Compassion Universal

Christ Has No Body

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.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

• Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

Simple Steps to an Exciting Life

God never wrought a miracle to convince atheism, because His ordinary works convince it. - Lord Bacon


The apostle Paul wrote to young Timothy, in the first century of the Christian church, giving him some simple instructions that are key in “taking ownership” of one’s spiritual life. Unless Christian individuals pay attention to the condition of their own self-care (spiritually-speaking), the Christian church (the body of believers) will become run-down.


“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
… give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Do not neglect the gift that is in you…
Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.
Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” (I Timothy 4:12-16)


While this may seem overwhelming, it’s less onerous than it looks if it is contextualized within the framework of the living Spirit of God. That Spirit is continually at work, as long as we keep maintain our part of the bargain. 
According to the promise of Christ before his crucifixion and resurrection, the Spirit (or Helper) would be with us to help us become the kind of people who God had always sought for—people with a heart of flesh, and not stone. God cannot manufacture our will to conform to His, but He can send extraordinary, even miraculous, help by the Spirit when our wills are bent towards Him.


“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17)
(“But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” – John 7:39
"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” – John 15:26)


Imagine this, that Christ, the Son of the Living God and Father, Creator of the universe and beyond, has sent us what He was when He was physically walking the Earth: the Spirit. And imagine, also, that this Spirit is not here to confuse, confound or mystify, but to clarify, and to settle.
Once the Christian understands that Life in the Spirit is ongoing and continual, then, the Christian should come to expect a gradual unfolding of his own originality within a life of being a disciple (not a monk). Indeed, the Christian is to become so intimate with the Spirit, that he will see that there is infinite originality when God made humans-and it crops up over and over in his life.

“Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead.
Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will not startle you with any more. But imagine what it would be to live with such men still living, to know that Plato might break out with an original lecture tomorrow, or that at any moment Shakespeare might shatter everything with a single song. The man who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living Church is a man always expecting to meet Plato and Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast.”

• G K Chesterton in Orthodoxy

Motivation to go to Church? Holy Spirit & Will (2 of 3)

Human existence relies on rites and rituals (things profane and church-related such as baptisms, birthdays, weddings, confirmations, etc.) as we respond to a need within to create an emotional bridge over which one crosses and which brings us to acknowledgment of a new point in life. 
But though we may retain the tools, and keep the cultural bridges, these should never should become the focus nor distinctives of a Christian’s life.

Clearly, Christianity is fundamentally and solely God-defined. What is His definition of the Church? He defines it  as residing and abiding in the living Body of Christ, with our Master as Head of the Body. (Significantly different from all other religions, and bound to be a continual source of much intellectual misunderstanding.)
Did you catch the television show “True Beauty?” I had never seen it but turned on the TV for the final 15 minutes-which happened to be the finale. In it, beautiful contestants, male and female, believed they were vying for a spot as one of the most beautiful people in the world. Unbeknownst to them, the judges were watching their behaviors, speech and attitudes on hidden cameras. Every week people were ordered off the show because they lacked "true" or inner beauty. Neither the objective nor method was revealed until the final show.
I reflected on the ‘hidden camera’ of the heart: the Holy Spirit, who not only knows of, but who reveals my "flaws" (sins) to me. Yet, it goes beyond being kind and courteous to people, it goes to the heart of who I am before our Lord. Am I living transparently before God?
In a related point, (which will become clearer later), assuming the truth that we are the Body of Christ, then it stands to reason that we are continually “in Church.” We do not go to Church, we are in it and part of it. At no time in my daily life do I do anything, give, receive, or speak outside the Church. Whether you are studying, cooking, helping, driving or sleeping, you are always in Church.  But, I am either helping or hurting the Church of Christ all the time.  The sanctity of the moment is derived from the Body of Christ. This is Kingdom work, this is missionary work!
If I had an accurate and continual consciousness of what this meant, our attitude towards life might be different. We would still have problems and misunderstandings, but we would accept the eventual working out of it all with patience, knowing our Lord is operating within the Church.
When I was raised in Roman Catholicism, I was taught certain things about being there. I was taught it was holy place to be. It followed that there were certain behaviors, manners and codes of dress that were to be observed-not because I would be sinning without them, but because it reflected my attitude towards the One, True, and Holy God. Out of concern for the First Commandment-and out of love-I respected that. Genuflecting (which has so fallen out of fashion), was expected: conforming my body to what my mental attitude should be. Other aspects reflecting my respect for Him was the signal of the ‘holy’ water upon entrance and exit: noting to myself that I was entering His house. And though I was a country bumpkin, I wore a dress, did not climb trees near the church. I was not to run in church, nor to walk on the altar, or even walk with my back to it. Naturally, it was expected that all attention be on the altar.

Now, as an adult, I know He does not ‘reside’ in the house of the church. These "in church" behaviors had a strong impact on my childhood conscience, then it also begs a question: where I am residing now? I no longer have the same modes of dressing or genuflecting. Do I reside within or outside the Church? If I were so respectful in a mere structure of wood with the name of Christ on it, then how much more respectful ought I be IN the living Body of Christ?
The thought is overwhelming. It makes Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians make all kinds of sense: as Christ was bestowed the name “Emmanuel” – God with us – likewise Christ, the 2nd Person of the Trinity, is with me (“Christ in you, the hope of glory, Colossians). If true that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is with me, and in you and in every other believer, then it stands to reason that we are: 1) one –and the same – a motive for our unity 2) it reinforces my statement that we are “in church” all the time: Christ is in me-and I am in Christ, and we are the Body of Christ.
16 …[I] do not cease to give thanks for you…in my prayers:
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
that you may know what is the hope of His calling,
what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power. (Ephesians 1:16-19, New King James Version)
In the next few verses Paul refers to the source and enabling authority for answering this prayer:
20-23
All this energy [referring to “mighty power” in NKJV, above] issues from Christ:
God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven,
in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments,
no name and no power exempt from his rule.
And not just for the time being, but forever.
He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything.
At the center of all this, Christ rules the church.
The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church.
The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
(The Message)

In chapter one of Ephesians, Paul outlines his primary prayer for the Church of God at Ephesus: that their spiritual understanding is enlightened, so they understand who they are in Christ and all that lies behind the Church: the power of the Risen Christ, Agnus Dei, that they are one in the Holy Spirit.

• Charity Johnson