Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ, not only when being watched, as currying favor, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, willingly serving the Lord and not men, knowing that each will be requited from the Lord for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. Masters, act in the same way towards them, and stop bullying, knowing that both they and you have a Master in heaven and that with him there is no partiality. (Eph 6:1-9)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102622.cfm
Is slavery (human trafficking) condoned by the Bible? Of course not! But this passage has certainly been used that way in the past. The question about all these “troubling” passages is how to interpret them today, two thousand years later. As Catholics, we are grateful to have the Church to help us understand how the true message of the Scriptures is to be heard despite all the changeable cultural accumulations.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Wednesday, Week XXX, Ordinary Time
