In Christ, we are all part of one body.

That is the mystery and the beautiful message that St. Paul, in our second reading today, conveys to all of us. That we are part of a larger Body, a Mystical Body, that is not limited by city, state, world, universe, time and even death itself, because Christ has restored what was divided, Christ has reconciled what was once separate.
It was the English poet, John Donne, who put it so well in one of his meditations. I am sure I have shared this before, since it encapsulates this mystery, but it is certainly worth repeating.

He says: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” And, he beautifully explains what this means and how it applies to all of us in our lives, when he says: “The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does, belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and ingraffed into that body, whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me; all mankind is of one author.”

In other words, each of us has a part in that Body, each of us important to the whole. For, as St. Paul beautifully puts it: “God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended.” And, as he further says: “God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.”

So, that when we look upon the world, upon each other, we don’t see a person without purpose, without importance, but as one who needs to be supported, one who needs to have a voice while theirs is still developing, one who is not weak, but needs the strength of the body before them.

That is why it is estimated over 300,00 people marched for life on Friday to be that voice for the unborn, or why so many of us have donated, prayed, and sought to help those in Haiti, because, as St. Paul reminds: “the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor,” because they, just as we, are indispensable to that Body, they, just as we, are the hands and feet of Christ.

For, all of us have our unique vocation, all of us called by God in a particular way, and all of us necessary, because, again, in the words of St. Paul we: “are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.”

So that with our unique vocation, living out our call, we truly do build up that Body of Christ, we truly see beyond ourselves, that, indeed, we are not an island entire of itself but a larger part of the main, part of the greater and beautiful Mystical Body of Christ, part of the true communion that we experience and receive in the Eucharist.

For, truly, to see Christ in our neighbor is to know who we see in the Eucharist, and, by doing so, the Body, the Mystical Body then becomes a tangible reality, in our neighbor and in our lives so that we then see the part that we make up, who and what we are in that Body, and truly live it, as God intends.