The Love of the Church

“One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:34)

A picture of the Church

If you were asked to draw a picture of the Catholic Church, what would you do? Sketch an image of your parish church? Or of St Peter’s basilica? Or of a multitude of people from every part of the world? No representation can capture the essence of the Church. The fact that the greatest works of art ever, were produced precisely to express the redemption, and especially the eucharistic mystery, is a testimony both to the infinite richness and ultimate impossibility of comprehensively portraying the reality of Christ, who is the “real self” of the Church.

Nonetheless, were one to paint a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by the lance and flowing with blood and water, it would be a worthy effort to portray the mystery of the Church. In the words of the Second Vatican Council: “The origin and growth of the Church are symbolised by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus.”

The Church is indeed Christ crucified and risen who freely opens his heart to share his divine life with all peoples of all places and all times, especially through the sacraments. As St John Chrysostom explains: “The water was a symbol of baptism, and the blood, of the holy eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own.”

The river of life

One of the most beautiful images in the prophecy of Ezekiel is that of the river which flows out of the temple and revitalises everything it meets on the way. “Everything will live where the river goes”, the prophet is told (Ez 47:10). “And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of tree for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing” (Ez 47:12).

This river of life is a foreshadowing of the great river of risen life which flows from the true and ultimate “sanctuary” which is Christ’s heart. By his passion and resurrection, Jesus has opened wide the doors of the sanctuary and releases freely on all who care to welcome them the streams of his life-giving grace. From the cross, the river of life which flows from Christ’s side vivifies history, enriches culture, and gives eternal life to souls.

This is how the Church contemplates herself in the mystery of the Sacred Heart:

For raised up high on the cross,

he gave himself up for us with a wonderful love

and poured out blood and water from his pierced side,

the wellspring of the Church’s sacraments,

so that, won over to the open heart of the saviour,

all might draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.

God’s initiative

We can tend to see and evaluate the Church from the human angle. This is understandable, given we are human beings and we are truly members of the Church. However the Church is above all God’s doing: God’s work, God’s action, God’s life, God’s word, God’s people. The Church is God who loves us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), who seeks us out (cf. Lk 15:3-7), who gives himself so that we might have fullness of life (cf. Jn 10:10). In the words of recently canonised Pope St Paul VI: The Church is “the visible plan of God’s love for humanity”.

Contemplating the Sacred Heart flowing with redemptive life we are reminded of this wonderful reality, which St Josemaría expressed succinctly and powerfully:

“This is what the Church is: Christ present in our midst, God coming towards men in order to save them, calling us with his revelation, sanctifying us with his grace, maintaining us with his constant help, in the great and small battles of our daily life.”

The Church is the living Christ with us here and now. The life of the Church, the life of grace, sacramental life, eternal life, comes from the heart of Jesus. As Chrysostom says:

There flowed from his side water and blood. Beloved to not pass over this this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning… I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born.… Since the symbols of baptism and the eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam.… As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.

Collaborating in the work of Redemption

We can picture the great river of life which flows out from Christ’s side to renew the face of the earth (cf. Ps 104:3) as also returning afterwards through his heart to the Father, by the work of the Holy Spirit. The river of life flowing from Christ’s side is to be brought to all people of all places and all times.

The water and the blood from Christ’s side are part of our biography too. Each and every member of the faithful, of Christ’s mystical body, is a channel of that divine life. Through living in and through Christ by the sacraments and prayer, by sanctifying our daily life and work, by being apostles in our dealings with family, friends and everyone we meet, and in spite of our sins and limitations, we contribute to making the great river of life fruitful for the renewal of human beings and of the entire cosmos. This is what is meant by “recapitulating” all things in Christ (cf. Eph 1:10).

God comes out of himself in creation and the Incarnation, and the mission of his Church and hence of each of the baptised is to return all things to the Father, by the working of the Holy Spirit, in and through his Son.

A picture drawn by God

In a certain sense Christ has in fact “drawn a picture” of his Church. St Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), the first saint to be canonised in the new millennium, was shown by an image of Divine Mercy which the Lord asked her to have painted. In this image, now to be found in every corner of the world, “two large rays, one red, the other pale” emanate from Christ’s side.

The Lord revealed the meaning of the image to St Faustina: “The two rays denote blood and water. The pale ray stands for the water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the blood which is the life of souls… These two rays issued forth from the very depths of my tender mercy when my agonised heart was opened by a lance on the cross.”

Contemplating the Pierced One

St John ends his account of the passion by evoking the prophecy of Zechariah 12:10: “They shall look on him whom they have pierced” (cf. Jn 19:37). We too pause to look on the on the pierced one. To contemplate the open heart of Christ in this month of the Sacred Heart or at any time, is a lesson in God’s love and a revelation of the Church.

Here indeed, “all may grasp and rightly understand, in what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose Blood they have been redeemed.”