Writing about ecclesiology—a study of the mystery of Christ’s divine life extended into the human family and forming his mystical body the Church—has become more and more complex. Since the Incarnation, the mystery of the Church on earth has had the existential experience of 2,000 years of saints and sinners. That long history has necessitated a lot of distinctions in order to discuss how the Church is holy even while it is composed of sinful humans “working-out their salvation in fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).

Sin and scandal, which as Christ warned “necessarily will come, but woe to him through whom it comes” (Matthew 18:7), causes the need for sometimes complex distinctions because scandal divides us. Scandal and sin cause us to contrast the Church’s essential nature as it was instituted by Christ with the existential societal manifestation that we witness in history because sinful men fail to faithfully follow Christ. Saints make discussion on the Church very simple and they unite us all. Due to human sinfulness, the essential nature of the Church (what the Church is in itself as intended by Christ) is obscured often in its historical existential societal manifestations due to human weakness and sin.¹

The existential manifestation of the Church as a visible society within human history has both highlighted and simultaneously obscured the ability to see the true nature of the Church. In the Book of Revelation (Chapter 21), we find the true nature of the Church expressed in highly symbolic form. Therein, the essential nature of the Church—the City of God which comes down out of heaven—is especially manifested on earth in the liturgy (uniting Chapters 5 & 14 with 21). The Lamb of God shares his life more fully with the baptized in Holy Communion and so develops his mystical body, the new Israel (cf. Lumen Gentium 9.3). The Church on earth is shown as the pilgrim people of God gathered with the Lamb of God. It is the baptized on the Way of salvation in union with the apostles.

In Revelation 17 we see an existential degradation of God’s people, fallen and about to be judged for apostasy. It is the place where human sin sought human political answers without Christ and trusted in mammon and Caesar instead of God. In Mother Theresa of Calcutta, we saw the Church’s essential nature: holiness and total devotion to Christ unobscured by her existential life. In Pope John XII and various Renaissance popes we saw some of the degraded existential society manifestation: men in high office giving scandal and causing doubt over Christ’s institution of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. They remind us of some kings of Judah, like Manasseh, inheritors of God’s promises but spreading sin instead of knowledge of God, hopefully repenting in the end.

With every scandal coming through the men who hold offices in the existential Church of history, as well as the laity who betray Christ, the woes accumulate and study of the Church (ecclesiology) grows more and more complex. The essential nature of the Church is dimmed and hidden by the existential manifestation of scandal. Restoration of the existential manifestation of holiness is needed so the essential mark of apostolicity is not mocked. How can restoration not be needed with 2,000 years of the “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) affecting the Church? How can the essential nature of the Church (one, holy, catholic, and apostolic)—a communio of divine love as revealed in sacred scripture—be discerned through the existential reality of today when there is so much scandal by Church leaders and “Catholic” politicians?

The revealed mystery of what the Church is essentially—as investigated in the discipline of ecclesiology—is actually very simple: “Christ in you, the hope for glory” (Colossians 1:27). Human rationalization on the topic and the failures of men throughout history makes discussion so confounded and so complex. It is from the grace of goodwill and a good heart where “love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) that we can become less complex and simple again. Mother Teresa was simple and could give a one-word speech: “Peace.” It would transform the audience more than a complex essay can. Nevertheless, the aim of this essay is a call to unity through holiness and on-going conversion to Christ. It is a primer on the essence of the Church, the Church’s essential nature.

The Church Is a Communio

The Greek word koinonia—and translated into English as fellowship (cf. 1 John 1:3) or participation (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16)—is often translated as societas or communio in Latin. “Koinonia is a derivative from koinos: common, joint, shared.”² These terms and understandings remain intrinsic to any translation, whether in Latin or English. The Church is a unity in diversity, a koinonia or fellowship centered upon, with, and in Christ the source of life. As a visible society and koinonia, the Church exists as a visible sign to bring people into authentic communion with Christ through the reality of Christ’s true ministers: “that you may have koinonian [societatem] with us [the apostles]” (1 John 1:3a) and so have koinonia [societas] with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (cf. 1 John 1:3b). This visible communal experience of societas with the apostolic ministry and the faith of the apostles must become more and more internalized within individuals for the individuals to be made more fully “participants [koinonoi] in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) and grow into Christ (cf. Ephesians 4:15).

By the second century, the Greek koinonia was often translated by the Latin Fathers as communio. Benoit-Dominique De la Soujeole points to St. Irenaeus’ Against Heresies as an example. The Greek of Irenaeus is translated into the Latin of that time as follows: “The Word has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and koinonia (communio) of God and man…; bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of koinonia (communio) with God.”³ Fellowship with the invisible Trinity is more about participation in the divine life of the Spirit than being merely a visible member of a society as we used to understand societies. Christ opened a new horizon through which we understand participation in the divine and take societas into communio via the communicatio of Christ’s cup (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16). Now the visible, the Logos made flesh, initiates access to the invisible for visible creatures to experience communio with God and the true nature of the Church becomes more clear.

