The answer
This expression is taken from Holy Scripture: “So we, being many, are one body in Christ” (Rom. 12:5).
It is said to indicate the close link between Christ and the Church. In the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch, “[W]herever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”49
The Church and Her Founder are inseparable. The Church is Christ with us, and Christ did not leave the Church when He ascended to heaven, because He promised that He would be with us always, and unto the end of the world (Matt. 28:20; 18:20).
The expression, “the Body of Christ,” demonstrates that the Church is united in the Mystery of Thanksgiving (Communion), because the Eucharist is what creates the unity of the Church (1 Cor. 10:17; Col. 1:24).
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II
Notes
49 Translator’s note: In Epistle to Smyrnaeans 8.
Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 139–140.
The pages in the book (139–140)
