Daily Devotional • October 10
A Reading from 1 Corinthians 12:12-26
12 For 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. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would 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. 16 And if the ear would 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. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
Meditation
In my prison ministry, I visit with an inmate who is kept in solitary confinement. Over time, as his faith has deepened, he has felt drawn to the language and traditions of the Book of Common Prayer, especially the Daily Office. As he opens his prayer book each day for Morning Prayer and Compline, he is reminded that these are indeed “common prayers” that place him in relationship with a vast cloud of believers around the world who are praying the same and similar prayers with him. Although he is alone in a prison cell, spiritually he belongs to a great community and therefore, he is never truly alone.
Paul’s image of the church as one body with many members reminds us that being a Christian is not an individual identity, it is a collective one. We are “all baptized into one body—one community, intimately bound to one another including to sisters and brothers unseen. The Holy Eucharist helps to sustain this connection: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body.” (1 Corinthians 10:17) Bringing Communion to the infirm and imprisoned not only provides spiritual nourishment to the individual, it also affirms that person’s place in the community of the body of Christ, the church. To be a follower of Jesus is to be in relationship with all followers of Jesus. This is both a gift and a responsibility. Jesus’ promise to us–“I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20)–should be our promise to each member of the body of Christ. For, it is “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
Monica Coakley is an Assisting Priest at Luminous Parish in Franklin, TN and also provides pastoral care to men on Tennessee’s death row. She lives with her family on a small farm and hoards books and yarn.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Paraguay – The Anglican Church of South America
