Most people take their physical and mental well-being for granted. Until there is a problem, we seldom think about ordinary tasks like putting on our clothes, brushing our teeth, or feeding ourselves. It is only when there is a health crisis that we become mindful of how wonderfully made we really are. Recently my father suffered two “mini-strokes,” which had debilitating effects on his health and movements. (Calling them “mini-strokes” reminds me of a cynical definition I once heard for the phrase “minor surgery”: Minor surgery is surgery performed on someone other than the person dubbing it “minor.” Whoever prefixed the term “stroke” with “mini” obviously never had one!) In all seriousness, the strokes could have been much worse. By the grace of God my father retains his faculties and has an excellent prognosis to recover most, if not all, of his normal abilities. In viewing the aftermath of this episode, it has turned my thoughts toward the common biblical metaphor of the Church as the Body of Christ.
The brain is an amazingly complex thing. It is more sophisticated than any computer that man has developed, and scientists are still probing its mysterious workings. It is capable of doing an astonishing array of tasks and is involved in all of the intricate workings of the human body. When a clot or arterial blockage cuts off the flow of blood to the brain, however, severe repercussions follow for this multifaceted organ. Due to brain damage, what had been easy tasks suddenly become difficult or nearly impossible. As traumatic as this is in the human physical body, this can happen to “the Church which is His Body” as well.
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