There is, in the annals of Christianity, a doctrine of the triforme Corpus Christie:
Corpus Natum:
"He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made man" The Nicene Creed
In these words from the Creed, the profession of faith common to all Christianity, we acknowledge the unique and divine nature of the Son born of the Virgin - the Incarnation.
The very word 'incarnation' presupposes not a nature, for Jesus Christ is both "true God and true man" - two natures joined in one hypostatic or subsistent being, "which undergo no confusion, no change, no division, no separation" (Dogmatic Definition of the Council of Chalcedon) and which forms the model of the beatific vision, of Divine Union.
Christ is consubstantial - of one substance - with the Father in his Divinity, and consubstantial with man in his humanity - and so for the Christian the Incarnation signifies the manifestation of the Divine in human form; of the Uncreated in created nature.
Corpus Mysticum
"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."
1 Corinthians 12:27
Christ took on human form, and in so doing manifested in the world the living paradigm not of a man, but of all living humanity - Jesus Christ is not an example, nor even an exemplar, he is the Archetype.
St Paul said, by the power of Christ "I am made all things to all men" (1 Corinthians 9:22), but Christ is not made but the maker, "For by him were all things created," he tells us in his epistle to the Colossians, and more "all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Colossians 1:16-17).
We are members of that one body when we witness that membership individually, in the love of God, and collectively in the love of each other, for in each separate and individual 'other' we find that one, same and identical image and likeness that gives rise to a unique hypostasis, not simply a subsistent being, but a particular subsistent being.
Corpus Eucharisticum
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God"
(Matthew 5:8)
The Primordial Couple ate of the fruit, and "the eyes of them both were opened" (Genesis 3:5) as the serpent had promised, but is so doing their prior and perfect vision (being as God made them) was lost.
With our new-found serpent's gift of sight, in Jesus we see not the body of God made man but the weakness of flesh broken on the cross; in his church we see not his body but the weakness of its members; and in his Eucharist we see not the body but the memorial of a dead god. We are blinded to the true charism, the essence of the real, and are enraptured by the glamour of the chimeric.
In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, that charism is given to those who are enjoined by the love of God, who approach with a sincere heart, and given without condition. One does not need to know, to comprehend, to understand; the spiritual virtues are not knowledge, insight nor wisdom, they are faith, hope and caritas - love:
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love"
(1 Corinthians 13:12-13)
No greater gift was this...
Thomas
Corpus Natum:
"He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made man" The Nicene Creed
In these words from the Creed, the profession of faith common to all Christianity, we acknowledge the unique and divine nature of the Son born of the Virgin - the Incarnation.
The very word 'incarnation' presupposes not a nature, for Jesus Christ is both "true God and true man" - two natures joined in one hypostatic or subsistent being, "which undergo no confusion, no change, no division, no separation" (Dogmatic Definition of the Council of Chalcedon) and which forms the model of the beatific vision, of Divine Union.
Christ is consubstantial - of one substance - with the Father in his Divinity, and consubstantial with man in his humanity - and so for the Christian the Incarnation signifies the manifestation of the Divine in human form; of the Uncreated in created nature.
Corpus Mysticum
"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."
1 Corinthians 12:27
Christ took on human form, and in so doing manifested in the world the living paradigm not of a man, but of all living humanity - Jesus Christ is not an example, nor even an exemplar, he is the Archetype.
St Paul said, by the power of Christ "I am made all things to all men" (1 Corinthians 9:22), but Christ is not made but the maker, "For by him were all things created," he tells us in his epistle to the Colossians, and more "all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Colossians 1:16-17).
We are members of that one body when we witness that membership individually, in the love of God, and collectively in the love of each other, for in each separate and individual 'other' we find that one, same and identical image and likeness that gives rise to a unique hypostasis, not simply a subsistent being, but a particular subsistent being.
Corpus Eucharisticum
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God"
(Matthew 5:8)
The Primordial Couple ate of the fruit, and "the eyes of them both were opened" (Genesis 3:5) as the serpent had promised, but is so doing their prior and perfect vision (being as God made them) was lost.
With our new-found serpent's gift of sight, in Jesus we see not the body of God made man but the weakness of flesh broken on the cross; in his church we see not his body but the weakness of its members; and in his Eucharist we see not the body but the memorial of a dead god. We are blinded to the true charism, the essence of the real, and are enraptured by the glamour of the chimeric.
In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, that charism is given to those who are enjoined by the love of God, who approach with a sincere heart, and given without condition. One does not need to know, to comprehend, to understand; the spiritual virtues are not knowledge, insight nor wisdom, they are faith, hope and caritas - love:
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love"
(1 Corinthians 13:12-13)
No greater gift was this...
Thomas