I owe you an apology. Let me explain why. Last week at a meeting I was asked to step forward if I thought the people of St. James had a personal relationship with Christ. I stayed back. I was thinking, perhaps, that those who had a personal relationship with Christ were the ones who knew the Bible backwards and forwards and could talk about all of the events that happened when Jesus of Nazareth walked among us. Or, maybe I was thinking that to have a personal relationship with Christ meant some kind of mystical connection with the Lord of Glory who ascended into heaven and will one day return. So when I thought about St. James neither of those ways of relating to Jesus – either one steeped in profound knowledge or one of intimacy with a heavenly being – seemed to fit us. So I asked myself – what about you? Do you have a personal relationship with Christ? That’s when I realized I misjudged St. James. I do have a personal relationship with Christ and it is precisely because of YOU. I know Christ because I know you as the Body of Christ. To have a personal relationship with you is to have a personal relationship with Christ. The Bible insists that we, the Church, are the Body of Christ. The Church is not like the Body of Christ. The Church does not stand for the Body of Christ. The Church is the Body of Christ. We are the Body of Christ just as surely as when Jesus was walking the dusty roads of Galilee. Christ was not merely present in the world for the thirty-three years or so that Jesus walked among us. He continues to be with us. Even at the moment of Jesus’ Ascension he told us, “I will be with you always.” He isn’t with us as a fond memory of someone from the past. He isn’t with us merely as a spiritual friend who we can cling to. No, he is with us the way that he first came to us — as a body. The revelation of God in Jesus depended on him taking on human existence. That revelation did not end at the Ascension but continues as the Body of Christ which is the Church. By having a personal connection with the Church we have a personal relationship with Christ.
We can doubt that profound theological truth because we know what we are like as the Church. We know the flaws of the larger church – the abuse of children, the patriarchy, the power politics, the misplaced priorities. How could that institution embody Christ? We also know the flaws of our little church – the pettiness, the divisions, the irresponsibility, the lack of accountability. How can do we expect to find a relationship with Christ in that group? The same way that Peter and Andrew and Mary Magdalene and Salome found the presence of God in Jesus. Think about it: since Jesus was like us in all things but sin he used to get dirty as he went about preaching. He had needs — a growling stomach or a parched throat. He would stink after a long day sweating in the desert sun. His disciples came to recognize God-with-us, Emmanuel, was present despite the dirt, the hunger, the smell. The same is true of us. Yes, this incarnation of the Body of Christ that is St. James Catholic Church also is dirty and stinky at times. Like the fig tree in the gospel story we sometimes need a little fertilizer and a little cultivation in order to prosper and grow and bear fruit. But that does not change who God has made us to be – the Body of Christ, the place where we have a personal relationship with Christ.
And. And. Let’s not forget that there is another manifestation of the Body of Christ that Jesus left us – the Holy Eucharist. We use the same term to refer to the historical person who died on Calvary’s hill and rose again at Easter, to the community of those who are transformed into his image at baptism, and to the bread which is broken and the cup that is shared. They are three manifestations of the one person of Christ. We have a personal encounter with Christ each time we approach the altar and the minister extends the sacrament to us: “the body of Christ, the blood of Christ.” This is the real presence of Christ given to us as a gift during the Last Supper. So Jesus becomes your personal savior as you eat and drink the Blessed Sacrament. Receiving Holy Communion relates us to Christ in the deepest way possible.
So please accept my apology that I forgot that this is holy ground, the place where we have a personal relationship with Christ in community and sacrament. We know about holy ground because Moses experienced it at the burning bush. “Here I am,” God said. “Remove the sandals from your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground.” We certainly are blessed to have this holy ground as our place of relationship with Christ. But the very fact that we are here and not in some magnificent structure with pews and stained glass and a steeple and a marble altar tells us something about holy ground. Holy ground can be anywhere. St. James proves it. Think what that means. Your home is holy ground. In your home you have the opportunity to have a relationship with Christ in the love and forgiveness and generosity that exists there. Your work or school is holy ground. There you have a relationship with Christ by the witness that you show of a life modeled on charity and compassion. The gym is holy ground. The park is holy ground. Everywhere we go we have a relationship with Christ by the confidence that we have in God’s abiding presence in all things and through all things. Jesus said “I will be with you always” so here is the truth: our whole lives long all we are doing is moving from one piece of holy ground to another.
