“In Christian teaching, followers of Jesus are called to honour the bodies of our neighbours as we honour our own. In his expanded teaching by example, this includes leper bodies, possessed bodies, widow and orphan bodies, as well as foreign bodies and hostile bodies – none of which he shied away from. Read from the perspective of the body, his ministry was about encountering those whose flesh was discounted by the world in which they lived…What many of us miss, in our physical dis-ease, is that our bodies remain God’s best way of getting to us.” - Barbara Brown Taylor, An altar in the world

Every experience is recorded in our bodies

This painting could depict Jesus in the womb or post labour. Carried and held, both heads and bodies inclined to the other, it also seems to convey a hint of knowing and sharing pain. I read that ‘“Dalit” means broken (sometimes used by those in South Asia traditionally regarded as low caste or ‘untouchable’).’*

My thoughts turn to broken bodies and also the wisdom of the body. However we view our bodies, they are ‘capable of embracing the searing energies of God’ (1) They carry the likeness of God, are the soul’s address and so are due care and honour even as they are buffeted on a daily basis. Healing extends to the body, and beyond injury and trauma. It extends to the accumulated aches, pains and sorrows from the quieter, smaller daily physical buffeting and emotional distress.

Question

Am I naive by refusing offers of compassion that come my way, whether directly or indirectly offered to me by God?