Word to the Wise
Saturday, October 15, 2022 - Saturday in the 28th Week in Ordinary Time
[Eph 1:15-23 and Luke 12:8-12]And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the Church, which is his Body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way. [Ephesians]
OCTOBER 15 ST. TERESA OF AVILA
One of the principal images of the Letter to the Ephesians is the "Body of Christ," which stands for the Church. In chapter four, we read: Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love. [Eph. 4:15-16].
A big feature of each semester at the Catholic student center at Texas Tech (and other campuses) is a retreat called "Awakening." It is planned and executed solely by the students themselves! One of the presentations is known by its acronym - MBOC (the Mystical Body of Christ). I had occasion to hear this presentation recently and witness an exercise in which balls of yarn are rolled or tossed from one participant to another at group tables, and then across the room from one table to another. At the end of the exercise the whole room is connected with different colors of yarn! It's an amazing demonstration of the connectedness in the Body of Christ, the "supporting ligaments." The speaker, a student friend of mine, was very enthusiastic, which helped the retreatants "get into" the process with energy.
The individualistic culture of North America tends to militate against the kind of unified vision of the Body of Christ. It is not a new problem, however, St. Paul speaks about the problem in 1 Corinthians 12:13-21: Now you are Christ's body and individually parts of it..." A human body is more than the sum of its parts. When one part is hurting, the whole body feels it. If only our culture could sense that, a great many tensions could be resolved! Our baptismal faith makes us part of a great living reality. That web of yarn, stretching all over most of a gym, was wonderful testimony. AMEN