Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Meditation: Ephesians 6:1-3 Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only right. “Honor your father and mother” is the first commandment that has a promise attached to it, namely, “so you will live well and have a long life.”
4 Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.
5-8 Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God. Good work will get you good pay from the Master, regardless of whether you are slave or free.
9 Masters, it’s the same with you. No abuse, please, and no threats. You and your servants are both under the same Master in heaven. He makes no distinction between you and them.
30th Week in Ordinary Time
Slaves, be obedient to your human masters. (Ephesians 6:5)
That’s an uncomfortable thought! Is Paul really accepting the status quo of institutionalized slavery? That’s certainly how it looks, and it’s possible that he didn’t see slavery as a burning social issue of his day. It was so common that he may not have given it much thought. But whether he knew it or not, Paul’s teaching laid the groundwork for a worldwide abolitionist movement.
You can see this new teaching later in today’s reading, where Paul tells slave owners, “Stop bullying, knowing that … you have a Master in heaven and that with him there is no partiality” (Ephesians 6:9).
Now that is revolutionary! Where most people in Paul’s time considered their slaves as nothing more than property, Paul is saying that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and justice. Just as a slave should show respect for his or her master, so too should the master treat his or her slaves as fellow human beings, not as commodities.
Paul develops this point further in his Letter to Philemon. Onesimus, one of Philemon’s slaves, ran away and arrived at Paul’s doorstep looking for help. While Paul did send Onesimus back to Philemon, he also pleaded that Philemon treat Onesimus as a “brother” and as “beloved” (Philemon 16).
So while Paul didn’t try to overturn the institution of slavery, he did undermine one of its central principles.
It is a tragic fact that slavery, or human trafficking, still exists today. Every year, nearly 800,000 men, women, and children throughout the world are bought and sold into forced labor. From migrant farm workers in North America to sex workers in Africa, from “domestic help” in Europe to involuntary organ donors in Asia, people are being traded like common goods, stripped of all rights and dignity.
It’s true that few of us face this horrible situation directly. But we can still make a difference. We can pray for an end to human trafficking. We can donate to organizations that support victims of slavery. And perhaps most important, we can dedicate ourselves to treating everyone we meet with respect, honor, and dignity.
“Lord, free all those held in slavery. Help me to see ways I can build a culture of love and respect.” Amen!

Psalm 145:10-11 Creation and creatures applaud you, God;
    your holy people bless you.
They talk about the glories of your rule,
    they exclaim over your splendor,
12 Letting the world know of your power for good,
    the lavish splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is a kingdom eternal;
    you never get voted out of office.
God always does what he says,
    and is gracious in everything he does.
14 God gives a hand to those down on their luck,
    gives a fresh start to those ready to quit.
Luke 13:22 He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem.
23-25 A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?”
He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’
26-27 “You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’
28-30 “That’s when you’ll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You’ll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God’s kingdom. You’ll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God’s kingdom. And all the time you’ll be outside looking in—and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.”
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