Word to the Wise
Friday, October 22, 2010 - Friday in the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
[Ephesians 4:1-6 and Luke 12:54-59]I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace......
The Letter to the Ephesians is a true gem amongst the "Pauline" letters for inspiring language! The language, however, responds to what St. Paul - and most of us - knows about human communities: failures in integrity, forbearance and unity! It is no small task of leadership to strengthen the individual parts so that they may work for the good of the WHOLE. This is all the more difficult in a culture like that of the United States where the strengthening of the individual is so often seen as a way of guarding AGAINST the larger community or the common good! The WE so often loses out to the ME. St. Paul urges us to live in a manner worthy of the call we have received. This is a call given to us by the encounter with the Lord in the sacrament of Baptism. We are called to be members of the Body of Christ, not the "bodies" of Christ! Our Christian lives are meant to build up the entire Body and not just our individual parts. Love of neighbor requires the kind of forbearance and forgiveness to which the Lord's own prayer commits us: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Integrity means that the call we have received is the same inside us as it is outside of us. A glance at the daily news reminds us that the task outlined by St. Paul is a daunting one but we can begin with the smaller community that we belong to and see it as part of a larger one. Whether we look at the Body of Christ from an organizational point of view (dioceses, etc.) or a personal one (a living community of other faithful), it will only be as strong as we make it. The Spirit will help but we have to supply the "sweat equity!" AMEN