Pastor’s Corner 26.01.2025
St. Paul tells us in the second reading of this Sunday(1Cor12:12-30) that we are all baptized into one body, and just as the body has many parts, so is this one body very diverse. We are all different, obviously, but we have all “made to drink of one Spirit.” We have brought together, and made one, through our baptisms. This may sound like a simple, obvious point. But it was quite radical at the time, and in many ways, it still is. Because what it means is that we are all equally important to the church. No one is more important than the other. Every single person serves a necessary and important role.
Paul uses a metaphor to explain this, of the human body. The body has many different members, many different parts, but all are vital and necessary. If the whole body were an eye, he writes, where would the hearing be? Every member of the body of Christ is equally important, because all serve a necessary role. We all have different gifts and different roles to play in the body of Christ. And in order to be the body of Christ, as Christ intended it, we all must play our part.
But what part do we play? What part of the body are you? How do we figure that out? In verse 18, Paul begins to show us how. He tells us that God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. And God does this by giving each member different gifts. And those gifts that God has given us give us a clue to what part of the body we are called to be.
The church, needs all of the different gifts we have to do the work of the body of Christ. We have many different personalities, many different gifts and interests, many different ways of looking at the world, many different life-experiences, and types of education, and work-experiences, and on and on. None of us are the same as anyone else. And all of us have been brought together into one community to be the body of Christ in the world. Which means that all of us are required to accomplish our mission and purpose as a church.
But what do we do? But what is the mission and purpose of the church? There are lots of answers to this, but today a helpful answer might be learned by coming back to Paul’s image of the church as the body of Christ. Our mission and purpose is to be the body of Christ in the world. We go into the world, as a church, to do what Christ did: to feed the hungry, to heal the sick, to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim the good news of God’s love for all. We go to do what Christ did. That is our mission and our purpose as the body of Christ.
You and I are the body of Christ in this world. Think about how incredible that is. It is now our job to be Jesus in this world. To do what Jesus did. To say what Jesus said. To love as Jesus loved. We are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.
Since the church is intended to be a foretaste of the final reconciliation of all things that God promises, Paul calls the church to start acting that way. Thus, diversity within the church is not a problem to be avoided, solved, or managed, but a gift of God’s grace and a sign of the Spirit at work. The differing gifts of the Spirit form us in such a way that we do, and indeed must, belong to one another.
Whatever strengthens the community of the church is to be sought, welcomed, and nurtured as God’s good gift.
I also wish to use this space to express my gratefulness to all who participated generously and actively in our Project Advance campaign and helped us to surpass the goal. This is one way of not just showing solidarity with the less fortunate brothers and sisters, through the Archdiocesan schemes, but also living in action what is said in the second reading of this Sunday: we are all parts of one body. This is also a way to show our gratefulness to God for providing us with what is necessary and thus taking care of our needs. Some of you have been extremely generous and thoughtful. Your contributions, however big or small, will be rewarded fittingly by God.
On a hindsight, it is also worth noting that the number participants in this project are about 25% of the total number of parishioners. It is worth evaluating our faith in action. Do we hold back what God generously gives us? Are we hesitant to “give till it pains”? (St. Mother Theresa). Do we feel responsible towards others, socially, morally and spiritually? Just think of the difference we can make if 100% of us take part in this Project. Let us try to be a healthy body of Christ where all the parts play their responsibilities perfectly rather than like a sick body where some parts have to suffer because of the non-participation of some parts.
I wish us all a blessed week!