Historically, humans have always formed tribes, clans, and eventually cities, nations, and empires, driven by the need for cooperation, structure, and survival. It’s a natural part of human development. It serves as a way of managing resources, cooperation, and conflict. This tendency stems from both biological and psychological needs, including survival, security, and social bonding.
Humans historically formed groups to hunt, gather food, and protect each other from predators. Larger groups increased chances of survival. Which seems to fit well the inclination of humans as inherently social creatures, requiring relationships for emotional and psychological well-being. Societies foster these bonds through families, communities, and cultural practices. Societies are crucial for passing down knowledge, traditions, language, and values. Organized systems enable education and the preservation of culture. Organized societies create rules, laws, and governance to manage cooperation and address conflicts. Without organization, disorder and chaos are more likely to ensue. And as societies grow, division of labor becomes essential; people specialize in different tasks.
In today’s readings St. Paul describes these very things playing out in the formation of the Christian Community: “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body.” Paul then goes on to list some of the familiar roles in faith communities: preachers, teachers, healers, administrators and more. One might argue that it is just the natural inclination of humans, but St. Paul makes the point there is something else at play here: the Holy Spirit.
We humans, left to our own devices, might organize and assign roles and duties in all manner of odd and strange ways. But the Spirit is at work in the world.
I am always bemused by people who look at the Catholic Church as this behemoth organization with tentacles reaching out all over the world anchored in the great Cathedrals of Europe and massive collections of art… as they sigh, “Jesus never intended church to be this…”
I have no idea what Jesus intended organizationally. I do know that he promised that the Spirit would be with the Church until the end of days. There were Apostles and disciples to start. Then added deacons. Jerusalem and Rome seemed to be centers where nascent churches looked for answers about orthodoxy, traditions, understanding and meaning. The importance of a “center” is shown in Acts 8 when St. Philip in Acts 8: Philip asks an Ethiopian official “Do you understand what you are reading?” He was reading Isaiah. The official replied “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” That same dynamic played out again and again over the first 8 centuries of the Church when it corrected heresies that threatened to divide the Church.
These days there are 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide. The Church has organized and disorganized its way to keep on mission with all its many parts of the one body – for protection of the truth of Jesus as Lord and Savior, for the spiritual, emotional and psychological well-being of its members. Fostering the bonds of families, communities, and cultural practices. Establishing passing down knowledge (doctrine and dogma), traditions, language, and within the values of the local community. The Church is the largest charitable organization in the world. It educates and promotes human dignity. And yes, it has created rules, laws, and governance to keep the Church on mission.
There are lots of parts to the one Body of Christ in the world. Moving in parts and as a whole for 2,000 thousand years.
Image credit: Saint Paul Writing His Epistles | attributed to Valentin de Boulogne | Houston Museum