Morning Devotion for the season after Pentecost
Friday October 8, 2021
The Invitatory
O give thanks unto the Lord, and call upon his Name; tell the people what things he hath done.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen.
Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord's Name be praised.
Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-26
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. 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.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 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. 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. 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 arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 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.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 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; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
Meditation – Michael Palmisano
The earliest surviving sentences that have “Jesus” as their subject exhibit a type of linguistic peculiarity which might only be described, as former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams says, as “eccentric.” The writings of the apostle Paul recall this historical Jesus not as One who formerly occupied a fixed historical epoch, but as One who continues to be an ongoing, present “Body” in the world – Christ is He who exists as a Body comprised of living individuals.
By the time Jesus was being described in writing, He was already being interpreted. The early Church quickly discerned that this man from Nazareth was much more than a man. He is the eternal One who has reoriented all sense of communal life, agency, and altered our perceptions of human hope. He is still present to us in a way that no person deceased has ever been in human history. He is present to us in our communal Body.
The mystery of Christ’s enduring presence and operation is communicated eloquently in our Post-Communion Prayer: “Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
We are incorporated into this Christ by His feeding us in the sacrament, and we are dismissed into the world from which we had come now transformed as living members, who might be “sacrament” for a hungry world. As a united Body, this is our singular mission: “Go into the world in peace, with the strength and courage to love and serve God in all others, with the joy and gladness that can only come from God’s loving provision.” The eucharistic community established in us by Christ is not concerned with transforming bread and wine, it is concerned with transforming us and our world.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
