The
Body of Christ
by Rev. Rich
Hasselbach
“…He took
bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that,
their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished
from their sight. They said to each other, ‘were not our
hearts burning within us…”
Luke
24:30-31
It
is tempting to contrast religion to spirituality as opposites.
Clearly, they are not identical. Spirituality is profoundly
interior – involving our ever-deepening encounter with our
own inner selves; religion, on the other hand, engages us the world
outside of us. Spirituality is the arduous journey to the center of
who we are; religion invites us to join our lives to the lives of
others. Religion and spirituality are different, but intimately
connected – two sides of the same coin. As the Christian
tradition understands the spiritual journey it requires
religion –
at least if we understand ‘religion’ as being, through
ritual and fellowship, in the company of others who are also
‘on the way.’
Think of the travelers on the road to Emmaus. As they made their
way from Jerusalem a stranger joined them. As he spoke to them
about the crucified one, the hearts of these pilgrims
‘burned.’ Curiously, though, they didn’t feel the
warmth of that inner fire until ‘he took bread, blessed it,
broke it, and shared it …” They didn’t know
their own hearts until ‘their eyes were opened,’
through the presence of another; in the breaking of bread.
Through Christ, the human heart is
the
place, more than any other, where the Spirit dwells. It is only in
finding the deep, abiding presence of the Lord at our own center
that we find our true selves. But the journey within is not one
that can be safely taken alone. We need each other, we need
community, we need, still, to gather, break bread, and remember
those moments on our journey when our hearts
‘burn.’
Christians cannot be solitary wanderers. Our journey within is a
journey made together. The God who is within also unites us,
profoundly and personally, to the world without, and to each other.
The community of believers provides companions for the journey -
literally. It provides those with whom we break bread, and
remember. That is what it means to be ‘church.’ And
that is why the Eucharist is at the heart of the church.
“The New Testament knows nothing of a solitary
religion…,” C.S. Lewis reminds us, “…We
are members of one another.”