Page 53 - 聖母軍團員手冊（英文版，2014年5月-2022年1月更新版）

Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 52

52 THE LEGIONARY AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST CHAPTER 9
These principles, upon which the Legion system is built, are
a consequence of the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ.
This doctrine forms the main theme of the epistles of St. Paul.
This is not surprising, for it was a declaration of that doctrine
which converted him. There was light from heaven. The great
persecutor of the Christians was thrown, blinded, to the
ground. Then he heard those overwhelming words: “Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?” and St. Paul rejoined: “Who
are you, Lord?” And Jesus replied: “I am Jesus whom you are
persecuting.” (Acts 9:4-5) What wonder that these words
burnt themselves into the apostle’s soul, so that he must
always speak and write the truth which they expressed.
St. Paul describes the union which exists between Christ
and the baptised as being like the union between the head
and the other members of the human body. Each part has its
own special purpose and work. Some parts are noble and
some are less so; but all are dependent one upon the other,
and the same life animates them all. All are put to loss by the
failure of one, as all profit by the excellence of one.
The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ and his fullness.
(Eph 1:22-23) Christ is its head, its chief, indispensable, and
perfect part, from which all the other members of the body
derive their powers, their very life. In Baptism we are attached
to Christ by the most intimate ties imaginable. Realise,
therefore, that mystical does not mean unreal. To use the
vehement expression of Holy Scripture, “we are members of
his body.” (Eph 5:30) Sacred obligations of love and of service
are set up between the members and the head, and between
the members themselves. (1 Jn 4:15-21) The image of the
body helps to a vivid realisation of those obligations, and this
is half-way to the fulfillment of them.
This truth has been described as the central dogma of
Christian ity. For, in fact, all the supernatural life, all the
graces conferred on man, are a fruit of the Redemption. The
Redemption itself is based on the fact that Christ and the
Church form together but a single mystical person, so that
the satisfaction of Christ the head, the infinite merits of his
Passion, belong to his members, who are all the faithful. This
is the reason why Our Lord could suffer for man and expiate
faults which He had not Himself committed. “Christ is the
head of the church, the body of which he is the Saviour.”