Dubus Andre Dubus's Meditations From a Movable Chair

The title of Andre Dubus' nonfiction book of spiritual reflections reflects the fact that the author now is stranded in a wheelchair, having lost his mobility in a tragic accident. Ironically, his lost was incurrent when he was extending an act of charity. Dubus was helping some people by the side of the road who were experiencing car trouble, in the effort, he himself was hit by a car. In attempting to make this profound life adjustment, to living life as a 'differently abled' individual from living as a mobile, healthy man, Dubus discusses his new life through the metaphors of the Catholic Church. A father, a divorcee, and a Catholic, his relationship to the Church became conflicted over the course of his adult, he said, but is still present.

One of the three metaphors, along which he structures his text, is that of the "Sacraments." (Dubus 85-93) The section of the book entitled, "Sacraments," discusses...

The Catholic Mass uses the Host as a religious sacrament of food and drink. The sacraments are not simply holy, though. Through these physical, apparently humble connections with the divine the mundane and the spiritual world become interconnected. Bread and wine are present in our everyday lives. Yet through the blessings of God and his priest, and through the ritual presentation of the mundane, individuals can achieve a spiritual connection with the divine every time they attend a Mass.
This spiritual connection is not simply one of the adherent's mental conditions. The very essence of the sacraments is a physical connection as well, commemorating and symbolizing Christ's giving of his human body for humanity's sins. Christ is both divine and spiritual and human and physical. The concept of transubstantiation, or the actual presence of Christ in the mundane matter of the Mass' sacraments is a further example of his miraculous ability…