Beloved in Christ,
When we gather as the Church to celebrate together the Divine Liturgy, we are becoming something greater than ourselves. We come out from our homes-- some of us even come from different cities-- and we assemble together in the Church to receive life. A collection of individuals comes together in the Church, and is transformed into a single body. By receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, this gathering of believers becomes the Church, which is Christ's own Body, nourished and strengthened by the life that we receive from him.
In today's Gospel reading, our Lord tells the disciples that the group of more than five-thousand individuals who have come to him in the wilderness can only be nourished by him if they stay together. If they go out on their own to the surrounding villages to find their own food, then they cannot receive the life that he is offering them. But if they stay together, despite the difficulties, despite the isolation, only then can they be fed and satisfied.
We, too, can only receive the life that Jesus offers to us when we remain together, when we stay with one another despite the difficulties of doing so. In today's Epistle reading, St. Paul laments the fact that the Church in Corinth has fallen into factions rather than remaining together as one body. St. Paul describes the situation in Corinth as follows: "Each one of you says, 'I belong to Paul,' or 'I belong to Apollos,' or 'I belong to Cephas,' or 'I belong to Christ,'" (1 Cor. 1:12). The Corinthians have fallen into the trap of believing that their dedication to one or another of the Church's leaders comes before their dedication to the Church. In so doing, they have fallen into a sectarian attitude that does not manifest the truth of the Church.
St. Paul responds to this situation by appealing to the Corinthians "that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be reunited in the same mind and the same judgment," (1 Cor. 1:10). When we refuse to remain together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, when we refuse the unity that Christ offers us in the Church, when we allow ourselves to fragment into 'parties' that are in conflict with one another, then we are becoming something that is not the Body of Christ. Then we are becoming something that does not reflect the reality of the Church. Wherever division is allowed to increase, that is a place where Christ's Gospel is not being heard, and the reality of the Church is not being lived out.
My appeal to you today is the same as Paul's was to the Corinthians so many centuries ago. Allow yourselves to become Christ's one, united body. Allow yourselves to express the reality of the Church, in which a collection of individuals becomes nourished by the Lord Jesus Christ and is transformed into a unity reflecting the divine unity. Allow yourselves to realize that vision of the Church that St. Paul saw so clearly, in which "if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together," (1 Cor. 12:26).
As Orthodox Christians, we are not isolated individuals, or even isolated communities, trying to live out our calling on our own. Rather, we are members of Christ's one Body, which is the Church. We are always called to increase our unity with our brothers and sisters, to repair division where we find it, to work towards reconciliation rather than fostering disunity and disharmony. Let us allow Christ to transform our community into his Church.
"You are the Body of Christ, and individually members of it," (1 Cor. 12:27).
In Christ,
Fr. Jeremy
