The Happiness from Reverence and Respect

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today describe the qualities and evidence of the fruit of life in Christian households. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ”. The concept of being subject is not easily understood in Western experience. The decision to be a disciple of Christ and a member of the living Body of Christ is a decision to accept the Way of Christ for our lives. The intimacy of the relationship with the Divine, through Christ is the awe and power and the source of our knowledge of our unworthiness. Our position is to be subject to the unbalanced love of this union of creature and Creator. The comprehension that the experience of the Divine by the individual is not only the experience to which all individuals are invited, but the Body formed by those individuals as a sacred community is the Body of Christ. The reverence accorded to Christ is to be extended to all members of the Body. The fruit of living in this understanding is proclaimed by the psalmist as the “Happy Home of the Faithful”. The small seed of being subject to others brings to life the full size plant as servant to others. The small of leaven of respect and reverence for others makes a great deal of difference in a community or family.