Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 429

This is the will of God, your holiness:

The Baltimore Catechism spelled out a straightforward end for one's life:

6. Question: Why did God make you?
Answer: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.

Saint Paul's teaching in today's first reading is not unlike the Catechism's but it invites a different reflection. If the latter spells out what I should do and what I should hope for, the former reveals my place and our place in God's world. We are a holy people.

The Catechism used the singular you. It presumed that you would always find yourself in the Church; and that you would never consider, think of, dream of, or be tempted to step outside the Church.

I have learned to assume, whenever I read the New Testament, that you is in the plural form. Or, if you like, you all. In today's reading, Saint Paul speaks to "you" first century Thessalonians in the Greek port city of Thessalonica, and the Lord speaks to us today in Paul's words . I hear the Word of God as one of us. God wills our holiness for we are a holy people.

Not many people bill themselves as a holy people. Many groups adapt various nicknames, usually catchy phrases to fit on tee shirts or bumper stickers. Few would promote themselves as holy; fewer would boast of their holiness.

Saint Paul elaborates on that exhortation with his next words. We should refrain from immorality; we should never exploit or take advantage of a brother or sister, "for the Lord is an avenger in all these things;" and "...God did not call us to impurity but to holiness."

Saint Paul knew what the Catechism may have forgotten, that no one can be holy alone. We need each other. It never occurred to him otherwise. When he urged the Corinthians to excommunicate a fellow who had wedded his father's widow, he wanted to prevent the immorality from spreading throughout the whole church. We don't know that he didn't write a personal letter to the man but we know he had to act quickly to save the holiness and the reputation of the Church. He hoped the fellow might realize how repugnant his act was, and how contrary it was to our holiness. Seeing that, he might repent. In the meanwhile, his behavior could not be tolerated even if he was a respected member of the local society and church. He might have been a wealthy man in good standing with Corinthian society. Regardless of his other merits, the Church could not afford to keep him.

Many centuries later, in a galaxy far away, church authorities may be inclined to look the other way when some members of the church engage in life styles that lack our characteristic holiness. In a suburban church where residents cannot name their next door neighbors, where family ties go no further than the nuclear family, and church attendance depends upon the local university's football schedule, a tainted atmosphere of sin never condenses into a miasma of scandal. People don't know, people don't care. They attend the church for reasons of their own, they support the church that affirms their values and life style. The bigger the church the less they care what private sins others might hide.

They hear Saint Paul's you as singular, addressed to me alone. Something the Apostle never imagined.

Despite our present cultural environment, so deeply committed to segregation, social alienation, and violence, Christian Catholics have within our spiritual DNA a readiness to congregate. We flock instinctively, like sheep to a shepherd. Our Eucharist begins with a collect, as we give thanks to the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. And we cannot imagine prayer without the Blessed Sacrament, without "communion." We honor the Oneness of the Holy Trinity as we honor the Oneness of the Body of Christ. Despite everything that is broken about his earthen vessel the church, the Spirit draws us together like iron to a magnet. Reading the Word of God we know God speaks to us.

Historians tell us the Church has seen worse times. And they assure us, the world needs our holiness like never before.

To me, therefore, you shall be holy; for I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be my own.