We Are One Body!

A Reflection on the Readings for Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom (Luke 7:11-17 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31a)

Body of Christ by Danny Hahlbohm

    In the Gospel of Luke 7:11-17, we hear the story of the raising of the son of a widow, the “Widow of Nain.”  It is a beautiful story of the raising and restoration of a beloved child to his mother. But, I would suggest, that there is more at work here.

     In the middle East, during the time of Jesus and even now, a widow is someone who is in very deep economic trouble. Widows often have no way of earning an income. Widows and orphans, especially those without attachment to a larger family or with children of working age, are almost immediately impoverished. For many families, it was and is often a death sentence, forced by economics to be divided up, or to face homelessness, sickness, and death. By the way, this is one of the reasons Blessed Father McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, initiated the idea of life insurance so that when a poor Catholic Immigrant was killed, in often low paying and dangerous jobs, there was some money for the family to fall back on and survive.

     There is a near constant theme throughout the Scriptures of concern for widows and orphans. In the Old Testament, widows were to have the gleanings of the cornfields, olive trees, and vineyards (Deuteronomy 24:19–22). In the great tithe, widows were to have their share of the offering (Deuteronomy 26:12), and at the three principal solemnities of the year they were to be invited to feast with the nearest household (Deuteronomy 16:11). In the times of the Maccabees, money was deposited, and provisions were kept in the Temple at Jerusalem (2 Maccabees 3:10), and the spoils of battle were also shared with them (2 Maccabees 8:28). In the New Testament, the support of widows was made a special duty by the Apostles, who collected alms for them and gave care of them to deacons (Acts 6:1).

     In the Scriptures, the care for the widow was more than just a care for the individual, but for a family. Jesus when he raised the young man was not just restoring the life of one child, He was restoring a family. He was raising not just the boy, but his mother to new life. For they were one economic body, they were also one body united in love.

     In the same way, we are interconnected. The death of even one diminishes us as a community. Catholic Poet John Donne, who lived as a Catholic in England from 1572-1631, a time when Catholics were widely discriminated against in England, wrote his famous poem, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” to highlight this point.  He wrote:

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

     Humanity is interconnected and more and more interdependent. St Paul emphasizes the interconnected and interdependent nature of the Church in all of his letters, and especially in his First Letter to the Corinthians 12:12-14 which we heard in the first reading. We are especially united through the sharing in all of the Sacraments. More than symbolic, we are mysteriously one body in Christ, indivisible. St Paul is clear; we are united because “we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13)! How can we ever reject, gossip about, or judge the faith of another in our Church? Ever hear of someone deride another Catholic as “liberal” or “conservative” as a means to judge and divide?  As one body, how can we not respect and honor each member of our Church? How can we allow division to create an “us versus them” mentality? The word from which we derive the word, devil, and his nature as diabolic, literally comes from the Greek, “dia” which means “between” and, “ballein” which means “to tear, throw, or to cast.” The devil throws things between us which divide or tears us apart.

     Note, I said Church, not just a Parish. When we let anything divide us, we allow a cancer to enter the body. Cancerous cells operate outside of unity with the rest of the cells of the body. The cells cause uncontrolled division and growth of other similar cells. As a result, they build up in the body, using oxygen and nutrients that would usually nourish noncancerous cells. The cancerous cells form tumors, impair the immune system, and cause other changes that prevent the body from functioning regularly. Eventually, the cancerous cells spread, take over, and cause organ rupture and failure. Within the body of Christ, cancer is what happens when the body itself stops working in unison, realizing that every part is to be nurtured, honored, and loved.

     Though we tend to like to be with people who look like us, think like us, and live like us; as Catholics we are called to embrace the diversity of the one body. St Chrysostom, whose Memorial we celebrate today, preached,

“If there were not among you great diversity, you could not be a body; and not being a body, you could not be one; and not being one, you could not be equal in honor. (St John Chrysostom Homily XXX)

     Every part of the body is different but utterly needed for the Church, the Body of Christ, to be complete. St John Chrysostom stated further that this diversity is miraculous,

“Because there are many members and diverse,” know that this very thing is the wonder and the peculiar excellency of the body, when the things which are many and diverse make one.” (St John Chrysostom Homily XXX)

     This does not mean that the various parts of the body might not become sick or even irritate, to no end, the other parts of the body. It does not mean that some parts of the body may not be more beautiful in appearance than other parts of the body. What it does mean, is that we cannot fail to really love, as a part of who I am / who we are, any part of the body of Christ. It means that we are called to care for the sick and estranged. Again, when one part of the body suffers, so does the entire Body of Christ.

       Evil divides, love unites. We must seek unity in all things. St Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 how love should operate within the body. He tells us to be patient, kind, not jealous, pompous, self-inflated or rude, seeking our own interests. He tells us not to be quick tempered, brood over injury, or to rejoice over wrongdoing but to rejoice in the truth. St Paul tells us to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, [and] endure all things. If we do this, Love, the very life blood of the body, the Church, never fails.

     Knowing that the Lord wishes to raise not just the body of a young man, but to raise up His entire body, the Church, in all its diversity, we cannot take part in the politics and language of hate. We cannot discriminate against anyone. We must respect, honor, and love one another, especially those with whom we disagree. For every part of the body is necessary, critical to the health of the body. We cannot allow cancer, a group who think as one to dominate the body, but instead we must rejoice both in our differences and our unity in the Lord. This is the spirit that we renew each time we receive and become one in the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ, the Eucharist. How can we not love the Christ in the other who with us completes unites each one of us.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself. …

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

End notes

Donne, John. “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Allpoetry.com, allpoetry.com/For-whom-the-Bell-Tolls.

Hahlbohm, Danny. “Body of Christ by.” Fine Art America, fineartamerica.com/featured/body-of-christ-danny-hahlbohm.html. Accessed 12 Sept. 2022.

St John Chrysostom. “Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the First Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians.” Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians. Ed. Philip Schaff. Trans. Hubert Kestell Cornish, John Medley, and Talbot B. Chambers. Vol. 12. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889. 176. Print.