We are the Body of Christ

When you hear the word ‘church’ what is your immediate thought? Let’s be honest. If you hear ‘St. Thomas Aquinas’ you think of the cathedral. If you hear ‘St. Albert the Great’ you think and see in your mind the building where you attend Mass each weekend.  But are those buildings church? They are places of worship for certain, but they are not church. We are.

We are the body of Christ. You are the body of Christ. We are, together as one body, church, a community of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is an important distinction because whenever two or more gather in his name we become united as a single body in faith and love. It makes no difference where or in what building we come together; we are church. Whether we are in a designated place of worship, a warehouse, gymnasium, or someone’s home, when we come together in prayer we are church.

As church we come together in Eucharist (thanksgiving) to praise and thank our Lord Jesus Christ for sacrificing Himself for our salvation. As church we joyfully receive His precious body and blood as His gift, freely given, so that we can become one with our Lord and Savior.

When you receive our Lord at Eucharist, you become one with Him. He is physically and spiritually one with you, body and soul. He is you and you are truly the body of Christ. Jesus is always with us but never more so than when we receive Him at Eucharist.

We have all been told that to see Christ we just have to see Him in the face of others. And, I am sure, each of us has often had trouble seeing Him in some. After all, there are many whom we meet that certainly don’t live up to our notion of Christian ideals. But then who has ever been close? The apostles were certainly far from perfect. Many of our revered saints had serious character flaws. So who are we to determine who is the most Christ-like?

I often wonder if we would be any better at recognizing Jesus if He walked into our lives today than when He walked this earth two-thousand years ago. My suspicion is that He chose the best time to appear. With all our knowledge and education, science and technology, I suspect we would laugh and call Him crazy. But in truth, all we have to do is look around us to see Christ among us. And, when you think about it, that isn’t really all that difficult to do, is it?

About the author: Deacon Chuck

Deacon Chuck was ordained into the permanent diaconate on September 17, 2011, in the ministry of service to the Diocese of Reno and assigned to St. Albert the Great Catholic Community. He currently serves as the parish bulletin editor and website administrator. Deacon Chuck continues to serve the parish of Saint Albert the Great Catholic Community of the Diocese of Reno, Nevada. He is the Director of Adult Faith Formation and Homebound Ministries for the parish, conducts frequent adult faith formation workshops, and is a regular homilist. He currently serves as the bulletin editor for the parish bulletin. He writes a weekly column intended to encompass a broad landscape of thoughts and ideas on matters of theology, faith, morals, teachings of the magisterium and the Catholic Church; they are meant to illuminate, illustrate, and catechize the readers and now number more than 230 articles. His latest endeavor is "Colloqui: A journal for restless minds", a weekly journal of about 8 pages similar in content to bulletin reflections. All his reflections, homilies, commentaries, and Colloqui are posted and can be found on his website: http://deaconscorner.org. Comments are always welcome and appreciated. He is the author of two books: "The Voices of God: hearing God in the silence" which offers the reader insights into how to hear God’s voice through all of the noise that surrounds us; and "Echoes of Love: Effervescent Memories" which through a combination of prose and verse provides the reader with a wonderful journey on the way to discovering forever love. He regularly speaks to groups of all ages and size and would welcome the opportunity to speak to your group.

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