Readings (Year A):
Ezekiel 33:7–9
Psalm 95:1–2, 6–7, 8–9
Romans 13:8–10
Matthew 18:15–20
Reflection: St. Phoebe the deacon, pray for us
She loves me. She loves me not. The church is a fickle partner.
To the newly baptized little girl: “Welcome to our parish family and Catholic community! You are a beloved child made in the image of God.” The experience of that same child at age 10: Girl altar server? Not wanted.
To a devout mother: “Thank you for praying for vocations and be sure to encourage your sons to be priests.”
The experience of a beloved professional lay ecclesial minister dedicated to her parish community: Pastor change and her fifteen years of ministry at the parish are over, overnight.
Sometimes members of the church are downright cruel. “Love your neighbor as yourself” was proclaimed by Jesus, then Paul, and any Catholic Christian since who has learned the golden rule. As a church, we’re still working on it.
According to paragraph 60 of our new magisterial teaching that is articulated in the final document of the global synod states: “By virtue of Baptism, women and men have equal dignity as members of the People of God. However, women continue to encounter obstacles in obtaining a fuller recognition of their charisms, vocation, and place in all the various areas of the Church’s life. This is to the detriment of serving the Church’s shared mission.”
Returning to Paul’s letter to the Romans, it is in the final chapter we learn who delivers the letter to the community. She is Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae (Sen-cree-ae), a town outside of Corinth in ancient Greece.
She is the servant who says “yes” to Paul’s ask and travels over 700 miles by land and sea to bring his greeting and message to the Christians in Rome. This is not an after-work errand, or a jaunt to the corner church! She was a woman moved by the Spirit to aid Paul as a benefactor and as a servant-leader in her Grecian community. She gave it all: time, treasure, and talent.
As was common among male and female deacons of the early Christian church, she loved her neighbor through accompaniment and teaching, caring for the sick, ministering to the needy, praying, and sacrificing self for the needs of many. How many of us know her name?
We don’t hear about her because Romans 16:2 is never proclaimed. It is not in the lectionary even after fourteen Sundays this summer of hearing passages from the book of Romans! Why might that be?
Grandmothers. Mothers. Sisters. Aunts. Mystics. Pray-ers. Theologians: we are the face, embrace, and embodiment of the Spirit of God behind most every priestly vocation, most young people’s catechesis, and their physical presence at Mass. O blessed church, may all women and their contributions, their longings and vocations, be honored in serving the church’s shared mission. “For amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.”
Jesus, St. Paul and St. Phoebe, pray for us.
