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.
If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. (Phil 2:1-4)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/103122.cfm
Being of one heart and one mind has never been easy for the church. Today is a particulary vicious time in ecclesiastical and political life. With so many bishops and priests and people in open disagreement with Pope Francis, the church seems to be on the verge of schism. The early church wasn’t much better, which is why we have so many pleas from Saint Paul calling believers to be united in heart and mind. Even the Lord prayed for us that we may all be one . . . so that the world might believe in the One whom God has sent. We still haven’t heeded the message.
So Zacchaeus ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house." And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they all saw this, they began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner." (Lk 19:1-10)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/103022.cfm
The story of Zacchaeus is one of my favorites. I learned to sing the story of “Zacchaeus, the Wee Little Man” in the Children’s Choir. The first reading today has an interesting phrase about God, the “lover of souls,” which is echoed in the Eastern liturgies of the church “Lover of humanity” and in the Eucharistic prayer for Various Needs and Occasions: “You are indeed Holy and to be glorified, O God, who love the human race and who always walk with us on the journey of life.”
For to me life is Christ, and death is gain. (Phil 1:18b-26)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102922.cfm
Saint Paul’s ministry in Philippi results in this joyful Letter to the Philippians. Although the apostle is imprisoned for preaching the gospel, yet the letter is filled with Christian hope and encouragement. The Magnificat of the Virgin Mary also expresses hope in the God who casts down the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly.
You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Eph 2:19-22)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102822.cfm
The foundation of the apostles and prophets is a reference not to the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, but rather Christian apostles and prophets. We talk a lot about the foundation of the apostles, but very little about the foundation of the prophets.
Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph 6:10-20)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102722.cfm
As my homiletics professor, David Buttrick, was always eager to point out, the only offensive weapon we have in our arsenal is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Unfortunately, too many use the word of God as a weapon to beat down, divide and destroy, not exactly what our professor had in mind.
