Sept.13 Lectionary 444

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Scripture: Lectionary 444: I Timothy 3:1-13. Psalm 101:1-2.2-3.5.6. Luke 7:11-17

“Walk in the way of integrity in my service.” This is a call to leadership and to the helping professions. The paraphrase comes from one of the verses in our Psalm and its Response. This Psalm helps us to pray while understanding what I Timothy says about leadership in the churches that Paul and Timothy and Silvanus have ministered to as faithful servants. There are some “virtues”, habits, and mind-sets or disposition that are required of leaders within the church; all of us participate in some way as leaders within our parishes or communities so we are helped by what we learn from the Scriptures on this necessary role and service in the church. All who are baptized are called to some leadership within the Body of Christ.

I Timothy is a later writing in the Church at a time when appointed leaders were necessary because of the greater number of people entering the Church through their belief in what the apostles and Paul and his companions have preached and taught. We hear of “overseers”, “deacons”, and presbyters (elders, priests) within the structures that are now being brought into existence within the Christian communities. Some of the virtues and requirements are helpful for our own understanding of how we too are leaders within the Church and the communities of faith to which we belong.

We have a list of God’s household virtues required and some of them belong in the churches today others are more for the time of the early centuries of the church. We are summoned to practice the virtues which are appropriate for us and to realize that they are considered required for those who assume leadership in faith communities: self-control, humility or simplicity, truthfulness, peacefulness, and hospitality. To practice these virtues is a challenge we face each day; this practice of integrity will continue throughout our lives as servants of the Lord and servants of the servants of God.

Our belief in the word of God and our doing what that word requires is part of our role as leaders. All is done within the context of the mysteries of our faith and our constant effort to grow within that virtue together with hope and love. The Benedictine exegete, Henry Wansbrough, O.S.B.gives us a good explanation of the Mysteries of the Faith: “The expression “mystery” is used by Paul to denote God’s plan of salvation for all men in Christ, hidden from all ages and revealed now in these last times( I Cor.2:7; Rm 16:25-26; Eph 3: 3-9); this use has its roots in the Old Testament, especially Dn 2, but may have been used Paul particularly because of the popularity of that time of various mystery cults.” (A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, page 1213).

We see the need for leaders today in our Church even though the task is difficult and demanding. It often is unrewarding but those who have the call are challenged to respond to it with the same spirit and the same virtues that are being described in this Pastoral Epistle. Amen.