It Would Not be Right...

"It would not be right for us to neglect the word
of God so as to give out food."



May 22 - Fifth Sunday of Easter


We are continuing the story of the early Church and at this stage the first Christians were still living in a sort of "commune" full of joy and love and the Holy Spirit. But not entirely, as we can see from the First Reading. Discrimination apparently reared its ugly head. There were at least two groups of new converts: Jews who had always remained in the old country and spoke and thought in Aramaic, and Jews who had lived abroad in a Greek culture and spoke only Greek. The snobbish locals looked down on the others and made some trouble for them. This proved to be providential because it led to the ordination of the first Deacons - all of them Greek! There is an interesting phrase which will always be relevant: " It would not be right for us to neglect the word of God so as to give out food." Sometimes we in the Pauline family may feel inferior to the striking works of charity performed all around us. Not so. There are FAR MORE people starving spiritually - not to talk of being dead!- than we could possibly imagine, and we must reach out incessantly with our prayer first of all and then with what technical means are available to us. Our Pauline Offering puts things in the right perspective.


The Responsorial Psalm continues to express the joy of the early Church responding to the good news in the First Reading:already there are the outlines of an organization which is always required when there is growth and the growth itself is impressive - even " a large group of priests made their submission to the faith." These were, of course, the priests of the Old Testament. As we saw already, the word "priest" as we understand it today is expessed in the early Church by words such as "steward" or "overseer."


The Second Reading has some very interesting concepts. St. Peter takes his inspiration from the idea of "stone" or "rock." He sees the inidividual Christian as "living stones making a spiritual house" - membership of the Church, therefore, as we would say today and faithful membership. A stone by itself is next to useless. Joined to others it becomes vastly more important. At the center of this "association of stones," so to speak, is "the living stone, rejected by many who met him (= "men") but chosen and loved by God, i.e. Jesus Christ. The final sentence is very interesting: :"you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people set apart to sing the praises of God."


What is involved? What is involved is that, by Baptism, each of us has priestly function in the sense of a) offering our lives and work, b) giving witness to our beliefs, and c) turning to the Lord in prayer. This is intended to be the outline of the Christian life though it has been largely forgotten because what we call the ordained priesthood has been exalted for centuries while the priesthood of the people has been largely diminished. The priesthood of the priest involves more because, by ordination, that particular man is enabled through the Sacrament of Orders to be the link between Christ and the people in the sense that he is individual in the community at whose words the Lord comes down on the altar, as Calvary is re-presented, at whose words sins are forgiven and the other Sacraments conferred.


Outside the church the people exercise their priesthood in REALITY. In church they exercise it in RITE and one of the many reasons people are not going to church any more is because they have forgotten who they are and how to live. The Gospel presents a familiar scene, familiar at least to Paulines who find in this page from John the origin of our special devotion. Actually we find it in two places. The first is Chapter 13 where Jesus washes the feet of the embarrassed - we might better say "thunderstruck" - disciples and then declares afterwards: "You call me Master and Lord, and it is right that you do, because that is what I am." The second is in today's extract: " I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Here we have another of Christ's self-definition and, as such, much more relevant than many others which are better known and more popular. We should not be ashamed of using these titles frequently in private and in public. The Institute - like the Pauline Family in general - reveals its full value not just when we make our Profession but when we live our Profession by faithful adherence to what is contained in the Statute and in the monthly materials. It takes some time and requires in most cases some sacrifice but ... so does every other worthwhile accomplishment.


~May 2011 Concord