We live in a time when government agencies, corporations, the military, academic institutions, and other private and public entities highlight the diversity of those who are part of their organizations.

 

They advertise how their members differ in terms of race, ethnicity, cultural background, sexual orientation, religion, age, etc. Such diversity is seen as a positive quality and something that adds to the strength of an organization. There are even administrators charged with the responsibility of ensuring diversity in hiring, staffing, and leadership.

 

Catholic parishes often follow the example of secular institutions. They stress the diversity of their congregation and emphasize the different types of people who are part of their parish community. Diversity is seen as a virtue to extol and an indication of the vibrancy and welcoming spirit of a parish.

 

However, this Sunday’s Second Reading (Ephesians 4:1-6) may lead us to question if parishes might be over-emphasizing diversity and undervaluing another quality, namely, unity.

 

In that reading, Saint Paul urges Christians to live in unity and peace. He tells them that they are “one body and one Spirit.” They share “one hope…one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

 

In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the analogy of the human body to illustrate the unity among Christians. Just as the body is one, though composed of many parts, so is the Church, the body of Christ. For Paul, oneness among believers was more important than their differences.

 

Jesus himself showed his desire that his disciples be united as one. In the words of prayer that Jesus addressed to the Father at the Last Supper, he said, “I pray …. that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:20-21).

 

That unity for which Jesus prayed and about which Paul preached becomes a reality at Mass. There, like the large crowd mentioned in Sunday’s Gospel (John 6:1-15), we share the common experience of listening to the Lord’s saving words. Then we are fed, not with miraculously multiplied bread and fish, but with food even more wonderful. We share the bread and wine of the Eucharist that draws us into a “holy communion” with Jesus Christ and one another.

 

As the Church prays in the Third Eucharistic Prayer, “Grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”

 

In our fractured and polarized society that highlights the differences among people, Christians need to be an example of unity. For we are “one body and one Spirit” and we share “one hope…one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

 

© 2024 Rev. Thomas Iwanowski