Meditation on weakness & strength, love & reconciliation: many members, one body. Theme from 1 & 2 Corinthians.
As for the body, it is solid and strong and curious and full of detail; it wants to polish itself; it wants to love another body; it is the only vessel in the world that can hold, in a mix of power and sweetness: words, song, gesture, passion, ideas, ingenuity, devotion, merriment, vanity, and virtue. Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.
— Mary Oliver
Questions to consider as themes from 1 & 2 Corinthians:
- What part of your body is weakest, most vulnerable?
- Which part of your body is strongest?
- In your community, who is weakest? Who is strongest?
- When and how do we honor those who are vulnerable? Do we honor anyone whom you consider to be weak?
- When and how do we become weak and vulnerable with others? For others? In what ways does this reveal strength?
- Who is your ‘opposite’? What do they add to your life?
Songs about body:
- Bleed the Same by Mandisa feat. TobyMac, Kirk Franklin (Christian) – Lyric: https://youtu.be/HVKuA1s5I3o
- This Is Me from Greatest Showman (anthem) – Link: https://youtu.be/CjxugyZCfuw
- Hair Body Face by Lady Gaga (rock) – Lyric: https://youtu.be/-z-8kcfU6Hk
- We Are the Body by Brooks Hills Music (Christian) – Lyric: https://youtu.be/OYOCdVI9m1Q
- Song of the Body of Christ by Marty Haugen, David Haas, Joe Camacho & Rory Cooney (Christian hymn) – Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI_Oz_PpejU
- Body by Loud Luxury (rock rap) – Link: https://youtu.be/D_rqZm231HY
- Body by John Suaste (melancholic ballad) – link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A55d5dhsReg
The body is a sacrament. The old, traditional definition of sacrament captures this beautifully. A sacrament is a visible sign of invisible grace. In that definition there is a fine acknowledgement of how the unseen world comes to expression in the visible world. This desire for expression lies deep at the heart of the invisible world. All our inner life and intimacy of soul longs to find an outer mirror. It longs for a form in which it can be seen, felt, and touched. The body is the mirror where the secret world of the soul comes to expression. — John O’Donohue
So it is not hard to understand
where God’s body is, it is everywhere and everything; shore and the vast fields of water, the accidental and the intended over here, over there. And I bow down, participate and attentive
it is so dense and apparent.
— Evidence (excerpt) by Mary Oliver
The Body is Like Mary
The body is like Mary, and each of us has a Jesus inside.
Who is not in labour, holy labour? Every creature is.
See the value of true art, when the earth or a soul is in
the mood to create beauty;
for the witness might then for a moment know, beyond
any doubt, God is really there within,
so innocently drawing life from us with Her umbilical
universe – infinite existence …
though also needing to be born. Yes, God also needs
to be born!
Birth from a hand’s loving touch. Birth from a song,
from a dance, breathing life into this world.
The body is like Mary, and each of us, each of us has
a Christ within.
– Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi