Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 7th, 2023 (Click Here for Readings)

Once at a ministry coordinators' meeting, the priest leading it began by saying, "The Ministry of Lector is the most exalted lay ministry in the church... I mean, you could train a monkey to be a Eucharistic minister." 

Quite a departure from a church’s guidance for unity, equality and balance among its ministries. Though it may be a privileged role to be a proclaimer of God’s word to the worshipers, it’s a bit excessive to consider it more or most exalted.

As we see in this week’s reading of Acts, as exalted of a position the twelve apostles held as proclaimers and ministers of the word, they quickly realized the lack of balance between their role and other necessary functions to keep the church efficiently and satisfactorily meeting the needs of all its members.

So they involved the church community, and not themselves, to select “seven reputable men to serve at table;” men of integrity for important administrative responsibilities. The beauty of the selection was that the seven were all Grecian Jews.

They were chosen with love and in a dignified manner. With the ceremonial ritual of prayer and laying of hands on them by the twelve apostles, the ratification of their assignments gave them a stronger feeling of equality and belonging. As a result, the people were pleased, and it allowed any possible friction between the Hebrew and Greek spoken Jews to be minimized.

This reading from Acts is a reminder to pastors and church leaders today of the importance of maintaining a culture of balance, equality and dignity among all of their church’s ministries.

The image of living stones built upon the cornerstone of Christ, as today’s second reading from St. Peter portrays, also applies to the unity and stability of multiple ministries in a church. All ministries joined together are chosen royal priesthoods announcing the praises of God in their own unique ways.

In the same way that we as individuals are unique members of the body of Christ, fulfilling our roles as part of a whole, so goes the same for multiple ministries within a church.

And no matter how important we may believe our particular ministry is, we must always remember that it is honorable to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with all other, seemingly lesser ministry workers in our church with the disposition that we are all working together for the same purpose . . . the salvation of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Our church is a spiritual organism, but with secular organization. As followers of Christ, we can all share a common eternal life, but we also need systems and leadership to meet the needs of everyone in this life right now.

For more reflections on the Sunday readings, Go Here