Word to the Wise
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - St. Alphonsus Navarette and Companions - Dominican Martyrs in Japan
[Romans 12:5-16AB and Luke 14:15-24]We, though many, are one Body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them: if prophecy, in proportion to the faith; if ministry, in ministering; if one is a teacher, in teaching; if one exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes, in generosity; if one is over others, with diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."
St. Paul's image of the community as a single human body is a profound lesson that our individualistic society has difficulty accepting in practice. The tendency to compartmentalize one's life and to divide tasks one from another leads to a very fractured person. A vision of a greater reality to which each belongs and to which each contributes by way of time, talent and treasure gets lost in the specialization so characteristic of professional life. I noticed this consistently in the conflicts which often develop in parish or campus ministries. Different organizations or programs get into conflict because they lack an overall picture of the community and their particular place in it. Choirs will forget that they are supposed to be leading the congregation and not entertaining it. Ushers forget that they are supposed to assist and greet and not play traffic cop in the aisles. It comes down to a matter of power and the desire to have it. St. Paul points instead to the image of the body and how each part has a role to play. His use of this image in First Corinthians is even more explicit: "if the foot were to say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body........The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'" (I Cor 12) It is interesting that St. Paul shows individual parts trying to tell other individual parts that neither needs the other! This is just what happens in many church organizations when we lose sight of the reason we are there: to love God and neighbor. His words in today's passage are a good reminder: "Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor." We know from our own health experience what happens when parts of our body seem to go to war with one another (arthritis is a good example). Bearing that in mind may help us to develop a more "wholistic" view of our place in the community and how we each have something to give in accord with our own gifts. AMEN
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