Tuesday in the 31st Week of Ordinary Time, November 4, 2025

Romans 12, 5-16

Brothers and sisters: We, though many, are one Body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them: if prophecy, in proportion to the faith; if ministry, in ministering; if one is a teacher, in teaching; if one exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes, in generosity; if one is over others, with diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.

St. Paul paints here one of the most luminous portraits of Christian community in the New Testament — a vision of unity in diversity, of sanctified difference bound together in love. The passage begins with the mystery of the Body of Christ: “We, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another.”  The Christian is never a solitary believer; incorporation into Christ means incorporation into His members.  Every gift of grace is therefore both personal and communal: given to one, but for all.

Paul’s next exhortation is profoundly practical.  Grace does not abolish individuality; it consecrates it.  Each person is to exercise the gift he has received—prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in service, teaching in teaching, exhortation in encouragement, generosity in giving, diligence in leadership, and cheerfulness in mercy.  The Spirit does not standardize but harmonizes, forming from countless distinct charisms one melody of divine service.  What matters is not the brilliance of the gift, but its faithful use for the building up of others.  When a teacher teaches with humility, when a leader governs without pride, when one who shows mercy does so with joy — then the invisible life of Christ courses through the Body like blood through the veins.

At the center of this passage stands the command that transfigures every gift: “Let love be sincere.”  Without this, prophecy becomes arrogance, ministry a burden, and mercy condescension.  Sincere love is not sentimental but moral — it hates what is evil and clings to what is good.  It seeks to honor others first, to outdo them not in power but in reverence.  This is a reversal of the world’s order: instead of competition, cooperation; instead of ambition, affection.  Such love is the quiet miracle of a community alive in Christ.

Paul then sketches the spiritual temperament of those who live in this charity: zealous, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, enduring in affliction, persevering in prayer.  These three—hope, endurance, and prayer — are the lungs of the Body, breathing faith into every member.  A community that prays together learns to suffer together, and a community that suffers together learns to rejoice together.

Finally, Paul widens the circle of love to include the stranger and the enemy.  “Contribute to the needs of the holy ones; practice hospitality.”  Charity begins within the Church but does not end there; the home that welcomes the pilgrim becomes an image of the Father’s house.  And more daring still: “Bless those who persecute you.”  The Christian must turn from vengeance to intercession, seeing even in the persecutor one whom Christ died to save.  To rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep — this is to share in the compassion of the Heart of Jesus.

Thus Paul brings us full circle: from the unity of the Body to the humility of the heart.  “Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.”  The Church’s harmony is preserved not by authority alone but by mutual deference — each seeing in the other a temple of the Spirit.  When this humility reigns, the many truly become one: one faith, one hope, one love, one Body in Christ, through whom and in whom all things are reconciled.