17 Sept 2024 – Tuesday of Week 24

17 Sept 2024 – Tuesday of Week 24

Optional memorials: St Robert Bellarmine, SJ, 1542-1621, bishop and doctor of the church. Patron of catechists. St Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179, musician, composer, writer and mystic; also a church reformer.

1st Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31

Many gifts, all at the service of the community, the body of Christ

Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to he hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honourable we invest with the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Responsorial: from Psalm 100

R./: We are his people, the sheep of his flock

Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy. (R./)

Know that he, the Lord, is God.
He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep of his flock. (R./)

Go within his gates giving thanks,
enter his courts with songs of praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name. (R./)

Indeed, how good is the Lord,
eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 7:11-17

Jesus raises to life the dead son of a widow at Naim

Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favourably on his people!” This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

Different tasks to be done

Comparing various New Testament texts, we find a variety of ways to view the church and its leadership. It began as a group of volunteers working alongside Jesus, who wanted to sincerely worship God as he did, and to serve their neighbour, especially those who were sick or grieving. There were various healings, of which a spectacular example was the miracle in Naim, in response to a widowed mother’s grief.

By St Paul’s time, the gift of healing comes fourth in a list of special services to be valued (after apostle, prophet and teacher.) He imagines the bond between baptised people as like a living body, made up of many different members, but all of them interdependent, and contributing to the health of the whole body. In later letters (Pastorals) the charismatic, spontaneous gifts are barely mentioned since they deal with formal leadership functions (bishops, deacons, presbyters and widows.)

As the church expanded through the Mediterranean world, and faced crises both internal (disunity) and external (persecution), it needed a more structured form of leadership. This is paralleled in the development of an individual’s life. Children are filled with vitality and seem able to become any direction at will; as young adults, they need choose some kind of career, yet they still bring new spirit to their vocation; later, as adults and parents, they sense a need for some conservatism.

Saint Paul reflected on the kind of gifts that would help the church to flourish. Without wanting to suppress any genuine inspiration, he knew that a charismatic type of leadership carries the risk of splintering the community. Enthusiasm for miracles risks an irrational fervor led by a cult leader, exercising absolute control. On the other hand, we must not discard faith in miracles or forget Jesus, the miracle worker. Some spontaneous charisms are needed for the vitality of the church, but the steadfast guidance of bishops and deacons is a valuable service too; by people of even temper, self-control, prudence, good management skills and the rest. We hope and pray for all of these gifts, in the service of God’s people.

The widow’s plight

Widows in Israel were very vulnerable and usually needed their children, their sons in particular, to support them. A widow whose only son had just died was in a really pitiable situation. When Jesus met the widow of Naim, he was moved with compassion by her plight. Spontaneously he reaches out to help, and restores her son to life.

An unusual feature in this story is that the widow did not ask anything of Jesus nor cry out to him for help. Without waiting to be asked, he simply responded to what he saw: a situation of grief and loss. The same risen Lord reaches out to us today in our need, without waiting to be asked.

We too can be compassionate and spontaneous. The One who touches us in his grace can make us channels of his compassion to each other, to carry one another’s burdens, as he carries ours.