strong center open door

Absence, Grief, and Hunger for Real Presence A lot of digital ink is being spilled over the question of virtual Holy Communion. I hold strong convictions about that, but that is not the concern I write about here. I write about grief; the anguish of our felt loss of sharing in the same physical space. My grief – dare I include you – is our loss of contact with others. Now we are nearly two months into not gathering to share one another’s real presence . I hunger for the real presence of those who make up the body of Christ. The “we” is the loss I feel. Ironically the global pandemic broke up the “we” just as the church was ready to observe Holy Week, Easter and the fifty days of recognizing Christ in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:13-35). That Christ is keeping his promise to go before us into the Galilee of this pandemic is not in question. Lament There is plenty of grief to go around. Owning it – speaking it out loud— is to share with Job, Lamentation and the l