Category: Lectio (Page 32 of 32)

As the body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.  For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.(1Corinthians 12:12-13 New American Bible translation)

We’ve all heard this one before, right?  We’ve read it, we’ve heard homilies and sermons on what it means and how it applies to our lives.  However, we will never truly be able to understand it ourselves until we understand that there exists a spiritual realm, that “we are spiritual beings having a human experience” as Pierre Tielhard de Chardin said.  I believe that a lack of understanding of this spiritual realm is the reason it is so difficult for Catholics and non-Catholics alike to understand what we mean by the True Presence of Christ, but I’ll leave that for another day. Continue reading

For we know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven. For in this tent we groan, longing to be further clothed with our heavenly habitation if indeed, when we have taken it off, we shall not be found naked. For while we are in this tent we groan and are weighed down, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  Now the one who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us the Spirit as the first installment.  So we are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away.  (2 Corinthians 5:1-10 New American Bible translation)

We walk by faith not by sight!  So many people in this world wonder why we, the faithful, choose to believe in something  we cannot see.  This scripture verse answers that question simply yet profoundly.  Full of symbolism and imagery that really drives the point home – our bodies pass away but our souls are eternal.  Tent v. Building from God: Body v. Soul.   The comparison made between tent and building helps us to realize the true weakness of our bodies and the unflinching strength of our souls.  So what should we choose to nurture? Continue reading