How important do you think you are?   

We define importance in different ways.  On a basketball team, you may not be the high scorer, but if you are the one who feeds the high scorer the ball at the right time and place so he can score, you matter a lot.  In the manufacturing world, you can have the greatest assembly line ever, but when that little gear that drives all of the machines breaks down, all the PhD’s in the world will not serve you as well as the hands on guy whose fingers are small enough and nimble enough to get in that tiny space and change it out.  In a restaurant, you can be the greatest cook ever, but if the guy who sprays for pests and bugs doesn’t show up and the health department does, your restaurant will be shut down in an instant.   

In a culture where we tend to regard the bosses as the most important, it is easy to view importance as a function of status and role.  Even in the church, we speak of a hierarchy, and we all kind of know where we fit in that view of the church – Pope at the top, Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Sisters, and Laity.  It becomes so easy and tempting to view our importance dependent upon our ‘status’ within that framework. 

It is not how St. Paul would have us view importance.  Nor is not how the Spirit works among us in the church.  In this analogy of the body, Paul makes it clear that we all matter.  You only have to visit a hospital for a few minutes to see what happens to the whole person when one part of the body malfunctions.  It doesn’t take much for the body to not do well.  One small organ gone wrong, on cell changed to cancer, and the body becomes very sick.  In the same way, when all the parts work together, they accomplish infinitely more than the individual parts can on their own.   

Certainly there are different roles.  Feet are not hands are not eyes are not hearts.  But the vision that Paul is trying to communicate is that we are all indispensible to God, we all are so important to the bringing about of the kingdom.  And it is for us to uncover and put into practice the gifts that the Spirit has put deepest into our hearts.  Sometimes figuring that out is easier said than done. 

The little flower, Teresa of Lisieux, wrote in her journal of her wrestling with just that question.  She wanted to do something extraordinary for God.  In her youthful zeal, she wanted to be a missionary, because then she would have a chance at martyrdom.  But her frail health made it clear pretty quickly that this was not to happen.  “Where do I fit in the church? What is my role in the body of Christ?”  And then, one day, in her prayer, it came to her.  In words that fairly fly off the pages, we hear her say: "Oh Jesus, my Love, my vocation is found at last—my vocation is love! I have found my place in the bosom of the Church, and this place, 0 my God, Thou hast Thyself given to me; in the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be Love!”  Teresa understood then, that her role in the church was to make Love loved."  She came to know that being important and doing something great for God has very little to do with status or importance as the world views such things.  Rather, it has everything to do with knowing the gifts that God has put deepest into our hearts to be shared with the world.   

That is the challenge I shared with the confirmation class this morning – to have them pray and reflect on what God has put into their hearts to accomplish.  It is also the challenge that St. Paul leaves to us today – to figure out where we fit into that body of Christ.  Jesus, as he begins his ministry, has a clear sense of his purpose – what God had anointed him to be doing.  He was to be glad tidings to the poor, release to prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind.  He is to be the one announcing the in-breaking of God’s kingdom. 

And you – how important do you think you are?  Don’t run from that question – because the answer is clear – YOU MATTER SO MUCH.  And your gifts and talents matter so much.  Some are doers in the church – fixing buildings, tuck pointing bricks, repairing electric.  Some are teachers and catechists – inspiring and teaching children and adults in the way of God.  Others are bookkeepers and secretaries.  Others run soup lines or help out at Habitat or Catholic Worker houses.  Some, like Teresa of Lisieux, are love in the church.  WE all matter, for together, we make up that body of Christ.    

So –What important thing has God put in your heart to be and do for the church?