3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
NEHEMIAH 8:2-6
In those days, Ezra the priest brought the Book before the assembly of men and women and all who could understand. It was the first day of the seventh month. He read from it from daybreak till noon in the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men and women and those who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.
Ezra the priest stood on a wooden platform made for the occasion. Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above them all, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Ezra blessed the great Lord God, and all the people, lifting up their hands, answered, “Amen, Amen”; then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. The Levites explained the Law of God to the people, making it clear and giving the meaning, so that the people could understand what was being read.
Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were teaching the people said to all the people, “Today is holy to our Lord. Do not mourn or weep”—for all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.
And they said, “Go, eat rich food and drink sweet drinks, and send portions to anyone who has nothing prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” So the people went away to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
This book is one of the last “historical books” of the Old Testament. The events it narrates took place around 430 B.C. The people have returned from the Babylonian exile. Their economic and political situation is miserable. The faith of the people has suffered: the Promises of the Lord are nowhere to be seen. The Law is poorly observed, and there is fraternization with pagan rites and beliefs. In this context, the work of the governor Nehemiah and the priest Ezra takes place, who try to revive the old spirit and make the people the people of the Covenant again.
The text we read today presents one of the most unforgettable moments of this period. The entire people of Jerusalem, gathered in the square, listen attentively to the proclamation of the law of Moses. The people weep, remembering the ancient greatness of Israel and Judah, and seeing the lamentable state of infidelity they are in. The priests and Levites encourage the people: it is a great day; we are listening to the law again, as a gift from the Lord.
1 CORINTHIANS 12:12-30
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Corinth was an extraordinary port, the most important in the eastern Mediterranean along with Alexandria. A huge, cosmopolitan, and wealthy city. Paul worked in Corinth around the year 50. Shortly after, around the year 55, Paul is in Ephesus, and he receives bad news from Corinth: the Eucharist is being celebrated improperly, and there are divisions among various Christian factions and also rivalries among the Christians. This is one of the reasons for his letter.
Taking these circumstances as a basis, Paul rises to give a very profound doctrine, in this particular case about the church and its charisms. It is habitual for Paul to use this image of the Church as a body: the main member, the head, is Christ; all the rest of us are members of that body and God has given us qualities, gifts, “charisms,” for the good of the whole body.
Regarding this text, it seems very important to me to realize its precise meaning. Paul says:
“Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
That is to say, it is a comparison, a metaphor. It is the same metaphor that John uses when he speaks of the vine and the branches. Sometimes, forgetting this, the expression is taken as a theological concept and thus we speak of “the mystical body of Christ,” as if it were a mysterious reality. Nothing of the sort: Paul says that the church is like an organism, in which all its parts are necessary and interact. In that organism, Jesus can be compared to the blood, or to the heart… like the sap of the vine, like the vine stock… precious images if understood as images, and delusions of bad theology when understood as realities.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.