Each Wednesday, we have a noon service of Holy Eucharist and Healing at Lexington's Church of the Good Shepherd. A couple stopped me after one of those services at to share something that had happened that day. Their experience illustrates how the Church manifests the Body of Christ, even in ordinary every day encounters. I asked them to put their story in writing:
For several years we have attended the Wednesday Healing Service. We usually eat at a local restaurant either before or after. A week ago, the proprietor astutely observed that we either come at 11:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m., so she asked what we did from noon until 1:00 p.m.. We told her that we attend the Healing Service at Good Shepherd. Today, as we were leaving about 11:30, she approached us with a slip of paper and asked us to pray for a 6 year old boy born with brain damage and cannot walk. We invited her to join us, but said she could not leave the restaurant – just to add him to our prayer list.
Upon arrival at the service, they requested prayers for the boy. I am confident that there will be more to this story and that our prayers will play a central role. The words of Teresa of Avila come to mind:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
The ministry of Christians extends into the nooks and crannies of the city and beyond. Grace-filled Christians are sent into the mission field at our doorstep to be a Sacrament to a world in need of Love Divine. Daily, our people recognize and respond to opportunities to be the body, the hands, the feet, and the eyes of Christ. Even the simplest gestures are multiplied and magnified by the Lover of Souls.
St. Paul expressed it this way: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God” II (Cor. 9:10-12).
P.S. Here's a musical setting of St. Teresa's words, sung by the Washington National Cathedral Choir.