Be the Body of Christ

By Leif Kehrwald

Have you ever re-learned an old lesson and only then discovered its true, profound meaning?

Many years ago, while in college, I "learned" in a theology class that Eucharist is more than the bread and the cup. It is the community gathered, broken, and shared for one another. I "learned" that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a priest to celebrate Mass by himself. Without the community, some would say, there is no communion.

Later, I learned what I already knew: that each one of us is called to be the Body of Christ for the Body of Christ. Many others have gone before us, given their very lives for us, been Communion for us: Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Dom Helder Camara, Jean Donovan to name but a few.

I believe that in order to be the Body of Christ for others, someone needs to have been the same for each one of us. Who has been the Body of Christ for you? My personal faith hero is Michael Kenny, former Bishop of the Diocese of Juneau, Alaska until he died in 1995. He was one of those extraordinary Christians who made you feel you were one of his most special friends, part of his inner circle. At his funeral I discovered there were thousands who felt just as I did about Michael. That's the day I re-learned what it means to be the Body of Christ for one another.

Who is your faith hero? How has that person taught you to be the Body of Christ for others?

In the song One Bread, One Cup (by Bobby Fisher, Greg Lee, Craig Aven and Ken Canedo) the lyrics give us insight into what the Body of Christ is all about, what Eucharist truly means:

As we gather at your table,
broken like the bread we share,
fill our hearts with your compassion
for a world in need of care . . .

When we go forth from this place
of perfect peace,
may your light shine in our lives
for all the world to see.

Few of us have the gifts or traits of the martyrs and heroes of the Catholic faith, yet each one of us adds a crucial piece to everyone's experience of Communion. Referring to the Eucharist in her book Saying Amen, Kathleen Hughes writes, "The table is the place of universal reconciliation and the place where the unworthy are healed; . . . The table is the place where we are fed in order that we will have the courage and the strength to live out a lifetime of Amens" (198).

We pray: O God, just as our faith heroes have gone before us to show us how to be the Body of Christ for the Body of Christ, please give us the courage and strength to be the same for at least one other person in our lives.

Can I hear an "Amen" to that?

Related Links:

• "Transformed by the Body of Christ" By Jorge L. Camacho, Yvonne M. Flores, Mary Barbara McKay, Carol Bergener and Jeffrey Scheeler, O.F.M.
• "Eucharist: You Really Are What You Eat"

Spirit Compass reflections are developed in partnership
with the Center for Ministry Development.