“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein
I first heard this quote from one of my closest friends. At first glimpse, this quote seemed strange to me, but little did I know it explained all the struggles I had been experiencing for so long. Rewind back to my elementary school days, I always was the smartest and best behaved student in the class. To be second was to be a failure in my conceited eyes. Even in my dance classes, I was always the best. I was the teacher’s pet that knew every piece of choreography. I was always the student the teacher could presume to remember what we learned last week. During all those years of always being the best, it never once crossed my mind what it would be like to not be the best for once.
In fifth grade, I got my harsh awakening when my dance teacher informed me that I would never be able to have pointe shoes because I was not “blessed” with good arches in my feet. She explained how I naturally had flat feet which meant I would never have strong enough arches to be able to dance on pointe. For the first time in my life, I was no longer the best. In fact, I instantly became the worst dancer in my class because I was the only one not “blessed” with good arches. For the next eight years, I lived my life like the fish in the Albert Einstein quote. I spent those eight years of my life believing I was not “blessed” with any gifts or talents because I was being judged solely on my feet.
It was not until I staffed a Catholic retreat in college that I finally realized that how naturally flat my feet are has nothing to do with my gifts and talents. For this retreat, I served on the cook staff even though I had no idea how to cook. The entire retreat I was separated from the rest of the staffers and retreaters because I was working in the kitchen. Although I did not hear any of the speakers or activities, I had the most eye-opening experiences of any Catholic retreat I ever attended.
One beautiful part of our Catholic faith is the Mystical Body of Christ. This teaching of the church sometimes gets thrown to the side because it does not seem like that big of a deal. However, it is an important part of our faith. This teaching shows how we are all connected and working together with Christ as our head. It is the teaching where we see how Christ uses each of us to help one another grow closer to Him. It is the teaching that explains that each of us are given our own unique set of gifts and talents to best help serve the world in our own way. If everyone was given the same gift of public speaking to spread the gospel, then who would be left to spread the gospel through medically helping those with illnesses?
1 Corinthians 12:12-25 explains so well this exact teaching of how the Mystical Body of Christ works:
“As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. Or if an ear should say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. If they were all one part, where would the body be? But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.” Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”
I love this Bible verse because Jesus so clearly gives an example of how every person has a different yet important job. It is silly to think about if the whole body was just an eyeball because clearly there would be so much less we would be able to accomplish without our ears, legs, arms, brain, and all the other body parts working with our eye. The same is true in the church. In order for us to do the will of Christ on Earth, Christ needs all of our unique gifts working together so that we can accomplish so much more.
During that retreat, my eyes were opened to realize just how important it was for us as cook staff to serve everyone at the retreat not by talking, not by praying, not by comforting, but by simply cooking. More specifically for me, I was serving every one at that retreat by sweeping the floors and doing the dishes since I did not know how to cook. It was humbling to see how even the smallest jobs can be so essential to bringing Christ into someone’s life.
That was when I realized, I am an important part of the Mystical Body of Christ. God specifically made me the way I am to be His hands and feet on earth by using my own unique set of gifts and talents to serve Him. This whole time, I had been so focused on not being “blessed” with dancer’s feet that I forgot to see the bigger picture. Some people are called to be Christ’s hands and feet by spreading the gospel through the beauty of their professional dancing on pointe, I however was not. I was called to be Christ’s hands and feet in a different way. He used my passion of dance to help start the dance group of Dancers of the Son. He used my organization and passion of leading others to Christ to help coordinate a Catholic Retreat the following year. He used my love of writing and my own personal experiences to help me write this blog to help you in your relationship with Christ. He uses my love and knowledge of the faith to teach my second graders each year and prepare them to receive their sacraments. These things all share one thing in common: I can do them with my flat feet.
This is the beauty of the Mystical Body of Christ. God gave each of us a task to serve Him in our own unique way using our specially designed gifts and talents. All we need to do is stop comparing our gift of being a fish to our inability to climb a tree. Instead, we need to give ourselves completely to God and let Him show us how He made us special to do His Divine Will. Once you finally use your gifts and talents the way He has designed, it truly is amazing to see how God planned for you to be the hands and feet of Christ in your own unique way.
“God has given different gifts for different people. There is no basis for feeling inferior to another who has a different gift. Once it is realized that we shall be judged by the gift we have received, rather than the gift we have not, one is completely delivered from a false sense of inferiority.”― Fulton J. Sheen
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