incarnational what?!

**note: click on bold words for more information**

okay, i know what you're thinking..."it's friday night and everyone's out having fun, and cj's sitting in a dorm room thinking about incarnational spirituality and social analysis?!" true. it's been a challenging week. so, here are my scattered thoughts on incarnational spirituality (don't let that scare you, i'll try to keep it interesting!!)...

i admit that i was a bit hesitant to apply to a program called "incarnate word missionaries." for a long time i told people i was volunteering with the sisters of charity. true, yes, but the full name is the congregation of the sisters of charity of the incarnate word. that's a lot of big scary words with some (perhaps unfortunately deserved) implications and attached stigma. i just want to serve in love, not preach. well, i am slowly learning that this is the exact spirit of incarnational spirituality. let me break it down for you.

"incarnation" literally means embodied in flesh. the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (john 1:14). "the incarnation"= jesus. simple, right? it is until you consider the fact that "christ has no body now but yours" as teresa of avila says.

so all this to say, we are christ's hands and feet. and that's where it becomes tricky, because it's not in some figurative, symbolic way. the congregation started when bishop dubuis of texas wrote a letter stating "our lord jesus christ, suffering in the persons of a multitude of the sick and infirm of every kind, seeks relief at your hands". the sisters responded, and now lay missionaries can continue in that tradition. our mission statement is as follows:

we, the missionaries, inspired by the charism and mission of the incarnate word, choose to live in community and walk in solidarity with the economically poor and marginalized, in order to be transformed by them and to transform unjust social structures that keep people economically poor and marginalized.

i like how shane claiborne puts it in his book the irresistible revolution (as most of you know, shane is a personal hero of mine. caution: this book will severely disturb one's worldview):

as we practice hospitality, there comes a point where the suffering around us drives us to ask what it would take to reimagine the world. we've all heard the saying "give someone a fish and they'll eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they'll eat for the rest of their life." but our friend john perkins challenges us to go farther. he says "the problem is that nobody is asking who owns the pond." as we consider economics, some of us will give people fish. others will teach people to fish. but still others must be looking at who owns the pond and who polluted it, for these are also essential questions for our survival. we must storm the fence that has been built around the pond and make sure that everyone can get to it, for there are enough fish for all of us.

and this is exactly what motivates me for the challenges ahead...