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The Catholic Telegraph
January 19, 2001This Sunday’s long second reading follows immediately on last Sunday’s in First Corinthians, even as next Sunday’s follows immediately on this Sunday’s. It is unusual to have such a long selection (nearly two whole chapters) without interruption, even in a "semi-continuous" series of readings. Those who prepared the lectionary must have thought that the teaching in these chapters is important, important enough to be read in full.
Last Sunday Paul was emphasizing that all the spiritual gifts that Church members receive are from the same God, the same Spirit and that they are all aimed at building up the one Church. This Sunday, he deals with another aspect of God’s gifts: their multiplicity and variety.
The reading starts off with a general principle: just as there is a variety of parts in the human body, so also there is a variety of membership in the body of Christ which is the Church. Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor: they were all baptized into one body, they have all been gifted by the same Spirit.
Now Paul gives an extended reflection on the variety and unity of the human body. Every part belongs, every part is needed no matter what its function. Without the multiplicity of parts and functions the body could not survive. Yet it remains one body whose various parts need each other in order for the body to function. Moreover, there is a kind of balance among the parts of the body, such that weak parts (like the eye, perhaps) are more necessary, the "less honorable" and "less presentable" parts (perhaps feet or genital organs) are always adorned with clothing. Somehow it all balances out so that no part of the body is useless or without honor. Each part contributes to the unity and beauty and health of the whole. Each is needed.
Now Paul returns to his explicit consideration of the variety of gifts in the one Church: "You are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it." Obviously there are all kinds of gifts, some (like being an apostle) of obvious importance. Others ("assistance, administration") may seem less prestigious, but are not, for that reason, unneeded by the body of the Church. Not all of us can be apostles or prophets or healers or speakers in strange languages, but we each have something to contribute. The Church needs all the gifts of the Spirit.
Last Sunday’s and this Sunday’s live letters offer us two sides of one important lesson, the lesson of unity in diversity.
First of all, we are one in the life of the risen Christ that we share. That life of Jesus that we call grace is the primary reality that makes us Christians, that gives fundamental direction to our lives, that unites us in our journey to final fulfillment in the glory of heaven. Everything else is secondary to that. Everything else derives from that. If we forget about the one life of Christ that we all share, if we lose sight of the one Lord that makes us into His one people, nothing else makes any sense. Compared to the importance of our sharing the life of Christ, all other gifts and distinctions we may have are insignificant.
But that’s not to say that we are all the same. We share the sameness of the one life of Christ, to be sure, but each of us is called to express and respond to that life in his or her own way, a way that not only constitutes our personal individuality, but that also enables us to participate uniquely in the life of the Body as a whole. You don’t have to be the Pope in order to be important in the Church any more than you have to be the head in order to be important in the body. What a body it would be if we were all heads and there were no hands and feet! We all need each other and we need each other in our own personal uniqueness.
One example of what can happen if we undervalue individuals’ gifts is clericalism (with its opposite, anticlericalism). Clericalism is a mind set that sees worth and value only in those members of the Church who are ordained. "If a priest didn’t say it, it can’t be true. If a priest didn’t do it, it can’t be any good." Anticlericalism, on the other hand, is a mind set that sees all deficiency and evil in the Church (and elsewhere) as having its source and power from the ordained. "It’s the priests’ fault if there are poor people in society. If people commit sins, it’s because the priests haven’t taught them any better." Obviously the Church needs ordained ministers. That’s how Christ established the Church to work. But a vocation to ordained ministry is not the only gift that the Spirit gives, and sometimes those who feel they have been left out because they are not ordained can give the impression that they think that diversity in the Church is a matter of oppression rather than abundance.
We all share the one life of the one Christ, but we all share it in a particular tonality. We’re not all heads or hands or feet, but we all have something to offer to the health of the body.
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Conversation Questions
What do I contribute to the life of the body of Christ, the Church?
What would the Church be like if everybody were just like me?
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