THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST But the end of the world is not yet. And meanwhile the Church is in the world, acting upon its members, acting upon the world at large. Not all its members here below are fully receptive of the life of Christ: some, as we shall see in a moment, while remaining members, have totally shut off from their souls the stream of Christ’s life. Thus the Church, the actual visible Church here below, presents itself under a double aspect. In so far as it is Christ Himself living in men — ^for the teaching of truth, for the promulgation of the moral law, for the lifegiving work of the sacraments — ^it is perfect. In so far as it is considered in its human members (even its officials) vivified in their varying degrees or not vivified at all by the life of the Body, it is always short of perfection, sometimes very far short. But perfect it is one day to be. THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS Meanwhile see how the map of life grows in the light of this fact of the Church. We have to live our lives not as isolated units, but as members of a living thing, united organically with Christ and with all men, living and dead, who are in the love of God. This is the full force of the Communion of Saints — the oneness of all men in Christ. Because we are members of Christ’s Body we are one with Him : and also we are one with one another. In a body, one member can help another: if the foot 65