There is something uniquely beautiful about music sung in harmony. It touches me even more when it erupts spontaneously as part of normal hymn singing. Thanks to the talents of our pastor and several members of our daily mass crowd, harmony happens fairly frequently in our parish, at least for the final notes of songs. More and more it happens in our prayer group. When our prayer group sings in our small Eucharistic chapel, the harmony surrounds me. Even though I have limited capacity to sing harmony, my soul resonates with a special joy when I am surrounded by it.
In contrast, as I age, my body makes me acutely aware of the trouble that comes when ANY body part doesn’t work so well. A foot injury from a fall four years ago led to knee trouble the next year. That knee difficulty led last winter to a permanent stress injury in the other foot. Because of that difficulty, it now takes what feels like Herculean effort to get enough exercise. If I don’t make myself get more exercise a host of doomsday options await me: high blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes, etc, etc, etc.
It is with those contrasting experiences in mind that I read today’s scripture from 1 Corinthians. Paul is talking to the Christian community in Corinth. Corinth is a rough seaport town. The Corinthian church is a mixture of Jews and Greeks, so it likely includes all the struggles of mixed ways of cooking, of eating, of getting married, and burying the dead. It is also a church of varying backgrounds in religion or lack of religion. Not only is the idea of a deeply caring God in Christ new, but even the idea of One God is new to many. The general tone of 1 Corinthians makes it sound like Corinth is a church of earnest new Christians who don’t quite know what they are doing. All are learning the gentle yoke of Jesus. Christianity is new to everybody. It is hard.
Today’s reading is from chapter 12, the chapter before the beautiful chapter on love that begins, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love….”
Paul is laying the foundation for his description of lived Christian life of love by noting that each individual is an important part of the whole of the church. Each person has a role to play that works for the needs and good of all—as a foot or knee or arm or leg works for the good of the whole body, as each note sung creates harmony.
Paul says, “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.”
It must have been very hard for the new Christian community, the church, at Corinth to become “one Body”—the one Body of Christ.
It is still hard today. Unity which is different people singing their individual notes in ways that work for the harmony, the good of all, is hard to orchestrate in a Christian community. I look at the struggles in my own parish. I see the needs and preferences of the elderly—and of young parents. There are language barriers between our growing Hispanic membership and our Anglo members. We have the inevitable disagreements that happen as we decide what meat to serve at the Respect Life dinner and how to handle those who did not respond to a recent parish census. There are the responsibilities and preferences of parish staff and of members.
This is true in my parish—and probably in yours. It is hard to live in harmony. It is hard to be one body when some parts of the body do not quite function as other parts would like them to.
How do you function in the body which is your local parish? What is your part? What Spiritual Gifts and practical time and talent do you bring to your Christian community?
Paul lists some of the Gifts and their roles:
- Apostles (priests, deacons, and lay leaders),
- prophets (people who keep us all anchored to Truth),
- teachers (catechists and those who give example of lived Christian life in families and community),
- mighty deeds (hidden saints of love in families and work, active witnesses to the community, parish project leaders),
- then gifts of healing (those who encourage, do works of mercy, and those who help everyone get along),
- assistance (sacristans, choir members, those who clean, those who do dishes and fold inserts into bulletins—all those small things that make a big difference),
- administration (parish staff, those who do their part on any committee, lunch room helpers, ushers, money counters)
- and varieties of tongues (those whose ministry is prayer)
Do you do your part? Do you work in harmony for the good of the whole?
The good of the whole—that is the Catholic principle of the “common good.” The catechism says, “In keeping with the social nature of man, the good of each individual is necessarily related to the common good, which in turn can be defined only in reference to the human person” (CCC 1905) In other words, in Christian community the good of the whole is the good for all AND the good of each person.
The catechism goes on, “By common good is to be understood ‘the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.’ The common good concerns the life of all.” (CCC 1906)
There are three elements of the common good: (1) respect for the individual person, (2) social well-being and development of the group itself, and (3) peace. (CCC 1907-1909)
You might want to read more about the principle of Common Good in the Catholic Catechism, paragraphs 1905 through 1917. We often think of the principle of Common Good in terms of social justice within nations, but it also applies to parish life. Today it might be good to apply it to how you live out your Spiritual gifts in your parish.
Today I invite you to take I Corinthians 12: 12-14, 27-31a to prayer in the general tradition of Lectio Divina:
- Read the Scripture slowly. What words or phrases stand out to you? That is likely what God wants to give you today.
- Think about your place in your parish. How do you fit in the body of Christ? Are you in harmony? Apply the phrase from 1 Corinthians that stood out to you to your place.
- Talk to God about what the Scripture says to you. Argue or wonder or self-examin or be curious. Have a conversation with God in just the same way you would talk to a friend. You, of course, will do the talking. Tell God what you think. God will listen.
- Rest in God. Put your thoughts and words away. Be quiet. See what emerges. (Resting, with its sense of peace, might come now. It might come later. If you are new to praying this way, it might not come until you have done this long enough to relax with it. God might be silent for now. But when it comes, it will come with what God wants you to keep from this Scripture at this time.)***
Amen.
***What God may want to give you today from the readings may be from the Psalm or the Gospel. It could be a totally different application of 1 Corinthians. Always follow God’s lead and focus prayer where He draws you. This is just an example.
