Missionaries of the Sacred

I started helping once a week with a food distribution program primarily to involve some of the teens from our parish in the social dimension of the gospel. My contribution was and remains quite small—I greet people as they come in and help them reg­ister. Before beginning, the team leader always reminds everyone to see the dignity of each person we will be serving. Greet them, smile, and see Christ in every man, woman, and child.

What came to mind was the thought St. Basil once shared with his listeners. Quoting Scrip­ture, he reminded them that we are called to be the Living Body of Christ. None of us alone can be the Body of Christ, no mat­ter how hard we try or what we accomplish. There is simply too much need. Christ’s Body is hun­gry, homeless, sick, in prison. Christ’s Body includes neglected and abused children and old people who pass endless days alone. Christ’s Body is the teen­age mother and single parent trying to raise a family. St. Basil’s insight was that only when we see the whole, when we each make some effort to reach out to the Body of Christ, each in our own small or apparently inad­equate way, do we become the Living Body of Christ.