Called by me long ago, long ago they have answered. Nourished by me, fashioned and guided by me, now they let themselves be led with docility. It is time that I myself gather these children of mine from all sides. With them I must form for myself an invincible cohort.
Blue Book # 39 h, i
Today each Christian is responsible for projecting the true face of Christ to others, or for blurring it or annihilating it in the souls of other people. The voice of the church is not heard as well as it used to be in the times when the world was Christian. And it must be heard better than ever, for never have human beings been so hungry for the truth as they are today. The way it will be heard now will be through every Christian, and not so much in one’s speech as in one’s life.
Grace in Every Season (February 25)
Catechism of the Catholic Church
795 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.230 Our redeemer has shown himself to be one person with the holy Church whom he has taken to himself.231 Head and members form as it were one and the same mystical person.232 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.”233
It was through Mary that God chose to bring Christ into the world and to each one of us 2000 years ago, and it is through Mary that that mission continues today. Not just the Head, but the entire Body has been entrusted to her. We are all needed now more than ever, and right there is the reason why the world is experiencing so much divisiveness at this point in time. We are the church and the enemy knows how powerful we will be once we truly come together.
Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!