Body of Christ

In Christian theology, the term Body of Christ has two main but separate meanings: it may refer to Jesus' words over the bread at the Last Supper that "This is my body" in Luke 22:19-20, or to the usage of the term by the Apostle Paul in and refer to the Christian Church. It may also refer to Christ's post-resurrection body in Heaven.

There are significant differences in how Christians understand the term as used by Christ at the Last Supper and as developed in Christian theology of the Eucharist. For some it may be symbolic, for others it becomes a more literal or mystical understanding.

As used by Saint Paul in the Pauline epistles it refers to the Christian Church as a group of believers. In Roman Catholic theology the use of the phrase "mystical body" distinguishes the mystical body of Christ, the Church, from the physical body of Christ, and from a "moral body" such as any club with a common purpose.

While teaching that in the bread consecrated in the Eucharist there is absolutely no change open to the senses or to scientific investigation, the Catholic Church supports the Real Presence, i.e. that the reality of the bread is changed into that of the body of Christ. The Church teachings refer to this change as one of the "substance" or "transubstantiation". It rejects the term "consubstantiation", which suggests that the substance or reality of the bread remains after the consecration, instead of being converted or changed into that of the body of Christ. At the same time, the Church holds that all that can be examined either directly or by scientific investigation — what in philosophy are called the "accidents" (as opposed to the reality) - remains quite unchanged.

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