church there are three requirements: baptism (par.18), acceptance of the juridical unity of the Church (par.22) and the profession of the True faith (par.69). With this of course non-Catholics are excluded from belonging to the Church. Many argue, especially in this ‘inter-faith ecumenical’ climate, that this is a rather narrow description. Many in the Clergy and myself, would suggest that it is in fact a robust and theologically solid position. Nevertheless, adopting an ‘ecumenical bridge-building’ vain, the Second Vatican Council introduced the concept of ‘the People of God’, in which non-Catholics are not ordered to the Mystical Body but are already members of it. This tone is adopted by the Dogmatic Constitution ‘Lumen Genitum’, which states that the Church founded by Christ exists in (subsistit) the Catholic Church without excluding ‘separated churches’. This is subtly in comparison to Pius XII’s teaching that the Church of Christ is (est) the Catholic Church. He found it impossible to include politically and heretically established churches within the same sphere as those formed by the Son of God.
Also discussed are the realities of those who make up the membership. That is to say that they are human and consequently prone to all the failings and downfalls of human nature. This is especially pertinent when we are exposed to tales of sins committed by members of the Body, sometimes alas Clergy: ‘[i]t is owing to the Saviour’s infinite mercy that place is allowed in His Mystical Body here below for those whom, of old, He did not exclude from the banquet. For not every sin, however grave it may be, is such as of its own nature to sever a man from the Body of the Church’ (par. 23). When acting in this manner the Church is often accused of ‘closing ranks’ and ‘appeasing evil’, but in fact forgiveness is precisely what our Lord taught, and what Pius XII reiterates, ‘[if] some of her members are suffering from spiritual maladies, that is no reason why we should lessen our love for the Church, but rather a reason why we should increase our devotion to her members’ (par.66). As her children, undying obedience to the Church, is of course our duty. Though at times surrendering to her rules may prove challenging, due to our inherently fallen nature, we must attempt to bring our ‘bod[ies] into subjection through voluntary mortification (5)’ (par.92).
It is somewhat facile, and of course inaccurate, to think of the Church as a body in the same vein in which we would use an analogy for any secular, man-made institution. The Church as the Body of Christ is more than a mere analogy, since the Church was born of our Saviour’s flesh as was put to death on Calvary, and the militant making up the body are bound to it by the workings of Holy Ghost: ‘[f]or the Divine Redeemer began the building of the mystical temple of the Church when by His preaching He made known His Precepts; He completed it when he hung glorified on the Cross; and He manifested and proclaimed it when He sent the Holy Ghost as Paraclete in visible form on His disciples’ (par.26). We therefore bring to mind Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, as a highly significant event. For it was on this day that Christ strengthened the Church which he had already founded by his own flesh and blood. Pius XII draws a parallel here between the Transfiguration (the culmination of Christ’s public life) and the day of Pentecost, ‘[f]or while fulfilling His office as preacher He chose Apostles, sending them as He had been sent by the Father’ (par.27).
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As we state through our declaration of the Nicene Creed, Christ is both true man and true God, encapsulating both divine and human nature. Understanding the figure of Christ requires us to appreciate him as being both of Man and God. It is for this reason that Pope Pius XII talks of the Church as being both a visible and invisible communion, since Christ is the head of His Mystical Body. Christ oversees his Church in a highly visible manner which he allowed through the appointment of his Vicar on earth, ‘[s]ince He was all wise He could not leave the body of the Church He had founded as a human society without a visible head’ (par.40). Obedience to the Pontiff is therefore what Christ desires, since it is through his Vicar, the Supreme Pontiff, that Christ governs His Church. This most certainly does not imply that there are two heads of the Church, ‘[f]or Peter in view of his primacy is only Christ’s Vicar; so that there is only one chief Head of this Body, namely Christ…’(par.40). It is rightly taught therefore that not adhering faithfully to Christ’s Vicar maims the Mystical body and in fact defies Christ’s will. Breaking with Rome is therefore a truly grave offence against Christ.
In the increasingly secular society in which we live, the Church is under continual assault. This may be a subtle process; to take an obvious example, throughout the world we see Catholic members of Parliament voting for and often introducing legislation that runs quite against those moral teachings that emanate from Rome. Here the Church’s own body attempts to denigrate her. Those who are members of the Church and yet conspire against her commit a serious and brutal crime. Here in his encyclical, Pius XII makes the following comment regarding such instances, ‘[i]t is the will of Jesus Christ that the whole body of the Church, no less than the individual members, should resemble Him… What wonder then, if, while on this earth she, like Christ, suffers persecutions, insults and sorrows’ (par.47).
Thus far we have taken it somewhat for granted that we employ the term ‘Mystical’ in our description. The encyclical clearly tells us that, unsurprisingly, the Church should be called Mystical, since we must make a distinction between the body of the Church whose head is Christ and the physical body of Christ ‘which, born of the Virgin Mother of God, now sits at the right hand of the Father and is hidden under the Eucharistic veils (in the blessed host — i.e. a reference to the Real Presence)…’ (par.60).
The role of the Holy Ghost, which is earlier referred to as the ‘Soul’ (par.57) of the Church as taught by His Holiness Leo XIII, is again given as another way in which the Mystical Body differs from any physical or moral body. This internal principle ‘exists effectively in the whole and in each of its parts’ and consequently that binding force is ‘vastly superior to whatever bonds of union may be found in a…moral body’ (par.62) because of the Church’s divine, rather than manmade, constitution.
As already established, the members of the Mystical Body have in common the same profession of faith and hope in Christ. However this loyalty ought not be solely to Christ and there must exist also charity towards our fellow brethren. As His Holiness states, ‘[h]ow can we claim to love the Divine Redeemer, if we hate those whom He has redeemed with His precious blood…’ (par.74). It is in this same vain of charity that we pray for all the members of the Mystical body on earth and also those who have not yet received their heavenly reception as they languish in purgatory under the weight of their sinful souls: ‘[o]ur united prayer should rise daily to heaven for all the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ; first for Bishops… then for priests and religious… No member of this venerated Body must be forgotten…’ (par.101). Our prayers must also be offered for our separated brethren, whose eyes we must long to have blinded by the light of Christ, bringing them in from the darkness; ‘may they together with us run on to the one Head in the Society of glorious love. Persevering in prayer to the Spirit of love and truth, We wait for them with open and outstretched arms to come not to a stranger’s house, but to their own, their father’s home’ (par.103).
The Blessed Virgin’s role in the Church is clear, since she was the mother of our Head, She is hence the mother of all His members. Pius XII recounts beautifully that ‘[i]t was she, the second Eve, who, free from all sin, original or personal, and always more intimately united with her Son, offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father for all the children of Adam…’ (par.110). Since the Church was born from the side of our Lord on the cross, we see Our Lady as sharing an intimate role in that process. Therefore the Church must be viewed in light of Our Lord’s incarnation, since it was at this point that Our Lord flooded the Virgin’s womb with his divinity, whilst taking flesh from Her. It is for this very reason that at the last Gospel (John, 1, 1–14) during the Traditional mass, we kneel at the words ‘et verbum caro factum est’ (and the word was made flesh).
Let us never talk of the Church as a mere institution whose teachings are merely the workings of an intellectual elite. As Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles stated, the Church is ‘Christ’ (6).
Deo Gratias.