Roles

A good amount of conflict in the Church, from the earliest times to our present day, comes from bad attitudes about the different roles within it: from those who covet positions they cannot have and resent those who hold them (or denounce the existence of these roles) to others who hold positions by God’s grace but let it go to their heads.

Saint Paul’s words in today’s first reading (1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31a) give us a better perspective. The verses left out of the middle of this passage (15-26) speak especially forcefully against those who confuse the honor of certain roles with their own honor and against those who resent the differentiation of roles in the Church.

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.

Or if an ear should say,
"Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,"
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.

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?

But as it is, God placed the parts,
each one of them, in the body as he intended.

If they were all one part,
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 again the head to the feet, "I do not need you."

Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker
are all the more necessary,
and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable
we surround with greater honor,
and our less presentable parts
are treated with greater propriety,
whereas our more presentable parts do not need this.

But God has so constructed the body
as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,
so that there may be no division in the body,
but that the parts
may have the same concern for one another.

If (one) part suffers, all the parts suffer with it;
if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.