In St. Paul’s time, the Church was so new that everyone remembered how they came to the faith. That’s not a bad thing. Even today, in helping with the OCIA, I like to hear how the new converts were drawn to the Lord. But it seems that some people in Paul’s time actually boasted about who baptized them. They acted as if they were better Christians because of the person whose preaching first attracted them.

Paul, of course, would have no part in those rivalries. In fact, you can almost hear Paul laughing when he talks about people who consider Christ as just another leader of one of the factions. Christ should be the sign of unity for all Christians, not just one congregation. It may be even more difficult to seek unity today, with so many Christian churches and a modern view of diversity as somehow better than unity. While no one says they want to divide the body of Christ, I’m sure you know someone who thinks the only way to have a unified Church is for everyone to pray the same way.

Yet even Paul did not expect all believers to be clones of one another. He frequently wrote about people having many different gifts, yet all working to build up the Body of Christ. He doesn’t mean that those gifts are divisive or that the Church survives despite them. Those differences are necessary; we need all the gifts that the Spirit gives us. So, what can we do to help unify the Church?

First, do what Jesus himself did—pray for unity in the Church (John 17:20–21). Pray that you come to know what your own gifts are, have the courage to use them for the Church, and appreciate the gifts of others. Second, Paul was very aware of his own weaknesses. That’s what he is talking about in the last line of the reading. Jesus had to die before he could rise from the dead. Without the cross, we would have never heard of the Resurrection. So also, without weakness, how can we experience God’s strength? Instead of looking down on those with whom we disagree, look up to see what God may be revealing to you through that person’s differences.            -Tom Schmidt, Diocesan Publications

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Third Sunday in Ordinary Time                                                                       

TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION

The prayers surrounding baptism often speak of being “clothed in Christ,” and clothes are an important consideration. In ancient times, adults were probably baptized without any clothes at all, and old texts survive asking people to leave fancy garb and jewelry behind as they enter the font. Baptism was typically in a private place, the community waited elsewhere, and the casting off of clothing was hardly a public moment, nor was it embarrassing in ancient cultures where privacy was largely unknown.

Nonetheless, what was left behind on one side of the font was replaced on the other as a white robe was wrapped around the newly baptized. It was a robe of honor, a dazzling sign of a new beginning for a society that valued clothing as a sign of personal identity. For the newly baptized, a whole week in white garments was the rule, through the second Sunday of Easter, called “Sunday in Albis,” because of all the folks wearing their baptismal robes.                                         -Rev. James Field, Diocesan Publications

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SAINT ANGELA MERICI (c. 1474-1540) – January 27

Born in Northern Italy, orphaned in childhood, Angela Merici faced a society in which education was largely the privilege of wealthy young men and based primarily in monastic schools. This reality shaped Angela’s insightful conviction that society’s disorder was caused by disorder in the home, and a lack of model Christian mothers the result of neglecting the education of young women. Transform the Christian family by placing an educated wife and mother at its heart, Angela believed, and the whole world would be renewed in Christ! So, she gathered a small group of unmarried women, many of them Franciscan Tertiaries (lay affiliates) like herself, and set out to educate poor girls, free of charge, in their homes. She and her band of teachers called themselves “companions,” pioneering a new form of non-cloistered religious life for women, bearing witness to evangelical simplicity in the midst of the world, not as a formal “order” but as the “Company (compagnia) of Saint Ursula.” Known today as the Ursulines, Angela Merici’s spiritual daughters continue serving the Church and society in a rich diversity of ministries.         -Peter Scagnelli, Diocesan Publications