Participating in Christ's presence (Aquinas)

Lately I've been doing a kind of mini-series on unusual or overlooked aspects of Christology. Last week I talked about the theological idea of Christ's "presence," a theological idea that has gotten more and more attention in recent years, especially by Protestant theologians. I'd like to present a a bit of what Thomas Aquinas says on Christ's presence this week, with a second post on the same issue by Protestant thinkers later this week.

One overlooked part of Aquinas's Christology is the way he talks about believers "participating" in Jesus's mystical body. He says that Christians are present in Christ, even though Christ's glorified body is sitting at the right hand of God (Heb. 1:3). While we are not actually physically close to Jesus' body, Aquinas says that Christ is present to us since all Christians have Christ as their "head." In discussing our participation in Christ's session, he says "since Christ is our Head, then what was bestowed on Christ is bestowed on us through Him." Aquinas here follows where Paul says that God "raised us up with [Christ] and seated us with him in the heavenly places" (Eph. 2:6).

Aquinas says that Christ is present to us mystically. Of course, Aquinas also holds that Christ's body is actually made present in the celebration of the Eucharist. But the "mystical body"-rooted presence with Christ outlined above gives us both a somewhat overlooked angle on Aquinas's thought, and a kind of ecumenical slant, as starting with this more neglected theological concept keeps us from getting bogged down in older debates.