By Henry Aloysius Barry
The body is not one member but many." The humblest is as truly a member of the Church as is the highest. All cannot be bishops. "If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing?" All men cannot be priests, all women cannot be nuns, and all religious cannot be Jesuits or Carmelites. — " If all were one member, where would be the body." We all need one another in the Church; there is no such thing as independence in the mystical body of Christ! "The eye cannot say to the hand, I need not thy help, nor can the head say to the feet, I have no need of you." God has tempered the body together, "That there might be no schism in the body, that the members might be mutually careful one for another." So united ought we all to be that the success or failure of another, whether it be an individual or a body, should in the one case exhilarate us or in the other cast us down. "If one member suffer anything all the members suffer with it, or if one member glory all the members rejoice with it. Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep!" (Rom. xii, 15.)
The Holy Ghost is the centripetal tendency in all the spiritual planets, in all christian systems and individuals. It is the human in us that is centrifugal. St. Paul has so whittled his arrow in this chapter as to penetrate the hierarchy, the priesthood and the religious system. It pricks official arrogance, it stabs to the heart corporate or individual selfishness. "Charity is patient, is kind, charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own." (I, Cor. xiii, 4.) "Loving one another with the charity of brotherhood, with honor preferring one another,— pursuing hospitality." ( v. 10, 13.) This broad love which blossoms in universal zeal and encouragement toward all who wear the uniform of the christian army, whether one be in the infantry or cavalry, an officer or a common soldier, no matter what the color of his uniform or what the number of his regiment, is the one correct christian disposition.
The body is not one member but many." The humblest is as truly a member of the Church as is the highest. All cannot be bishops. "If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing?" All men cannot be priests, all women cannot be nuns, and all religious cannot be Jesuits or Carmelites. — " If all were one member, where would be the body." We all need one another in the Church; there is no such thing as independence in the mystical body of Christ! "The eye cannot say to the hand, I need not thy help, nor can the head say to the feet, I have no need of you." God has tempered the body together, "That there might be no schism in the body, that the members might be mutually careful one for another." So united ought we all to be that the success or failure of another, whether it be an individual or a body, should in the one case exhilarate us or in the other cast us down. "If one member suffer anything all the members suffer with it, or if one member glory all the members rejoice with it. Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep!" (Rom. xii, 15.)
The Holy Ghost is the centripetal tendency in all the spiritual planets, in all christian systems and individuals. It is the human in us that is centrifugal. St. Paul has so whittled his arrow in this chapter as to penetrate the hierarchy, the priesthood and the religious system. It pricks official arrogance, it stabs to the heart corporate or individual selfishness. "Charity is patient, is kind, charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own." (I, Cor. xiii, 4.) "Loving one another with the charity of brotherhood, with honor preferring one another,— pursuing hospitality." ( v. 10, 13.) This broad love which blossoms in universal zeal and encouragement toward all who wear the uniform of the christian army, whether one be in the infantry or cavalry, an officer or a common soldier, no matter what the color of his uniform or what the number of his regiment, is the one correct christian disposition.
