Sacramental Theology

We don’t experience the presence of God in our minds alone. We can offer an attitude of prayer, to make space in our heads and hearts for His voice. Yet I am not just a spirit, but a body too. I have a voice that emanates from lungs, from vocal chords, from the placement of tongue behind teeth – air pushes its way up from the seat of the spirit, through the lungs, and breaks into the physical plane of our world.

I must kneel, and feel the weight of my body curled into a ball, forehead in fleshy hands, rocking back and forth in prayer. My body is not insignificant – it is part of the attitude of prayer.

This is why Catholics and Orthodox believers cross themselves, kneel at the top of the knave, and touch their fingers to the images of Christ hung on the walls of churches.

So this morning in my kitchen, my hands cooked bread, and washed dishes – all the ingredients of this ordinary world (flour, coffee, water, soap) – they brush against my hands as little prayers. The actions of hands in the world, small, repetitive, simple, these are what God uses. This small act of cooking and eating and sharing is Grace; it is a way God’s presence is manifest. This is eucharist, is communion.

I stayed home from church to take communion, but I cannot take it alone.

I try to clean the spoons, the bowls, the silverware, and imagine the action as grace. This is how God works – we are tools, utensils, in His hands; we get dirty from use; He cleanses us and uses us again. We are made for service. We are not made to sit gleaming in a locked-up cabinet (or a locked-up heart). We are made to be used, and to allow the Master to take care of us.

This is what I learn from putting my hands again and again into dirty water, into bowls full of batter. I have to know and experience God’s presence in these little things. His grace is spilt out over us in tangible blessings all the time - small touches, wafts of aroma, bits of music, smiles of friends, laughter, the taste of wine, and bread.

Who could have imagined a world so full of food for filling? The bright sky after rain is itself a reminder that God is not far from each one of us. We breathe Him in, and He encompasses us. God should be the delight of my days. In Christ there is “the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way” (Eph. 1:23).