In the process of entering the Church, there is a point at which one stops trying to think about what the Church teaches in order to understand it and prove whether it is true or not, and instead begins to think with the mind of the Church in order to understand everything else, and prove whether everything else is true or not. One stops looking at the Church from one’s own point of view, but instead looks at everything from the Church’s point of view.
When this happens, one has really entered the Church, been incorporated into the Church, and begun to think with the mind of the Church. This is, as the Church is the Body of Christ and one is incorporated into Christ when incorporated into the Church, truly to think with the mind of Christ.
This is also the true test of whether what the Church teaches is true or not. When one thinks with the mind of the Church, one is also living with the mind of the Church, acting with the mind of the Church. One’s own individual life becomes a microcosm of the Church – and one learns, experientially, the truth or untruth of the Church.
For me, that the Church is true resonates more deeply in my being the more I live in and from her, thinking and acting with her mind. There is a trueness and realness here that is deeper and more real than the ground of my own being, that becomes the ground of my being the more I am incorporated into her, the more one I am with her mind. I believe it is the ground and being of God, who holds the Church in His embrace as His Bride, and from whom the Church emerges as His most precious creation.
