"Holy Church is the body of Christ vivified by the one Spirit, united by one faith and sanctified. All of the faithful exists individually as members of this body, all one body on account of one Spirit and one faith. Now just as in the human body all members individually have their own proper and separate offices and yet each one does not do what it alone does, for itself alone, so that in the body of Holy Church the gifts of graces have been distributed, and yet each one does not have for himself alone even that which he alone has. For the eyes alone see, and yet they do not see for themselves alone but for the whole body. now the ears alone hear and yet they do not hear for themselves alone but for the whole body. The feet alone walk, and yet they do not walk for themselves alone but for the whole body. And in this way whatever everything has alone in itself, it does not have only account of itself, since according to the disposition of the best dispenser and most wise distributor they individually belong to all and all belong to the individuals. Whoever, therefore, has merited to receive the gift of the grace of God, let him know that what he has does not belong to him alone.
"Thus by this likeness Holy Church, that is, the aggregate of the faithful, is called the body of Christ on account of the Spirit of Christ which it received, and man's sharing in it is designated when he is called Christian from Christ. Thus this name designates the members of Christ sharing in the Spirit of Christ, so that each is anointed by the Anointed, who is called Christian from Christ. Christ indeed is interpreted as the Anointed, that is, with all that oil of joy which before all His sharers He received according to fullness and transfused to all His sharers as the head to the members according to the sharing. 'Like the ointment on the head, that rand down from the head upon the beard and then even to the skirt,' (Ps 132:2), that is, it flowed down to the extremity of the vestment so that it flowed forth upon the whole and vivified the whole. When, therefore, you are made a Christian, you are made a member of Christ, a member of the body of Christ sharing in the Spirit of Christ. What then is the Church, but the multitude of the faithful, the aggregate of Christians?"
Hugh of Saint-Victor,
de Sacramentiis, II.2.2
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