From: 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
Kinds of Spiritual Gifts
[4] Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; [5] and there are varieties
of service, but the same Lord; [6] and there are varieties of working, but it is the
same God who inspires them all in every one. [7] To each is given the manifes-
tation of the Spirit for the common good.
Unity and Variety in the Mystical Body of Christ
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Commentary:
3. This provides a general principle for discerning signs of the Holy Spirit — re-
cognition of Christ as Lord. It follows that the gifts of the Holy Spirit can never
go against the teaching of the Church. “Those who have charge over the Church
should judge the genuineness and proper use of these gifts [...], not indeed to ex-
tinguish the Spirit, but to test all things and hold fast to what is good (cf. Thess
5:12 and 19-21)” (”Lumen Gentium”, 12).
4-7. God is the origin of spiritual gifts. Probably when St Paul speaks of gifts, ser-
vice (ministries), “varieties of working”, he is not referring to graces which are es-
sentially distinct from one another, but to different perspectives from which these
gifts can be viewed, and to their attribution to the Three Divine Persons. Insofar
as they are gratuitously bestowed they are attributed to the Holy Spirit, as he
confirms in v. 11; insofar as they are granted for the benefit and service of the
other members of the Church, they are attributed to Christ the Lord, who came
“not to be served but to serve” (Mk 10:45); and insofar as they are operative and
produce a good effect, they are attributed to God the Father. In this way the va-
rious graces which the members of the Church receive are a living reflection of
God who, being essentially one, in so is a trinity of persons. “The whole Church
has the appearance of a people gathered together by virtue of the unity of the Fa-
ther and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (St Cyprian, “De Dominica Oratione”,
23). Therefore, diversity of gifts and graces is as important as their basic unity,
because all have the same divine origin and the same purpose — the common
good (v. 7): “It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and
ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful communion of the
faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of
the Church’s unity. By distributing various kinds of spiritual gifts and ministries
he enriches the Church of Jesus Christ with different functions ‘in order to equip
the saints for the work of service, so as to build up the body of Christ’ (Eph 4:12)”
(Vatican II, “Unitatis Redintegratio”, 2).
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 Spi-
rit” (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 identification
of the Church with Christ is much more than a mere metaphor; it makes the
Church a society which is radically different from any other society: “The 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, exercising
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 fun-
ction that the principle of life, the soul, fulfils in the human body” (Vatican II, “Lu-
men 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 Holy Spirit, possibly in the sacrament of Confirmation. It is not uncommon for
Sacred 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
repeats 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 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 ano-
ther’ (Rom 12:5)” (”Lumen Gentium”, 7).
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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: John 20:19-23
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
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Commentary:
19-20. Jesus appears to the Apostles on the evening of the day of which He rose.
He presents Himself in their midst without any need for the doors to be opened,
by using the qualities of His glorified body; but in order to dispel any impression
that He is only a spirit He shows them His hands and His side: there is no lon-
ger any doubt about its being Jesus Himself, about His being truly risen from the
dead. He greets them twice using the words of greeting customary among the
Jews, with the same tenderness as He previously used put into this salutation.
These friendly words dispel the fear and shame the Apostles must have been
feeling at behaving so disloyally during His passion: He has created the normal
atmosphere of intimacy, and now He will endow them with transcendental po-
wers.
21. Pope Leo XIII explained how Christ transferred His own mission to the Apos-
tles: “What did He wish in regard to the Church founded, or about to be founded?
This: to transmit to it the same mission and the same mandate which He had re-
ceived from the Father, that they should be perpetuated. This He clearly resolved
to do: this He actually did. ‘As the Father hath sent Me, even so I send you’ (John
20:21). ‘As Thou didst send Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world’
(John 17:18). [...] When about to ascend into Heaven, He sends His Apostles in
virtue of the same power by which He had been sent from the Father; and He
charges them to spread abroad and propagate His teachings (cf. Matthew 28:18),
so that those obeying the Apostles might be saved, and those disobeying should
perish (cf. Mark 16:16). [...] Hence He commands that the teaching of the Apos-
tles should be religiously accepted and piously kept as if it were His own: ‘He who
hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me’ (Luke 10:16). Wherefore
the Apostles are ambassadors of Christ as He is the ambassador of the Father”
(Leo XIII, “Satis Cognitum”). In this mission the bishops are the successors of
the Apostles: “Christ sent the Apostles as He Himself had been sent by the Fa-
ther, and then through the Apostles made their successors, the bishops, sharers
in His consecration and mission. The function of the bishops’ ministry was han-
ded over in a subordinate degree to priests so that they might be appointed in
the order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the episcopal order for the pro-
per fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ”
(Vatican II, “Presbyterorum Ordinis”, 2).
22-23. The Church has always understood—and has in fact defined—that Jesus
Christ here conferred on the Apostles authority to forgive sins, a power which is
exercised in the Sacrament of Penance. “The Lord then especially instituted the
Sacrament of Penance when, after being risen from the dead, He breathed upon
His disciples and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit...’ The consensus of all the Fa-
thers has always acknowledged that by this action so sublime and words so
clear the power of forgiving and retaining sins was given to the Apostles and
their lawful successors for reconciling the faithful who have fallen after Baptism”
(Council of Trent, “De Paenitentia”, Chapter 1).
The Sacrament of Penance is the most sublime expression of God’s love and
mercy towards men, described so vividly in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (cf.
Luke 15:11-32). The Lord always awaits us, with His arms wide open, waiting for
us to repent—and then He will forgive us and restore us to the dignity of being His
sons.
The Popes have consistently recommended Christians to have regular recourse
to this Sacrament: “For a constant and speedy advancement in the path of vir-
tue we highly recommend the pious practice of frequent Confession, introduced
by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; for by this means we grow
in a true knowledge of ourselves and in Christian humility, bad habits are uproo-
ted, spiritual negligence and apathy are prevented, the conscience is purified
and the will strengthened, salutary spiritual direction is obtained, and grace is
increased by the efficacy of the Sacrament itself” (Pius XII, “Mystici Corporis”).
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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.