From: Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 8-10
The Law is read out. The Feast of Tabernacles
[9] And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and
the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the
Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard
the words of the law. [10] Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and
drink sweet wine and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this
day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength.”
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Commentary:
8:1-18 The text of this chapter forms part of the “memoirs of Ezra” which the
sacred writer has moved and positioned here in the account of the rebuilding of
the city. By doing so, he highlights the importance of the Law in the new stage
of the history of the chosen people (as the writer sees it, this stage begins with
the reconstruction of their national and religious life spearheaded by Ezra the
priest and Nehemiah the layman). We do not know the exact year when the e-
vents dealt with here occurred, nor the exact content of the Law proclaimed on
this occasion. It is possible that a substantial part of the present Pentateuch
was read out.
The reading and explanation of the Law did not take place inside the temple; the
people gathered around the stage specially set up in front of that building. From
the time of Solomon up to the fall of Jerusalem, religious activity centered on the
temple liturgy. From the exile onwards it was built around the Law by means of
the institution of the synagogue. Because they could not go up to the House of
the Lord, exiles used to meet in private houses or in the open air to listen to the
reading of legal and prophetical texts. The formal meeting described here, held
in a square beside the city wall, shows that in this new stage, with Ezra to the
fore, the Law of the Lord was coming to occupy pride of place in the religious life
of the people, and that it was already more important than the offering of victims
for the purpose of sacrifice.
When they hear the commandments of the Law read out, the people weep be-
cause they have not been keeping some of them and they are afraid that God
will punish them on that account. But Ezra and the Levites make them see that
what they have to do is to start again, on that day, for it is a “holy” day. It was
the festival day of the new civil year (cf. Lev 23:24-25; Num 29:1-6).
The proclamation of the Law seems to be linked to the celebration of the feast
of Booths (or Tents, or Tabernacles). That celebration was already (briefly) men-
tioned in Ezra 3:4-6, but there is a new element here (which must be due to Ez-
ra’s interpretation) – the fact that the booths are made with branches cut in the
hills (cf. Lev 23:39-43). No mention is made of the day of Atonement which was
celebrated on the tenth day of the same month (cf. Lev 23:26-32). During the se-
ven days of the feast of booths Ezra keeps reading out the Law as Deuteronomy
31:9-13 lays down must be done when the year is a sabbatical one. In these ac-
tions of Ezra and the Levites, the teachers of the Laws, we can see the origin of
what will become the “Great Assembly”, the official body which will, in the cen-
turies to come, interpret the Law and identify which books form part of the ca-
non. The reading of the books of the Law will from now on become the most im-
portant way of meeting God and listening to his word.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31
Unity and Variety in the Mystical Body of Christ
[14] For the body does not consist of one member but of many. [15] If the foot
should 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. [16] And if the ear should 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. [17] If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?
If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? [18] But as it
is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. [19] If
all were a single organ, where would the body be? [20] As it is, there are many
parts, yet one body. [21] 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.” [22] On the contra-
ry, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, [23] and
those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater
honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, [24] which
our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body,
giving the greater honor to the inferior part, [25] that there may be no discord in
the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. [26] If
one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice to-
gether.
[27] Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. [28] And God
has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various
kinds of tongues. [29] Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do
all work miracles? [30] Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with
tongues? Do all interpret?
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Commentary:
12-13. In Greek and Latin literature, society is often compared to a body: even
today we talk of “corporations”, a term which conveys the idea that all the citi-
zens of a particular city are responsible for the common good. St Paul, starting
with this metaphor, adds two important features: 1) he identifies the Church with
Christ: “so it is with Christ” (v. 12); and 2) he says that the Holy Spirit is its life-
principle: “by one Spirit we were all baptized . . ., and all made to drink of the
Spirit” (v. 13). The Magisterium summarizes this teaching by defining the Church
as the “mystical body of Christ”, an expression which “is derived from and is, as
it were, the fair flower of the repeated teaching of Sacred Scripture and the holy
Fathers” (Pius XII, “Mystici Corporis”).
“So it is with Christ”: “One would have expected him to say, so it is with the
Church, but he does not say that [. . .]. For, just as the body and the head are
one man, so too Christ and the Church are one, and therefore instead of ‘the
Church’ he says ‘Christ”’ (Chrysostom, “Hom. on 1 Cor”, 30, “ad loc.”). This iden-
tification of the Church with Christ is much more then a mere metaphor; it makes
the Church a society which is radically different from any other society: “The com-
complete Christ is made up of the head and the body, as I am sure you know well.
The head is our Savior himself, who suffered under Pontius Pilate and now, after
rising from the dead, is seated at the right hand of the Father. And his body is the
Church. Not this or that church, but the Church which is to be found all over the
world. Nor is it only that which exists among us today, for also belonging to it
are those who lived before us and those who will live in the future, right up to the
end of the world. All this Church, made up of the assembly of the faithful — for all
the faithful are members of Christ—has Christ as its head, governing his body
from heaven. And although this head is located out of sight of the body, he is,
however, joined to it by love” (St Augustine, “Enarrationes In Psalmos”, 56, 1).
