The late renowned scholar J.-M. R. Tillard defines what the flesh of the Church is for the New Testament and the period of the undivided Church. He enables readers to understand not the structure of God's Church but the living reality of grace for which this structure exists. Tillard explains that the 'flesh of the church' is communion of life for humanity reconciled with the Father and with itself 'in Christ.' He also shows that through the power of the Spirit and the Word, the Church is the 'flesh of Christ' in the osmosis of the sacrificial flesh of the Lord and the concrete life of the baptized, of which the Eucharist is the sacrament.
