Today is the twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
In today’s second reading we hear a selection from Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Timothy was a co-worker of Paul’s on temporary assignment in Ephesus attempting to undo some damage there caused by bad teaching. Paul is instructing Timothy on some things, including prayer.
The selection starts by asking Timothy to pray for those in power, kings and leaders, so that the community might live a “quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity“. This feels very timely for us as well. Given the division that exists in our world and in our country praying for those in authority is laudable.
I noted the word “dignity” in that line I referenced from the reading. Who has dignity and where does it come from? Being made in the image and likeness of God gives us, all of us, an innate dignity. That has to be the starting point toward any sort of unity. While we can disagree on prudential matters about how to move our country and our world in temporal things there should be no disagreement on that innate dignity all people possess. Whether republican or democrat, conservative or liberal, Cub or Cardinal, we all have that dignity. That doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, of course we won’t. It just means what we believe matters in terms of how we treat others. Fr. Mike Schmitz had an excellent short video about this recently. If you haven’t seen it here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiavf_t94iQ
Paul’s direction to Timothy is also applicable to us. Pray for our leaders and for all of us to recognize the dignity of all. I would add for us to rededicate ourselves to remembering where that dignity comes from and to act accordingly.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great week.
Peace, Bob
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