Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

 Theresa of Avilla wrote these words over 400 years ago. She was a Spanish nun, a mystic and reformer (and troublemaker). I think that her words here capture a part of the awesome and paradoxical mystery of Easter.

 In Easter we share in the resurrection of Christ. We become a member of Christ’s own body: a fleshy, wounded, fish-munching body not so different from our own. However, this deeply spiritual and mystical union is not about leaving the world behind as some might think or act. Instead, it means to root us more deeply into our own bodies, filling us with power and the knowledge that we are the very instruments and agentsof Divine compassion, good and blessing.

I wonder what we will do with that knowledge and invitation. I hope that we may bless the world.  

 

Thanks be to God!

 

CG+