Word of the Week

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Encouragement: paraklesis (Gk.): meaning, “a calling near, summoning for help”. It can also mean “encouragement by consolation, exhortation, or persuasive discourse”. Within the context of consolation, it is Christ as the Messiah who is the Consoler.
In general, the Catechism’s use of encouragement speaks to the ways in which various people and structures of society are to support the building up the body of Christ. Below you will find a few areas that the CCC highlights:

-The Consecrated Life as witness encouraging the lay faithful (cf. 932).
-The Priesthood and their call to encourage the Sacrament of Confession (cf.1464).
-The Lay faithful and their call to encourage the Anointing of the Sick (cf. 1516).
-The family unit and their call to encourage religious vocations and lives of holiness (cf. 1656, 2232, 2253).
-The Family and State and their call to encourage the people to work with Voluntary Associations and Institutions (cf. 1882, 1893).
-The encouragement of a person to share their talents with the Body of Christ (cf.1937, 1946).
-The scientific field and their call to encourage research aimed at reducing human sterility (cf. 2375).
-A life of modesty and how it encourages loving relationships (cf. 2522).

So what is necessary for man to be disposed to encourage their fellow man? Too seek Christ! We must first seek Christ and permit him to comfort us in our time of need and allow his presence to be our joy that we be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit (cf. 30). By a life in the Holy Spirit, we abide in the eternal Consoler (cf. 692), and are consequently lifted to encourage man and be his advocate in truth.

The Greek term paraklesis can be found twenty-nine times in the New Testament. Most of the cases found in the NT belong to the writings of Paul. A term that is closely tied to the identity of the Holy Spirit as “Counselor, Helper or Advocate” (cf. wow on Counselor), one can well imagine why a life in the Spirit is to include the gift of encouragement to summon man into the relationship with Jesus Christ. This consolation starts with soaking ourselves in the Word of God that the “God of steadfastness and encouragement” grant us the strength necessary to live in the heart of the Father (cf. Rom.15:4-5). Furthermore, it is our imitation of Christ’s humility that equips us with the capability to earnestly encourage man to live in holiness (cf. Phil.2:1-5). This Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time calls us to not only be thinking about what it takes to build up the Body of Christ, but the way in which we are called to rest in the figure of Christ who provides us with “the comfort and good hope through grace” (2 Thes.2:16; cf. 2 Cor.1:3-7).

In any discussion of encouragement, I often find myself reflecting into why there are not more people who seek to support and prop up their family and friends with words that build each other up. My inquiry leads me to the place of self-evangelization, or the absence of it, and ultimately what it leads to: judging the subjective, hidden, and unknown (this is not to say that there is no place for judgment…cf w.o.w. on judge). Essentially, we are so busy protecting self, and looking out for the fault in our brother’s lifestyle, that we fail in the call to encourage the strengths of the one who we are regularly critical of. We fail in our encouragement, because we fall short in our understanding of conversion as an on-going process that is constantly under construction. Let us go forth, placing ourselves at the feet of Christ, with a deeper awareness that our brothers and sisters in Christ need a helping hand that ought to come in the form of generous words.

 

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

--Edith Wharton

 

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