A lot of us have difficulty with our bodies. They are too fat, or too thin, or not the right shape, or whatever - enough to keep an army of cosmetic surgeons in business. And this is nothing new. For centuries, people of both sexes, of all ages, cultures and situations, have tried to improve on "God's image" - trimming here, decorating there, concealing this or displaying that. Should we Christians have our own thoughts about this?
Bodies are important. The Word of God took human form within Mary's body. Jesus' body, once nailed to the Cross, still carries the wounds which he asked Thomas to touch. We are nourished by that same body in the Eucharist, and collectively we are Christ's body now, the Church. We respond to Paul's call to the Christians in Rome, to "present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom 12:1). We know that our bodies are "a temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 6:19). And at the last day, we look forward to the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
We are not talking about the mind, or the spirit. These also have their place in our relationship to God. We are talking about our bodies, "warts and all". The warts and the imperfections are part of our physical bodies, and Paul must have realized this when he called the Romans to present their bodies as a sacrifice to God. In the Old Testament, the only acceptable sacrifice was a beast without blemish. In the New Testament, it is Christ who offers himself for all time as sacrifice, and it is only in this context that presenting our own bodies as a sacrifice makes sense, by sharing in his sacrifice.
We read and hear about Christ's body, but we know nothing about it. We have no idea what he looked like, short or tall, dark or pale. Our icons are drawn from faith, not life. We cannot even be sure of how old he was. But we know that many of his miracles concerned people's bodies. Making the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, was a central part of his ministry. These physical cures were pointers to the spiritual transformation we can all undergo (for are we not all in part spiritually lame, blind, deaf and dumb - leprous even?). Yet they were real bodily cures, and the fact that they pointed to the onset of God's reign just shows how closely body and spirit belong together.
In Roman Catholic cantons, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, 11 June this year, is a public holiday, celebrating Christ's body, Corpus Christi in Latin. In German, it is called Fronleichnam, but the Leichnam, the Corpus, is no corpse, but a source of life. "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53). In a very real sense, when we eat and drink, we incorporate Christ's body into ours.
The Church of England is more restrained: 11 June is "The Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion." It falls outside the season of Lent, Easter and Pentecost, and so deliberately emphasizes how Christ's body lives on even after his Ascension and the descent of the Spirit. It is a modern festival - less than 900 years old, and accompanied by prayers and hymns written by the theologian Thomas Aquinas.
At the Last Supper, Jesus shared bread with those around him, with the words "This is my body." Bread does not have warts, toenails or eyelashes, for what is important is not what our bodies look like, but what they do. God calls us not just to use our mind and our spirit, but our bodies too. In the Bible, Mary is an example: "Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38), and so is Paul (beaten, imprisoned, hungry: 2 Cor 11:23-27). As Christians, our bodies are important, not for what they look like, but for what we do with them. We need to make Thomas Aquinas' collect for Corpus Christi our own. Lord, grant that in communion with your own body "we may know within ourselves and show forth in our lives the fruits of your redemption."
HD