The language in this reading is beautiful but easy for me to get lost in. But what strikes me upon this reading is the idea of community. We are all of one ‘body,’ yes, but moreso we have a responsibility to be for and with one another. I think St. Paul’s invites us to see how radically our idea of God has changed with a relationship to Jesus. Jesus Christ came to show us how to be with each other. Our disciplinarian image of God has faded away and we now must hold each other accountable to Gospel values.
Our community is one of the places we can see God most clearly when we are open to it but can often be a fractious place, too. We belong to God and to one another. Where does your community need you to lovingly speak truth to or for it today?
—Emily Schumacher-Novak lives in Milwaukee, WI, and works in Jesuit Higher Education and Ignatian Spirituality.