The Meaning of Body of Christ

What do we mean when we refer to the “Body of Christ” as Christians?

We can think of the Body of Christ in three ways:

1. Jesus Christ’s actual body.

The Son of God became man. He had a human body. He died and his body rose again with the same wounds in his side and hands that he had when he died. That body then ascended into heaven where he remains at the right hand of God the Father. Where is Jesus’s body? It is now in heaven.

2. The Eucharist is the Body of Christ.

When Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples, he took bread and broke it saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this is remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19–20, 1 Corinthians 11:24). The early Christians celebrated the breaking of the bread afterwards and we continue to celebrate it today in the liturgy. Catholics believe that the communion bread is the body of Christ today.

3. The Church is the Body of Christ

After Saint Paul described the institution of the Eucharist in the Last Supper in his letter to the Corinthians, he went on to describe what happens to the Church in the celebration of that feast. He explained that we are Christ’s body though individual parts of it. We were baptized in the Church, the Body of Christ. Jesus Christ is the head of the body and we are the hands, feet, and other members today. This is important of us to remember because as one part of the body suffers, “all suffer together with it” and if one member is honored then “all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). In the Catholic Church we often use the term “Mystical Body of Christ” to differentiate it from Christ’s physical body.

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