Homily – 23SundayC, Philemon’s Dilemma
Whatever your musical tastes, country music has a lot of practical wisdom. Brad Paisley described it as “Four chords and the truth!” For your edification, here is short list of real titles of real country music songs.
Real Country Music Titles:
- Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life
- My John Deere Was Breaking Your Field, While Your Dear John Was Breaking My Heart
- I Changed Her Oil, She Changed My Life
- How Can I Miss you if you won’t go away?
- I’m So Miserable Without You It’s Like Having You Here
- The Last Word in Lonesome is “me”
- The Worst You Ever Gave Me Was the Best I Ever Had
- If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me.
- I Been Roped and Thrown By Jesus In The Holy Ghost Corral
The late, great Toby Keith wrote one entitled, “Wish I Didn’t Know Now (What I didn’t Know Then.)”
I imagine that is what Philemon was thinking when he opened that letter from St. Paul, probably carried to him the same Onesimus mentioned therein. So, what is Philemon’s problem?
Well, it’s a doozy. Philemon is a wealthy Greek, probably from the Church in Collosae, who came to the Catholic Faith and was baptized by Paul. Onesimus was his slave…his runaway slave who found his way to Paul and spent a fair amount of time helping him during his imprisonment. Now Paul is sending him back to Philemon asking that he not be received as a runaway slave, but as a brother in Christ. Philemon has a dilemma. Does he do as Paul asks? If he does, then does that mean he will have free all his other slaves who have been baptized? What about the ones who have not yet been baptized. If they come to faith does that mean an automatic ticket to freedom? If they ask for baptism can he refuse them? What are the implications if he does not do as Paul asks and puts the slave’s collar back on Onesimus? Who knew that being a Christian would be so hard? How difficult it is to be an intentional disciple of Jesus!
It’s not like he didn’t have fair warning. Jesus said as much in our gospel passage this week from Luke. He does not sugar coat it. Being a disciple of Jesus demands a complete change of mind and heart.
It’s a good lesson for us. Being a disciple of Jesus has never been about fitting comfortably and anonymously into an increasing secular society. It is about standing in the truth in love. This may manifest itself at work, at school, on the community council, in the doctor’s office, in the ballot box, and any other number of places.
Scripture does not say what Philemon did after he received the letter. Perhaps he did as Paul asked. Perhaps he did not. Regardless, the early Church has passed this letter on to us to help us in our discernment in our own journey of faith. May we have the grace to respond as Christ would have us do. It has never been easy, but it is always worth it.