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Letters Twenty-Fifth
Sunday in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
September 21, 2001There are two main subjects in First Timothy. One is to warn the addressee about the dangers of false teaching. The Sunday Lectionary does not include any readings from this letter on that subject. The other principal subject is the ordering of public worship, how the liturgical life of the community is to be structured. This Sunday’s reading is the beginning of the section of the letter that deals with that.
The author starts off by saying that prayers for public officials are a matter of prime importance for the Christian community. The text offers four different terms for prayer, but they probably all mean more or less the same thing. The reason why prayer for public officials is important is so that "we may lead a quiet and tranquil life," that is, so that the prayers of the Christian community might bring God’s blessing of peace on the civic community, but also so that tensions between Church and state could be avoided.
The author gives three fundamental reasons for his insistence on community prayer for civic authorities. First of all, because the one God wants everybody to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God’s benevolence embraces even pagan agents of government. Secondly because the redemptive work of the one and only mediator between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, is also directed toward rulers of peoples. He offered Himself for everybody, as He Himself proclaimed during His earthly life. Finally, the whole ministry of Paul was dedicated to bringing God’s gifts to the Gentiles. Because they were the objects of His work, they are worthy of Christians’ prayers. (Many scholars believe that, in verses five and six, the author is quoting an early Christian creed.)
The final verse of our reading is really a link to the next section of the letter in which the author is going to talk about appropriate roles for men and for women in the community’s liturgy. As it is presented here to us, however, the verse seems to suggest that concord and tranquility in the Church community are a necessary component for prayer to be made appropriately.
This is a passage about the oneness of God’s saving will and of the redeeming action of Christ, both of which were fundamental to the ministry of Paul. Notice how often we hear the words everyone and all. "Pray for everybody in authority because God’s love is directed to all of them."
One might also find in this reading another practical application of Paul’s conviction that, in the context of Christ’s mission, there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave of free (cf. Col. 3.11; I Cor. 12.13; Gal. 3.27 f.). Two weeks ago we saw how this teaching applied to the situation of Onesimus and Philemon. Here we see how it affects the Church’s prayer life and its relationship to the wider world.
We owe concern to everybody because God is concerned about everybody. It’s no longer just Jewish people who are important to God, but everyone. All human beings are precious to God because all have been redeemed by the one Christ, and so all human beings must be precious to us. We can exercise this concern we owe to others in many ways. One of the primary ways is public prayer. When we pray for people, even people with whom we do not enjoy close human relationships, we are not persuading God to be good to them. We are rather opening ourselves up to be agents of God’s care for them. Inclusiveness in prayer helps those who pray to reflect more clearly the inclusiveness of God. It keeps them conscious of how wide their horizons need to be.
In addition to the concern that Christian believers owe to all other men and women, there is also the fact that by praying for "outsiders" we are enriching the context for the preaching of the gospel. Christians are more likely to reach out to others if they are regularly reminded in their prayer life that those others are beloved by God just as we are.
There is another facet of this Sunday’s reading that calls for a word of comment. This reading from God’s word makes it clear that it is not God’s will that His Church withdraw from contact with the world around it. True, there is a demonic dimension to some aspects of the world. True, a time would come when the agents of government, those for whom First Timothy calls us to pray, would inflict heavy sufferings on the Church community. But, by and large, the Church is intended to be part of what is going on in the world. The people who rule us in civil government are our brothers and sisters in the Lord. As believers we have contributions to make to the well-being of our world, contributions that go beyond the prayer that this Sunday’s reading calls for. Jesus did not come to save the world by taking His followers out of that world, but by encouraging them to take part in that world’s life as His representatives. Christian believers need to be involved with the world because Jesus was - and is.
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Conversation Questions
Do I pray for persons in authority?
How do I see myself as united with all of humankind?
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