This Week with Henri Nouwen

“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 Nouwen