The Church is the body of Christ: something that can be given. Christ the Incarnate One has a male body that is perfect. But to our incomprehension he does not marry. Why was he born with one sex if he does not need it? Why does he not combine both sexes? We cannot suppose that he does not value the good forces he has received in his body from the Father. He makes use of his endowments: for the creation of a visible fruit, the Church, the community of believers. The Church is his body in such a way that his physical body also finds its fulfillment in it. The acceptance of an individual human body is for him like a beginning for the birth of the Church and the fruitfulness particularly hers. It is not possible to separate the Church wholly from the Lord and place her beside him: she remains his body, although she is his bride. The key that explains it is the Eucharist. He surrenders his body in the Eucharist, in order to form the Church through the gathering together of what he has surrendered into unity. He has the power to lay down is life 'and to take it up again'. This remains a mystery of virginity; this also is one reason why priests should be celibate.



From the meditations of Adrienne von Speyr. The Passion from Within



With many thanks to Chris Kelly, who quoted this passage in response to a typically fine post by Gerard Serafin yesterday.