Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Unfortunately, Christians don’t always do a very good job living in harmony with each other. We tend to emphasize what divides us from others rather than thinking about what unites us. It is especially easy in modern life to ignore or avoid other people instead of really getting to know others. The scripture readings for today call us to make a priority of our relationships with others—especially other Christians. Paul states that we are members of one Body and we share one Spirit (Ephesians 4: 4). God calls each of us to become part of a larger body. We are called to use our own gifts to build up the Body of Christ, but we are also expected to encourage others to do the same.
In order to avoid the trap of seeing ourselves as separate from other Christians, Paul admonishes us to think of ourselves as members of one body. We may see faults and weaknesses in others, but we know that we too have our faults. Thus we need to bear with others in humility. Paul tells us that in relating to other Christians, we must show humility, gentleness, and patience (v. 2). We need to encourage each other to use our gifts in the service of God and our neighbor. And we also need to take the initiative to develop our own gifts—to get involved in the lives of those around us and to make a positive difference in our parishes, families, neighborhoods, and cities. Paul’s words are especially poignant today because of the many divisions that exist between Christians. These divisions point out our collective failure to live up to the instructions that Paul gives to the Christians of Ephesus to love each other. Yet there is hope. Following Paul’s advice to see ourselves as individuals who are at the same time part of a larger body of Christ is the first step to overcoming what divides us.
The gospel reading for today reinforces the message of the first reading. Jesus admonishes his followers that their faith in him should be reflected in their behavior towards each other. He tells a parable about two people who are going to court to have their case settled before a judge. He says that it is better to resolve their case with each other before they get to court. It doesn’t make sense for two people to ask a judge to resolve a dispute that can be resolved amongst themselves. Jesus isn’t talking about an easy kind of forgiveness. He’s talking about people who are willing to resolve their real differences with each other because they realize that they serve the same God and that this God has dealt mercifully with them. The implication is that we need to forgive our fellow human beings just as we ourselves have been forgiven.
Let us pray today that we will follow the advice of St Paul and the command of Jesus. Let us pray that we can forgive others just as we ourselves have been forgiven. Let us give thanks for what God has done for us in order to live in the joy that such realization brings.
Joel Schickel