“Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. Or if an ear should say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. If they were all one part, where would the body be?
If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”(1 Corinthians 12, 15-29) What a simple, effective way to speak of the unity and diversity in society and ourselves. Through the images of the body, Paul goes on to speak of the different gifts there are in the church, apostles, prophets; teachers; some have the gifts of healing, assistance, administration…but not everybody has the same gifts. What’s unique in Paul’s use of the image of the body is where he sees the body come from and what it is now. The body comes from the one Spirit, he says. We drink from the one Spirit; we’re all baptized into the one Body, which is Christ’s Body. We’ve been given different gifts from the Spirit, we don’t all have the same gifts, but what we have are meant to build up the Body of Christ.It’s interesting when we receive the Bread of the Eucharist, the priest says simply “Body of Christ.” We receive Christ; we also receive his Body, the church, with its gifts, its strength and its weaknesses, but it’s Christ’s Body, and so we say “Amen.” “Yes.”
The Victor's Place 