Part of our Christian faith is the belief that our unity and community with each other in Christ is so real, so deep, so physical, and so mutually interdependent that we constitute not a cluster of different parts, but something organic and living.
Just as in any physical body there are visible aspects that can be observed with the naked eye, there are other more invisible aspects that go on under the surface and escape simple observation.
It is the same with the body of Christ.
Most of what is happening regarding the current health crisis and any disease within the body is something you cannot see or even know about until it shows up externally. Bacteria, viruses, and antibodies do their work for health or disease invisibly. By the time we see the external symptoms, they have already been at work for some time.
This is true inside the Body of Christ. The things that preserve health or cause disease are, like viruses, invisible. They are only seen in their eventual effect on the body. What happens for health or for disease in any one cell, no matter how small it might be, eventually affects the health of the whole body.
Christ taught that the most private spiritual and moral battles, which go on inside one’s conscience, have an effect for good or for bad on all humanity. Private acts have a profound effect on the whole body, beyond what “we have any data on.”
We live in an age obsessed with observation or experience, which de-emphasizes private morality and tend to forget that a body needs a strong immune system and healthy antibodies to keep it free of disease.
What are the antibodies that create a healthy immune system within the Body of Christ? If we can believe those who have been doctors of the soul, we create healthy antibodies when we silently suffer for each other, when we live out lives of quiet martyrdom, and when we emerge victorious in our little battles with what’s petty inside of us.