Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart. Oh my, he’s going to talk about that? When modern day people hear these words they almost immediately blanch, i.e., go pale and say, Oh nooooo! There is a reason for that, and we see it daily in the places we go.
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart.
Oh my, he’s going to talk about that?
When modern day people hear these words they almost immediately blanch, i.e., go pale and say, Oh nooooo!
There is a reason for that, and we see it daily in the places we go. We observe people cutting us off in lines and on the road. We observe people who feel they have the right to do as they please without regard to anyone else. I am sure you could come up with dozens of examples of lives completely self-centered. Even among church people we observe attitudes focused on what the church can do for me, and if it doesn’t serve me, I no longer value it.
Christ and His Church see things quite differently. We see life in relational terms. Thus, we pause Ordinary Time every second Sunday of October to focus on the Christian Family.
The passage taken from Paul's letter to the Church at Colossae speaks in terms of obligations and attitudes. Relationships are the core of our faith, how we hold our relationship to God through witness, evangelism, charity, and worship and how we live together as family.
Paul tells us that we are one body and as that family we are to clothe [ourselves] with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. We are to forgive when there is offense. The option is not to do the opposite of those things.
A restatement of the passage from Colossian reflects how many unfortunate people live today – and goes to the sickness of the worldly:
Wives, disrespect your husbands. Husbands, despise and mistreat your wives. Children, ignore and disrespect your parents in everything. Fathers, disappear from the lives of your children.
Pretty awful, right?
The Church harshly judges those who refuse to live relationally. We heard that in today’s Introit from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy: Whoever does not provide for relatives and especially family members has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Throughout Paul’s letters we hear references to us as a body, as family, and a network of relationships. That is what Christ and His Church call us to because that is how Jesus lives.
Jesus’ eternal life and human life remain centered on family and relationship. That very life lives here in our parish, and it is why I love every one of you – because you live the Christian Family life.
