<div dir="auto">Super reflection. Unity - has it become an old-fashioned word; an eye-rolling easily dismissed term? If so, too bad. Without it, strength is diminished, focus and direction become confused, and we all lose. Thanks for posting.<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Rosemary Gray-Snelgrove<br><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><br></div></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Jun 1, 2024, 1:15 AM Arthur Blomme via Sundaycommunity <<a href="mailto:sundaycommunity@lists.integralshift.ca" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">sundaycommunity@lists.integralshift.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
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<h1>Corpus Christi: the Underlying Unity of the Human Family</h1>
<p style="text-align:right" align="right"><span>Arthur Blomme, May 30 2024</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This Sunday, we gather to reflect on a profound
metaphor that
is presented to us in the Epistles of Paul, the Gospels and
contemporary
mystics like Teilard de Chardin: the Body of Christ.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The apostle Paul uses the analogy of the body
of Christ extensively
in his Epistles to teach that the church is not confined to walls
or borders.
It is universal, encompassing all of humanity. In 1 Corinthians
12:13, Paul
writes, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one
body—whether
Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one
Spirit to drink.”
This passage calls us to a radical inclusivity, where no one is
excluded from
the love of Christ.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Later in Corinthians Paul reminds us that just
as the eye
cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” we cannot dismiss the
value of
others who are members in the same body.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Inclusivity is not merely a suggestion; it is a
mandate. In
Galatians 3:28, we read, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor
free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus.” Our
unity in Christ transcends all earthly divisions, calling us to
embrace every
person as a cherished member of the Body of Christ.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This theme of radical inclusivity also
permeates all four
Gospels.<span> </span>We are taught to
love our
enemies and esteem the lowly and downtrodden. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the Gospel reading this Sunday from Mark, we
find Jesus
instituting the sacrament of Communion during the Last Supper. He
took bread,
and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
“Take; this is my
body” (Mark 14:22). Jesus does this in the context of inviting the
lepers and
the outcasts to his table. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In one of his most striking pieces of mystical
literature,
Teilhard de Chardin wrote “The hymn of the universe,” where he
expressed the
idea of the Eucharist extending beyond the church walls into the
cosmos. He saw
every element of nature as part of a grand Eucharistic
celebration, with the world
itself serving as an altar.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Teilhard insisted on viewing the human
population as one
global family, recognizing the need for global solidarity.<span> </span>He believed that the act of
seeing, or growing
in consciousness of the reality we live in to be essential to that
unity.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From my earliest memories, the metaphor—or more
accurately,
the sacrament—of communion has held a special place in my
spirituality. It
serves as a profound reminder of our interconnectedness and shared
humanity.
Just as the bread and wine symbolize Christ’s body and blood, they
also
represent the underlying unity of all people. By participating
remotely in this
online ceremony we join with Pope Francis’s exhortation to pray
for the unity
of the human family, transcending divisions and embracing the
evolution of
consciousness towards a more interconnected and harmonious world.</p>
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