Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time 

The Responsorial Psalm calls us to communal celebration: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good” (Psalm 106).  

In Genesis 23:1 to 24:67, Abraham tells his servant not to let his son Isaac marry a Canaanite woman from the new land in which he was settled, but to go back to his country and find a wife for Isaac from his own tribe. This was to “avoid contact with the religiously depraved inhabitants of Canaan” (Jerome Biblical Commentary, 1968; cf. Exodus 34:16). Abraham knew how family members influence each other. He did not want his descendants to be unable to share what was deepest in their lives: their relationship with God, the stories of Yahweh’s interaction with them, their faith, their commitment to the Covenant. 

What this story teaches us is the importance and value of community. 

A community is a “common unity” established and maintained by mutual expression. Whatever unites us — a common experience, commitment, faith — we are not aware that we share it until we express it. And when we keep expressing it in a “language” (words, symbols, actions) that we all understand, our sense of “common unity” continues and grows. But the expression has to be credible: it must help us believe we all really do care about the experience, share the faith, are sincere in our commitment. Community depends on credible communal expression. To give, participate in, and foster this expression is ministry. As priests by Baptism, we are consecrated to this. 

In Matthew 9: 9-13 Jesus establishes it as a fundamental principle that the Christian community is not built on “righteousness.” On a commitment to righteousness, yes, but not on success in achieving it. Christian community depends on common faith in God’s word, hope in his promises, and love as St. Teresa defines it: a firm “determination to try to please God in everything” (Interior Castle, “Dwelling 4,” ch. 1). This leaves room for sinners. In fact, on this earth, there is no “communion of saints” except in a community of sinners.  

When Jesus called Levi to be a disciple and sat down to eat with him, the Pharisees were incensed. For them, the “common unity” of Israel depended on external observance of the law, and Levi was in flagrant violation. But by quoting God’s heart — “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” — Jesus rooted our common unity in desire for what God desires as revealed in the words and actions of God’s self-revelation. We seek our common unity on the level of our hearts, which may — or, as in Levi’s case, may not — be revealed in our behavior. We build community on our desire to be one with God. 

Initiative: Be a priest. Express your heart. Bond with the invisible in others. 

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings, Lectionary #XXX, on the USCCB website here

Fr. David M. Knight (1931-2021) was a priest of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, a prolific writer, and a highly sought after confessor, spiritual director, and retreat master. He authored more than 40 books and hundreds of articles that focus primarily on lay spirituality and life-long spiritual growth.