The Church’s remarkable unity derives from the Holy Spirit who not only assem-
bles the faithful into a society but also imbues and vivifies its members, exerci-
sing the same function as the soul does in a physical body: “In order that we
might be unceasingly renewed in him (cf. Eph 4:23), he has shared with us his
Spirit who, being one and the same in head and members, gives life to, unifies
and moves the whole body. Consequently, his work could be compared by the
Fathers to the function that the principle of life, the soul, fulfills in the human bo-
dy” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 7).
“All were made to drink of one Spirit”: given that the Apostle says this immedia-
tely after mentioning Baptism, he seems to be referring to a further outpouring of
the Spirit, possibly in the sacrament of Confirmation. It is not uncommon for Sa-
cred Scripture to compare the outpouring of the Spirit to drink, indicating that the
effects of his presence are to revive the parched soul; in the Old Testament the
coming of the Holy Spirit is already compared to dew, rain etc.; and St John re-
peats what our Lord said about “living water” (Jn 7:38; cf. 4:13-14).
Together with the sacraments of Christian initiation, the Eucharist plays a special
role in building up the unity of the body of Christ. “Really sharing in the body of
the Lord in the breaking of the eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion
with him and with one another. ‘Because the bread is one, we, who are many, are
one body, for we all partake of the one bread’ (1 Cor 10:17). In this way all of us
are made members of his body (cf. 1 Cor 12:27), ‘and individual members of one
another’ (Rom 12:5)” (”Lumen Gentium”, 7).
14-27. The unity of the mystical body, which derives from a single life-principle,
the Holy Spirit, and tends towards a common same goal, that is, the building
up of the Church, means that all its members, whatever their position, have the
same basic dignity and the same importance. St Paul develops this thinking by
a very effective literary device: he personifies the members of the human body
and imagines the nobler members looking down on the lesser ones (vv. 21-24).
This serves to reaffirm the truth of v. 25: “that the members may have the same
care for one another”. The responsibility of each Christian derives from the very
essence of the vocation he or she receives at Baptism and Confirmation: “In the
Church there is a diversity of ministries,” St. Escriva explains, “but there is only
one aim — the sanctification of men. And in this task all Christians participate in
some way, through the character imprinted by the sacraments of Baptism and
Confirmation. We must all feel responsible for the mission of the Church, which
is the mission of Christ. He who does not have zeal for the salvation of souls, he
who does not strive with all his strength to make the name and the teaching of
Christ known and loved, will not understand the apostolicity of the Church.
“A passive Christian has failed to understand what Christ wants from all of us.
A Christian who ‘goes his own way’, unconcerned about the salvation of others,
does not love with the heart of Jesus. Apostolate is not a mission exclusive to
the hierarchy, or to priests and religious. The Lord calls all of us to be, by our
example and word, instruments of the stream of grace which springs up to eter-
nal life” (”In Love with the Church”, 15).
28-30. St Paul concludes this description of the different parts of the body by ap-
plying it to the Church, where variety of functions does not detract from unity. It
would be a serious mistake not to recognize in the visible structure of the Church,
which is so multifaceted, the fact that the Church founded by Christ is “one”, visi-
ble at the same time as it is spiritual. The Second Vatican Council puts this very
clearly: “But the society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical bo-
dy of Christ, the visible society an the spiritual community, the earthly Church
and the Church endowed with heavenly riches, are not to be thought of as two
realities. On the contrary, they form one complex reality which comes together
from a human element and a divine element. For this reason the Church is com-
pared, not without significance, to the mystery of the incarnate Word. As the as-
sumed nature, inseparably united to Him, serves the divine Word as a living or-
gan of salvation, so, in a somewhat similar way, does the social structure of the
Church serve the Spirit of Christ who vivifies it, in the building up of the body (cf.
Eph 4:15)” “Lumen Gentium”, 8).
The Church is this way because that is the will of its founder, Jesus Christ: “The
Church is by divine will a hierarchical institution. The Second Vatican Council de-
scribes it as a ‘society structured with hierarchical organs’ (”Lumen Gentium”, 8)
in which ‘ministers are invested with a sacred power’ (”ibid., 18). The hierarchy is
not only compatible with freedom: it is at the service of the freedom of the chil-
dren of God (cf. Rom 8:21). [...] ‘Hierarchy’ means holy government and sacred
order. In no way does it imply a merely human arbitrary order or a subhuman
despotism. Our Lord established in the Church a hierarchical order which should
not degenerate into tyranny, because authority is as much a call to serve as is
obedience.
“In the Church there is equality, because once baptized we are all equal, all chil-
dren of the same God, our Father. There is no difference as Christians between
the Pope and someone who has just joined the Church. But this radical equality
does not mean that we can change the constitution of the Church in those things
that were established by Christ. By expressed divine will there are different func-
tions which imply different capacities, an indelible ‘character’ conferred on the sa-
cred ministers by the sacrament of Order. At the summit of this order is Peter’s
successors and with him, and under him, all the bishops with the triple mission
of sanctifying, governing and teaching” (St. J. Escriva, “In Love with the Church”,
30).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.