Being Subject to One Another

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Tuesday, 30th Week in Ordinary Time Year II, October 27th, 2020

Texts: Eph. 5:21-33; Ps. 128:1-5; Luke 13:18-21

The common experience is a situation whereby one is the subject and the other dominates, but today St. Paul asks for a situation whereby all are subjects, no one dominates. He says,  "be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ." This calls for a situation where there is no inferior or superior; I have the responsibility to submit to the others as much as the others too have the responsibility to submit to me. This brings to mind the mount Zion described in the letter to the Hebrews. It reads: "What you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a 'first-born son' and a citizen of heaven." In the  city of the living God everyone is a first-born son, no one is superior or inferior to the other whether in dignity or status; we are all in position of first-born. We are to be subject to one another; we are to respect one another; we are to obey one another. 

The call, here, is to be humble. We can be subject to one another when we are all humble. Invariably St. Paul is calling us to humility.

St. Paul asks us to be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ. This means we should serve and honour Christ in our neighbours. We should look at our neighbours and see Christ in them. If we can see Christ in one another, it will not be difficult for us to be subject to one another. King David is a good example, here, he did not kill Saul because Saul was God's anointed, even when he was after his life (1Sam. 24:7). The feeling of superiority among Christian is as result of loss of the vision of Christ in our neighbours. This could quickly and easily affect us in authority, forgetting that we are first-born sons with those we serve in the household of God. It becomes clearer why Jesus asks us to see ourselves as servants. This will be possible if we serve Christ in them as they serve Christ in us.

The nucleus of the city of the living God is the family. The family is the domestic Church.  St. Paul calls every member of family to be subject to one another. The wife is to submit to her husband as Church submits to Christ. The husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the Church. As Christ shows his love by giving up himself for the Church so as to make her holy, so also the husband is to give himself up for her wife so as to earn her honour. Peace reigns in family when we are subject to one another, when everyone fulfils his duty; when we are responsible for one another. St. Paul proposes the relationship between the Church and Christ as a model for family relationship. As Jesus loves the Church, his body, so also the husband is to love his wife as he loves his body.   St. Paul puts it thus: "This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." It is also worth saying that the relationship between the Church and Christ is a model for all peaceful and successful relationships. In any relationship that one is subject and the other dominates is not a good relationship.

Jesus, in the gospel reading, tells us that the kingdom of God grows and develops. The kingdom of God grows and develops both in quality and in quantity. The growth in quality manifests in holiness, virtues, grace and good works. The growth in quantity manifests in its spread all over the world; it grows in space and time.

Family as the nucleus of the kingdom of God must also grow in quality and in quantity. As family fulfils the mandate to procreate so also it must fulfill the call to holiness; the members must grow in holiness, virtues, good works, and grace.

Lord our God, we commit into your hands our families, grant that we may grow both in quantity and quality, that we may be holy, filled with virtues, good works, grace and fruits of the womb. Amen.

Rev. Fr. Andrew Olowomuke