one body - 24th week Tuesday 2017

We do not have the power to raise the dead to life.  Only Jesus who is God can do that.  We cannot all become instruments of God’s healing touch.  Only those who are given the gift of healing, the gift of restoring people to health can do that.  We cannot do what the Lord did for that widow in Nain – we cannot say to the dead, arise, to restore the life of the her only son and to give him back to her.  But our hearts can become like that of Jesus.

Jesus saw the widow in her need, Jesus felt compassion for her, and Jesus was moved to take pity on her and help her.

We too can see the way Jesus saw things.  We too can feel the way Jesus felt. And we too can be moved to act in the same way that Jesus was moved to act. We can become sensitive to each other’s needs - to see like him, to feel like him and to be moved to act like Jesus.

In the Eucharistic prayer of the mass the priest consecrates the bread and wine to become the body and blood of Christ, so that when we receive his body in holy communion we may be gathered to become the one body of Christ.  Our communion makes us the body of Christ.

St. Paul writes in the letter to the Corinthians, that indeed we are one body and “if one part of this body suffers every part suffers with it; if one part is honored every part is honored.”  Our Holy Communion therefore should make us sensitive to the needs, the feelings, the joys, the pains, the hopes, and fears of each other.  Just like Jesus who saw, who felt and who was moved to act – just like Jesus, our communion in the mass should make us also sensitive to each other’s needs and difficulties – to see, to feel and to be moved to act like Jesus.