Tuesday August 23rd, 2016 1 Corinthians 12:27-31
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? (verse 29)
Jesuit priest and Victorian poet Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, a favourite author of mine, celebrates in many of his poems the diversity God has put into his creation. In chapter 12 of his first letter to the Christians at Corinth, St. Paul does much the same thing, only Paul, unlike Hopkins, moves from differences to unity.
Backtracking a bit from St. Paul and Father Hopkins, there is a saying that all humans were created equal. While that is a fortunate idea in a legal context, wouldn’t things be boring if such equality were strictly the case in the sense of God-given abilities and levels of these abilities? Indeed, if we were all the same, where would be our masterpieces in music, in writing, in Christian and other works of art, to name a few areas? Where would be our Beethovens, our Bachs, our Da Vincis, our Michelangelos, and so on? We would all be robots. Like Father Hopkins we say, thank God for diversity!
Yet, indeed, we have unity where it counts. As members of the body of Christ, we have unity in belief and unity in salvation.
God of differences, God of unity, we thank you for what we are in Christ. Amen. — AEA
Contributed by Different Yet the Same
Jesuit priest and Victorian poet Father Gerard Manley Hopkins, a favourite author of mine, celebrates in many of his poems the diversity God has put into his creation. In chapter 12 of his first letter to the Christians at Corinth, St. Paul does much the same thing, only Paul, unlike Hopkins, moves from differences to unity.
Backtracking a bit from St. Paul and Father Hopkins, there is a saying that all humans were created equal. While that is a fortunate idea in a legal context, wouldn't things be boring if such equality were strictly the case in the sense of God-given abilities and levels of these abilities? Indeed, if we were all the same, where would be our masterpieces in music, in writing, in Christian and other works of art, to name a few areas? Where would be our Beethovens, our Bachs, our Da Vincis, our Michelangelos, and so on? We would all be robots. Like Father Hopkins we say, thank God for diversity!
Yet, indeed, we have unity where it counts. As members of the body of Christ, we have unity in belief and unity in salvation.
