The Church: People of God or Mystical Body of Christ

One tends to hear the Church exclusively referred to as the People of God. This image of the Church was brought to the fore in the documents of Vatican II without intending to exclude the other images.

I note that the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 148) teaches:

The Old Testament favours those images that are bound to the people of God. The New Testament offers images that are linked to Christ as the Head of this people which is his Body.

This would seem to indicate to me that if there is to be a preference of one image over another, we should give priority to the image of the Church as Mystical Body of Christ. The Old Testament has not been abrogated but it has been completed by the New and is fulfilled in the Church.

Just a thought...

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