Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 407

“Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the LORD.
“Why are you so displeased with me
that you burden me with all this people?
Was it I who conceived all this people?
Or was it I who gave them birth,
that you tell me to carry them at my bosom,
like a foster father carrying an infant,
to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?
Where can I get meat to give to all this people?
For they are crying to me,
‘Give us meat for our food.’

Moses’ complaints found an echo in the letters of Saint Paul:

·        I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. (I Corinthians 4: 14-15)

·        But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us… (I Thessalonians 2:7-8)

·        As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you should lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.  (I Thessalonians 2: 12)

We honor that “spiritual parenting” in our Catholic tradition as we call our leaders Father and Mother. But these words are not simply honorific; they recognize the intense affection that develops between the devout and their leaders.

When many Christian churches compete for members, advertising their spiritual goods with all the disingenuity of snake oil salesmen, we should be reminded of the bonds that real pastors feel for their people. Few parents would neglect their children while they pursue more children; rather, they throw themselves into the care of their children, accepting new ones only as God provides them.

Neither of our authors makes this vocation sound easy; it is fraught with anxiety:

And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant? (2 Corinthians 1:28-29)

Saint Paul, especially in this Second Letter to the Corinthians (which appears to be a confusing patchwork of several letters in no particular order) describes the anguish he feels for his people. That they are quarreling and bickering among themselves and that some of them have left the community to join an alien group of Christians tear at his heart.

That searing pain persuaded him all the more that the Church is the Body of Christ; it must be indivisible. Can the eye say to the hand, I do not need you? Can factions in the Church be so arrogant or pigheaded as to think they need not love the entire Church and every member? Or that they may judge other Christians as unworthy or unsaved?

The very thought hurts the heart of a true pastor. For that reason we struggle to listen and understand and make peace among the saints. There can be only one Christ and only one Body.