Word to the Wise
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - 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.
I have always found St. Paul's extended metaphor of the human body to be helpful as an image of the church. It is important to realize that he is not speaking as Greek philosophy spoke of the human as a composite of body and soul, but in the Hebrew way of seeing the human as a single reality, endowed with the Spirit of God. This body is a single whole that has many "moving parts." (As I get older, these parts seem to be making themselves better known to me!).
The usefulness of the image is found in trying to understand how God has gifted a single reality with many different "charisms" so as to accomplish the mission of preaching the gospel. In my pastoral experience, one of the greatest challenges has been to find ways to recognize and encourage these many gifts to serve the community. It has been, on occasion, like "herding cats." Some folks just don't believe they "have the gift." Others wish they had a different "gift." Competition and power-grabbing which come from our cultural biases make the process even more difficult. The humility of a Bro. Juan Macias, O.P., whose feast day we celebrate today, can be in short supply. He found very practical ways to serve the poor and rich alike, using his long experience as a shepherd before entering religious life.
St. Paul is leading up to his famous words about the greatest gift of all - love! But the other gifts are ways in which love is expressed. Our willingness to be part of the "discernment of gifts" for the building up of the community is the first step to creating a true Christian community. AMEN