“Pick My Burden
Up”—With Joy
Twenty-Ninth Week of Year II Wednesday October 19, 2016
The Responsorial Psalm promises us: “You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation” (Isaiah 12: 2-6).
In
Ephesians 3: 2-12 Paul identifies
his mission as “the mystery of Christ:”
unknown in former generations to anyone born of
woman, but now revealed by the Spirit to the holy apostles and prophets.
It is no less than this, that in Christ the
Gentiles are now co-heirs, co-members
of the same body, and co- sharers
[Pauline words] in the promise in Christ
Jesus through the gospel.
Paul
knows this mystery is more than the inclusion of the Gentiles in the People of
God. He sees it as the breaking-down of all barriers that divide human beings
into separate camps: “There is no longer Jew or Greek…slave or free, … male and
female; for all of you are one in Christ
Jesus. “1 It is the same “plan for the fullness of time” that
Paul keeps proclaiming: to “bring
everything in the heavens and on earth together under Christ as head.”2
He exulted in it: “You will draw water
joyfully from the springs of salvation.”
Paul
is overwhelmed by the greatness of his mission:
To me, the least of all believers, was given the
grace to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to make
everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created
all things.
He
saw this both as his glory and as a serious obligation: “for an obligation is
laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!"3
This
same obligation — and glorious privilege — is ours also. We were all chosen,
committed and consecrated, just as truly as Paul was, to be “prophets, priests and stewards of
the kingship of Christ.” Paul’s mission is our mission, because Christ’s
mission is our mission. We have “become Christ” through Baptism. The way we fulfill the mission is unique to
each one of us, because it depends on our unique gifts, talents and situation
in life. But only the how is
different; there is no question about what
we have to do.
Or
when. In Luke 12: 39-48 Jesus teaches that we have to be intent on his
business all the time. “Who is that faithful, farsighted steward whom the
master will set over his servants…?” It is the one whom “the master finds alert
when he comes.”
Jesus
“comes” to us through inspirations, insights, enlightenment and encouragement.
Through feelings of “consolation” and “desolation” he guides us down the furrow
he wants us to plow. Fidelity calls for constant discernment, attentive to his
voice.
1Galatians 3:28.
2Ephesians 1:10; see yesterday (alternate
translation) and last Saturday.
31Corinthians 9:1.
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