In the Community of Faith, Each Person is Important

Rev. Marcel E. Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year, B

January 27, 2013

Africans use the following old folk tale to demonstrate the importance of  every member of the community, including those who appear to be useless: 

Once upon a time, the various parts of the body started complaining against the stomach: “Look at me,” says the hand, “I till the soil to plant the seeds, I harvest the crops, I prepare the food. All that the stomach ever does is lie there waiting to be fed. This is unfair.” The feet agreed, “Me too, I carry the heavy stomach around all day, I carry him to the farm to get food, I carry him to the stream to get water and all the stomach ever does is lie there and expect to get his ration of food, water and wine whenever he needs them. This is unfair.” The head, too complained how he carries all the heavy load from the farm and from the river, all to feed the stomach who does nothing to help. The parts of the body decided that this injustice must stop. To force the issue, they decided to embark on a protest action. They agreed to stop working and feeding the lazy stomach until the stomach learns to be a responsible citizen of the body. A whole day passed by and the stomach was not given any food or water or wine. The only thing that the stomach did was to groan from time to time. By the second day of starving the stomach, the head said that he was beginning to feel dizzy. By the third day, the hands reported they were feeling weak, and the feet were wobbly and could not stand straight. Then it dawned on them that, much as they were visibly supporting the stomach, the stomach was also supporting them in a less obvious but equally important way. It dawned on them that by feeding the stomach they were feeding themselves without knowing it. So they called off their strike action and went back to work to feed the stomach. Their strength returned and together with the stomach they lived happily together after.

The story emphasizes the importance of everybody in the community even those who appear to do nothing but consume what others produce.  In today’s Second Reading, St. Paul makes a similar point: Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, “because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body, it does not for this reason belong any less to the body....God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. If they were all one parts, where would the body be? But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you” nor the head to the feet, “I do not need you.” ...God has so constructed the body... that there may be no division in the body...If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. (1 Corinthians 12:22-25).

Sometimes poor people envy rich people. But do you know that sometimes the rich also envy the poor? Haven’t you heard people complain that they pay their taxes and people on welfare get a free ride? If you think that street people and welfare recipients are getting a free ride, try trading places with them for one cold night. There is a story of a bishop who had a very capable man in his pastoral council that he assigns virtually everything that needed to be done to him. One day the man complained: “My Lord am I the only person in the pastoral council? Why must every work be given to me while there are some people there doing absolutely nothing?” The bishop said to him, “Would you want me to pray so that no one ever calls on you to do anything again?” The man got the point. He would not like to trade places with the less gifted members of the council who could not complete an assignment. From then on he stopped complaining and was happy to put his talents to work for the common good.

Today, God’s Word challenges us to give up that secret pleasure we get by comparing ourselves with others and thinking that they are inferior. No part of the human body is inferior. In the same way, no member of the church community should be regarded as inferior. God has given each one of us different gifts, different opportunities, different job descriptions in life. Our concern should be to try to be faithful to the grace that God gives us each day. On the last day, God will tell who did more than the other. And, oh, what a surprise that would be!