Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time [II]
1 Corinthians 12:12-14,27-31  +  Luke 7:11-17
September 18, 2018

Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.

This week, our First Readings at daily Mass present profound spiritual truths.  Yesterday in the First Reading, St. Paul preached about the importance of the Eucharist, and explained how it came from Jesus Himself on the night before He died.  The night before Jesus offered His Body on the Cross, He offered His Body through the Sacrament of the Eucharist to His apostles.

In today’s passage, we hear Saint Paul preaching again about the Body of Christ.  But He’s preaching about the Body of Christ in a little different way.  Today, when He preaches about the Body of Christ, He’s talking about us.  He’s talking about the Church:  “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.”

When you were baptized, you became a member of Christ’s Body.  Your Original Sin was washed away, and the virtues of faith, hope and love were put into you, and through those virtues, you were made strong enough to be part of the Body of Christ.  You don’t have to be strong enough to be the entire Body of Christ, but God has called you to be just one part of His Body.

It’s God who does the calling, so you have to listen to His voice in your prayer, and ask what part He wants you to play within the Church.

When He answers, you’ll realize that God has called you to something very important.  That’s why you’ll continue to need those divine virtues of faith, hope and love that you first received on the day of your baptism.  These are the virtues that Saint Paul goes on tomorrow at Mass to preach about.  These are the virtues that make us strong enough to follow Christ, to be like Him, to be one part of His Body, the Church.