ALL ARE CHOSEN: THE BAPTISMAL PRIESTHOOD.
May 10 2020: Fifth Sunday of Easter - A
A Nigerian proverb says, “A single man cannot build a
house.” And a Bambara proverb adds, “One beam, no matter how big, cannot
support an entire house on its own.”
From our Baptism, we all are chosen, appointed, and sent for
a mission, that is, make actual the kingdom of God here on earth. All
Christians, share in a common priesthood, our Baptismal Priesthood which makes
our inner identity. The day of our Baptism, the Priest or the Deacon who
Baptized us, while marking our front head with the holy chrism said, “As Christ
was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of
his body, sharing everlasting life…” These words, more than simple words, carry
with them a mission and an obligation to live our Baptism as chosen people.
For, we are born again to become priests, prophets, and kings, instruments of
God’s love and his representatives amid our brothers and sisters. Easter time
reminds us rightly the common identity we share with Christ.
Today’s liturgy, fifth Sunday of Easter, emphasizes our
Baptismal Priesthood. We are told that there are many ways to serve, many ways
to give up one’s life just as there are many rooms in the house of our Heavenly
Father.
In the first reading, we meditate on the election of the
seven deacons and their mission in the first Christian community. With the
growing number of faithful, many problems have arisen, among which the service
to the needy, the “daily distribution”. The group of Apostles was overburdened
by the preaching and teaching that they began to lose control of certain
details in the daily life of the community. As a result, there was a need to
involve others in helping with daily distributions and service to the poor.
The appointment of the seven deacons comes as a great
lesson, even to our Christian communities today, and mostly, to us, leaders
invested with the ministerial priesthood. We are taught that we cannot do
everything on our own. Just because we are priests does not mean that we could
be experts in everything. The wisdom would be to bring together resource people
who could help in some aspects of community management and pastoral care.
I always laugh at some realities in some communities and
parishes where the leaders, the pastors or the parish priests seem to be the
“Hommes à tout faire” as we say in French, a ‘mister touch all thing’,
superman. The same guy is a financial administrator, in charge of construction,
human resources, auditor, etc. At the end, even the most important, his first
task, that is the “Cura anima” passes to be secondary. Poor man, he is so busy
with material things that he no longer has time for the spiritual need of his
flock. The reaction of the Twelves in our extract of the Acts must help us in
our discernment: “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at
table.” As priests, our priority is the service of teaching. Therefore, it
sounds wise to entrust the mission to other people for the material things,
still, under our guidance and supervision. Well enough, many dioceses today
speak of commissions where skilled and resources lay people are entrusted with
responsibilities in different aspects of the life of the community. It will
good to implement that policy.
In the second reading, St. Peter reminds us that, as
Christians, we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people”
chosen by God as his own. He has called us from darkness to light. Therefore,
our lives should manifest that light. We should follow the way drawn for us by
Christ Jesus.
The Gospel comes as a beautiful set of exhortations. We feel
through it the final addresses of Jesus to his disciples before his passion,
before departing from those he has chosen to be with him. It is a message
filled with hope and comfort. The Lord starts telling his disciples, and that
applies also to us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God;
have faith also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places.”
Besides the elements of comfort, the expression, “many
dwelling places” is very evocative. God’s kingdom is made of diversities and
multiplicities. It is a kingdom where each one of us has his place, a mission,
a role to play. Nevertheless, for us to reach that kingdom where a place will
be prepared by the Lord for us, we need a direction. So, Jesus adds, answering
to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” In the Lord, we are given
to know how we could reach God’s kingdom. Telling us that he is the way, he
somehow shows us that to reach the Father’s house, we will have to imitate his
way, his example, that is to put ourselves at the service of our needy brothers
and sisters. He even showed the example by serving his disciples and
humiliating himself to wash their feet. Christian life reaches its truthfulness
when leaders become servants. We are servant leaders and not leaders to be
served. That is the way of Jesus.
As religious leaders, but also as Christians that you are,
we should make of today’s exhortations our own, know that we are all chosen,
each one with a specific mission, a role to play in the edification of the
community, as first taste of the kingdom of God. The Church and our Christian
communities are like houses under construction. It is by assembling the
different stones that it becomes a house. A single stone does not make a
building. The priest alone does not make the Church or the parish. Play your
part. This sad happening of the COVID-19 has taught us that we need each other
to be a community. Let us therefore be that community, unity in the diversity,
a place where each one is needed and important.
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