My Mystical Body

SAT., JAN. 12, 1991, 12:57 PM
GAVIOTA POOLSIDE, SANTIAGO DECUBA

The Church is My Mystical Body. That is an important perception and affirmation, and I encourage you to keep offering it as your view of this “phenomenon”, both here and at home. (You also can defend My servant Paul, emphasizing the important truths he expressed rather than the statements that were more him than I.)

Because of both the honest work and the arrogance of science your culture holds that the workings of the body are rather well known and predictable. I assert, speaking for the Creator, that the body is at least as much mystery as it is rationally known. As you know, the human body is, itself, a poor subject for scientific study, and bodies… are that much worse. You have experienced recently some allergic-like attacks, even a couple here. There is no way for you to know, for sure, why these happen and why they cease. Even if you were studied extensively there would not likely be a definite answer. Most of human ills are thus. Even if, for instance, a cancer can be diagnosed it can never be known for sure what combination of circumstances and conditions were responsible… in a particular site.

The Church of Jesus Christ, with the many names, simple and pretentious, that identify its “parts,” can be accurately identified and described only partially. The “working” of it, in total, is mystical… in the same way the physical body, including the mind function of the brain, is mystical. There is much love of God, much reverence for Christ, and some faint, uncertain acceptance of Me, the Holy Spirit, but all of this is manifested in a great variety of ways. There is allegiance to the Church, from quite minimal to devoted and steadfast, but, the forms still are different.

Probably the majority of your group want to see the Church in the earth, active in social causes that benefit people, even as they seem to adversely affect others. They like to see this as the True Church, motivated by the life of Jesus and the Christ Spirit He showed forth. This is an important part of the body, but it cannot be the Whole Body, I tell you. (Remember that I do imbue certain spirits with the message that without being deeply involved in social struggles the church is not My true Body.) Some who would side with the revolutionary socialist spirit here in Cuba would not support the revolutionary spirit in China, seeking to protect itself against “enemies.” Some who espouse social changes have little concern for environmentally motivated changes (Hugh is in favor of the revolution, but keeps the air conditioner on all night.) And so it goes.

If you compare these activist inclinations to the arms of the body you then must admit that there are different muscles, different size bones, an elbow which is quite different from the wrist, and 5 fingers, each different from each.

The other extreme of the church is the focus on personal salvation and on quiet, introspective relationship with the Lord. This conviction can be exhibited by Catholics in the awe of liturgical worship, with the priest having responsibility for salvation. Or it can be shown in a loud, wild Pentecostal vision of Jesus and all of his gentle power.

Your path is a strange and almost unique one. You are to be a Presbyterian, a generally middle-of-the-road, mainline part of the Body, a bit reluctant to accept dramatic manifestations and controversial social acting. Yet I offer you this mystical communion with Myself, the Holy Spirit, leading you away from your church, yet not clearly toward either extreme. I call you to be faithful and to learn. You are definitely born again to experience Me in this way. Yet you shall not espouse Communism nor speak much about this revolution as you return. Sometime in the future you shall compose a Ruminations based on these Teachings written here in Cuba. That could be the best thing you actually write about this fine adventure. I may suggest others, however.