(1Cor 12,12-30)

1Corinthians 12:12 For just as the body, though it is one, has many members, and all the members, though they are many, are one body, so also Christ.

1Corinthians 12:13 And indeed we were all baptized into one Spirit to form one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and we were all watered with one Spirit.

Through the simile of the body, Paul wants the Corinthians to understand the great principle of fellowship that binds all those baptised into Christ. The first rule of the principle of fellowship is this: the body is one, the members are many. No member alone forms the body, no body is formed by a single member. There is no opposition between unity and diversity. On the contrary, unity is given by diversity, and diversity is made for unity, just like in the human body.

Diversity is very important, otherwise, only God would exist. Therefore, the very condition to be able to exist is that we are different and distinct, and woe betide to abolish diversity, because the life of one member, its functionality, derives from the life of the other member and its functionality. No member works for itself, each member works for the other members. Each member receives vital help from the other members and lives as long as it is capable of receiving this vital help. Thus the life of one depends on the life of the other.

There is a reciprocity in the human body that for Paul must also be reciprocity in the body of Christ, which is the Church: 'so also is it of Christ'. Given that Paul used the human body as an analogy of the church, one would have expected him to have concluded by saying, 'so also is it of the church', instead he says, 'so also is it of Christ', and it is precisely this that the Apostle wants to make clear, namely that the 'church' is the body of Christ, so to say that we are of Christ is to say that we are church.

In last Sunday's reading, the Apostle Paul had reminded the Corinthians that there is one God, one Lord, and one Spirit. Now he adds another great truth: there is one body, that is, one church. The body of Christ is one, not two, not three, not many, and will be one until the consummation of history. Everything was made in Christ, for Christ, and with Christ - and we are all in him, members of his body. And the image of the church as one body is not just an image: it is the mystical and profound reality of redeemed humanity.

Unfortunately we experience diversity as a nightmare because we say that the other has something that I do not have, so there is a difference, so I have to appropriate what he has. So the gifts we have become the place of quarrel and fight, and man through gifts dominates and does evil.

The church is not a 'club' formed by people who have decided to agree on what to believe, to all think alike. On the contrary, the church is formed by Christians who have been subjected to a specific divine operation. Baptism symbolises this truth. One is part of the body of Christ the moment one is born of water and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the sacrament of our incorporation into Jesus Christ. When we come out of the waters we are no longer us, we come forth as the body of Christ, we come forth as his members. This is the new reality that is fulfilled in baptism.

To be baptised is to go deep, to be immersed, in what? In the one Spirit! We are immersed in the life of the Spirit that is given to us by the cross. We immerse ourselves in this love that God has for us; this is what unites us. We live by this love that is one for all. This gives my identity as a son, makes me love the Father, and love my brothers and sisters; this is the profound meaning of baptism. And this makes us one body, because we are united by one breath (the Spirit). One is the breath, one is the life, one is the body.

We form one body where each is a distinct member from the other, whether we are Jews or Greeks (the great religious differences); whether we are slaves or free (the great social differences); whether we are male or female (the great natural differences). Indeed, these differences are fundamental for the body to be articulate. If we are baptised, if we are immersed in the love that God has for us and live from this love that unites us to Christ, we live the life of God, and together with others who live the same life we form one person in God; and that is the total Christ. And this is the Church.

Just as the right hand and the left hand and the other parts of the body are distinct and different from each other, but have one life and form one person, so we have one life and are one person. From this truth comes a twofold obligation for those who have accepted to be part of the body of Christ. The first is to see and think of oneself as the body of Christ, a member of Him. Thinking of oneself as a member of Christ means living the law of communion in all its aspects.

The second obligation is to nourish oneself daily with the Holy Spirit, through personal and community prayer, and especially through the Eucharist - the sacrament of new life - so that assimilation to Christ occurs in a perfect manner; whole, without gaps. This configuration to Christ is necessary to abolish that past that could always return and enslave us, and feed the thoughts of the old man. Instead, the strength of the new man is in constantly drinking from the waters of the Holy Spirit. This is the secret of the saints. This must be the secret of every member of the body of Christ. If he constantly drinks of the water of the Spirit, the old man will have less and less strength, and Christ will grow more and more in him.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)