Today, April 18, is Good Friday, the day Christians remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for the sake of our salvation.

St. John Chrysostom, Father and Doctor of the Church, and archbishop of Constantinople (397-407), writing in his Catecheses, explains how the Church was born from the side of Christ. This is from today’s Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours:

“There flowed from his side water and blood. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit, and from the holy eucharist. 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 his blood and water from his side to fashion the Church.”

Just as Eve was the bride of Adam, so the Church is the bride of Christ. Just as Eve was born from the side of Adam, so the Church was born from the side of Christ. Water and blood, baptism and Eucharist. It was from the death of Christ that the Church was born, because the sacrifice of Christ, even unto death, secured our salvation, making us members of His Mystical Body, which is the Church. Everyone baptized in Christ is a member of His Body, the Church. The Church is necessary for our salvation because the Church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is necessary for our salvation.

There was, during my college years, the habit of some young Catholics to make a distinction between one’s relationship with Christ and one’s relationship with His Church. They would express this distinction with the claim, “I’m Catholic, but Christian first.” This is absurd. One cannot have a relationship with the Church that is subordinate to one’s relationship with Christ, because the Church is the Body of Christ! As such, one’s relationship with Christ is one’s relationship with the Church, and one’s relationship with the Church is one’s relationship with Christ. Christ is the Head of the Church, and no one can have a relationship with another’s head and not have a relationship with their body. Not only is it impossible, it’s gross!

The sacrifice Christ offered of a life lived in perfect obedience to the will of the Father even unto death accomplished many things. Our freedom from the chains of sin. Our reconciliation with the Father. The payment of an infinite debt owed to the Father by virtue of the disobedience of Adam. But another accomplishment of Christ’s sacrifice was the birth of His Church, the Body of Christ that is given the mission of bringing His good news to the world, and of sanctifying all people through the sacraments, especially the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist.

We must love the Church as we love Christ. We must love each other, our brothers and sisters in Christ and fellow members of His Body, in imitation of Christ’s love for all. The birth of the Church from the side of Christ as He hung on the cross is a mystery too deep to fully appreciate in this temporal order. The day will come when we will fully appreciate the mystery. Until then, we can only love the Church and our confreres as members of the Church, and to dedicate ourselves to participating in the sacramental life of the Church, dedicate ourselves to supporting the Church and her ministries, dedicate4 ourselves to genuine reform of the Church when Catholics fail in our mission, and dedicate ourselves to defending the Church against all who would assail her. The Church is our mother, our teacher, and the instrument of God’s revelation in Christ. There is no surer path to Christ but through His Church.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.