One Body, Many Witnesses

Over the past few weeks, we have been blessed to have Fr. Tony at the pulpit allowing Fr. Ed a much-needed vacation. Fr. Tony just received his doctoral degree and is teaching seminarians in Rome. Here is a portion of one of Fr. Tony’s recent homilies:

“In today’s second reading, St. Paul warns us of autoimmune disease. An autoimmune disease, as you may know, is when the body attacks itself, one of its own parts. It’s a self-destructive disease. Last week we heard Paul tell the Corinthians, who had been squabbling over who had the better gifts, that all these different gifts come from one Spirit. One Spirit, many gifts.

Today Paul continues the same theme with the analogy of the body. The Church is like a body, with different parts—eyes and ears and limbs and so on—and if jealousy between these parts enters in and the eye stops seeing because it wants to hear, and the legs stop walking because they want to see, and the lungs stop breathing because they want to walk, then soon instead of a body you have a corpse. It is one of the most important metaphors in the Bible.”

Remember we are all equally as important in the body of Christ. “God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended” (V.18).