Finding The Body Of Christ In A War Zone

            I am currently stationed at LSA Anaconda, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, where I am an Assistant Plans Officer for the 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat)(Airborne). Attending church services while deployed is always a shot in the dark; one never knows what the community will be like, what the minister’s background will be, and if the schedule of service times is even correct (leading to some amusing situations, for example, attempting to attend an Episcopal service with a friend, only to discover that we were seated at a Latter-Day Saints service).
My first weekend at LSA Anaconda in July, I headed off to a chapel for a Saturday night service. I did not know quite how long the walk would take, since I had only a vague idea where the chapel was located, and ended up arriving 30 minutes early. I picked a spot near the front, bowed my head, and closed my eyes in prayer, praying for some intentions that had been on my heart. About 20 minutes later, I opened my eyes and was surrounded by Filipino civilians. Military camps in Iraq are filled with civilian workers, many from the Philippines, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Uganda, and West African nations. The woman who seemed to be “in charge” of the dozen or so Filipinos asked me, “will you do the second reading?” I replied, “yes.” She then began passing out copies of lyrics for the song selection for the service and the group began practicing a Communion hymn. I mentally laughed as I suddenly realized that I must have inadvertently sat in the choir section. I cautiously asked, “Is this the choir section? Should I move?” She smiled and said, “No, no, it’s ok. Stay and sing.” A few seats down, a gray-haired American civilian contractor asked, “Do you want me to stay too? I sing at home in Pennsylvania.” “Oh yes,” she replied as she handed him a one-page printed paper with all the lyrics for the entire service.
            The service began, and being surrounded by this Filipino choir, I could feel the joy and praise in their voices as they loudly and enthusiastically sang out the processional hymn and the Gloria. Experiencing the interaction of the group that surrounded me served as an uplifting reminder of the true purpose music serves at church services; that songs and hymns should point us to the wonders God has worked and the eternal joy He promises each of us.
            I often experience the presence of Christ in different ways during church services, depending on the direction of my individual thoughts and prayers. At this particular Mass celebrating the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, I experienced the service as a teaching action both directly through the sermon, and indirectly through the lessons drawn from the community around me. The congregation of worshipers present for this service was a living demonstration of the Body of Christ, in a more “global” way than a normal service back at Fort Bragg, NC. Here the congregation was about fifty percent Filipino workers, twenty percent American service members, and the remaining thirty percent were civilian workers from South America, Uganda, Europe, and America. One of the military chaplains who celebrated the Mass was from Nebraska, the other from the U.S. Virgin Islands. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought to myself, “And here we all are, in Balad, Iraq, singing songs in Tagalog with a Filipino choir.”
Relatively speaking, Northern Iraq is fairly close to ancient Israel, where the Gospel was first recorded, and Christ gave the Great Commission. What a miracle that in the past two-thousand years the Good News of Christ had spread to all ends of the earth, to each of us present at Mass that evening. So many things could have gone wrong along the way, but by the grace of God, the Gospel had made it to every continent. I have known this truth in an intellectual sense for many years, but seeing the faces of Christianity in person, in Iraq, worshiping together etched this truth in my memory in a more profound way. As Paul writes “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks… and we were all made to drink of one Spirit…Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:13, 27). Through the working of the Holy Spirit, each of us present was a part of this universal Body of Christ. Our earthly membership in the Body of Christ offers us a daily reminder of the eternal communion of all believers in Christ Jesus.
            Although I was new to LSA Anaconda, my experience in celebrating Mass made me feel closer to this group knowing that we had shared the powerful connection between Christian believers gathering for the common purpose of praising and thanking our Lord. For one of the chaplains, this particular Saturday evening was his last service before redeploying after a year as a military chaplain at LSA Anaconda. Before the final dismissal he spoke about what the community meant to him, explaining, “I’m a young priest from Nebraska and all of you come from every continent on earth, and somehow we’re all here in Iraq. Knowing that we are a community and we can have service together gives me complete hope that peace between Sunni and Shi’a is very possible.” In this way, attending church in Iraq serves as a constant reminder that as the universal Body of Christ, we are empowered to be a powerful sign of what is possible through our Lord’s grace and blessings.