Individual ants work together for the benefit of the colony. Together, they accomplish much more than each could do alone. The Church is a community with a mission – a mission to love each other within the Church and, in unity, to extend God’s love out into the society. We are the Church. You are one of us.
Collaborating ants provide an image of how we should work together, but it doesn’t really capture the depth of the unity we share. We are joined with Christ and bound together in the Holy Spirit as one Body, that is, the perfect, pure Body of Christ, in an indescribable spiritual union.
The relationship between the individual Orthodox believers in the Church is analogous to your own physical body. Your body functions as a whole because the particular parts and systems operate in harmony together. With your senses, you see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the world. The hands, arms, legs, and feet work in coordination. Similarly, within the Body of Christ, you have a particular role to fulfill in harmony with all the other parts, your fellow believers. Whether you are an eye or an ear, a hand or a foot, you are a member of the Body of Christ with work to do. Your local parish will be most effective when the believers work together, each offering his or her own particular contribution, to do the work of Christ in the world.
Our lives are interconnected for the good of our salvation and the salvation of the world. Understand that you have a part, in concert with others, in the Church’s work. Strive to personally share more deeply in the inner perfection of the Body of Christ. Also, dedicate your time, your skills, and your resources toward fulfilling your particular contribution to the common work.
Read: John 17.9-23; Romans 12.3-8; 1 Corinthians 12.1-31; Colossians 2.18-19; Ephesians 4.1-16; 5.21-32
Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees