Being faithful in all we do

A Reflection for Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Find today’s readings here.

While in graduate school for my Master of Divinity degree, I had multiple opportunities to witness some of my classmates that were seminarians for the Congregation of Holy Cross be ordained to the priesthood. During the ordination liturgy, representatives from the ordinand’s pastoral placement for the year would come up to the altar and declare to the bishop the growth they saw in the ordinand during his time with their parish, residential hall or campus ministry program. Once these testimonials concluded, the bishop would declare that he is fit for ordination to the priesthood, and the liturgy would continue. 

I was always struck by these powerful testimonials, specifically by the fact that only nine months prior, the ordinand and that particular community were meeting for the first time.

During one ordination, I remember assisting in the sacristy when one of the newly ordained remarked on this exact moment, saying how it was then that he realized that this is one of the few liturgies where he had to do absolutely nothing but receive what was being testified of and given to him. It was the church that brought him forward, confirmed God’s movement in his life and ministry and thus ordained him. Very little in that liturgy was of his own doing.  

This was the first thing that came to my mind as I read this passage from the third letter of St. John. In a real way, the life and work that we do as Christians, both in the church and outside of it, is truly confirmed by the testimony of others. Our life as “little Christs” is not confirmed in accolades, various titles or even degrees (like a Master of Divinity!). Instead, it’s from those siblings in Christ, to whom we have been faithful, who “have testified to your love before the Church” (3 Jn 1:5). 

Especially as the weather turns colder across the country and the holiday season approaches, this call to be faithful to our siblings out of love for them intensifies. It’s worth discerning how our gifts and talents might be called to serve the poor and least around us. Maybe this means serving at a local food pantry or soup kitchen around Thanksgiving. Maybe it means bringing Holy Communion to those of your parish family who are hospitalized or home-bound and can’t make it to church on a special feast day. Or maybe it means giving a call to that friend you know who is going through a really hard time with grief or loss this holiday season.  

No matter how we discern a call to continue giving of our time and talents, our Scriptures today remind us that the journey of faith and salvation is not done alone and definitely not done on our own merits. Instead, it is testified and affirmed in a loving community, as we strive together to model the humble and selfless love shown to us in Christ Jesus.

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