Homily for 3 Nov 2015

3 Nov 2015

St Paul always says things that make us think.  But today he says something we can easily skip over.  He says, “We, though many, are one Body in Christ and individually parts of one another.”  Now, we all know about us being “the many parts of the One Body.”  But we can overlook that other part: we are “individually parts of one another.”

That’s a little strange, when you think about it.  Is St Paul saying that our friends are like . . . our nose, or our fingers?  That other people are part of us?  Well, no . . . and yes.  People around us may not be exactly like our arms or legs, or our eyes or ears.  But the people around us are, nonetheless, part of us.  And what they do, and who they are complements who we are.    

St Paul talks about all the different gifts and abilities that God gives us: prophecy, ministry, teaching, contributing, being merciful, being cheerful, and the rest.  Whoever we are and whatever our gifts are, somebody needs us.  It isn’t just that somebody would like to know us; it’s that they need us in order to be more complete as a human being.  And we need others, too.

You know, you might have the gift of being a thinker; you might be somebody who likes to ponder questions.  Well, there are a lot of people around who have questions and can benefit from what you’re thinking.  Or somebody else might have the gift of, say, self-discipline; maybe he or she can serve you as a good example, as a mentor, as a friend to learn from.

We each have gifts and abilities that others need in their lives.  And people around us have gifts and abilities that we don’t; and so, we need them in our lives.  We are, as St Paul says, “parts of one another.”  And when we come together in real human relationships, whether that’s friendship or marriage or whatever, whenever there’s respect and sharing among people, everybody lives a better life, everybody lives a fuller and more complete life.

And that’s just a glimpse of the heavenly banquet: friends and neighbors sitting down and enjoying each other’s company, enjoying each other’s gifts and abilities, becoming a “part of one another.”  God says: Come to the banquet—enjoy each other, love each other, and let me love you.