When you consider the church, what do you see?  I feel sure most will see more than a building.  Probably many will see more than a group of people assembled for a meeting.  Will any of us get a glimpse of what brings us together and unites us as the church, the Body of Christ?

Consider something Thomas Merton wrote regarding the “members of Christ,”

“The union that binds the members of Christ together is not the union of proud confidence in the power of an organization. The Church is united by the humility as well as by the charity of her members. Hers is the union that comes from the consciousness of individual fallibility and poverty, from the humility which recognizes its own limitations and accepts them, the meekness that cannot take upon itself to condemn, but can only forgive because it is conscious that it has itself been forgiven by Christ.”  (From “Disputed Question,” p 139)

What do you think?  Do these words describe the church you know and experience?

“ … humility … charity … fallibility … poverty … meekness … forgiven …”

How comfortable or uncomfortable are you in using these words to describe yourself as a member of the church?

A lot of days, a question like that makes me uncomfortable.  I see so many ways my attitude and actions go in a very different way.

If I look at how Merton begins and ends his description, “ … humility … forgiven,” I wonder if I might get a clue on how to move into the reality he envisions.

What about you?  How do you think we begin to move into this way of being church?