The Church: Body and Bride

Unlike human beings, God's actions are in complete harmony with who He is in essence. Oftentimes, while acknowledging that a specific action will lead us further away from God — from the Archetype in whose image our nature is created — we do it regardless. However, God is not like this; everything He does conforms to His nature — in the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa, "what He is, this He also does." This was one of St. Athanasius' major arguments against Arianism. For St. Athanasius, if everything God does conforms to His essence, then we should be able to come to know God from creation. He writes:

"But if there be not a Son, how then say you that God is a Creator?… For if the Divine Essence be not fruitful itself, but barren, as they hold, as a light that lightens not, and a dry fountain, are they not ashamed to speak of His possessing framing energy?"

St. Athanasius affirms that since God created the world, this must reveal something about Him in His nature vis-à-vis the begottenness of His Son. In this same way that we, in the words of St. Ambrose of Milan, "can apprehend the supreme and everlasting good," we are able to come to know God, most palpably, in the creation of His image: man.

Throughout Scripture, the relationship between a husband and a wife is presented as a type of the relationship between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:25–27; Revelation 19:7–9; Revelation 21:2; 2 Corinthians 11:2). While not immediately clear, this is also synonymous with Scripture's representation of marriage as becoming one flesh — Christ being the head and the Church being the body (1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 1:20–22; Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18; Colossians 2:10; 1 Peter 2:7). This is made most vivid as Christ quotes Scripture: "and the two shall become one flesh" (Mark 10:8).

Marriage, thus, reveals to us the proper workings of the relationship between God and the Church. As the husband and the wife ought to work together for a single united goal, having one action, even more so is the Church called to participate in Christ's work, striving towards one goal with Him. As the wife ought to empty herself for the sake of her husband, so also is the Church called to empty herself for the sake of Christ; for just as the husband is called to empty himself for the wife, much more did Christ empty Himself for the sake of His Church, "unto death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8).

Finally, being His body, just as Christ is both human and divine, so also is the Church both human and divine. She is human by the participation of her members and divine by the divine indwelling. This is revealed in the mystery of marriage through the sharing of the bride and the bridegroom in the one body. As the body has only one action, so also is the Church called to have one action with Christ, moved by Him and actualized by the Church. Accordingly, participation in the Church is not passive, but an active venture of self-emptying. In the words of Fr. Peter Farrington:

"When we are sharing the love and life of Christ with those in need we remain the Church, the Body of Christ, offering the same liturgy of the Church."

The self-emptying to which we are called is not merely a transactional, juridical system; rather, it is our approach to the likeness of God. This leads to participation in the Church being an encounter and union with the Triune God, beginning here on earth — not simply an adherence to a specific philosophical, moral, or juridical model. As Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios puts it:

"The Church fulfills her vocation not merely by obeying her Lord, but by being in union with Him. The Church is not a mere function of Mission, to be cast away when the Mission has been fulfilled.\"

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