Henri Nouwen Society - Daily Meditation
Wednesday October 29, 2014

One Body with Many Parts

The Church is one body.  Paul writes,  "We were baptised into one body in a single Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13).  But this one body has many parts.  As Paul says, "If they were all the same part, how could it be a body?  As it is, the parts are many but the body is one" (1 Corinthians 12:19).  Not everyone can be everything.  Often we expect one member of the body to fulfill a task that belongs to others.  But the hand cannot be asked to see nor the eye to hear.

Together we are Christ's body, each of us with a part to play in the whole (see 1 Corinthians 12:27).  Let's be grateful for our limited but real part in the body.

- Henri J. M. Nouwen  
Comment on this Daily Meditation.
 
Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community.

Like us on Facebook  Follow us on Twitter  Find us on Pinterest
Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, �1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible �1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.