In early September of last year, I accepted the offer to be a MissionCorps at Maggie’s Place. Shortly after, a friend asked me what I was most excited about doing at Maggie’s Place. I exploded all over her, describing every little detail of how great it was all going to be. I remember concluding with – “Basically, I’m just really excited to have the opportunity to be Jesus’ hands and feet.”
I arrived in Phoenix in January, and threw myself into life at the house. I strove to get adjusted and learn everything I could as quickly as possible. And before I knew it, I had been here for a month. Then, I hit a wall. All of a sudden, I found myself exhausted and frustrated at what I saw as failures. I felt lost; I felt overwhelmed. I felt like my wounds and scars were being picked at.
After a few weeks like this, while praying before the Eucharist, I looked upon the crucifix hanging on the wall by the monstrance and I noticed something. Jesus’ hands and feet were not pretty. They were bleeding and scarred. His hands were also probably callused and cut from his life as a carpenter. They had probably been burned from cooking over a fire. They were probably caked with dirt from falling three times. They were probably shaking from the pain he was enduring. His feet were probably equally callused and dirty from walking in sandals on dirt roads. They were probably weary from the long walk to Calvary, and He probably felt like they might not hold Him up any longer. I realized, if I am to be His hands and feet, it only makes sense that I feel some portion of this.
But those precious hands also cured the blind, caressed the faces of children, broke bread and multiplied it, and washed the feet of His friends. Those feet also walked this Earth, and on water. They were bathed in a woman’s tears and were dried with her hair. Those hands and feet did incredible things, despite their appearance and the pain. Those hands and feet brought the love of God into the world.
By being His hands I get to hold the hands of moms in their pain. I get to hold precious babies. By being His feet I get to walk alongside the moms in their journey. By being His hands and feet, here at Maggie’s Place, I can bring His love into the worlds of these women and babies. I might be bruised, burned and weak, but I can and will do amazing things in Him. And I thank God for the opportunity to do that.
I am exploding all over again with a renewed joy and a deeper understanding of what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ.
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
St. Teresa of Avila
By Keara King, a MissionCorps
