At the elementary school I attended in Torreón, they had a bulletin board that was huge for me. All the classrooms took turns decorating it each week, and at the end of the year the principal awarded a prize to the best bulletin boards.
Because those bulletin boards were so carefully thought out, they really caught my attention. I liked looking at them and paid attention to the various images and sections they were organized into. From then on, I developed a taste for corkboards.
Corkboards aren’t as big as a bulletin board, but it was big enough for me. I could post images, photos, notes, or drawings that interested me, and oddly enough, I always ran out of space, hahaha. That’s why years later, when I discovered Pinterest, I was so excited.
Basically, Pinterest is a digital space where each user can create as many corkboards as they want and organize them with as many images as they like. Being a digital space, the sky’s practically the limit.
I didn’t waste much time regaining my passion and starting to create boards with images that interested me. I had boards of haircuts, ideas for children’s parties, baking, sauce recipes, and a bunch of other things.
Since by then I had already begun my graduate studies, I was also beginning to explore new types of prayer.
One of those new expressions of prayer was Visio Divina. This type of prayer consists of focusing on an image and entering into it in prayer. It’s not about analyzing, but rather seeking to live it, receiving what God seeks to sow within each of us. For this reason, I also began to look for images that would support me in this matter.
There were several images that helped me deeply. And others that were downright complicated for me. But at least I appreciated the aesthetics and the art.
But there was one image in particular that I didn’t have to force myself to enter into prayer; instead, I felt as if the image had invited me.
It was at a time when cell phones were just starting to have a camera on the side of the screen, and when “selfies” were just becoming popular.
The image was by an independent artist, whose drawings were like newspaper cartoons. In this drawing, Jesus was depicted, with his crown of thorns and robe, taking a selfie. In a subsequent frame of the same image, you could see Jesus’s hand with his cell phone looking at the selfie, and on the phone, you could see a bunch of people of all nationalities and races.
Wow.
The artist managed to give me a new understanding of what the body of Christ also is.
Interestingly, or perhaps intentionally, the artist drew Jesus with his wounded body. He had his crown of thorns, and his hand showed the wound from the nail from having already been on the Cross. And the group of people in the selfie represents all of us, who, although it’s not always noticeable, can also be wounded.
Do you feel part of the body of Christ? Do you know you are part of the body of Christ?
The Gospel describes how Jesus healed the sick and also fed the multitudes. That, in other words, is caring for humanity, caring for the body.
One of the ways Jesus demonstrated his concern and love for all was in the multiplication of the loaves. Such a great miracle, it addresses a very basic need of our humanity: food.
Can you and I demonstrate the same interest and love for our bodies?
Can we seek to express the same love for others?
On one particular occasion, Jesus fed a multitude with a few loaves and fish; this miracle is known as the multiplication of the loaves.
Jesus used five loaves and two fish to feed a multitude, again, caring for their humanity, his body.
Who is close to you that you can offer something to care for their humanity?
If the Spirit leads you, share with Jesus the carpenter what you observe someone close to you needs from their body and humanity. And perhaps you will realize that what you can offer is enough, for Jesus can multiply it.
Marisol
P.S. We can hear about how Jesus cares for people from their humanity and body in the readings for the Feast of Corpus Christi, year/cycle C.
