Lent calls us to reflect on sin – my sin, your sin, the nation’s sin, the church’s sin, the world’s sin.

Sin may seem attractive when we’re committing it, but afterwards, we often would rather not think about it, examine it, nor humbly admit it. Because doing so brings us to the truth that our sin is ugly and hurtful, it causes suffering not only to ourselves, but also to others, to our world, to our church, and especially to God.

In his theology of the Mystical Body of Christ, St Paul with deep original insight, instructs the church of his day, and our day, that when one part of the body is suffering, the whole body is suffering. Paul writes, “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with; if one part is honoured, all the parts share its joy” (1 Cor. 12:26).

The very first words of the Second Vatican Council’s highly prophetic document Gaudium et Spes (“Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World”) powerfully echo for modern ears and hearts the Apostle Paul’s theology of the Mystical Body of Christ in declaring: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”

Here the church fathers at Vatican II made clear for us that the Mystical Body of Christ extends in mystical and yet concrete ways to the whole body of humanity.

But since we tend to run from suffering, we often look the other way when other parts of the body are in pain. This sad reality is what Pope Francis calls the “culture of indifference.” And this sinful culture of indifference infects not only the larger global society, but sadly to a large degree the church itself, the Mystical Body of Christ.

But despite the pain, the church of God, the Mystical Body of Christ, cannot look the other way. We must embrace the overflowing painful suffering of countless fellow human beings – near and far.

Even a cursory view of our hurting world cannot shield us, nor should it, from the sinful, inhumane realities of hunger, poverty, homelessness, human trafficking, closed borders and migrant deportation, abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, environmental degradation and climate change, corporate greed, sweatshops, labour abuses, racism, drug gangs, arms sales , and war suffered by countless fellow human beings.

The church – the Mystical Body of Christ – cannot, must not, be indifferent to our suffering brothers and sisters. On the contrary, we must tirelessly do everything we can to ease and eliminate their suffering with direct service, education, public witness, accompaniment, and advocacy.

We the Mystical Body of Christ are the physical body of Christ on earth today. In the words of St. Teresa of Avila, “Christ has no body but yours.”

It can often look and feel like sin has conquered, but not so, for “however much sin increased, grace was always greater” (Romans 5:20).

For those of us with faith in Christ Jesus, we know that by carrying the cross with Jesus and our suffering brothers and sisters we are being instruments of God’s saving grace; we are helping advance the Kingdom of God which leads to the final word –the Resurrection and the destruction of sin and death!

Image: Lake Trasimeno ( Umbria ). Isola Maggiore: San Michele Arcangelo parish church ( 13th century ) – Crucifix ( 1460s ) by Bartolomeo Caporali ( detail ). By Wolfgang Sauber – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63409969