In his
first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the analogy of the human body to
describe the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church is not simply a group of people
with common beliefs. We are bound together in a close unity; we are a single
entity. No-one thinks of a human family as a group of adults and children who
just happen to occupy the same house. A family of parents and children think of
themselves as a single entity, and
that is how we live, especially when the children are still young. When a child
is seriously ill, it is the parents who agonise, who sit up during sleepless
nights looking after the child until the danger has passed. As children, when a
brother or sister is lost, we worry and cry until the missing child has been
found. On the other hand, when someone who has been injured emerges healed from
hospital, when a child celebrates a birthday or wins a prize, we all rejoice
together.
The Church,
as Paul teaches, is even closer. We are all brothers and sisters of the Lord
Jesus and as such, sons and daughters of God. We are bound together more
closely than any human body, more intimately than any human family. We are in fact
a world-wide family, drawn from every nation, language, culture, people. We really
are brothers and sisters in Christ, sons and daughters of God the Father. We
all share in each other’s sufferings and joys. When a child in a family is
sick, the mother pays more attention to that child, not because she loves him
more, but because at that particular moment he has a greater need of her love.
It is the same with members of the Church. We cannot allow ourselves to remain
unaffected by the suffering of our brothers and sisters in famine and war.
This idea
of mutual concern and love is a central concern of Pope Francis, an integral
part of his message. Indeed, it is a central part of the message of Jesus
Christ: “Love one another, just as I have loved you…whatsoever you do to the
least of my brothers you do unto me.” It is not a social, economic or political
message, nor must it ever be allowed to be reduced to one or more of these. It is
both simpler and more profound: that, as John puts it, “God is love,” and that
the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.
We can never be indifferent to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ
and still claim to love and serve God. Like a father – for God is Our Father
– we must care for and love each other as he cares for and loves us, “…so much
that he gave his only-begotten Son.” There are many needs in the Church today;
let us all respond to them with love, with prayer, with care and generosity, to
the fullness of our ability to do so.
Fr Phillip.
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