Christ is a mystery that includes us, Jesus’ followers on earth, the sacraments, the Word (Scripture), and the Church. Scripture is clear: We are the Body of Christ on earth. We don’t represent Christ, replace Christ, or are some vague mystical presence of Christ. We are the Body of Christ, as too are the Eucharist and the Word (the Christian scriptures). Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that part of the wonder of the incarnation is the astonishing fact that we can do for each other what Jesus did for us. Jesus gives us that power. To be touched, loved, and forgiven by a member of the body of believers is to be touched, loved, and forgiven by Christ. Hell is possible only when someone has put himself entirely out of the range of love and forgiveness to render himself incapable of being loved and forgiven. This is not so much a question of rejecting explicit religious or moral teaching as it is of rejecting love as it is offered among the community of the sincere. In a parable, G.K. Chesterton once expressed this: “A man who was entirely careless of spiritual affairs died and went to hell. And he was much missed on earth by his old friends. His business agent went down to the gates of hell to see if there was any chance of bringing him back. But though he pleaded for the gates to be opened, the iron bars never yielded. His priest also went and argued: ‘He was not really a bad fellow; given time he would have matured. Let him out, please!’ The gate remained stubbornly shut against all their voices. Finally, his mother came; she did not beg for his release. Quietly and with a strange catch in her voice, she said to Satan: ‘Let me in.’ Immediately, the great doors swung open upon their hinges. For love goes down through the gates of hell, and there redeems the dead.” In the incarnation, God takes on human flesh: in Jesus, the Eucharist, and all who are sincere in faith. The incredible power and mercy that came into our world in Jesus is still with us, at least if we choose to activate it. We are the Body of Christ. What Jesus did for us, we can do for each other. Our love and forgiveness are the cords that connect our loved ones to God, salvation, and the community of saints, even when they are no longer walking the path of explicit faith.