Word of the Week

Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Unite: Anakephalaioo (Gk.): meaning "recapitulate” or “sum up under one head”.

“Christ’s whole life was a mystery of recapitulation” (CCC 518). From the Incarnation to the proclamation of the kingdom of God to the Paschal Mystery and Ascension, Christ’s works were about restoring fallen man back to grace (CCC 518). Every stage was a revelation of truth that aids us in our Christian conversion and restoration to family life of unity in the Trinity. “Head and members form as it were one and the same mystical person” (CCC 795).  Moreover, the principle of unity is the gift of Christ to his church to which the Holy Spirit is her guide (CCC 820).

The principle of unity, or the “oneness” of God, is scattered sparingly across the landscape of Divine Revelation, but the aforementioned Greek forunite is found in the New Testament on two separate occasions. Primarily, unite refers to a gathering of figures or elements to a particular place. In Paul’s epistle to Rome, he uses the term unite to address how the moral law is summed up in one great commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Rom.13.9). In Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, he asserts that Christ is the overseer of all that is material and immaterial—seen and unseen. (Eph.1.10). Among many of the rich themes to Paul’ scholarship is the manner in which he inserts the Old Testament to understand the mission of Christ in the New Testament. We see this in his treatment of man’s restoration in the Spirit in his epistle to Rome. Just as sin came into the world through a chief-like father in Adam so would grace and family restoration come through a chief father in Christ, who is the new Adam—the new head of God’s universal family (Rom.5.12-14) (Hahn and Minch, 38).

The role of the father is to unite his family under his authority. The authority that rightfully belongs to the father must always be caught up in the principle of unitythat defines the fatherhood of God and the life of the Trinity--perpetual and unconditional love (cf.Eph.5.23). Furthermore, as the Church is established as the household of God (1 Tim.3.15), mankind ought to be renewed through the domestic Church to be restored to the fullness of being and truth in the Catholic (meaning universal) Church.

On this Sunday of Commemoration of all Souls, we seek to unite our hearts with those who have gone before us, recounting the many lessons learned from watching the faithfully departed embrace their cross at the various stages of life. In addition, we, the body of Christ, ought to pray fervently for all souls that they may be reunited with their heavenly father.

“About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.”

- St. Joan of Arc

Primary Texts Consulted

•  Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
•  Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch , Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The letters of St. Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005.

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