According to Paragraph 795 of
the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church (Second Edition – Revised in
Accordance with the Official Latin Text):
(Start Quote)
“Christ and his Church thus together make up the
“whole Christ” (Christus totus). The
Church is one with Christ. The saints
are acutely aware of this unity:
‘Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but
Christ himself. Do you understand
and grasp, brethren, God’s grace toward us?
Marvel and rejoice: we have
become Christ. For if he is the
head, we are the members; he and we together are the whole man… The fullness of Christ then is the head and
the members. But what does “head and
members” mean? Christ and the
Church. [Quoting Augustine]
Our redeemer has shown himself to be one person with
the holy Church whom he has taken to himself. [Quoting Pope Gregory I (“the Great”)]
Head and members form as it were one and the same
mystical person. [Quoting Thomas
Aquinas]
A reply of St. Joan of Arc to her judges sums up the
faith of the holy doctors and the good sense of the believer: “About Jesus
Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t
complicate the matter”.”
(End Quote)
(CCC #795 – emphasis in bold
added)
What?!!! We (Christians) have BECOME CHRIST? Are they
really saying this? Isn’t this
blasphemy? Why would the Catholic Church
teach something like this?
Ok, perhaps they meant
something else, or maybe we’re just not fully understanding their words. So let’s give them the benefit of the doubt
for a moment. Maybe we should let them
explain what they really mean. But in
doing research on this, their answers are far from satisfactory. When Protestants express concern over CCC #795, the Catholic answers to this
seem to fall into three basic categories:
1) They try to tell us that we are taking this “out of
context.”
This whole context of Paragraph
#795 deals with a special unity between Christ and His church. But the language of “becoming” Christ doesn’t
match the context. There is a world of difference between being in union with Him, and BEING HIM. So, the Catechism is violating its own context at this point.
2) Some will say that we don’t really become Christ, but
it’s only emphasizing our special union with Jesus, where we are conformed into
the image and likeness of God’s Son, since He is the Head and we are members of
His body, together making the whole man, or the “whole Christ.” They’ll say that the church is “one with
Christ,” creating “one organism,” just as husband and wife are made “one flesh,”
etc, etc. So, it’s only about the union.
We all agree that we (Christians)
are in a special union with Christ, but notice that the Catechism is going out of its way to point out a CONTRAST: It says “… we have become not only Christians, but Christ
Himself.” It is telling us that we are
not only members of the body of Christ, but something more, something different
than mere members of the body, apparently something greater. And then it reinforces that by again saying, “… we have become Christ.” So, Catholics can’t claim that this is only about
our union with Him.
If all that this controversial Catechism statement means is that we
are in union with Jesus, then the Catholic Church is only being redundant
(repetitive) here. It is like saying,
“we have become not only members of the body of Christ, but something even
greater… we have also become members of the body of Christ!” This makes no sense. Using this argument, they are building up to
a supposed contrast, yet, there is
none. This “union only” argument simply
renders the Catechism quote meaningless.
Yes folks, this is just another example of Catholic word games.
3) Some will say that this “becoming Christ” is simply a great
“mystery” that we can’t understand.
Then, if that’s the case,
there is no limit to the “mysteries” we can use. Anyone can teach almost anything and declare
it to be a “great mystery.” Then, they can
tell outsiders that no one can understand this, but they must accept it, since their
church says it is so. This could get
quickly out of hand. Simply calling it a
“mystery” doesn’t make it true, especially since it flies in the face of
Scripture.
And what is this “whole
Christ” business? According to
Augustine’s quote above, we need Christ AND the church to have the “fullness of
Christ.” But is Christ somehow
“incomplete” without us? Or, in some way dependent
on the church? Absolutely not. He can exist without the church, but the
church cannot exist without Him. He does
not “need” the church, or anything else, for that matter (Colossians 2:9-10). Jesus Christ has existed from eternity past
and will continue to exist for eternity future (John 1:1-2; Revelation 1:8). The only reason that the church is even involved at all is because of His grace and His choice to include Christians
in His plan. It is certainly not
because of any need on His part. But it
almost seems that the Catholic Church wants to make it sound as though the church
is somehow equal with Him here.
Concerning Joan of Arc’s
quote above, it is truly interesting that the Catholic Church (the masters of complicating simple spiritual
concepts) is telling us to just believe them and not to complicate things?!!!
It is hard to take them seriously when they say things like this.
Conclusion
As we mentioned before, we
all know that there’s a special bond between Christ and His church. We’re not denying that, but Scripture never
suggests that we can ever “become Christ” – that idea is totally foreign to
God’s Word. You can use all the “union
with Christ” verses in the Bible that you want, but these verses do not support #795 in the Catechism. We are not
Christ, either individually or corporately.
So, once again, why would the
Catholic Church say that we have become Christ?
They don’t officially believe in more than one true God, or more than
one true Christ, do they? This is a very
controversial statement, one that stands out like a sore thumb, yet the
Catholic Catechism doesn’t seem to be trying to explain it. After all, isn’t the purpose of a catechism
to explain the faith? It’s almost as if the Catholic Church is
purposefully leaving us hanging there, without any real attempt to
clarify. The silence is deafening.
Is this “becoming Christ” idea
possibly part of the end-time one-world religious system? We suspect that this quote from the Catechism
may likely be used to further the Ecumenical Movement, where all faiths will
come together. Perhaps the Catholic
Church is saying this to be “inclusive” of evolutionists, New Agers, Eastern
mysticists, and members of other world religions (that is, those who might see themselves as their own “christ” or
“god”). Time will tell.
And why do we see so few objections coming from Catholics
about this? It appears that either they
are not aware of these strange comments from the Catechism, or they are simply
being faithful to “Mother Church,” no matter what kind of outrageous (and
unbiblical) ideas she teaches.
The three points that we
listed above appear to be the most common arguments for including CCC #795. The only other
option seems to be that we actually
become Christ in an absolute sense,
but this is outright heresy.
At any rate, the Catholic
Catechism is wrong. Jesus Christ is
indeed the Head of the church. But in
saying that we (Christians) “become Christ,” do we now also become the Head? Certainly not! We can’t even always function properly as lesser members of the body (1
Corinthians 12:14-24), much less function as the Head! We are part of the body, but not THAT part!