Koinonia as communio (versus societas) better relates the reason the Eucharist of Christ is often described as Holy Communion and since communio has become the decisive Latin term for the Latin West to describe the essential nature of the Church as participation in Christ. Communio, includes and simultaneously goes beyond the visible societas or society. Communio takes into it all the meanings of the Greek koinonia and found in the Latin translations of: societas, communicatio, and consortes (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). The First Letter of John and its opening paragraph on koinonia is thus more easily connected with the whole Book of Revelation and so one more easily perceives, either with the Latin communio or English fellowship, that John was speaking liturgically when speaking of achieving the reality of koinonia with Christ through koinonian with him and the apostles.

The Book of Revelation and Communio

In the Book of Revelation, the mark of apostolic unity—which is at the service of koinonia—is reflected liturgically (cf. Revelation 1:10 “on the Lord’s day”) and sacramentally (cf. “the lamb”). This is done to “unveil” [apocalypsis] that the apostles and their legitimate successors (cf. Titus 1:5-7; 1 Peter 5:1) give access to the institution of Christ’s onetime and life-giving sacrifice and thus participation in Christ’s life-giving and living body at the memorial Christ himself instituted. If asked to summarize what was accomplished at the “Last Supper,” theologians would rightly summarize John and the synoptic Gospels as Christ commanding and commissioning the apostles to “do this memorial I am instituting in my blood as a means of communion and sanctification by me from heaven since I go to prepare a place for you and continue this communio from Heaven as the High Priest and Lamb.” The Church makes the Eucharist and the Eucharist makes Christ’s mystical body the Church.

The unveiling of this summary becomes evident when the Book of Revelation depicts the heavenly city from above “the new Jerusalem” and Temple coming down and resting on the foundation of the Twelve Apostles (Revelation 21:14). Here the Book of Revelation and John’s First Letter are unmistakably joined by the same author. Revelation is clear about the heavenly city coming down with the foundation on the apostles as 1 John 1:3 also emphasized: “that you may have koinonian with us to have fellowship with the Father and the Son.” Moving from the Twelve Apostles as the foundation of the city, the Book of Revelation then proceeds to show the Lamb of God (Christ’s sacramental presence) really, truly, and substantially standing in the center of the heavenly city and upon the foundation of the apostles: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22-23). Communio with Christ—koinonia with Christ—through the ministry of the apostles is made available to all the faithful in Holy Communion—the wedding feast of the Lamb. The new Israel processes into the heart of the new Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies as a foretaste of heaven.

On earth, such communio comes through the liturgy that Christ established and through which the reality of the Heavenly Jerusalem comes to us under signs which necessarily unite Christ to us. Here-in Revelation 21, the celebration of the Eucharistic mystery by the Church on earth is depicted sacramentally. The true meaning of Christ’s words in John’s Gospel, Chapter 6 become apocalypse (unveiled): “my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.” Communio! Under the appearance of bread and wine, through the priesthood of Melchizedek (cf. Hebrews 7:16), the sacrifice of the Lamb of God is presented for the sanctification of mankind. The lion of the tribe of Judah—under the symbol of the lamb in Revelation 5:6 (death re-presented through signs of body and blood)—presides over the earthly koinonia via his ordained ministers and grants communio through his sacrament. He cannot suffer again nor die because Christ is the Resurrection and the Life.

Revelation 21 and the First Letter of John are a summary of the mystery of the Church on earth and the purpose of the Church on earth: to cause koinonia with Christ. The Book of Acts confirms this. The baptized “held steadfastly to the apostles’ teaching and koinonia, to the breaking of the bread [the Eucharist] and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). For the members of Adam’s race—who willingly and continually accept Christ’s love—Christ bestows and increases his eternal life in their souls. Through the apostles we are brought from societas into communio via participatio in Christ’s life-giving sacrifice; the sacrifice by which he died once for all. The English word fellowship tries to convey this.

The “eternal life” and divinity that always vivified Christ’s humanity (1 John 1:2)—and by which Jesus resurrected from death—still vivifies Christ who ascended into heaven (cf. John 6:62). Christ’s death conquers death for any member of the race of Adam who accepts him in faith. By destroying death, “the eternal life” (1 John 1:2) has achieved within Christ’s sacrificed and resurrected humanity a new means by which the Logos (John 1:1) can communicate his eternal life to any human.

In the second installment of “A Primer on the Church for Healing Divisions,” Dr. Tsakanikas considers Christ’s ongoing action in his Church, her sacraments, and the virtues today.

Matthew A. Tsakanikas is an associate professor of theology at Christendom College, Front Royal, VA. He also publishes on catholic460.substack.com in reference to Catechism of the Catholic Church #460.

_{Image Source: AB/Wikimdedia Commons. Monastery of Saint-Antoine-le-Grand France.}

1. cf. Benoit-Dominique de la Soujeoule, Introduction to the Church, trans. Michael Miller (CUA Press, 2014). Throughout the text and using Lumen Gentium as his basis, he contrasts the essential nature with the existential manifestations of the visible society.
2. Benoit-Dominique de la Soujeoule, Introduction to the Church, trans. Michael Miller (CUA Press, 2014), 452. I am also indebted to conversations with my colleagues Andrew Whitmore, Kevin Tracy, and Andrew Beer on translation differences from Greek to Latin.
3. Benoit-Dominique de la Soujeoule, Introduction to the Church, trans. Michael Miller (CUA Press, 2014), 457.