"Though we are many, we are one body..."

"Though we are many, we are one body, because we all share in one bread".  When all rhetoric has fallen silent, and everything possible has been done to build bridges between one community and another; when all our efforts to bring peace to earth have run into the sand, we turn at the last to the mystery of the Lord's Supper.  We eat and drink in memory of Jesus who through his death broke down every barrier that separates one human from another.  Reaching out to the right and to the left, his arms on the cross continue to draw all humankind into his heart.  Many kick and scream, preferring the easy way out of mutual isolation.  But he continues to draw us in...

It's tempting to think that at this, our very first communion, the only barriers to fall are between Roma and non-Roma.  Far from it.  Pastor Viorel (here holding the bread) explained to me that dark spots on the home-baked, unleavened bread, represent Jesus' wounds.  We will continue to wound him until that moment when the process of reconciliation has been completed: between Roma/Gadjo;  Rom/Romni; Adult/Child; Poor/Rich; Roma from Hunedoara/Roma from Toflia; English Gypsy/Eastern European Roma.  "Why do you persecute me?" cries the risen but still wounded Jesus.

But on this same day of our first communion, South Africa is burying one man who continued to believe against all the evidence that Black and White could peaceably co-exist and even come to love one another.  Every generation needs its Nelson Mandelas.  Political vision will take us some of the way.  But ultimately it will only be when we all share of the one bread, that we will finally become one body, the Body of Christ on earth.  

We should not be disheartened by an increase in conflict.  It might just be a sign we are aiming at the right goal.  For in refusing to compromise on unity, the stakes are raised and "the thoughts of many hearts revealed."