“Anima Christi” -2
Body of Christ, save me.
Corpus Christi, salva me.
We are learning more and more about the connections between body and mind, body and spirit. I read in the newspaper recently that up to 90 percent of groups such as combat veterans and rape victims have nightmares. What affects the body affects the spirit, and vice versa.
At the same time, I am more than my body. What I can accomplish physically may be limited by the kind of body I have (my 110 pounds would never get my toe in the door of the NFL, for example). But who I am is not irrevocably determined by my physical makeup. I am more than this mortal coil that I will shuffle off at death, as Hamlet puts it. I am also more than what happens to my body in this life, whether it be violence, illness, abuse, or injury.
But is my body irrelevant?
Jesus, once incarnate, is forever and always human as well as divine. At his Resurrection, Jesus does not abandon his body and become pure 
spirit. He is raised as what Paul – in his effort to explain the unexplainable – calls a “spiritual body” – σωμα πνευματικον (1 Cor 15:44).
The body is anything but irrelevant, but as we learn from the helplessness of Christ with hands and feet nailed to the cross – Jesus the bread of life, who can now not even scratch his own nose, much less feed anyone – neither Jesus nor we ourselves can be finally determined by our own weakness or woundedness. The crucifixion shows us that physical violence or even destruction of the body can never ultimately define human life.
God’s purpose for our lives is not to be thwarted.
I am helpless:
- to save myself
- to heal myself
- to save or heal anyone else
Yet the body of Christ, through the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection, does save. The body of Christ is efficacious where my own efforts are not. The body of Christ, as we know from the Eucharist, is totally and joyfully present to us, whereas our own presence (to God, to ourselves, to others) can be momentary or partial or reluctant.
“Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.”
“Salva me” can also be translated “heal me.” The body of Christ often heals through the Christian community or the medical professions. But not all healings are medical, and the presence of Christ heals, even when there is not a medical cure. The body of Christ heals and transforms, though there may be wounds that I carry with me in my body, in my body/spirit connection, to death.
Body of Christ, save me, heal me.
Corpus Christi, salva me.