Partnership for the Gospel

October 31: Friday of Week 30 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Philippians 1:1-11; Psalm 111:1-2, 3-4, 5-6; Luke 14:1-6

Click here for the complete text of today’s readings. 

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship?

(To support  Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life ... Step Five )

Partnership for the Gospel

“Partners with me in grace” (Philippians 1:7).

Paul has a novel way of looking at religion. For him, being Christian is a “partnership (koinonia) for the Gospel,” being “co-partners (syn-koinonous) in grace.” Do we think of it this way?

People form partnerships to work together. With shared responsibility and shared authority. The key word is “work.”

Paul calls us “co-partners in grace” to specify that the key to our shared work is our shared life. By “grace” we share in the divine life of Christ together in order to do the divine work of Christ together. If we think of them both together, we will “give thanks to the Lord with all our heart” (Responsorial).  “How great are the [divine-human] works of the Lord!”

In the Gospel, Jesus says our responsibility for others takes precedence over the most  sacred symbol of Jewish belonging, the Sabbath observance: “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” Wouldn’t it be a “sin” not to?

This teaches us that our worst sins may be our failures to take responsibility. If Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life,” and Christian life is a “partnership in grace” to “live and give” the Good News, then our Sabbath observance should renew our commitment to exercise responsibility for everything, everywhere.

  

PRACTICE & PRAY ALL DAY:

“Lord, work with me, work in me, work through me.”