Lectio
“Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself. Do you understand and grasp, brethren, God’s grace toward us? Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ. For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we together are the whole man… The fullness of Christ then is the head and the members. But what does ‘head and members’ mean? Christ and the Church.”
— St. Augustine, In Joannis Evangelium Tractatus
Meditatio
Salvation through Christ is so much more than merely the overcoming of sin now for some far-off, future reward. Our eternal reward starts now, in this life, because our eternal reward is Christ Himself, whose incarnation was for us so that we may be with Him now, even if imperfectly. Our reward, made possible by grace, through faith, working itself out in love, is union with God Himself.
Our union has already begun, for it was God who formed us. It was God whose life was breathed into our lungs and whose life we take in with every inhale and give back with every exhale until we give ourselves completely to Him in our very last act of our very last breath. And it is God’s very body, blood, and divinity we take into our body, blood, and humanity every time we partake in the sacrament of Holy Communion.
Beyond, or rather throughout, all of this, we are made one with Christ through baptism, wherein, through the Holy Spirit, we become His very body in this world. In this way, we are not merely Christians, but we are Christ in the world. He is the head and we are His hands, His feet, and His voice. Every act of love we offer another is Christ loving through us; every act of love offered to us is Christ loving us through another. This is the whole of Christ — encountered in and as the Church, His body — so joined that to touch one is to touch the other.
Oratio
Your Word
write your Word
into the world
through my pen
my God
my God
use my words
to express
your eternal Word
your Spirit
flowing through me
by your grace
in your glory
now and forever
Contemplatio
You do not have to find the words on your own. Let Him take up your pen, your breath, your hands, and write Himself into the world through you. Sit with this in silence, consenting to His presence, and let Him move in you however He wills.
Related Scripture
“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
— Galatians 3:27-28 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Immeasurable Love: Bernard of Clairvaux and Why God Asks for Your Whole Heart, which sits with the same self-giving love this post traces through baptism and Communion, but from the angle of why God asks for it at all.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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