Page 54 - 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 53

CHAPTER 9 THE LEGIONARY AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST 53
(Eph 5:23) The activity of the Mystical Body is the activity of
Christ Himself. The faithful are incorporated into Him, and
then live, suffer and die in Him, and in His resurrection rise
again. Baptism only sanctifies because it establishes between
Christ and the soul that vital connection by which the
sanctity of the Head flows into its members. The other
sacraments, and above all the Divine Eucharist, exist for the
purpose of intensifying the union between the Mystical Body
and its Head. In addition, that union is deepened by the
operations of faith and charity, by the bonds of government
and mutual service in the Church, by labour and suffering
rightly submitted to, and generally by every act of the
Christian life. Especially will all of these be effective when the
soul acts in deliberate concert with Mary.
Mary forms an eminent bond of union, due to her position
as mother of both Head and members. “We are members of
His body”, (Eph 5:30) and hence, with equal reality and
fullness, children of Mary His mother. The sole purpose of
Mary’s existence is to conceive and bring forth the whole
Christ, that is the Mystical Body with all its members perfect,
and fitly joined together (Eph 4:15-16), and one with its
Head, Jesus Christ. Mary accomplishes this in co-operation
with, and by the power of, the Holy Spirit, who is the life and
soul of the Mystical Body. It is in her bosom and subject to
her maternal care that the soul grows up in Christ and comes
to the age of His fullness. (Eph 4:13-15)
“In God’s scheme of redemption, Mary plays a principal part,
unlike any other. Among the members of the Mystical Body, she
holds a special place of her own, the first after the Head. In the divine
organism of the whole Christ, Mary performs a function which is
intimately bound up with the life of the entire body. She is its
Heart... More commonly, the role of Mary in the Mystical Body is
(following St. Bernard) likened to that of the neck, which joins the
head to the rest of the body. This comparison emphasises fairly well
the universal mediation of Mary between the Mystical Head and his
members. However, the neck does not exemplify as effectively as the
heart the idea of the all-important influence exercised by Mary, and
of her power, second only to that of God in the workings of the
supernatural life. For the neck is no more than a connecting link. It
plays no part in the initiating or influencing of life. The heart, on the
contrary, is a reservoir of life which first receives into itself the
richness which it has then to distribute to the whole body.” (Mura: Le
Corps Mystique du Christ)