Research has shown that trees in a forest communicate with each other and send needed water and nutrients to other trees in need via a complex underground network of roots and mycorrhizal fungi.
This phenomenon is an example of how the natural world is interconnected, and of how this connection enables organisms to survive and thrive.
I find this to be a good analogy of our human and spiritual situation. When we connect with each other in a positive way, we protect and promote human growth and development. Without such positive connections, we suffer and struggle both as individuals and as communities. Nature has something to teach us.
Jesus uses the image of the body to describe our interconnectedness in the Spirit. Each one has a particular talent, a particular role to play in the body of Christ: a contribution, a vocation, to help the body of Christ grow and thrive as individuals and as a Church community.
“If one part [of the body] suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if a part is honored, all the parts share its joy. Now you are Christ’s body and individually parts of it.” (1 Corinthians 13:26-27)
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