Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
No hands but yours, no feet but yours,

Yours are the eyes through which is to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world:

Yours are the feet with which he is
To go about doing good;

Yours are the hands with which he is
To bless us now.

St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is a mystic who followed the way of action and contemplation. Her three books, Autobiography, The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle, are classics of world mysticism offering a full account of the inward life of the spirit.

This is a wise little poem because it gives the ‘mystic’ a job. While the lover of the divine may be tempted to stay in the ivory tower of ecstatic visions he or she is called to return to the world to continue Christ’s journey – the journey of the Bodhisattva who is described in Matthew 34 – 40.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me…. ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,f you did it to me.’”

It also reminds us of our essential unity with the Divine and is reminiscent of Meister Eckhart’s “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” We are God’s eyes, hands, feet and heart in this world.