Kaukauna Catholic Parishes

We spend a lot of time watching sports teams. The most successful teams aren’t always the ones with the most superstars. Rather, many times the teams that work together and recognize that as teammates, each person has a specific role to play, have the most success. The team succeeds when each member knows his or her role and does it, as well. The key is they all need each other.
That’s the message St. Paul has for us in the second
reading today. He uses the example of the human body and teaches us that each body part is important and
necessary for us to function well. He explains that
spiritually we have different gifts and talents, but we need all of them to work together for the greatest good:
“If one part suffers, all of the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”
What St. Paul is saying is that our lives are not a competition in which some people win at the expense of others. Rather, we need to work together so that all benefit.
This past week we honored Dr. King, who stood for that very principle – that we don’t need to push others down to raise ourselves up. Rather, we all benefit when we help pull our brothers and sisters up higher.
As we hear in the Gospel today, that was the mission of Jesus – to proclaim glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed. So, you may ask, why then is our world such a mess? Why do we seem to be going in the wrong direction?
The answer is in the first reading as we hear Ezra, reminding the people of God’s law. This was not new teaching, but the people needed a reminder. As we see in that reading, this was a big deal, but rather than celebrate what they were taught, the people were weeping. Ezra and Nehemiah are encouraging the people that the news is cause for celebration, not sadness, but the people can’t hear it. Are we doing the same thing? Do we see the lessons we have learned as reason for joy or sadness?
Do we live those lessons?
Maybe if we want things to be different, we need to try something different. Jesus showed us exactly what we need to do, but we need to do it, and we need to do it together. Each one of us needs to use the gifts we have been given to work together. When we work together, we can accomplish more than any one of us can do on our own. We need to know what Jesus taught; we all need to use our gifts to put those lessons into action, as one team – Team Jesus!
Blessings,

Deacon Randy