By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.)  (I Corinthians 12:13, The Message)

The apostle Paul received a revelation that has revolutionized the Church ever since then.

It is so simple, yet so profound.

The Church is “the Body of Christ.”

That’s it. Period.

Please note, Paul does not say that the Church is LIKE a body. He says that the Church IS the Body of Christ.

He is not offering an analogy. He is stating a reality.

It is a reality into which we entered when we chose to be baptized.

Sometimes we describe baptism as a rite of initiation.

Actually it is an act of incorporation.

The word “incorporation” literally means “to be united into one body.” (The Latin word for body is “corpus”).

In I Corinthians 12, Paul lists a number of consequences of being part of Christ’s body.

All of them are meant to hammer home one unmistakeable fact.

We are no longer independent. We are interdependent.

No body part can function on its own. Every body part needs every other part to do its part!

What one part does affects every other part in one way or another. For good or for bad.

What one Christian does affects every other Christian. For better or for worse.

We usually become aware of this when something extraordinary happens somewhere in the Church.

We hear about someone like a Mother Teresa who lays down her life to serve the poor, the destitute and the dying.

The rest of the Body of Christ is inspired by her infectious example to serve Jesus in the face of the “least of these” as well.

At the other end of the spectrum, a scandal comes to light. Whether it involves sex, money or abuse, the rest of the Body feels the pain, doesn’t it?

You may be familiar with The Butterfly Effect, an idea used in chaos theory, that a very small difference in the initial state of a physical system can make a significant difference to the state at some later time

So, for example, a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could set off currents that might ultimately cause a hurricane in Texas!

In other words, a seemingly insignificant action can have significant repercussions to those who are not part of the immediate surroundings.

Whenever the Church is rocked by yet another scandal, I often wonder whether the individual(s) involved ever stopped to consider their interconnectedness in the Body.

If we were to simply pause to consider how our actions trigger a Butterfly Effect of sorts within the Body, would we not reconsider anything that might have a negative impact?

By the same token, would we not also be motivated to know that a simple gesture of love offered to a homeless person in downtown Toronto has a positive effect on the Body of Christ in Tokyo?

Paul’s revelation in I Corinthians 12 reminds us that we need to live with a heightened awareness of the incorporation that took place at our baptism.

We do not live our lives in isolation. We are connected with one another. Even our destinies are intertwined.

For we are now part of the Body of Christ.