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There is something about the Western mind that just cannot be content with mystery.  Eastern Churches do this much better, but we Westerners need to analyze, dissect and debate, even the minutiae, ad nauseum.  I think we have come to confuse understanding with faith.

Yes, faith is reason-able.  As God is the author of truth, faith and reason go hand-in-hand, never contradicting one another.  But we don’t have to understand in order to believe; in fact, sometimes first believing becomes an aid to understanding.

For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus*…While  I have often seen this Scripture offered as a refutation of the Communion of Saints, within it lies a deep mystery.  We are, in truth, the Body of the Lord.  Sit still and reflect on this mystery a minute–we are the Body of the Lord.

We can’t see it, taste it or smell it. We have to use the sense of faith to apprehend it, and even then it’s just beyond the grasp of our intellect. But it is as true as any scientific, verifiable truth we encounter with our physical senses.  We know it because Jesus Himself revealed it.

We are joined as one with our Savior.  A vine and its branches are inseparable, indivisible; what is a vine without branches to bear fruit, and what is a branch without a vine to give life?  His Mediation unites us to Him, not theoretically, but factually.  He willed it so.

As we are united, His Mediation extends through us, so that we may be Christ in the world.  Oneness, one Body, one Mediator, unity.  We continue to be His living body in the world, co-mediating (little-m)  through evangelization, fellowship, prayer, presence.

In fact, the entire context of the passage affirms and confirms our Communion of Saints.  Paul is actually exhorting the Church to pray for all, from the humble and lowly to the powerful, that all may be saved.  He continues, saying, I will therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands…  How much more firmly united in Christ are those who have cemented their faith beyond death?  How much more pure are they which behold the face of God in Heaven?

Christianity is not ‘me and Jesus,’ it is ‘we in Jesus’.  Likewise, we are not a passive religion, but a very active participation in the birthing of the Kingdom throughout the world.  So when you proclaim, “Christ did it all,” and “there is one mediator, Jesus Christ,” what are you trying to say?  Why have you removed the body from the equation?  Your baptism calls you to participate in the mystery!

*1 Tim 2