Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of columns celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis by exploring ways to follow in the footsteps of its patron saint, St. Paul.
The great city of Corinth in the Bible that St. Paul visited on his missionary journey was far larger and wealthier than its current namesake. Corinth’s cosmopolitan character made it a model of diverse cultures that young Christianity had to come to terms with.
After a year and a half of preaching and building up the community, St. Paul moved on to his next mission, but began to hear reports of conflict, rivalry and immoral behavior among the Corinthian Church. St. Paul felt compelled to write to them and address how Christian faith called them to seek unity. He introduced an image of the Church as the body of Christ and implored them to consider deeply the implications of the Eucharist that they shared, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on themselves” (1 Cor 11:29). Discerning the body of Christ means pondering how we are essentially connected to each other … many parts, but one body in Christ.
St. Paul tried to convey how the Eucharist is the source and the summit of the Christian life. We share a communion in the body of Christ that transcends any border that can separate us in this world. This communion, eventually called the mystical body of Christ, must be discerned in every age.
During the 1930s and 1940s the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis became the nexus for several national and international movements of the Church in the world. Catholic social teaching for the rights of workers and for the most vulnerable began to take root in the archdiocese, including systems of charity and justice. The value of good teaching and good communication of these teachings became a serious priority, including the founding of the Catholic Digest in St. Paul to reach Catholics around the country with solid teaching on being a living and faithful Church.
There was also a movement of liturgical reform taking root. This reform included a recovery of St. Paul’s notion of the Church as the living body, or mystical body, of Christ. International liturgical reformers like Benedictine Father Virgil Michel, who grew up in Assumption parish in St. Paul, tried to show the deep connection between liturgy and life. The way we pray and worship opens us to a way of social transformation as the body of Christ. In 1941, the archdiocese hosted over 100,000 people at the National Eucharistic Congress and the second national conference on the liturgy. As the conference stated, we are a “Living Parish” and more than individuals. We are members of the body of Christ. We are bound to one another in word and sacrament. We are called to actively participate in the work of the Holy Spirit in every home, parish and diocese and in the universal Church. Echoing St. Paul, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we partake of the one loaf” (1 Cor. 10:16-17).
As I write this, our state of Minnesota is again at the center of national and international attention as we live through and respond to mass deportations and increased presence of federal agents in our city streets. The sense of fear and gloom is keeping people apart, isolated and afraid to go to work, school or even the grocery store. Rivalry, violence and division are harming the dignity of vulnerable people and disrupting the common good. St. Paul’s message is as true as ever. Now is the time to discern the body of Christ and seek the common good. Let us discern how the body of Christ is being wounded and made vulnerable. The Eucharist we share calls us to communion, to accompany, to connect and to lift the burdens of those most vulnerable. Let us be consecrated in Christ to love and serve the Lord in one another; especially the least of these. Let us become the sacrament that we share.
Deacon Friesen is director of the Center for Mission, which supports missionary outreach of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He can be reached at friesenm@archspm.org.
