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Letters Twenty-Seventh
Sunday in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
October 4, 2002Last Sunday’s reading was from the first exhortatory section of Philippians. This Sunday’s is from the second, a few chapters later. Most of the time there is only one well-defined section of pastoral instruction in a Pauline letter. Consequently, some scholars think that these two separate sets of moral directions may originally have come from two different letters which were later brought together by an editor into what we now know as Philippians. The immediate context of this Sunday’s reading as it now stands is Paul’s attempt to overcome some interpersonal tensions that existed between two members of the community, Euodia and Syntyche. He expands his suggestions beyond the concerns of these two people to a more general reflection, offering all his readers a formula for godliness and peace in their lives.
The reading consists of two paragraphs. In the first, Paul tells his readers what they have to do if they want the "peace of God" to flourish in their hearts and minds and offer them its protection. They have to ask God for whatever they need, but their requests should be directed to God in a context of thanksgiving for what they already have received and with a sense of trust, without panic or worry.
The second paragraph is about peace, also. If you want the God of peace to be in you, he tells them, you have to think and behave in a certain way. Your thinking should be focused on those virtues that make for healthy relationships between people, virtues like truth and fairness and single mindedness and kindness and thoughtfulness. Look out for the positive and virtuous aspects of the people around you rather than for what you can criticize.
As regards behavior, Paul tells them to keep doing what he had taught them to do and to keep imitating what they had seen him doing. (In 3.17 Paul had already told the Philippians to be imitators of him. He offers the same direction to the Corinthians [I Cor. 11.1] and recalls with satisfaction how the Thessalonians had become his imitators [I Thess. 1.6]. What we have here is not a runaway ego but an awareness that authentic Christian life consists in what Paul had dedicated himself to: the ongoing expression of the life of Christ. Paul doesn’t want his followers to imitate Paul. He wants them to imitate the Christ that lives in and through Paul.)
The peace that Paul promises to the Philippians in these paragraphs is not just the absence of conflict or interpersonal tension. It is a state of deep interior harmoniousness, an imperturbable condition in which every element of our existence works productively together, in which everything in us is and performs in accord with the highest goals that God has for us. Sometimes (e.g., Eph. 2.14-17 and Rom. 5.1) the Pauline tradition speaks of Christ as peace and as the instrument of God’s gift of peace to us. One wonders if that’s what Paul had in mind here when he speaks of "the peace of God that surpasses all understanding" protecting us "in Christ Jesus." In any case, it’s easy to see how the virtues that Paul mentions will contribute to peace. They are all concerned in one way or another with working together, with promoting what is good rather than just resisting what is bad. They each have something to offer to the quiet and positive dynamic of peace. They are aspects of the Christian mind set that none of us can afford to neglect. Ongoing negativity is hard to reconcile with peace.
Then there is the role of prayer in the pursuit of peace. Paul tells us that we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for whatever we need. God doesn’t mind hearing from us, even when what we ask for is not what He would most willingly give us. But our asking should not be a tactic of desperation: "When all else fails, pray!" Anxiety has an undercurrent of mistrust in it. We feel we have to worry a lot because God might not take care of us. One of my wise relatives used to say that worry is an insult to God. She was right. We are supposed to pray intensely and regularly not in order to keep God informed about our needs or in order to persuade God to keep looking after us. Intense and regular prayer is intended to keep us aware of the extent to which we are dependent on God. God will do all the worrying that is necessary.
Thanksgiving has to be part of the fabric of our prayer, too. If we need to keep asking God for things because we need to be kept aware of how deeply we need Him, we have to thank God constantly to remind ourselves of how much we have already received. Ongoing gratitude is not a condition for further attention from God, but a sort of accompaniment to our prayer to keep it pleasing to God’s ears. Gratitude is one of those essential components of Christian life that is always required and always appropriate.
No anxiety, pervasive gratitude, confidence in God’s care, harmony within and without, exemplifying in ourselves the life of the risen Christ: all that is part of the peace God means us to enjoy even now. Not bad!
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Conversation Questions.
How is God’s peace manifested in my life?
To what extent is gratitude part of my prayer of petition?
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