Today’s New Testament readings are quite familiar to us; the second reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is the classic “Now the body is not a single part, but many.” There is a reason that the wisdom in this passage is often cited as encouragement while we travel our individual paths of faith. In reading this message again, I was drawn to the fact that we are each specifically made with a purpose, with some greater mission and motivation in mind. We all have a role to play in this Body. “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.” Logically, we all know that there are things about us which make us unique; we all have qualities and characteristics that the people in our lives are happy to have us share with them.
Yet, at times, it feels as if what we have to offer the world is insignificant. In the grand scheme of things, one individual can’t really affect a greater outcome, right? Personally, I am guilty of falling into a sense of desolation driven by that little voice in my head, telling me that I have no impact on the world around me. What we hear in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians tells us that this is a lie. We each have something to contribute to our wider communities, to our families, to the Body of Christ. When we allow ourselves to believe that we are less than, we are essentially removing ourselves from the Body of which we are inherently part. St. Paul reminds us that we are essential to the overall communities of which we are part; every part of the Body has a specific function and without it, the Body has to make up for that missing piece in some way. Our call as members of this Body is to build ourselves and others up in order to accomplish the greater mission of the Body of Christ. We can do this by identifying the places of need in our communities that correspond with our gifts, talents, and interests.
In St. Paul’s letter, we hear a message that challenges us to examine our relationships with others; “But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice with it.” He calls us to look out for others in our communities; those who are in need - the sick, the vulnerable, those who live on the margins, those whose abilities are different from our own - they are the ones who are worthy of the greatest honor. They are as important as those who seem to bring the most to the table, perhaps even moreso. Our friends on the margins bring us honor simply by existing as part of this Body. When we care for those whom society might deem “inferior,” we too bring honor to the rest of the Body. We exercise justice when we serve others, attending to the needs of those with the most need and giving each person we encounter his or her own due. This is true service; walking with those who cannot repay us, giving of ourselves in a way that we may never receive anything in return, caring for someone else simply because they are human and we are members of the same Body.
We do not spend time with our vulnerable brothers and sisters because it makes us “feel good”; we do not serve because we see others as somehow in dire need of our help, our goodness, our charity; rather, we serve because our mission as Christians is to follow the example of Christ and share ourselves with the Body of Christ. To be part of the Body of Christ is to belong to something greater than ourselves. It is to give of our very substance, rather than from our excess, to offer everything we have for the good of another. “If one member of the Body suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ.”
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