Communion in Body

Bonhoeffer notes that the disciples had “bodily fellowship and communion” with Jesus, and that to follow Him they had to “cleave to him bodily.”  Because He was incarnate, “they live and suffer in bodily communion with him.”

The necessity of bodily communion with Jesus didn’t cease when He ascended and sent the Spirit: “It is certain that there can be no fellowship or communion with him except through his Body.  For only through that Body can we find acceptance and salvation” – even now, when HIs personal body is long absent.  And we come to participate in that body through Word and Sacrament: “Paul . . . rivets our membership of the Body of Christ exclusively to the two sacraments.”