The body of Christ, born of the Virgin and unique to Him, is united hypostatically with His divinity, like the union of the soul with the body in man.

Christ, on the other hand, united with His Church, is like the union of man with his wife. The Church becomes His body, and just as the woman is the body of the man, and the man is her head. However, the man remains a man, and the woman remains a woman. Christ remains God, and the Church remain as humans united with God in a union of love, will, and holiness.

and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

— Matthew 19:5

For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body.

— Ephesians 5:23

The body of Christ, united with His divinity, is a living body that we worship and glorify. It performs miracles, and gives us eternal life when we partake of it.

As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

— John 6:57

Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

— John 6:54

We worship the head of the Church. And we are members of His body.

For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.

— Ephesians 5:30

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

— 1 Corinthians 12:12

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!

— 1 Corinthians 6:15

but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ

— Ephesians 4:15

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

— Colossians 1:18

so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

— Romans 12:5

The sacred Body on the altar is the Body of the Lord Christ, born of the Virgin Mary. It is a sinless and blameless body that unites us to Him when we are baptised in His name and when we partake of Him.

We do not live except by Christ, but we do not become Christ. We become Christians, living with the power of Christ’s life within us.

For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.

— 1 Corinthians 10:17

Make us all worthy, O our Lord to partake of Your Holies for the purification of our souls, our bodies and our spirits; that we may become one body and one spirit, and have a share and an inheritance with all the saints who have pleased You since the beginning.

— The Epiclesis (Invocation of the Holy Spirit) in St Basil’s Liturgy