One body and the gift of Life

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 17, 2024 -  1 Corinthians 12: 12-14, 27-31a; Luke 7: 7-11

The first reading speaks to us of One body that we need to make up, one body with many parts, each part bringing its significance to the whole. The Gospel speaks to us of the life giving Lord, who is ready to give life to the one body, if only we live up to our call of building up that one body! The Lord has the ultimate power, the only One who can give life! If only we live together in union of heart and mind, as one body of Christ, the Lord will give us life and we shall spread life allover the world. That is an inspiration from the Word today.

Each of us is given special gifts from the Holy Spirit, special gifts according to the specific calling that we have received. If we become aware of the call that we have received, we would also become aware of the gift that is given to us, to live up to that calling. To be prophets, or to be apostles, or to be teachers, or to be leaders, or to be interpreters... these are all different calls which are lived out by means of various tasks that we are called to carry out. But the fundamental purpose of all these, the call underlying all these calls is just one: to be holy and blameless, before God in love (Eph 1:4).

As St. Paul instructs us elsewhere, to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15), is the way we can realise, that we are One People and grow to be One body of Christ! And that body will be enlivened, filled with the Spirit and made a vibrant message to the people of the world - that the Lord is the God of life; and every being shall come to the Lord to be enlivened, to be awakened in the Spirit.