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Galatians 2 : 19-20 In The Teaching Of Pope Pius XII

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Galatians 2:19-20 in the Teaching of Pope Pius XII
The message of St. Paul in Galatians 2: 19-20 has been considered as the essence of the Christian spirituality. Particularly, the sentence “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”, the Verse 19, suggests Christian life as an intimate union with Christ. In relation to this verse, Pope Pius II, in his Encyclical Mystici corporis Christi, develops the doctrine of the union of all Christians with Christ as the fruit of the union of Christ with His Mystical Body.
Pius XII considers this personal experience of St. Paul, his life in union with Christ, as being applicable to the life of all believers, that is, to the whole “Mystical Body”, the Church, having Christ as her Head and the Holy Spirit as her Soul. For it is by her Founder, the Head, through the Holy Spirit, that the Church is living. Then, it is by virtue of the habitation of the Holy Spirit in Christian souls that the intimate union with Christ is made possible in a supernatural and mysterious way. Therefore, “the Church, then, no less than each of her holy members can make this great saying of the Apostle her own: And I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me." Pius XII considers this intimate union with Christ, however, as a priceless privilege of which Christians are granted. The union with Christ is such vital and concrete that is can biblically “compared to the chaste union of man and wife,” said the Pope, and “to the vital union of branch

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