Teresa of Avila
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
2 comments:
This is what Christianity is really about: God takes on a human body in order to be able to act in the world, in order to be love in the world, and in each moment we could offer to be that body. Of course, we don’t really know how to do that, but we can try to learn how, stumbling around in the dark. It’s a kind of surrender, which sounds very frightening, like giving up ourselves, but it’s really a finding of the part that is most ourselves, a discovery of how valuable that part is, often the part or ourselves that seems most horrible and problematic, the part we want to cut out and throw away, but which turns out to be most precious and useful.
In a 12-Step program, the 7th Step prayer says, "Higher Power, I am now willing to totally give myself to you, the good and the bad. I ask you to remove from me now every single defect of character that prevents me from being useful to you and to others. Grant me strength, as I go out to do your will."
Perhaps God can use the good and the bad at times. Truly, I think that Teresa enlightens with this quote about God's being able to use all of us, every single part.
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