God's Hands/Our Hands

Joe Blair has written a poignant post this week. It's about a group of guys who have decided been called  to rebuild the screened porch of a friend of theirs. The friend is dying and has chosen to spend what time remains to her on her porch.

It is part of what makes us human, I think, the Urge To Do Something when someone we care about is going through a bad time. We know we are powerless to make it better most of the time, but still, we have this compelling need to Do Something.

In the past week and a half I learned that one neighbor had to have a bone scan because of a cancer recurrence. The woman who lives next door to him has finally been matched with a donor for the marrow transplant she needs to ward off leukemia. And our friend who kept Blackberry when we were away is being scheduled for complicated heart surgery. On Sunday morning, I remembered these three during The Prayers. But that wasn't enough. In the afternoon I had a compulsion to bake, and later that day delivered blueberry muffins to two of our friends and banana bread to the third.

Tonight I'm remembering a piece I used to share with my Stephen Ministers during their training course. It was written by Teresa of Avila and says:

Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
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.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Amen and Amen.