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Lenten reflection: Communion

Laura A. Schildt

Cointa Garcia Moso makes tortillas in Zacango, Guerrero, Mexico, one of the villages where MCC worker Laura Schildt is active. Photo by Jack Leonard

Ducking from the blinding noonday sun
into the cool darkness of the church
our voices hush and Juana genuflects
instinctively.

The wooden bench creaks as we sit
and look up at Jesus
who, with his body bolted to a wooden cross,
looks up to God.

I can see the seam on his plastic leg,
red paint chipping away from the nail in his foot
as dust collects above the blades
of his shoulders.

Later we sit in Juana’s cozy kitchen as darkness comes,
tangling its fingers in the leaves
of the trees outside the window,
while smoke drifts and curls from the fire.

We eat tortillas still steaming
straight from the comal
and drink Coke from sleek glass bottles,
the bread and wine of communion.

In my mind I remember the plastic Jesus
still hanging in deep hallowed air
and in moments of silence I long to announce, like Mary,
He is not there!

Instead, he is here.
Like to Zacchaeus he came,
coaxed the dog from the doorway
and found a seat by your fire.

Sighing when the smell of smoke
reached his nostrils,
the soft light flickering on his face,
he gratefully witnessed this holy communion.

He is the reason I have, to believe

the appeal of God

like the dark, sweet fragrance of night air
here, present, among us.

Laura A. Schildt, from Marietta, Pa., is an MCC community worker in Olinalá Guerrero, Mexico. She is a member of Bossler Mennonite Church, Elizabethtown, Pa.

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Last modified March 14, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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