I would like you to take a few seconds and look at your hands…..what do you see?  Do any of you see the hands of Christ?

 

St Theresa of Avila wrote:

 

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks out his compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.” – Teresa of Avila

 

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord, we also are reflecting on who we are as a parish community with our annual trustee report. 

 

When I first came here last August, I was wondering what I would do here…..this parish has so much going for it and works very well….in February when I went on retreat, God showed me what my work with you would be…….to further the mission of the Church……to be a disciple with you, to help you be better disciples and then to go and make disciples.  This is the mission entrusted to us by Jesus and the reason the parish exists.  As I read the surveys, many of you said that we need to get more people involved and to reach the younger members of the community.  To do that is to call them to discipleship; but, we need to be that ourselves.  Being a disciple is not in a book or a theological idea:  it is to follow Jesus, to love Jesus, and to have a relationship with him.  This has to be the starting point.  Anything we do will fail if we are not doing Christ’s mission.   Our mission must be centered here at the Eucharist.  Here we are made into His Body and Blood; from this holy table, we are sent to be his hands, his feet, his eyes into the world.  Christ left us the mystery of the Eucharist as a memorial of His Love; He gave us the very gift of himself so we could change the world in His name.

The vision I have for us as a community is that we all commit ourselves to be disciples, grow as disciples and make disciples.   All the gifts and talents we need are already here; we just need to use them.  The gift of the Lord’s Body and Blood is what transforms us into His Church.

 

Take a look at your hands……..they are Christ’s and have a mission to accomplish: to bring Him into the world