Jesus Wants You to Be Part of Him

 In one of the readings for this weekend I found an inspiring text. It is from the letter to the Ephesians (1:22-23):

“He [God, the Father] put all things beneath his [Jesus’s] feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”

The Church, which is the community of Christians, is referred to as the body of Jesus, and thus the Church is the fullness (or “completion”) of the one who fills (or completes) all things in every way.

Jesus, in a way, is completed by the community of Christians. This is why Paul could say, “I complete in my flesh what is lacking to the Passion of the Christ, for the sake of His body which is the Church” (Colossians 1:24). At the same time, He is the one who completes us in every way, insofar as “from His fullness” of perfection “we have all received grace upon grace” (John 1:16). What strikes me as inspiring is that God decided that we were going to be part of Him, as the members are part of the same body to which the head belongs. God decided that we and He would form in Jesus one inseparable body. A body is not only a head; a body is not complete if it does not have members. We have been called to complete Jesus’ body, to the point that Jesus does not want to be without us, as the head does not want to be without its body.

This is why the Church is not simply a community but also a communion. It is a unity like a body is a unity. We are many persons from a human point of view but, as Christians, we are one Person only, with one Body. Now, this is a very special Body because you belong to this body if you accept the call and as long as you are faithful to it.

Jesus wants you to be part of Him and He does not want to be complete without you. Is it not beautiful? He loves you as one loves his own hand, or his own eyes, or his own foot. If your foot hurts, you are sorry; and Jesus is sorry if you suffer…

But, do we want to belong to Him? In this very special Body which is the Church, no member is forced to belong. We truly belong to this Body when we follow the directions of the Head… We truly belong to the Body when we have one heart, His Heart, and love with His love. Are we healthy members of Jesus’ Body? May we receive from the fullness of our Head all the graces we need, so that we may be so close to Jesus as to be truly a part of Him.

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