Sometimes at the Eucharist, as I am
distributing the Sacrament, I imagine I am wielding an invisible needle and
thread. With every placing of the Bread in the hands or tongue of a communicant
and then the next as I go along the line, the body of Christ is being threaded
together anew.
Every Eucharist is a remembering of
the body of Christ as we remember and recall the Presence of Jesus in the
Sacrament. And every Eucharist is a re-membering of the body of Christ, the
Church, in which the threads that bind us together are reinforced. We recall
that we are not our own. We are created for communion – communion with God and
communion with one another. The Holy Spirit – the Holy Weaver – weaves, knits,
and sews us together.
All of humanity is created for
communion with God, communion with itself, and communion with all of creation.
Part of the Church’s vocation is to be the sign and foretaste of that
communion. The Church’s vocation is to be a sign and foretaste of the promise
that all that is torn and tattered will be mended, rewoven, and knit back
together. All that is torn and tattered in each of us can be mended. The torn
and tattered fabric of human relationship and society can be mended. Creation,
torn and tattered, can be repaired. It is not just about the Church. But, it is
the mission of the Church to point to and live in anticipation of God’s
restoration of all things (Acts 3:21).
That is the work of God. Only God can
finally accomplish it. But Christians are called to participate in that mission
and be menders in the world. It is the Church’s vocation, knit together by the
Holy Spirit through Baptism and Eucharist, to be the loom of the Lord.
There is precedence for this image:
“But
speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the
head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by
every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly,
promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Ephesians
4:15-16)
"Christ
is likened to a needle the eye in which, pierced most painfully at his passion,
now draws all after him, so repairing the tunic rent by Adam, stitching
together the two peoples of Jews and Gentiles [and, by extension, every
division that rends the human fabric], making them one for always." –
Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), 'Catholicism, Christ and the Common Destiny of
Man', referencing Paschasius Radbertus (785-865)
"One
day a little girl sat watching her mother working in the kitchen. She asked her
mommy, 'What does God do all day long?' For a while, her mother mother was
stumped, but then she said, 'Darling, I'll tell you what God does all day long.
He spends his whole day mending broken things.'" –
Festo Kivengere (1921-1988), quoted in 'Glorious Companions'
"From
Jesus began a weaving together of the divine and human nature in order that
human nature, through fellowship with what is more divine, might become divine,
not only in Jesus but also in all those who, besides believing in Jesus, take
up the life which he taught; the life which leads everyone who lives according
to the precepts of Jesus to friendship with God and fellowship with him." –
Origen (184-253), 'Contra Celsus'
“For
the sake of love all the saints resisted sin, not showing any regard for this
present life. And they endured many forms of death, in order to be separated
from the world and united with themselves and with God, joining together in
themselves the broken fragments of human nature. For this is the true and
undefiled theosophy of the faithful. Its consummation is goodness and truth –
if indeed goodness as compassion and truth as devotion to God in faith are the
marks of love. It unites men to God and to one another, and on this account
contains the unchanging permanence of all blessings.” –
Maximus the Confessor, ‘Various Texts on Theology, the Divine Economy, and
Virtue and Vice’, 1st Century
