World Communion

In meditating/preparing for my World Communion Sunday sermon, this is the prayer-poem that emerged. It's not refined, finished or edited. It's just what came out of my sitting with the Spirit.

Jesus Christ, your body has been broken

asunder by nations' border lines

by picket fences and closed garage doors.

Your body has been broken by

a two-party system that prays: "May the

Lord watch between me and thee, while we

are absent, one from the other" (Gen. 31:49).

Your body has been broken apart by

betrayed vows and forgotten trust;

broken by blood poured out in abuse,

violence, fear, destruction.

You are broken, O Christ, again and again

by me and those I love. You are broken and

we think to put you back together - like some

sacred Humpty Dumpty - by working out

our guilt with charity.

Jesus Christ, your body is broken

for me and for many. Let your blood pour

out in healing rivers of love - revealing your life

as the ultimate example of bringing back together:

ourselves with ourselves

ourselves with God

ourselves with one another.

Your body is broken, O Christ. But not for nothing.

Image is "One Sacred Community" by Mary Southard, CSJ. Mary says, "This community is part of the larger Earth communion of Life: brother sun, sister moon, the rocks and winds, fire and water and all that lives and grows --- in the heavens, the seas, the soil. The fire rising from the bottom, the burning bush, reminds us that we are on holy ground. ... The image is at the heart of the longing of the Holy One, That All May Be ONE."