Word to the Wise
Tuesday, September 13, 2022 - Tuesday in the 24th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 12:12-14, 27-31a and Luke 7:11-17]As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now the body is not a single part, but many. Now you are Christ's Body, and individually parts of it. [1 Corinthians]
SEPTEMBER 13 ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, bishop and doctor of the church
"Ecclesiology" is a subject taught in seminaries and theological schools. It is the study of the Church in all its manifestations. One of the "big ideas" about the Church is the concept of the Church as the "Mystical Body of Christ." Although the title is an old one, it was brought to the fore by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical, Mystici corporis (1943). The letters of St. Paul are the most influential scriptures in this understanding, especially 1 Corinthians and Ephesians. In Ephesians, the image is one of building blocks fitted together and held in place by a "capstone" which is Christ. [Eph. 2:10-22]. In today's first scripture from First Corinthians, the principal image is the human body. [The selection unfortunately omits the lines: :"If a foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body, etc."} I recommend reading all of chapter twelve to benefit from the image.
The Body of Christ is not an abstraction. The Church does not exist separately from its human parts. But all those parts have to function together, like a human body, if the mission of the Church is to succeed. We know from experience how a single hurting toe can impact the way we walk! A small headache can take over the way we live our day!
Pastors know well how the Body of Christ can operate and how different parts of the Body can be in conflict with one another. The effort to discern how to integrate the various "gifts of the Spirit" into a single healthy organism is a full time task. In the next chapter of First Corinthians, St. Paul says the greatest gift, the one that makes the Body work well, is LOVE. Our own experience tells us that the challenge to be loving in all our relationships can be difficult. St. Paul was constantly dealing with conflict in the communities he founded.
When all is said and done, sometimes the Body of Christ can run a marathon and sometimes it can barely crawl, but the goal is to preach the gospel and all the parts need to cooperate as much as possible to achieve that goal. AMEN
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