Saturday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091711.cfm

Cake booth winners

I charge you before God, who gives life to all things,
and before Christ Jesus,
who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate
for the noble confession,
to keep the commandment without stain or reproach
until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ....


Saint Paul uses strong language as he speaks to his protegee and friend Timothy: I charge you before God!" It's a language of command we expect to hear only in the military, and most of the Veterans I meet are content to leave it there, though some of them quail before a former basic training sergeant if they happen to run into him twenty years later. 
Despite the expectations of many, we don't hear that kind of language in religious life very often either. Rarely does a provincial command a brother, friar or sister to undertake a certain task. He or she more often asks and suggests and perhaps urges. Only in desperate cases will the superior "charge you before God." 
But Saint Paul's demand on Saint Timothy does remind us of the rightful authority of the Church in some matters. 
Sometimes divorced people who want to remarry in the Church are stunned at the priest's refusal to conduct the wedding. They think religion is strictly "spiritual" and has no authority in the "real" world of marriage. They are more surprised to hear he lacks the authority to conduct such a wedding. 
Sometimes people are astonished to feel our disapproval of adultery, abortion, drug abuse and suicide. Who are we to have opinions in "private" matters? They say the Church should "stay out of the bedroom!" 
Saint Paul, living in the first century of the Common Era, knew nothing of "spirituality" or "privacy." These words evolved recently and their meanings are in constant flux. But he did know the authority of the Holy Spirit in his own life, and the authority of the Body of Christ which extended from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond. He instinctively knew he could not preach the Gospel without the approval of Cephas (Saint Peter) and the other apostles. When a controversy arose he traveled to Jerusalem to settle the matter within the community; he would not strike out on his own. Such a divisive move would have been unthinkable to him. 
To this day the Catholic Church struggles to maintain our unity. We urge every Catholic from pope to priest to those in the pews to ask God for the Spirit of Obedience. Every person must be ready to surrender his own opinion in favor of our common unity. In its time his or her opinion may prevail but that time might not arrive for many years hence. In the meanwhile we must remain within the Body of Christ. Our humble obedience more closely resembles the Crucified than anything else we do in life, and is far more effective. "Blind faith" which operates in darkness sees more clearly the brilliant light of God.