Many Parts, One Body

This morning I was looking at the Newman website and decided to go and read one of my older blog articles. A specific sentence leaped out at me in a way that it hadn't before. For you poetry writer's out there it was a haiku moment: a blending of two distinct ideas into one within one instant.

"True proclamation of Christ occurs not on the tongue or in the mind, but in the actions that unite us to the love of Christ on the cross."

The first idea is Proclamation of Christ. This immediately made me think of the visible institutions I have seen dedicated to the transmission of the faith. These institutions were the Church and religious schools that have developed since Christ's death. It made me really think of all the dedication that so many have gone before us to ensure that today, 2000 years later, that I and my fellow peers would have access to the same life-transforming ideas that they did. This line of faith going all the way back to the beginning had many parts, yet they were all dedicated to the same One Body that died on the Cross for all of us.

The second idea was about how the Word was transmitted. The Word was made flesh we are told in John's gospel. Being flesh, the word became Action as evident by the signs and wonders we read about throughout the gospels. Jesus was a very active person, called to action by the very nature of his intimate connection between the human and Divine. Therefore, if our Lord and Savior was active, and all are called to be in his image, then we too must be active. Our actions were inspired and guided by him, by the Holy Spirit that was sent to us, and by the Faith of those who lived before us.

Often I've seen people say that you can't work your way into heaven, but I think most people miss the point of action. Our lives should be not about how quickly or how easily we can get into heaven. Our lives should be inspired by all those who worked so hard for us, and we too in our gratitude work for those who come after us. Now why this focus? Because we are servants of Christ, we do his will. What is his will? To love one another as he has loved us. Therefore our focus in not salvation any longer, it is the will of God that we love one another. This is our faith, the journey is about living this.

We know that any family is united by love, so if we live in genuine authentic love for another, then we are united by the love we SHARE. Therefore, the Faith of the Church is in the love we SHARE. We share our love for another through our community, our spirituality, in the Eucharist, in our celebrations together, in our hard times together, in living and dying we share all of these things for the Love of Christ and each other.

I hope that my message today will be seen as an expression of love by all of my audience wherever they may be, because our love should show no boundaries, just only compassion for all.