We are all in this together

We are not the Pope.

We are not all bishops.

We are not all priests.

Some of us resent the fact that there are people other than themselves with positions of official ministry and of authority in the Church.

Some of us may especially resent the fact that there are positions of official ministry and authority in the Church that we personally cannot have and would never have been able to have.

Today’s first reading (Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13) reminds us that even if there is differentiation within the body of Christ, we are all in this together, and that even the differentiation is directed to making all of us a mature unity as the Body of Christ.

Thus Saint Paul pleads,

I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live
in a manner worthy
of the call you have received,
with all humility
and gentleness,
with patience,
bearing with one another
through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace:
one Body
and one Spirit,
as you were also called
to the one hope of your call;
one Lord,
one faith,
one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all
and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each of us
according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

And he gave some as Apostles,
others as prophets,
others as evangelists,
others as pastors and teachers,
to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,
for building up the Body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of faith
and knowledge of the Son of God,
to mature manhood,
to the extent of the full stature of Christ.