To Which Part of the Body of Christ Do You Belong?

Because it was the beginning of Catholic Schools Week, the lectors (readers) for our Sunday Mass were students.  Little tiny girls that looked barely old enough to read (okay, they were like 4^th grade, but they looked so tiny!) got up and proclaimed the readings flawlessly.

This is no easy feat for young students (kudos to whoever spent time preparing them), especially when one of the readings was from St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians.

If you have never read Paul, let me just say, some of his passages are the most complicated, run-on sentences you can find.  Although not as difficult as some, the second reading for this Third Sunday in Ordinary Time came from 1 Corinthians (Chapter 12, Verses 12 ff).  It was the long passage about the body being one with many parts.

As I was looking over this reading on Sunday, a reading I am very familiar with, it struck me a little differently than it has in the past.  It actually follows quite nicely the column I wrote (Can I Get a Witness, Jan. 25, 2019).  If you recall, I wrote about the conversion of St. Paul and Ananias telling him that he was going to be God’s witness.

Paul was compared to the leaders of the church and had to defend himself against their good reputations after his conversion, because people knew him as the dangerous one, the one who brought people following the Christian way to prison, in chains.

He is a perfect example for the rest of us that the Body of Christ is made up of a variety of people with a variety of gifts—not to mention, sometimes questionable personal histories.  That is why it is never helpful for us to compare ourselves to someone else.  

Maybe someone is more knowledgeable than me about the faith, or speaks with greater ease, or seems to always have the right answer at their fingertips.  Maybe someone else knows the bible more, or is a better writer or whatever, but that is not for us to worry about. Paul reminds us that we are a necessary part of the Body of Christ, each of us, uniquely.  If we get into comparing ourselves to others, we threaten our willingness to do something.

I often put quotes on my Twitter account (@livingwaterjn7) that I like and don’t want to forget.  One such quote comes from St. Ignatius of Loyola. 

He said: 

 “It is dangerous to make everybody go forward by the same road: and worse to measure others by oneself.”

I think St. Paul would have agreed with this, because as he lays out the whole One Body, Many Parts thought, what he is really saying is that the Body of Christ cannot get along without YOU, so stop worrying that you do not have enough to offer, just do your part.

St. Paul says that if you are a foot, and not a hand, don’t think you do not belong.

Translation:  Be true to who God has called you to be and don’t try to be someone else.  Everyone is an important part of the Body of Christ.

We are not all St. Teresas, just like we are not all bible scholars or teachers.  I often think about this since God has not called me to greatness in the world, but to be like the woman in the Gospel of Mark (Chapter 12, Verses 41ff) who just put in her “two small coins worth a few cents.”  

In that passage, Jesus looked at his disciples and told them that she “put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury” because they gave out of their surplus and she gave out of her poverty, having “contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

The point to all of this is that each one of us, no matter what particular talent we have been given, should give our all.  To us, it may not look like much, but God has clearly spoken about this through St. Paul (and others) to encourage us.

Nobody is out of the picture.  Every, single person can contribute in some way.  Maybe the foot is not the ear or the eye, but without it, how could the Body of Christ stand?

Think about it.

Janet Cassidy

Janetcassidy.com

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