From: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
Kinds of Spiritual Gifts
[3b] No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.
[4] Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; [5] and
there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; [6] and there are
varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in
every one. [7] To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the
common good.
Unity and Variety in the Mystical Body of Christ
[12] For just as the body is one and has many member, and all the
members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
[13] For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or
Greeks, slaves or free and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Commentary:
3. This provides a general principle for discerning signs of the Holy
Spirit--recognition of Christ as Lord. It follows that the gifts of
the Holy Spirit can never go against the teaching of the Church. "Those
who have charge over the Church should judge the genuineness and proper
use of these gifts [...], not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to
test all things and hold fast to what is good (cf. Thess 5:12 and
19-21)" ("Lumen Gentium", 12).
4-7. God is the origin of spiritual gifts. Probably when St Paul speaks
of gifts, service (ministries), "varieties of working", he is not
referring to graces which are essentially distinct from one another,
but to different perspectives from which these gifts can be viewed, and
to their attribution to the Three Divine Persons. Insofar as they are
gratuitously bestowed they are attributed to the Holy Spirit, as he
confirms in v. 11; insofar as they are granted for the benefit and
service of the other members of the Church, they are attributed to
Christ the Lord, who came "not to be served but to serve" (Mk 10:45);
and insofar as they are operative and produce a good effect, they are
attributed to God the Father. In this way the various graces which the
members of the Church receive are a living reflection of God who, being
essentially one, in so is a trinity of persons. "The whole Church has
the appearance of a people gathered together by virtue of the unity of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (St Cyprian, "De
Dominica Oratione", 23). Therefore, diversity of gifts and graces is as
important as their basic unity, because all have the same divine origin
and the same purpose--the common good (v. 7): "It is the Holy Spirit,
dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the entire
Church, who brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful and
joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of
the Church's unity. By distributing various kinds of spiritual gifts
and ministries he enriches the Church of Jesus Christ with different
functions 'in order to equip the saints for the work of service, so as
to build up the body of Christ' (Eph 4:12)" (Vatican II, Unitatis
Redintegratio", 2).
12-13. In Greek and Latin literature, society is often compared to a
body; even today we talk of "corporations", a term which conveys the
idea that all the citizens of a particular city are responsible for the
common good. St Paul, starting with this metaphor, adds two important
features: 1) he identifies the Church with Christ: "so it is with
Christ" (v. 12); and 2) he says that the Holy Spirit is its
life-principle: "by one Spirit we were all baptized..., and all made to
drink of the Spirit" (v. 13). The Magisterium summarizes this teaching
by defining the Church as the "mystical body of Christ", an expression
which "is derived from and is, as it were, the fair flower of the
repeated teaching of Sacred Scripture and the holy Fathers" (Pius XII,
"Mystici Corporis").
"So it is with Christ": "One would have expected him to say, so it is
with the Church, but he does not say that [...]. For, just as the body
and the head are one man, so too Christ and the Church are one, and
therefore instead of 'the Church' he says 'Christ"' (Chrysostom, "Hom.
on 1 Cor", 30, "ad loc".). This identifiction of the Church with Christ
is much more then a mere metaphor; it makes the Church a society which
is radically different from any other society: "The complete Christ is
made up of the head and the body, as I am sure you know well. The head
is our Savior himself, who suffered under Pontius Pilate and now, after
rising from the dead, is seated at the right hand of the Father. And
his body is the Church. Not this or that church, but the Church which
is to be found all over the world. Nor is it only that which exists
among us today, for also belonging to it are those who lived before us
and those who will live in the future, right up to the end of the
world. All this Church, made up of the assembly of the faithful--for
all the faithful are members of Christ--has Christ as its head,
governing his body from heaven. And although this head is located out
of sight of the body, he is, however, joined to it by love" (St
Augustine, "Enarrationes in Psalmos", 56, 1).
The Church's remarkable unity derives from the Holy Spirit who not only
assembles the faithful into a society but also imbues and vivifies its
members, exercising the same function as the soul does in a physical
body: "In order that we might be unceasingly renewed in him (cf. Eph
4:23), he has shared with us his Spirit who, being one and the same in
head and members, gives life to, unifies and moves the whole body.
Consequently, his work could be compared by the Fathers to the function
that the principle of life, the soul, fulfils in the human body"
(Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 7).
"All were made to drink of one Spirit": given that the Apostle says
this immediately after mentioning Baptism, he seems to be referring to
a further outpouring of the Holy Spirit, possibly in the sacrament of
Confirmation. It is not uncommon for Sacred Scripture to compare the
outpouring of the Spirit to drink, indicating that the effects of his
presence are to revive the parched soul; in the Old Testament the
coming of the Holy Spirit is already compared to dew, rain, etc.; and
St. John repeats what our Lord said about "living water" (Jn 7:38; cf.
4:13-14).
Together with the sacraments of Christian initiation, the Eucharist
plays a special role in building up the unity of the body of Christ.
"Really sharing in the body of the Lord in the breaking of the
eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with him and with one
another. 'Because the bread is one, we, who are many, are one body,
for we all partake of one bread' (1 Cor 10:17). In this way all of us
are made members of his body (cf. 1 Cor 12;27), 'and individual members
of one another' (Rom 12:5)" ("Lumen Gentium", 7).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.