Bodies of Belonging

One of the appointed readings for Pentecost Sunday is 1 Cor. 12:3b-13, and there we find this verse. 

For just as the body is one and has many members,

and all the members of the body,

though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

 Think about this verse or read the full reading and then read this excerpt from the poem by Walt Whitman. 

I Sing the Body Electric

The man’s body is sacred and the woman’s body is sacred,
No matter who it is, it is sacred—is it the meanest one in the laborers’ gang?
Is it one of the dull-faced immigrants just landed on the wharf?
Each belongs here or anywhere just as much as the well-off, just as much as you,
Each has his or her place in the procession.

(All is a procession,
The universe is a procession with measured and perfect motion.)

Do you know so much yourself that you call the meanest ignorant?
Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight, and he or she has no right to a sight?
Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffuse float, and the soil is on the surface, and water runs and vegetation sprouts,
For you only, and not for him and her?

Image: Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash